Don Estelle (May 22, 1933 - August 2, 2003) was born in Rochdale in Lancashire, and was a British actor and singer. May 22 is the 142nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (143rd in leap years). ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... August 2 is the 214th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (215th in leap years), with 151 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the larger local government district, see Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. ... Lancashire is a county in North West England, bounded to the west by the Irish Sea. ...

In the 1960s he had some cameo roles in Coronation Street and Dad's Army. The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... Coronation Street is Britains longest-running television soap opera, and its consistently highest-rating programme, first broadcast on Friday December 9, 1960, in the Granada region of ITV. It was created by Tony Warren and is produced by Granada Television (now branded ITV Productions), holder of the ITV franchise... Dads Army was a British sitcom about the Home Guard in the Second World War, written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. ...

He became well known for playing the part of Gunner 'Lofty' Sugden in the 1970s British sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum. The character was dubbed with the ironic nickname of "Lofty" on account of Don Estelle's small stature. He had a good tenor voice and as a spin-off from the series, Estelle and his co-star, Windsor Davies had a number one hit in the UK in 1975 with a semi-comic version of Whispering Grass. He also acted in the films Not Now Comrade, Private Function (1984) and Santa Claus: The Movie (1984). The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... A British sitcom is a situation comedy (sitcom) produced in the United Kingdom. ... It Aint Half Hot Mum was a British sitcom about a British Army concert party, broadcast between 1974 and 1981, and written by David Croft and Jimmy Perry, the creators of Dads Army. ... Windsor Davies (born August 28, 1930) is an English-born Welsh actor. ... Whispering Grass is a 1975 UK number-one single by Windsor Davies and Don Estelle. ...

In the first series of The League of Gentlemen he made brief appearances in two episodes as Little Don, keeper of the Roundabout Zoo (i.e., a zoo on the island of a roundabout intersection). The League of Gentlemen is a troupe of British comedy performers, and the name of their stage, radio, and latterly television series. ... A roundabout, rotary, or gyratory circus is a type of road junction (or traffic calming device) at which traffic streams circularly around a central island after first yielding to the circulating traffic. ...

In 2001, he appeared in one episode of Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting as a character of the same name who was in charge of the "Cockney Bollocks Mafia". Linda Smith’s A Brief History of Timewasting was a BBC Radio 4 situation comedy series written by and starring the late Linda Smith. ...

Some information taken from his obituary in the Daily Express, August 5, 2003. The Daily Express is a conservative, middle-market British tabloid newspaper. ... August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (218th in leap years), with 148 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External link

• Don Estelle in the IMDB

The diminutive actor Don Estelle, who has died aged 70, is likely to be best remembered for playing one of the camp military entertainers of British soldiers in the 1970s BBC television series set in India, It Ain't Half Hot Mum. The show and the characters were created by David Croft and Jimmy Perry, who also invented another, less contentious, television comedy favourite, Dad's Army. It Ain't Half Hot Mum's bawdy attitudes to Indians, and not quite identified homosexuals, led to it, and those who appeared in it, being regarded rather sniffily by those who were touchy about sexual and ethnic matters.

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Though his eight-year association with It Ain't Half Hot Mum made Estelle's name, his earlier and later association with Dad's Army paved the way for his success. Though he saw himself first and foremost as a singer - and had appearances on Top Of The Pops to prove it - he saw that acting could be a more stable source of income. Indeed, he had already accepted that his 4ft 9in stature ruled him out as romantic hero material, when he happened to meet Arthur Lowe, who played Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army, while both of them were at Granada Television's studios in Manchester. Lowe suggested an approach to the Dad's Army producer David Croft, the result of which was that Estelle was offered the part of a Pickfords removal man detailed to deliver a 13-pounder naval gun to Mainwaring's gormless platoon. After that, Estelle became the obvious choice to play the gunner "Lofty" Sugden in the Croft-Perry team's It Ain't Half Hot Mum when the actor James Beck, who played the spiv Private Walker in Dad's Army, died.

Estelle went back to Dad's Army to be among the actors playing walk-on characters to compensate for the fact that no new major character was introduced. It was a source of great satisfaction to him when, with Windsor Davies, who played the rough-tongued sergeant major in the show, he sang for the solo record Whispering Grass, which reached number one in the BBC charts in June 1975 and remained in the hit parade for three weeks, eventually selling more than a million copies.

Estelle and Windsor went on to make the album Sing Lofty, which reached the top 10 and sold 80,000 copies, before being re-released to sell another 250,000 copies, making it one of EMI's top 20 bestselling albums. Estelle also featured on an LP with the cast of It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

Singing had been his preoccupation since he was a boy. Born in Manchester, he was evacuated to Darwen, near Blackburn, during the second world war. He became a boy soprano at what was then Holy Trinity church (it later became St Peter's Darwen), and was taught by a noted church musician of the period, Sydney Nicholson. When he went back to Manchester at the end of the war, he sang at St Mary's church, Crumpsall, and was given voice training by a relative of Ralph Vaughan Williams.

He first appeared on the stage with a local charity group, the Manchester Kentucky Minstrels. After he had embarked on a soloist's career on the north of England club circuit, he met Windsor Davies and joined him in a double act which toured theatres and clubs nationally for four years.

Though his appearance in popular television series and his singing on record - on 17 singles and the same number of albums - were the best known aspects of Estelle's work, his career embraced a much wider range of entertainment.

On television, he featured in programmes as diverse as the Benny Hill Show, The Good Old Days, the Basil Brush Show, the Ronnie Corbett Show, The League Of Gentlemen and Midsummer Night's Dream. On radio, he featured in Music From the Movies, the Brian Matthew Show, the Charlie Chester Show, the John Dunn Show, Pete Murray's Open House, the David Jacobs Show, the Jimmy Young Show and the the Terry Wogan Show.

His work in the theatre was usually for pantomimes or summer shows, and he toured extensively for concerts in New Zealand and Australia. His autobiography, Sing Lofty: Thoughts of a Gemini, was published in 1999.

Estelle is survived by his wife Elizabeth.

· Don Estelle, actor and singer, born 1933; died August 1 2003