Philip ‘Peachy’ Mead obituary

My friend Philip “Peachy” Mead, who has died aged 83, was a comedian and entertainer who was known as Norfolk’s King of Comedy. He was also the secretary and driving force of the East Anglia Variety branch of Equity, the performers’ union, for nearly 40 years.

As comic and compere he hosted cabarets, music halls, stag nights and children’s parties, working in holiday camps, theatres, hotels, pubs and village halls, starting out in the early 1960s, when every major Norwich business and factory had its own social club, with cheap beer and entertainment.

The walls of the office in his Norwich home were lined with posters from his heyday, along with photos of many stars he had worked with or met, including Bob Monkhouse, Danny La Rue and Dick Emery.

As a supporting artist, he worked on TV, appearing in the 80s in many episodes of Hi-De-Hi and Tales of the Unexpected. On stage he played Col Tom Parker, Elvis’s manager, for a production of the musical Forever Elvis, which toured British theatres in the80s. For 30 years he wrote a column, Norfolk Natters, for The Stage.

He was born in Norwich to Ernest Mead, a tanner, and Beatrice (nee Riches), a silver service waitress who also provided theatrical digs for visiting performers. As a boy Philip would sometimes earn ten bob (50p) by being invited on stage from the audience. It gave him a taste of showbiz. He would later continue the family tradition, renting rooms to stage performers and crew.

At Avenue Road school a teacher called him Meachy by mistake and that became Peachy, his nickname for life. On leaving school, he started an apprenticeship in the grocery trade and then spent two years in the army in Germany on national service, where he discovered a talent for making his comrades laugh.

His career start was inauspicious. With his pal Tony Dennes, he attended London auditions, to be told their double-act was “the worst we’ve ever seen.”

In 1961 Peachy became a Butlins redcoat, a role that provided a launchpad to his career. This was also when he joined Equity.

Instrumental in setting up the East Anglia Variety union branch in 1983, he served at regional and national conferences, where, forthright and stubborn, he would sometimes ruffle feathers. But he always encouraged younger performers and tried to ensure the voices of clowns, magicians, puppeteers, musicians, singers and DJs were heard among those of actors in the union.

He never really retired and continued working for the union and appearing as Father Christmas. In between jobs, he enjoyed watching Speedway, travelling all over the UK, and in later years at tracks in Ipswich, King’s Lynn and Mildenhall.

He is survived by his son, Tim, from his marriage to Joan Smith, which ended in divorce.

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