Ruth Madoc

Ruth Madoc (born Margaret Ruth Llewellyn Baker; 16 April 1943 – 9 December 2022) was a British actress and singer who had a career on stage and screen spanning over 60 years.

She was best known for her role as Gladys Pugh in the BBC television comedy Hi-de-Hi! (1980–1988), for which she received a BAFTA TV award nomination for Best Light Entertainment Performance. She later appeared as Daffyd Thomas's mother in the second series of Little Britain.

Spouses

Philip Madoc - (m. 1961; div. 1981)​
John Jackson - (m. 1982; died 2021)

Early life

Madoc was born in Norwich where her parents worked in medicine at the time. Her parents travelled around Britain for much of her childhood, and she was brought up by her Welsh grandmother Etta Williams and her English grandfather, in Llansamlet within Swansea. Later she trained at RADA in London.

Career

After RADA Ruth worked in The Black and White Minstrel Show.

In 1971 Ruth Madoc played Fruma Sarah in the film version of the musical Fiddler on the Roof, and in 1972 she appeared as Mrs Dai Bread Two in the film of Under Milk Wood. She also appeared regularly in the entertainment programme Poems and Pints on BBC Wales. She provided one of the alien voices in the Cadbury's Smash commercials in the 1970s, and made a brief appearance in the 1977 film, The Prince and the Pauper (aka Crossed Swords).

She appeared in many theatre productions, including the stage version of Under Milk Wood, Steel Magnolias, Agatha Christie thrillers (And Then There Were None...), the musical Annie and many pantomime parts.

Madoc was best known for her role as Gladys Pugh in the television sitcom Hi-de-Hi, one of the lead roles, for which she received a BAFTA TV award nomination for Best Light Entertainment Performance. The comedy was set in the fictional 1950s type holiday camp Maplins. Madoc's recurring role centred on her unrequited love for the camp entertainment manager Professor Jeffrey Fairbrother (Simon Cadell) and she was notable for her announcements on the camp tannoy with her signature three notes played on a mini xylophone.

She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1984 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews, and in 2004 she appeared in the reality television programme Cariad@Iaith on S4C, in which celebrities went on an intensive course in the Welsh language. She also appeared in the fourth series of LivingTV reality show I'm Famous and Frightened! which she went on to win.

She also appeared in "Annie" as Miss Hannigan on tour. In 2007 she appeared as a fictional version of herself in episode 2 of the BBC Radio 2 comedy Buy Me Up TV. In 2008 she appeared at the Pavilion Theatre, Rhyl playing the Bad Fairy in the pantomime 'Sleeping Beauty', with Sonia and Rebecca Trehearn.

In 2009 Madoc returned to situation comedy when she appeared in Big Top on BBC1, alongside Amanda Holden, John Thomson and Tony Robinson.

In 2010 Madoc investigated her family history for the BBC Wales programme Coming Home and learned that she was related to David Lloyd George.

In January 2015 Madoc appeared as the Fairy Godmother in the pantomime Cinderella at the Palace Theatre, Mansfield.

Madoc was awarded an honorary degree by Swansea University in July 2006.

Personal life and death

Her first husband was the actor Philip Madoc, with whom she appeared in the 1981 TV serial The Life and Times of David Lloyd George. They had a son, Rhys, and a daughter, Lowri, and were married for twenty years, but divorced in 1981.

In 1982, she married her second husband, John Jackson, with whom she bought a home in Glynneath in 2002. They were married until his death in September 2021.

In December 2022, Madoc was set to appear in the pantomime Aladdin at the Princess Theatre, Torquay. However on 8 December, a statement posted to Madoc's Instagram account confirmed she had suffered a fall earlier in the week and was no longer able to appear in the production. After undergoing surgery, Madoc died the following day in hospital, at the age of 79.