Stanley Unwin

Did you know?!

1. First role

   While working in Birmingham from 1947 to 1951, Unwin made an accidental first transmission. After he handed broadcaster F.R. "Buck" Buckley the microphone during equipment tests, Buckley ad-libbed a spoof commentary on "Fasche", an imaginary sport, then introduced Unwin as "Codlington Corthusite", and Unwin continued the sketch in Unwinese.

2. Big break

   After producer Roy Speer brought him to comedian Ted Ray, Unwin's talking convinced Ray to cast him in The Spice of Life, which also starred June Whitfield and Kenneth Connor.

3. Beyond film

   In 1968 Unwin narrated Happiness Stan, a fairy tale told in six songs about a boy of that name. It filled the whole second side of the Small Faces album Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, a UK number 1.

4. A role that slipped away

   Unwin appeared in Gerry Anderson's 1969 Supermarionation series The Secret Service as both himself and the voice of puppet Father Stanley Unwin, but Lew Grade canceled the production because he thought viewers would not understand the Unwinese dialogue.

5. Beyond film

   Unwin worked with the British dance music act Wubble-U in 1994 on their single Petal. When the track was reissued in 1998, it reached number 55 in the UK Chart.

6. Early training

   In the late 1920s, Unwin studied at Regent Street Polytechnic in London, where his courses covered radio, television and languages.