In the 1960s and 70s my former husband, Edwin Apps, and I wrote the successful situation comedy All Gas and Gaiters for BBC TV. The series, set in the fictional diocese of St Oggs, was about the acrimonious relationship between the bishop and the dean, Edwin’s experience of his school life at St Edmund’s school in Canterbury contributing to the authenticity of the scripts.
Edwin, who has died aged 89, was a confident and cultured man with many friends. As an actor from the 50s into the 2000s, he worked mainly on television, specialising in comedy and appearing at various times with the comedians Frankie Howerd, Jimmy Edwards and Harry Worth.
Edwin was born in Wingham, Kent, to Molly Marchant, who came from a long line of farmers, and her husband, Bertram Apps, a land agent and auctioneer. He was their only child, and had a nanny who was instructed to take him to see his elderly father every evening for a quarter of an hour before the six o’clock news. He was sent away as a boarder to St Edmund’s when he was nine years old.
The school had been founded for orphan sons of the clergy. The headteacher, a clergyman, the dean and archbishop of Canterbury, who always refused to speak to each other, were on the board of governors. Edwin enjoyed the English and art classes and gave a memorable performance as a bishop in the school play. Later he went to the Central School of speech and drama in London to train as an actor. He and I met playing in a production of Hamlet in 1958 and married that same year.
Edwin loved France and always felt happier in the countryside, so in 1975 we moved to a tiny village in the Vendée. I returned to London three years later, but Edwin stayed there for the rest of his life, developing a third successful career as an artist. His work was hugely original with a great understanding of colour and composition, his subject matter influenced by his previous careers as an actor and writer as well as his caustic take on human nature, particularly bishops, of whom he painted a great number.
Although we divorced in 1981 Edwin and I remained friends. We collaborated on a book about All Gas and Gaiters in 2015 and recorded a play about writing it for Radio 4 three years ago. His memoir, Pursued by Bishops, was published in 2013.
Edwin is survived his partner, Josette, our son, Barnaby, and granddaughter, Rose.
