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Norman Shelley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Norman Shelley (February 16, 1903 – August 22, 1980) was an English actor, best known for his work in radio, in particular for the BBC's Children's Hour. He also had a recurring role in the long-running radio soap opera The Archers.
Perhaps Shelley's single best-known role was as Winnie-the-Pooh in The Children's Hour adaptations of A. A. Milne's stories - for many people of the right age, his is the definitive voice of Pooh. Other roles for The Children's Hour included Dr. Watson (opposite Carleton Hobbs as Holmes) in a series of adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories; and a recurring role in the specially-written Toytown series. Shelley also played the parts of Gandalf and Tom Bombadil in the 1955-6 radio adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
A recurring rumour holds that some of Winston Churchill's most famous speeches to Parliament during World War II were subsequently recorded for radio broadcast (the House of Commons not being at the time set up for location recording) not by Churchill, but by Shelley impersonating Churchill. Although the rumour has been promoted by controversial revisionist WWII historic writer David Irving to support his unflattering view of Churchill, there is a lack of supporting evidence, and many of Irving's specific claims have been disproven by other researchers. Shelley did record a performance of Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches" speech, but that was several years after the speech was originally made, and there is no record of its having been broadcast as genuine Churchill (or, indeed, at all).