Wilfred Pickles
Biography
Actor who made a name for himself in radio plays of the 1930s, but rose to greater prominence in 1941 when he became the first BBC newsreader with a regional accent (as in a slightly patronising bit of Home Counties logic, BBC bosses figured that Pickles' Yorkshire accent would be impossible for continental propagandists to impersonate). After the war he enjoyed success on the West End stage and as a radio and TV host, with successes including the long-running Have a Go and the proto-Jim'll Fix It wish fulfilment show Ask Pickles.
He died in 1978, aged 73. His wife Mabel, who appeared as his assistant on many of his shows, survived him by 11 years.
