PAUL McDOWELL

(15 August 1931 - 2 May 2016)

Although better-known as a musician and singer with The Temperance Seven trad jazz band, Paul McDowell was also an actor, comedian, writer, painter and teacher.

The Temperence Seven began at art school in the 1950s, a 1920s style band dressed in Victorian garb which at its height had a No. 1 chart hit with ‘You’re Driving Me Crazy’. McDowell’s (mainly minor) film appearances included Brecht’s The Life Story of Baal, The Thirty-Nine Steps (with Robert Powell), Don Siegel’s Rough Cut, National Lampoon’s European Vacation, Peter Yuval’s Dead End City and Julian Doyle’s Chemical Wedding, an evocation of Aleister Crowley and McDowell’s last appearance in 2008. He contributed scripts for TV comedy shows starring Sheila Hancock, Harry Secombe, David Frost and The Two Ronnies, and appeared on TV in The World of Beachcomber, The Good Life, Porridge, Going Straight, Dave Allen at Large, Wodehouse Playhouse, Robin’s Nest, Kenny Everett, Blackadder, Only Fools and Horses, Mr Bean and The Two of Us etc. He also acted in TV dramas such as Scoop, Crown Court, Churchill’s People, Suez 1956, Churchill: The Wilderness Years, Angels, Frank Stubbs, EastEnders and many others.

MICHAEL DARVELL