Midgley was born in
Worcester Park,
Surrey. His parents were the
tenor Walter Midgley and the
pianist Gladys Midgley. His sister is the
soprano Maryetta Midgley. He was educated at Bishop's Stortford College and the
Royal Academy of Music, where he studied music and the piano as a Sisselle Way Scholar. He first worked as an
entomologist at the
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Pest infestation Headquarters at
Tolworth, Surrey. He began broadcasting in
Lights of London in 1971. and he has sung with the
Ambrosian Opera Chorus and with most of the military and brass bands in Britain. He has sung in many full-length opera and operettas on
BBC Radio 3, and he has also performed on
BBC Radio 2 in
Grand Hotel,
Ring Up the Curtain,
Among Your Souvenirs,
Your Hundred Best Tunes, ''
Baker's Dozen
, Glamorous Nights
, Friday Night is Music Night, Melodies for You'' and Walter Midgley Remembers. He appeared frequently on BBC TV's long running variety show
The Good Old Days with his sister Maryetta. For some considerable time in the early 1960s he played Freddie in the stage production of
My Fair Lady at Drury Lane. In the United States, he is perhaps best known as the singing voice of
Josef Locke, who was played by
Ned Beatty in the film
Hear My Song. Midgley is married to the New Zealand soprano Alexandra Gordon, with one son and one daughter. He teaches voice at the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Arts at Ara Institute of Canterbury, New Zealand. He is featured, with his sister Maryetta, on the song "Witness to a Murder (Part Two)" on Mansun's 1998 album
Six. ==Discography==