Nigel Lambert (11 May 1944 – 11 September 2024) was an English voice actor. He is best known for his role as the narrator of the first series of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

comedy series '' Look Around You'', as well as Merle Ambrose in the

MMORPG A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

Wizard101 ''Wizard101'' is a 2008 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by KingsIsle Entertainment. Players take on the role of student wizards who must save the Spiral, the fictional universe in which the game is ...

''.

Life and career

Lambert was born in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

on 11 May 1944. Acting from the age of 12, Lambert began his stage education at Arts Educational Trust School, Piccadilly. After a brief spell at the Italia Conti Stage School, he joined a repertory company in Cork before completing his training at

RADA The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central Lond ...

. This was following by working in repertory theatre in Ireland and Northampton, as well as the

Royal National Theatre The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...

. He then worked in radio and television, as well as being a member of Hatch End Players. He appeared in the 1967 '' The Avengers'' episode entitled "The 50,000 pound Breakfast" as the second doctor. Lambert played the role of athlete Ken Sparten in the 1969 SF/horror film '' Scream and Scream Again'', and in more recent years provides the voice of Mr Curry in ''

The Adventures of Paddington Bear ''The Adventures of Paddington Bear'' is a French-Canadian-British animated children's television series based on the Paddington Bear stories written by Michael Bond, co-produced by the CINAR Corporation, FilmFair and Protecrea, in co-produ ...

'' television series and also Papa in the Dolmio pasta sauce puppet commercials. He also appeared as Operative Chris Granger in the ''

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...

'' episode "Computer Affair" and contributed extensively to the magazine partwork '' Story Teller'' published by

Marshall Cavendish Marshall Cavendish is a subsidiary company of Times Publishing Group, the printing and publishing subsidiary of Singapore-based conglomerate Fraser and Neave (which in turn currently owned by ThaiBev, a Thai beverage company), and at present i ...

, consisting of a fortnightly magazine and a cassette tape featuring children's stories. Lambert recorded over 50 BBC audiobooks. In 1980, he played the character of Hardin in the ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' story ''

The Leisure Hive ''The Leisure Hive'' is the first serial of the 18th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 30 August to 20 September 1980. It marks the return of John ...

'', in addition to providing the voice of the Priest Triangle in the 2021 episodes ''

War of the Sontarans "War of the Sontarans", prefixed frequently with either "Chapter Two" or "''Flux''", is the second episode of the thirteenth series of the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who'', and of the six-episode serial known collectiv ...

'' and '' Once, Upon Time''. He played the computer operative in the first episode of ''

Blake's 7 ''Blake's 7'' is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. Four series of thirteen 50-minute episodes were broadcast on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981. It was created by Terry Nation, who also wrote the first series, prod ...

'', ''The Way Back'' (1978). On 11 September 2024, it was announced that Lambert had died at the age of 80.

References

External links

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Nigel Lambert
at Theatricalia 1944 births 2024 deaths English male voice actors Male actors from Southend-on-Sea Radio and television announcers Audiobook narrators Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Alumni of the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts {{UK-tv-bio-stub