Patrick Fyffe

Patrick Fyffe (23 January 1942 – 11 May 2002) was an English female impersonator, best known for playing the character of Dame Hilda Bracket, alongside George Logan as Dr Evadne Hinge as the duo "Hinge and Bracket". Fyffe's original accompanist was Jim Hardwick, a men's hairdresser, also from Stafford.

Early life and career

Fyffe was born Patrick John Nathaniel Fyffe in 1942 in Acton Trussell, Staffordshire. Many of his immediate family had been active in musical theatre, but he initially trained as a hairdresser, and ran his own salon in Stafford before making a career on the stage. He was a regular star of local amateur productions, but a desire to turn professional took him to London. His early professional appearances included a 1964 production of the musical Robert and Elizabeth, at the Lyric Theatre,[1] (in which his sister played the lead for a period, and he played one of Elizabeth's brothers), and a 1971 production of the same show at the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow.[2]

With some experience of repertory and a couple of provincial tours behind him, Fyffe invented the character of glamorous soprano "Perri St Claire". Played on stage as a sophisticated young lady with singing talent, the "Perri" character was sufficiently eye-catching to earn him some television slots, and Fyffe was asked to appear in character in a number of television series of the late 1960s, notably Z-Cars and an episode of Doctor in the House in 1969, when he appeared as a cabaret singer.[3] Fyffe also appeared in the film spin-off Steptoe and Son (1972), as a drag artist who becomes the mistaken object of Steptoe Senior's lust.

Death

Fyffe died in 2002 in Wellington, Somerset, from spinal cancer. He was outlived by his sister, the actor Jane Fyffe. He was unmarried.[4]

Selected filmography

References
  1. "Programme" (PDF). Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  2. Programme Robert and Elizabeth - Glasgow University's Special Collections Department
  3. Network DVD; 'Pass or Fail', Doctor in the House, 1969.
  4. "Drag artist who played elderly eccentric Dame Hilda Bracket". The Irish Times. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
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