Lance Percival

Lance Percival (born 26 July 1933) is an English actor, comedian and after-dinner speaker.

Biography

Born in Sevenoaks, Kent, and educated at Sherborne School in Sherborne, Dorset, Percival first became well known in the early 1960s for performing topical calypsos on television shows such as That Was The Week That Was, and made several appearances in British comedy films including the Carry On film, Carry On Cruising (1962). In 1963 Percival had a cameo role in The V.I.P.s and, in 1964, The Yellow Rolls-Royce. The same year brought Percival his own BBC TV comedy series Lance at Large, with writers Peter Tinniswood and David Nobbs.

He has had one UK Singles Chart hit, reaching number 37 in October 1965 with his cover version of a calypso-style song entitled "Shame and Scandal in the Family"^[1] and recorded several other comedy songs, working, like many British comics of the era, with George Martin at Parlophone, including "The Beetroot Song" ("If You Like Beetroot I'll Be True To You", 1963), written by Mitch Murray, and "The Maharajah of Brum" (1967), written with Martin.^[2]

Later he provided the voice of both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in the 1965 cartoon series The Beatles, leading to his voicing the central character "Old Fred" in the Beatles' animated film Yellow Submarine. He also appeared as an "upper class tramp" in the Herman's Hermits film vehicle Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter (1968).^[3]

In 1970 he starred alongside Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson and Jeremy Kemp in the musical film, Darling Lili and also appeared in There's a Girl in My Soup. However, on 14 December 1970, he was involved in a fatal car crash near Farningham, Kent, apparently while racing another driver at high speed in his Jaguar XJ on a dangerous stretch of road near Brands Hatch. Percival almost lost the sight of one eye and was summoned to court where he agreed to pay substantial damages following the death of a third, uninvolved driver, Paul Young.^[4][5][6]

Percival returned to film work in the Frankie Howerd vehicles Up Pompeii (1971) and Up the Chastity Belt (1971), sustaining a film career until 1978. Between 1972 and 1978 the Thames Television game show Whodunnit! was written by Percival and Jeremy Lloyd. He appeared on BBC Radio light entertainment programmes such as Just a Minute throughout the 1980s and is also the author of two books of verse, Well-Versed Cats and Well-Versed Dogs, both illustrated by Lalla Ward. Subsequently he gained a reputation as a writer, and later a presenter, of after-dinner speeches.^[7]

Filmography

Film

• On the Fiddle (1961)
• In the Doghouse (1961)
• The Devil's Daffodil (1961)
• Raising the Wind (1961)
• What a Whopper (1961)
• Postman's Knock (1961)
• Twice Round the Daffodils (1962)
• Carry On Cruising (1962)
• The V.I.P.s (1963)
• It's All Over Town (1963)
• Hide and Seek (1964)
• The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)
• Joey Boy (1965)
• The Big Job (1965)
• Yellow Submarine (1968)
• Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter (1968)
• Too Late the Hero (1970)
• Darling Lili (1970)
• Concerto per pistola solista (1970)
• There's a Girl in My Soup (1970)
• Up the Creek (1971)
• Up Pompeii (1971)
• Up the Chastity Belt (1971)
• Up the Front (1972)
• Our Miss Fred (1972)
• Confessions from a Holiday Camp (1977)
• The Water Babies (1978)
• Rosie Dixon - Night Nurse (1978)

Television

• Citizen James
• Chico the Rainmaker aka The Boy with Two Heads
• Who Do You Do?
• You Must Be Joking?
• Operation Snafu
• Shoestring
• The Beatles
• Jason King

References

External links

• Lance Percival at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Beetroot Song" – YouTube