Remembering Ruth Madoc
The actress has died at the age of 79
Ruth Madoc died yesterday at the age of 79, her agent has announced.
The actress was best known in the 1970s for her role in ATV police series Hunters Walk and in the 1980s for BBC holiday camp sitcom Hi-De-Hi.
Her death has come as a shock to the showbiz world; she was forced to quit a pantomime season in Torquay earlier this week following a fall, and she died while in hospital after undergoing surgery.
Agent Phil Belfield of Belfield & Ward Talent:
“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!”
Born in April 1943 in Norwich, Madoc was brought up in Llansamlet near Swansea, for the most part by her grandparents. She studied performing arts 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 (1971).
In 2006 Swansea University awarded her an honorary degree 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 has two children. Married for 20 years, they divorced in 1981. Her second husband John Jackson passed away in 2021.
She had two long running roles on television, first in ATV police series Hunters Walk as Betty Smith. Devised by Dixon of Dock Green creator Ted Willis the series ran from 1973 to 1976.
Set in the fictional Midlands town of Broadstone the storylines followed the lives of the local police force, their families, and the crimes that needed solving.
Ruth’s biggest role came at the dawn of the 1980s with sitcom Hi-De-Hi, a series that is still seen on television with recent repeats on BBC Two and Gold.
Set in Crimpton-On-Sea at the Maplins Holiday Camp, the 1950s based comedy saw Ruth play ‘Welsh vamp’ Gladys Pugh who was the chief Yellowcoat, famed for her camp varying tannoy announcements preceded by three signature notes played on a mini xylophone, and the opening “Hi de Hi campers”.
The character also lusted after entertainments manager Geoffrey Fairbrother (Simon Cadell).
Gyles Brandreth:
“Ruth was a very lovely person – and a wonderfully gifted actress. 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!”
Co-star from the show Jeffery Holland also paid tribute saying:
“We have lost our lovely “Vamp from the Valleys” What an unexpected shock! Ruth may have gone but she has left us an eternal comic legacy in Gladys Pugh!”
Hi-De-Hi ran for nearly 60 episodes and eight years, there was also a stage version, a music album which saw Cadell and Madoc sing “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and appearances in character across several shows ranging from BBC One’s Saturday Night at The Mill, ATV’s Tiswas, Thames Television’s Morecambe and Wise Show and BBC One’s The Generation Game with Larry Grayson.
She was reunited with Hi-De-Hi co-star Su Pollard in 2018 in an episode of BBC One’s daytime soap Doctors, where the pair played randy pensioners.
Ruth had been due to play the empress in the pantomime Aladdin at the Princess Theatre in Torquay. Co-stars included EastEnders actor Ricky Norwood and X Factor star Jay Edwards, but the theatre announced that due to a fall, and subsequent operation, she wouldn’t be able to appear in the production.
On the news of her death the theatre said:
“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.”
Ruth had appeared in over thirty pantomimes across her career and other work included Phantom of the Opera, Gypsy, Annie and Little Britain.
Next year she had been signed up to appear in a UK theatre tour of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about a group of British retirees in India also starring Belinda Lang, Paul Nicholas and Tessa Peake-Jones.
Madoc is survived by her daughter Lowri and her son Rhys.
