Rudge was born in
Bristol, England, where his father was an
advertising copywriting clerk. He was educated at
Bristol Grammar School, where a friend and classmate was playwright
Peter Nichols. Rudge became an actor, working in at the
Bristol Old Vic and
Liverpool Playhouse. He served in the
Royal Navy during and immediately after the
Second World War, from 1944 to 1947. He joined
RADA after the Navy, and worked in
repertory. Tall and blond, he delivered the line "Who's for tennis?" in
Julian Slade's
musical Salad Days at the
Vaudeville Theatre. In 1957, he played an estate agent, in
You Pay Your Money. He left acting to write comedy scripts for television and radio. With composer Ted Dicks, he wrote songs and sketches for
West End revue shows, including
And Another Thing, which had a long run at the
Fortune Theatre in 1960, featuring Bernard Cribbins,
Anna Quayle, and
Lionel Blair and
Joyce Blair. One of the show's songs, "Folk Song", became a hit for Cribbins, produced by George Martin, and led to them collaborating on the top 10 hits in the
UK Singles Chart, "The Hole in the Ground" and "Right Said Fred".
Noël Coward chose "The Hole in the Ground" as one of his records on
Desert Island Discs, saying he would pass the time on his
desert island by translating it into
French.
Richard and
Fred Fairbrass adopted "Right Said Fred" as the name of their
pop group. Rudge and Dicks also wrote the theme song for the film
Carry On Screaming (1966), and worked with
Kenneth Williams on an album entitled
On Pleasure Bent (1967). Other songs written by Rudge were recorded by
Topol,
Val Doonican,
Matt Monro,
Joan Sims,
Jim Dale and
Petula Clark. Rudge wrote several scripts for BBC television in the 1960s, including scripts for the
soap opera Compact. He also wrote two series of
Stop Messing About (1969), a follow-on radio comedy to
Round the Horne with Kenneth Williams, and (with
Ronnie Wolfe) three series of
Something to Shout About (1960–62), a BBC radio
sitcom set in an advertising agency. With
Vince Powell, he co-wrote a religious sitcom
Father Charlie (1982), starring
Lionel Jeffries and
Anna Quayle. He also wrote
pantomime scripts, particularly for the
Glasgow Citizens Theatre. Rudge was a volunteer for
the Samaritans. ==References==