Mssrs Bird, Endell & Co

Adam Faith was a pop idol during the early 1960's, making dozens of records and regularly topping the charts: By 1967 however, his  glittering music career began to look less secure as British tastes and fashions began to change....so, he decided to try and cut his teeth in the acting profession.

He started on stage,  initially touring as the lead in Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall's "Billy Liar", then appearing as Feste in "Twelfth Night" and with Dame Sybil Thorndyke in Emlyn Williams' "Night Must Fall", before the lure of the silver screen beckoned.

Things were a bit more difficult for Adam in this particular field, as he began appearing in a handful of fairly mediocre films including "Beat Girl", "Never Let Go", "What A Whopper" and "Mix Me A Person", before moving up the success-ladder by a few rungs with his two supporting actor roles in "Stardust", (opposite another singer - David Essex),  and "McVicar", which bought him some critical success, in addition to appearing in "Yesterday's Hero"... Altogether, not bad for a geezer who grew up on a council estate in Acton, West London!

Then lady-luck REALLY smiled down from the heavens!

An exceptional television acting opportunity saw Adam Faith, [real name Terence (Terry) Nelhams-Wright], spread his wings and fly in 1971, when he played lead role in the London Weekend Television series "Budgie " ...

...originally to be called "The Loser"...before LWT changed the title to one that would be more popular.
Adam became Ronald, (Budgie), Bird, small time villain, supreme optimismist, (Fulham supporter), and dedicated follower of fashion, (clock his flashy clobber), who was forever looking out for opportunities to make some quick dosh: Yet ambitions aside, Budgie was a luckless bungler most times, ...a loser, always remaining skint and tasting prison food on a fairly regular basis. [At Television Heaven you can listen to the original Budgie theme tune "Nobody's Fool".]

Adam and Budgie Press Cuttings Photo Album

Lack of professional acting experience didn't prove a problem to Faith, he only needed to play himself and act naturally (as the old song goes); and in doing so, he towered over many of his television counterparts where versatility and on-screen charisma were concerned.  

Apart from the main man, (Mr No 1 himself), there were several other factors which held great appeal for viewers of Budgie.

Of course, these other key ingrediants included the talented stage star Iain Cuthbertson, with his awe-inspiring performances of Charles, McLaughlin, Endell.

Yes, good-old Charlie Endell, whose birth name was actually  Angus McIntyre , having changed identity after vacating his old Glasgow manor to set up in London; a move made necessary because of a certain American geezer by the name of King Jorgenson, who wanted him dead after "Angus" burnt his Miami gaming club down following an expensive $50,000 or so,  losing streak whilst on vacation there.

C.M.E. as he became, owner of Endell Enterprises, which consisted of numerous adult book shops, (in and around Soho ), sex boutiques, peepshow/strip joints , (some being mere fronts for 'knocking' shops, advertising their sleazy services in telephone boxes all over London), various back-street porno production and distribution film studios, gambling and drinking emporiums... and even a Pregnancy Testing Center; how's that for having everything sown up?

"a right hard bastard" and the self-crowned King of Vice.

The show's supporting cast of colourful characters were equally as popular...including regulars John Rhys-Davies, as Laughing Spam Fritter, ...good old Laughing "S"...

and Budgie's girlfriend Hazel Fletcher, played by the fab Lynn Dalby.

His lippy ex-wife Jean, played by Georgina Hale, was another important part of the storyline,

albeit for two episodes only.

"Budgie" one-offs like Adrienne Posta,  ("Out"),

and David Bauer, ("King For a Day")...

+ theatrical figures like  James Bolam , John Thaw , Gordon Jackson , Jack Shepherd , (Detective Constable Leadbetter, the cop who didn't even know what a " tranny " in "The Outside Man"), Derek Jacobi , Kenneth Cranham , Stella Tanner , Jack Woolgar , Peter Sallis , Norman Rossington , Anthony Valentine , Joe Gladwin , George Tovey , June Lewis , Betty Marsden , George A. Cooper (II) , Rio Fanning and Alfie Bass  provided the jam, cream and icing for this most delicious of televisual cakes.

Why, even Margaret Nolan, the ex blue film actress, (pic here is linked to MN's Official Web Site and her fabulous artwork) 

turned Carry On and Bond Girl, revealed that she was not just a pretty face, but pretty good at the old acting lark as well when she appeared in three episodes as "Inga", Budgie's bit-on-the-side....

Yet, the Budgie Bird would never have been conceived at all if it wasn't for the true-to-life screenplay writing of Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall .

Nor would the series have been so finely polished, without producer Verity Lambert

and some good directors, such as  Michael Lindsay-Hogg .

I believe that I speak for many fans when I say that this is probably the finest TV production of its genre EVER; superior even, (it could be argued), than the likes of "Minder", brilliant though that particular series was in its own right.

Millions were eagerly tuning in every week to watch Budgie trying to make a few dishonest bob and getting Charlie's back up in the process; situations which added a comedic feel to the series. As different as chalk and cheese these two characters. Charlie looked upon Budgie as a harmless enough chancer who always landed up "standing" for something...a fact which Charlie found very amusing; while Budgie on the other hand, considered Charlie as a good mate, and looked up to him as the big time crook that he would like to have been, (in another life perhaps). Charlie persevered with Budgie's annoyances throughout the series right up until "Run, Rabbit, Run, Run, Run", (a particularly moving episode when Budgie pushes his luck a bit too far and becomes the victim of Charlie's near-psychotic wrath), when their fragile alliance breaks down irrevocably. Attention to detail was another contributing factor which has since caused Budgie to achieve cult status amongst fans; wonderful finishing touches such as the often very descriptive nicknames of key characters; i.e.Wossname, Laughing Spam Fritter,... together with some of the series' lesser known individuals as well, including Starting Handle Harry, Morris The Greek and even Peter The Pastry!
      

saw the hatching of the first series in the form of 13 x 50 minute editions...(colour format with the exception of episodes 1,2,3 and 4 which were screened entirely in black and white due to a technicians strike at the time), then a follow-up series being shown in 1972; again this was 13 episodes-worth, all shown in colour this time...

No. Episode. Air Date.
1 Out 4/9/1971
2 Some Mother's Sons 4/16/1971
3 Brains 4/23/1971
4 Grandee Hotel 4/30/1971

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Episode "Grandee Hotel":  Just One Example of Some Clever Casting.
	Richard Butler	....	Braithwaite
	Dan Gillian	....	The Van Driver
	Sylvia Kay	....	Eileen
	Preston Lockwood	....	Grindley
	Reg Pritchard	....	Griffin
	Peter Sallis	....	Peter Olliphant
	Anthony Valentine	....	Jeff Staines (already linked above)
	Jack Smethurst	....	Saunders
	Jack Woolgar	....	Benskin       (already linked above)

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5 In Deep 5/7/1971
6 Could Do Better 5/14/1971
7 Best Mates 5/21/1971
8 Everybody Loves a Baby 5/28/1971
9 A Pair of Charlies 6/4/1971
10 Fiddler on the Hoof: Part 1 6/11/1971
11 Fiddler on the Hoof: Part 2 6/18/1971
12 Sunset Mansions or Whatever Happened to Janey Babe? 6/25/1971
13 And in Again 7/2/1971

14 Dreaming of Thee 4/21/1972
15 And the Lord Taketh Away 4/28/1972
16 Louie the Ring Is Dead and Buried in Kensal Green Cemetery 5/5/1972
17 The Jump-Up Boys 5/12/1972
18 Our Story So Far 5/19/1972
19 Do Me a Favour 5/26/1972
20 Glory of Fulham 6/2/1972
21 24,000 Ball Point Pens 6/9/1972
22 King for a Day 6/16/1972
23 The Outside Man 6/23/1972
24 The Man Outside 6/30/1972
25 Brief Encounter 7/7/1972
26 Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run, Run, Run 7/14/1972.

Vital Trivia:  In 1967, Adam Faith married his long-time girl friend Jackie Irving, who was a professional dancer. The wedding took place at Caxton Hall, Westminster on 19 August 1967.On 19 December 1970, his daughter Katya was born. The birth was premature, and the baby had to struggle for life, but happily she survived.
Before moving to the village of Tudeley, Kent in latter years, Faith used to live at Crowhurst Place, Hartfield, Crowborough and Henfield. The star almost died in 1973 at Cowfold, near Horsham, when he crashed his car into a tree. Faith nearly lost a leg, was unconscious for a week and spent a fortnight in Crawley Hospital with a broken leg, arm and chest injuries. Later he described the accident as a turning point in his life. Adam made an emotional return visit to the hospital 21 years later while appearing in Alfie at Crawley's Hawth Theatre, one of the south's busiest arts venues.<<<

'Budge' disappeared from the box for a while, until our chirpy little fella was spotted again in repeats screened by C4 during the mid-80's.

Obviously, many took the opportunity at the time of the re-runs to videotape "Budgie" while they were able, as the series had never been made available for private purchase in any format.

As luck would have it, (thanks to the advent of recordable home dvd machines), the 80's re-runs led to fans being able to buy pirated, video-to-dvd transfers on e-Bay for a while.

This auction was run courtesy of a certain Greek geezer, (no, not Morris the Greek),...and yes, even I stood for these low quality discs, cos that's all we had at the time!

But then, come in!

2006 was the year when Granada, (c/o Network DVD), finally got it into their little brain bonces to officially release Budgie on dvd, for us to savour in all its original glory!  Series One.
And savour it we do...this material is oh so tasty, rather like a decent bit of top nosh down the West End.  Series Two. (the special features on these are excellent as well!)

The $164,000 question still remains, why did the TV bosses take so long to make the show available for the public to buy in the first place?

Yes, Budgie is back...and still seems as fresh and interesting today as it did back in the 1970's ...
...maybe even better in some respects. For a start we can view the series in great clarity thanks to dvd technology and also, let's face it... with only *a few notable exceptions, there has been *little on television since that comes remotely close to the calibre of "Budgie". [*In the 80's we had the superb BBC series "Big Deal", then there was "Minder" of course... and more recently, "Life on Mars" and "Hustle", which are suitably cool as well.]  
What have we got today to fill the vacuum..."Casualty", "Emmerdale", "The Weakest Link", "X-Factor", "Big Brother", "Coronation Street"?....do behave yourself squire, leave it out!!!

Doubtless you will have already clicked through on one of the earlier links here to "The Forgotten Case of Charles McLaughlin  Endell Esq"...(if not - why not?, he, he), and perhaps you are still reeling from learning what you DIDN'T previously know about this character! 

Hang-around though... the legend that is Budgie ain't quite dun wiv yet....
click here to learn about the Budgie episode that never was  ...
and you are in for a further revelation! 

 

Click Fulham scarf picture for Merchandise/Memorabilia section.

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