1st April 2016
Born 15th June 1914 Died 8th June 1994
Aged 79 Years
Section 21 J.14
Inscription: ‘Tis a long walk from Dorset’
Billy Burden’s theatrical life began at the Salisbury Playhouse when he responded to an advertisement in The Stage. After a series of comedy roles he appeared in Jack and the Beanstalk where he played Simple Simon as a country bumpkin – this was the turning point. The celebrated impresario Clarkson Rose invited him to create a stand up comic from the character. For the next forty years that innocent rustic figure with the endless stock of often endearingly self-deprecating stories enabled Billy Burden to become almost a fixture on BBC’s “Workers Playtime” and to carve a notable career in pantomime.
Billy worked with all the leading performers during the post war years – Max Miller, Rob Wilton, Harry Secombe, Ken Dodd and Frankie Howard were amongst his friends. His career took on a new lease of life in the early nineties when David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, creators of such series as “Dad’s Army” and “Are you being Served” devised a new comedy format in “Grace and Favour” in which a part was specially written for Billy that enabled him to work again with John Inman and Wendy Richards.
The son of a council linesman Ernest Burden and Elizabeth Burden, he lived in Wimborne all his life and has entertained millions, including the Queen Mother at a Royal Command Performance in the 1960’s. He is remembered particularly for is oft repeated one liner: “Tiz a long walk from Darzet”
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