Castle, Roy

Roy was born in Holmfirth. He was a gifted all-round entertainer and accomplished jazz trumpet player, who could play many other instruments.

He was perhaps best known for presenting children’s series Record Breakers (BBC One, December 1972 – 1983 and 1985 – December 1993; the programme was not transmitted in 1984). A tribute programme was shown on 30th September 1994.

He also sung the well-remembered closing theme song Dedication.

During his time as presenter on Record Breakers he broke nine world records, including:

• Fastest tap dance: 1,440 taps per minute – 24 taps per second, set on 14 January 1973. A record that has never been bettered;
• Longest wing walk: 3 hours, 23 minutes;
• Playing the same tune on 43 different instruments in four minutes;
• Live performance of Dedication featuring 459 musicians to celebrate the end of the 21st series (BBC One, 11th December 1992).

The famous tap dance around the TV Centre fountain featured Roy and a dancing troupe of 500 tap dancing girls to the theme of 42nd Street, on All Star Record Breakers (BBC One, 28th December 1977).

Roy’s other BBC TV children’s programmes credits were:

• Star Sport (1972);
• Roy Castle Beats Time (1974 – 1975);
• Hosted the annual get-together of BBC children’s presenters in All Star Record Breakers (1974 – 1982);
• The Best of the All Star Record Breakers (1983).

He began his career as an entertainer in an amateur concert party. As a young performer in the 1950s, he lived in Cleveleys near Blackpool.

He appeared at the local Queen’s Theatre, turning professional in 1953 as a stooge for Jimmy Clitheroe and Jimmy James.

From 1956, he made guest appearances on many programmes, including:

• Sunday Night at the London Palladium (1958, 1960 – 1964);
• Juke Box Jury (1960, 1962, 1964 – 1965);
• The Wakey Wakey Tavern (1965 – 1967);
• The Good Old Days (1966, 1974 – 1976 and 1978 – 1979);
• The Royal Variety Performance (1958, 1969 and 1974).

In 1960 he released a single, the Christmas song Little White Berry.

Roy had his own show The Roy Castle Show (1964 – 1965 and 1969 – 1970) and he hosted Whose Baby? (1977).

During the 1960s, he acted in several films including:

• Doctor Who and the Daleks (1965);
• The Plank (1967);
• Carry On…Up the Kyber (1968).

He starred in Pickwick (BBC One, 1969) and in 1973 he teamed up with actor and comedian Ronnie Barker in an original one-off called Another Fine Mess (an episode from the series Seven of One).

In 1975, he stood in for an unwell Bruce Forsyth, to present an edition of BBC One’s Generation Game.

Between 1967 and 1968, Roy co-starred with Jimmy Edwards in the London West End run of the comedy farce Big Bad House, when Eric Sykes had to withdraw due to illness.

The show was based at the Shaftesbury Theatre and, being loosely scripted, it offered both Edwards and Castle the chance to freely ad-lib and generally break the fourth wall with the audience.

Castle would break into trumpet performances while Edwards walked into a front stall seat to read a newspaper, tap danced and fired ping-pong balls into the stalls.

In the 1990s, Roy toured the country, starring alongside Harry Secombe, in Pickwick.

Castle married dancer Fiona Dickson in 1963 after being introduced to each other by comic Eric Morecambe. Roy and his wife were committed Christians and they regularly attended the Baptist church near their home.

They had four children. Their youngest son, Ben (born 1973), is a jazz saxophonist who has played with a wide range of artists, including Jamie Cullum, Carleen Anderson, Beth Rowley, Marillion and Radiohead.

Roy was diagnosed with lung cancer in March 1992. He was told that his chances of recovery were slim and that it was unlikely he would live for more than six months.

He underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy and went into remission later that year.

A non-smoker, he blamed his illness on passive smoking from his years of playing the trumpet in smoky jazz clubs.

On 26th November 1993, he announced that his illness had returned, and once again underwent treatment in the hope of overcoming it.

Several months later, his health deteriorating, he carried out the high-profile Tour of Hope to raise funds for the erection of the building that would become the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation – the only British charity dedicated solely to defeating lung cancer.

Roy died at his home in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire in early September 1994.

His widow Fiona worked with the charity after her husband’s death and campaigned for a ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces.

The ban came into effect in Northern Ireland in 2004, Scotland in 2006 and England/Wales in 2007. A lasting legacy for Roy’s stand against cancer.

Roy was awarded the OBE in the New Year’s Honours on 31st December 1992.  He was also a recipient of the Carl Alan Award, an honour voted for by members of the professional dance industry.

 

Personal information

Clips of Roy on The TV Room

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Acknowledgements