High Street, Tonbridge,
Kent, TN9 1JP
Maurice Denham entered Tonbridge in Lent Term 1924 as a boarder in Park House. He took part in many school plays and revues, presaging his future career as an actor. On leaving school in 1927 he worked as a lift engineer but acted with his local amateur dramatic society at Beckenham. In 1934 he landed his first professional acting job with the Hull Repertory Theatre and two years later made his London debut at the Arts Theatre in ‘Rain Before Seven’. In 1938 he appeared in a BBC wireless broadcast and then joined Tommy Handley in the second series of ITMA. He was also involved in some of the earliest television broadcasts in 1938 from Alexandra Palace.
He served in the army throughout the war in the Buffs and the Royal Artillery and attained the rank of captain. He put on a series of shows for the troops but was also mentioned in dispatches for bravery during the D-Day operation. After the war he returned to the BBC and became a leading member of the hit radio show ‘Much Binding in the Marsh’.
He also now began to appear in films, showing his versatility in a variety of parts. In 1954 he won a British Academy award for his part in H.E. Bates novel ‘The Purple Plain’ alongside Gregory Peck. He made more than a hundred films, twice as many television plays and occasional stage appearances including Macbeth at the Old Vic in 1961. Tall, bald, mischievous and quizzical, Denham was one of the most versatile and subtle actors of his generation, whose work was always invested with wit and charm. Among his best known films were ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and ‘Charing Cross Road’ while his gaoled judge in the BBC comedy series ‘Porridge’ made him a host of new admirers. In radio he continued to work into his nineties. He was appointed OBE in 1992 and died in 2002.