Andy Secombe

Andrew Secombe (born 26 April 1953),[1] is a Welsh actor and author.

Early life, family and education

Born in Mumbles, in south Wales, Secombe is son of comedian/singer Harry Secombe (whom he later impersonated in a Goon Show special). He attended the City Of London Freemens School in Ashtead, Surrey.

Career

Acting

Andy Secombe is an award-nominated stage, screen and radio actor. He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama after which he spent several years criss-crossing the country both touring and in rep. His early career included seasons at both the Old Vic (King Lear, The Rivals) and the Young Vic (Hamlet, Stags and Hens, Coriolanus and What a Way to Run a Revolution). Other theatrical performances includes Godspell, Guys and Dolls, Around the World in Eighty Days, Long Days' Journey into Night, Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Live! tour and The Invisible Man in the West End. He was recently Offie-nominated for playing Mr Gillie in the play of the same name at the Finborough Theatre.

On television he was a regular on both Playschool and Playaway and also appeared in the BBC TV children's sketch show Fast Forward and played Rover the Dog in Chips' Comic. He was one of the five in Five Alive and a regular on The Brian Conley Show. Other television appearances include Star Cops, Amnesty Beausire, Executive Stress, The Legend of Robin Hood, The Bill, Casualty, The Detectives, Unreported Incident, Britannia and Killing Eve.

In film, he is best known for providing the voice of Watto in the Star Wars prequels and in tie-in media relating to the Star Wars franchise. He also voiced Quello, another Toydarian, in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.

He has contributed vocals to a number of video games, including Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet and two entries in the Broken Sword series of games. For Penguin Audiobooks, he has recorded four novels by Mexican author Oscar de Muriel: The Strings of Murder, A Fever of the Blood, A Mask of Shadows and Loch of the Dead. He also regularly reads books for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and has also performed in radio productions, recently playing Reverend Wavering in the internet radio series Wooden Overcoats.

In March 2017, he starred in four episodes of the third series of The Missing Hancocks for BBC Radio 4; episodes that were originally aired in 1955 in the second series of Hancock's Half Hour starring his father Harry, after Tony Hancock had disappeared.[2][3]

Writing

In the 2000s, Secombe focused on writing. He has penned five fantasy novels, including Limbo, Limbo Two: The Final Chapter and The Last House in the Galaxy. Looking for Mr Piggy-Wig (2008), about a post-nuclear Britain after the 'New Battle of Britain' is described by The Guardian as "best taken as a spoof on the genre".[4] Endgame (2009) was criticised by Publishers Weekly for its "two-dimensional, clichéd characters and the tiresomely predictable story line".[5]

In 2010 he published the book Growing Up with the Goons which is a memoir about growing up in the shadow of his father.

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1975I Don't Want to Be BornDelivery Boy
1976Adventures of a Taxi DriverThird Kidnapper
1999Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom MenaceWatto
(voice)
2002Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
2016The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show LiveMax Quordlepleen / Benjy Mouse (voice)

Television
Year Title Role Notes
1975 The Legend of Robin Hood Brett Part 3
1980 Fox Don Episode: "The Perfect Scapegoat Syndrome"
1981 Prisoners of Conscience DINA man Episode: "William Beausire"
1983 Chips' Comic
1984-1986 Fast Forward Himself / Various characters
1986 What a Way to Run a Revolution TV Movie
1984 Aladdin and the Forty Thieves Thief TV Movie
1986 Five Alive Various characters 13 episodes
1987 Star Corps Brian Lincoln Episode: "An Instinct for Murder"
1988 The Play on One Simon Episode: "Unreported Incident"
1988 The Bill D.S. Dougan Episode: "Light Duties"
1988 Executive Stress Pierre de Savarin Season 3 Episode 3
1989-1990 This Way Up 13 episodes
1994-1995InsektorsGodfrey / Bentley / Fugg / Queen Katheter
(voices)
1996 Casualty Ray Hyams Episode: "Relative Valueso"
1997 Peak Practice Dr. Alan Stark
2010 The Unforgettable Harry Secombe Himself TV Movie documentary
2014 Spike Milligan: Love, Light and Peace Himself TV Movie documentary
2015 Supreme Tweeter Gerlad Episode: "#TheRedScare"
2019Killing EveEricEpisode: "Smell Ya Later"
2019 Britannia Tribal Elder Season 2 Episode 1
2020 Coronation Street Judge Episodes: 9970, 9971

Short films
Year Title Role Notes
1978 Twenty Times More Likely
2012 Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out Watto (voice) TV Short
2015 The Roaring Frank
2017Captain Baylety's HeirHimself / John Tall

Video games
Year Title Role Notes
1999 Star Wars: Episode I - Racer Watto (voice)
1999 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
2002 Star Wars: Racer Revenge
2003 Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon Flap / Alphonse (voices)
2004 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords Quello (voice)
2005 Lego Star Wars: The Video Game Watto (voice) Uncredited, archival audio
2006 Broken Sword: The Angel of Death (voice)
2007 Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga Watto (voice) Uncredited, archival audio
2012 Kinect Star Wars
2016 Nelly Cootalot: The Fowl Fleet Dr. Periwig (voice)

Writing credits
Year Title Notes
1999 The Three Friends... and Jerry Storyline, Episode: "Dirty Älgers/Överlevnadslägret"
2000-2002 Bob the Builder Episodes: "Spud and Squawk", "Bob and the Bandstand " & "Bob's Egg and Spoon Race"
gollark: I've got three-level "antivirus" in that I'm not insanely stupid, I run Linux and few virus authors bother to target it, and I install most stuff from my distro's package manager.
gollark: <@306998505862594569> I don't think it's an improvement for *users* much. Over 8, yes. Over 7, no.
gollark: Sounds like they just have bad names.
gollark: *Make* them rename themselves?
gollark: Rename your friends?

References
  1. Andy Secombe on IMDb
  2. "Secombe replaces 'Tony Hancock'". Chortle. 2 December 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  3. "How Radio 4 is bringing Tony Hancock back to life". Radio Times. 14 March 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  4. "Looking for Mr Piggy-Wig". The Guardian. 9 August 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  5. "Endgame". Publishers Weekly. 17 November 2008. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
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