‘Goodbye campers!’ Tributes to ‘one of a kind’ Ruth Madoc as Hi-de-Hi! Star dies
Hi-de-Hi! actress Ruth Madoc has died aged 79, her agent has confirmed in a statement.
Best known for playing Gladys Pugh in 1980s holiday camp sitcom Hi-de-Hi!, she had been due to star in the Christmas pantomime Aladdin in Torquay, but had been forced to pull out earlier this week following a fall.
Hi-de-Hi! stars (L-R): Su Pollard, Simon Cadell, Michael Knowles and Ruth Madoc
Phil Belfield of talent agency Belfield & Ward Ltd, described her as “one of a kind and a unique talent loved by many”.
He said: “It is with much sadness that we have to announce the death of our dear and much-loved client Ruth Madoc.
“Ruth passed away on the afternoon of Friday 9 December while in hospital following surgery for a fall she had earlier in the week, which had led her to have to withdraw from panto in Torquay.
“From film work such as Fiddler On The Roof and Under Milk Wood with Richard Burton and her iconic TV performance as Gladys Pugh in Hi De Hi! and more recently in Little Britain and on stage with Calendar Girls (the play and the musical), plus recent acclaim in short films Skinny Fat and Cardiff, she was truly a national treasure and was looking forward to getting back on the road in 2023 with The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
“A real legend of the British entertainment scene, she was one of a kind and a unique talent loved by many. She is gone far too soon. Our hearts are broken!
“Thoughts are with her daughter Lowri, her son Rhys and all of her family.”
One of the first stars to pay tribute was Blackadder actor Sir Tony Robinson, who had performed with her in 2009.
Robinson wrote on Twitter: “So sad to hear my lovely friend Ruth Madoc has passed. She was not only funny and highly intelligent, she was smart, kindly, a loyal trade unionist, and wore her heart on the left. She’ll be much missed.”
Madoc had a lead role in long-running BBC comedy Hi-de-Hi!, for which she was BAFTA-nominated. Set in the late 50s in the fictional holiday camp Maplins, the show ran for nine series, and 58 episodes, from 1980 to 1988.
Her character, Gladys, was the chief Yellowcoat, famed for her camp tannoy announcements preceded by three signature notes played on a mini xylophone, followed by her saying, “Hello campers,” and then the title phrase, “Hi-de-Hi!”
Her recurring storyline centred around her unrequited love for camp entertainment manager Jeffrey Fairbrother, played by Simon Cadell. She later played the role in a touring stage version of the show.
Calling her “a very lovely person” and “wonderfully gifted actress,” broadcaster Gyles Brandreth wrote on Twitter: “I was lucky enough to get to know her through my best friend from school, Simon Cadell.
“In Hi-De-Hi they were irresistible. RIP Ruth Madoc & thanks for the memories. Goodbye campers!”
Former Family Fortunes presenter Les Dennis wrote on Twitter: “So very sad to hear that lovely Ruth Madoc has passed away. She was such a talented and lovely woman. Thoughts with her family.”
Madoc had been due to play the empress in the pantomime Aladdin, which at the Princess Theatre in Torquay, alongside EastEnders actor Ricky Norwood and X Factor star Jay Edwards, but she had to withdraw from the role the week before opening night after suffering a fall.
The theatre had tweeted on Thursday: “Following an accident earlier this week, after medical assessment, regretfully Ruth Madoc is no longer able to appear in this year’s pantomime of Aladdin at the Princess Theatre in Torquay.”
Madoc arriving at the press night for the Full Monty in 2014
Following news of her death, they wrote: “We are devastated to hear of the news of Ruth’s passing. Everyone at the theatre and ATG are sending all our love to Ruth’s family.”
A panto veteran, she had appeared in over 30, playing roles including principle boy in Dick Whittington in Edinburgh, the bad fairy in Sleeping Beauty in Rhyl and the fairy godmother in Cinderella in Mansfield.
A star of the stage and screen she had starred in an array of roles in theatre and musicals around the world, including Phantom of the Opera, Gypsy and Annie.
In 2018, she performed in the ladies’ version of The Real Full Monty alongside stars including Coleen Nolan, Victoria Derbyshire and Michelle Heaton, raising awareness about breast cancer.
A year later, she broke her hip in a fall while rehearsing for her role in Calendar Girls, but confounded doctors with her speedy recovery.
Born in April 1943 in Norwich, Madoc was brought up in Llansamlet near Swansea, largely by her grandparents.
She went on to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and got her break-out role playing Fruma Sarah in the film version of the musical Fiddler On The Roof in 1971.
Aside from Hi-de-Hi!, other highlights of her career include Mrs Dai Bread Two in 1972 comedy film Under Milk Wood and later the role of the mother of Daffyd Thomas, played by Matt Lucas, in the second series of Little Britain.
In 1984 she was presented with the big red book when she was the subject of a This Is Your Life episode.
Swansea University awarded her an honorary degree in 2006, and she was also a fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
She married twice, first to Welsh actor Philip Madoc, with whom she had her two children. Married for 20 years, they divorced in 1981. Her second husband, John Jackson, died last year.
She had been due to join stars including Belinda Lang, Paul Nicholas and Tessa Peake-Jones in UK theatre tour of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about a group of British retirees in India, in January 2023.
Madoc is survived by her daughter Lowri her son Rhys.
Entertainment
Stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt avoids jail
A man who stalked Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas for six years has avoided jail.
Kyle Shaw, 37, got a 20-month suspended sentence and a lifetime restraining order on contacting Ballas, her mother, niece, and former partner.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that he thought Ballas was his aunt and “began a persistent campaign of contact”.
“He believed, and it’s evident from what he was told by his mother, that her late brother was his father,” said prosecutor Nicola Daley.
The court heard there was no evidence he was wrong, and “limited evidence” he was correct.
Ms Daley said Shaw’s messages had accused Ballas of being to blame for the death of her brother, who took his own life in 2003 aged 44.
He also set up social media accounts in his name.
Shaw had pleaded guilty to stalking the former dancer between August 2017 and November 2023 at a hearing in February.
Incidents included following Ballas’s 86-year-old mother, Audrey Rich, while she was shopping and telling her she was his grandmother.
The court heard in messages to Mrs Rich, Shaw had asked: “Where’s my dad?”
Ballas was so worried for her mother’s safety that she moved her from Merseyside to London.
Kyle Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA
In October 2020, Ballas called police after Shaw messaged her and said: “Do you want me to kill myself, Shirley?”
Posts on X included one alongside an image of her home address that warned: “You ruined my life, I’ll ruin yours and everyone’s around you.”
Another referenced a book signing and said: “I can’t wait to meet you for the first time Aunty Shirley. Hopefully I can get an autograph.”
The court was told Ballas’s niece Mary Assall, former partner Daniel Taylor and colleagues from Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s Loose Women were also sent messages.
‘I know where you live’
On one occasion in late 2023, Shaw called Mr Taylor and told him he knew where the couple lived and described Ballas’s movements.
The court heard the 64-year-old TV star become wary of socialising and stopped using public transport.
Prosecutor Ms Daley said: “She described having sleepless nights worrying about herself and her family’s safety and being particularly distressed when suggestions were made to her that she and her mother were responsible for her brother taking his own life.”
Ballas has been head judge on Strictly Come Dancing since 2017. Pic: PA
Shaw cried and wiped away tears as he was sentenced on Tuesday.
The judge said the stalking stemmed from his mother telling him Ballas’s brother, David Rich, was his biological father.
“I’m satisfied that your motive for this offending was a desire to seek contact with people you genuinely believed were your family,” he said.
“Whether in fact there’s any truth in that belief is difficult, if not impossible, to determine.”
Shaw pictured at court in February. Pic: PA
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Defence lawyer John Weate said Shaw had been told the story by his mother “in his mid to late teens” and had suffered “complex mental health issues” since he was a child.
He added: “He now accepts that Miss Ballas and her family don’t wish to have any contact with him and, importantly, he volunteered the information that he has no intention of contacting them again.”
Shaw, of Whetstone Lane in Birkenhead, also admitted possessing cannabis and was ordered to undertake a rehab programme.
Gary Glitter has been made bankrupt after failing to pay more than £500,000 in damages to a woman he abused when she was 12 years old.
She sued the disgraced singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, after he was found guilty of attacking her and two other schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980.
Glitter, 80, was jailed for 16 years in 2015 and released in 2023 but was recalled to prison less than six weeks later after breaching his parole conditions.
A judge awarded the woman £508,800, including £381,000 in lost earnings and £7,800 for future therapy and treatment, saying she was subjected to abuse “of the most serious kind”.
The court heard she had not worked for decades due to the trauma of being repeatedly raped and “humiliated” by the singer.
Glitter was jailed for 16 years in 2015. Pic: Met Police/PA
Glitter was made bankrupt last month at the County Court at Torquay and Newton Abbot, in Devon – the county where he is reportedly serving his sentence in Channings Wood prison, in Newton Abbot.
Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon, the law firm representing the woman, said: “We confirm that Gadd has been made bankrupt following our client’s application.
“As he has done throughout, Gadd has refused to cooperate with the process and continues to treat his victims with contempt.
“We hope and trust that the parole board will take his behaviour into account in any future parole applications, as it clearly demonstrates that he has never changed, shows no remorse and remains a serious risk to the public.”
Glitter was first jailed for four months in 1999 after he admitted possessing around 4,000 indecent images of children.
He was expelled from Cambodia in 2002, and in March 2006 was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam where he spent two-and-a-half years in prison.
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His sentence for the 2016 convictions expires in February 2031.
Glitter was automatically released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February 2023 after serving half of his fixed-term determinate sentence.
But he was back behind bars weeks later after reportedly trying to access the dark web and images of children.
Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan will play Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in the upcoming Beatles films – with a Stranger Things star also portraying one of the Fab Four.
The two Irish actors will be joined by London-born performers Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.
The cast for the Sam Mendes project was revealed at the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, with all four appearing on stage and taking a bow together in Beatles style.
(L-R) Mescal, Quinn, Keoghan and Dickinson appeared together at the announcement. Pic: Reuters
Mendes is making four interconnected films – one from the perspective of each of the band members – and they are all set to be released “in proximity” to each other in April 2028.
It marks the first time The Beatles and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film.
Playing McCartney is another big role for 29-year-old Mescal, who recently starred in the Gladiator sequel and was nominated for an Oscar in 2023 for Aftersun.
Barry Keoghan – who also got an Oscar nod for The Banshees of Inisherin – will portray the other surviving Beatles member, Ringo Starr.
Pic: PA
Meanwhile, Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn, who appeared with long hair as Eddie Munson in the fourth series, takes up the role of George Harrison.
Harris Dickinson has the challenge of stepping into the shoes of perhaps the most famous Beatle, John Lennon.
The 28-year-old recently starred in erotic thriller Babygirl with Nicole Kidman and also appeared in satire Triangle of Sadness.
Mendes told the industry audience at CinemaCon there is “still plenty to explore” despite the Beatles’ rise having being well chronicled.
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The Oscar-winning British director is known for films including American Beauty, First World War movie 1917, and Bond outings Skyfall and Spectre.
Sony Pictures boss Tom Rothman said the close release of all four films in three years’ time will be “the first bingeable theatrical experience”.
“We are going to dominate the culture that month,” he added.
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