“Cheeky Cockney” actor Harry Fowler MBE (1926 – 2012) appeared in everything from Minder to Lawrence of Arabia. He was first discovered as “a near illiterate newspaper boy” making eight shillings a week and invited on the BBC on a radio programme about life in wartime London. He was an immediate hit and subsequently a film company executive offered this Lambeth born boy a “monumental 42 shillings a day” to play an evacuee in The Demi-Paradise – which starred Laurence Olivier and Penelope Ward.
Subsequently Fowler took on many “juvenile roles” and after serving in the RAF during the war, he appeared in films and television series including Dixon of Dock Green, Z-Cars, Jackanory, In Sickness and in Health, The Bill and Casualty and was described by Terence Pettigrew as being “as English as suet pudding.” Going further, of him, the broadcaster added: “His characters were neither honest nor irretrievably delinquent, merely wise in the ways of the streets, surviving through a combination of wit and stealth. He had a certain arrogance, but there was an appealing vulnerability, too.”
Married first to the Ealing Studios star Joan Dowling, whom tragically committed suicide in 1954 by gas poisoning, Fowler’s second wife was Catherine Palmer. The couple had no children and amongst where they lived was in a portered art deco mansion block called Chesil Court in Chelsea, London, SW3.
Two stories to keep beside you
The Paradise of Piccadilly
Grand ‘set’ in one of London’s most quirky residential buildings – Albany – offered for sale for £6.95 million
Cheap in Chelsea
Chelsea apartment for sale for just £140,000; there is, of course, a catch A studio flat has gone on sale in Britten Street, Chelsea, SW3 for just £140,000 ($170,000, €153,000 or درهم625,000). Offered by agents Douglas & Gordon, the 302 square foot, second floor apartment comprises of a studio room, kitchen and bathroom. It […]
Now offered for £975,000 ($1.2 million, €1.1 million or درهم4.3 million), the one-bedroomed first floor flat in which the “everyman for every occasion” and his wife resided is appropriately decorated in authentic 1930s style. It has an original iron bath and original radiators and a Chesil Court clock even. In the bedroom, the wallpaper is a Parisienne print by Madeleine Castaing and in-keeping also are the peacock blue silk blackout curtains and silk leopard print curtains that can be found throughout, according to agents Strutt & Parker.
The 586 square foot apartment is small but perfectly formed and comes with a 35 square foot south facing balcony and it was no doubt there that this Labour supporter decided against a career in parliament. “I found there was little room for laughter in politics,” The Telegraph reported he concluded.
Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes
Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes
Twitter: @SteepleTimes
Readers have their say
8 comments
I am a pensioner and I have very similar furniture – I’ve had it for years. It’s lovely to see that it is back in vogue. A lovely flat and I show my age my admitting I remember this actor very well.
Very expensive indeed for a flat with a bathroom that should have been ripped out yonks ago. Where’s Rodders?
Totally overpriced.
Seriously????????? The price is surely £97,500!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s a rabbit hutch!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who’d pay a million bucks for that piece of shite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wrecking ball required for the interior too —— it looks like a student squat from Withnail & I!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Knock it down —- in fact pull down Chesil Court in its entirety!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A very fine block is Chesil Court. At £1,660 per square foot, as a property professional, I must say that this is perfectly reasonably pitched. The service charge for the block, however, is not the lowest but I would definitely see potential for this as a long-term investment.
It’s dark and depressing and the building looks an old person home
He was a hoot
His wife was great fun
Harry Fowler was brilliant as Flogger Hoskins in the Army Game with Alfie Bass. He appeared 47 times.