Bernard Miles

The Right Honourable The Lord Miles CBE
Bernard Miles in 1974 (with his parrot, Jack Sprat) by Allan Warren
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 7 February 1979 – 14 June 1991 Life peerage
Personal details
Born	Bernard James Miles (1907-09-27)27 September 1907 Uxbridge, Middlesex, England
Died	14 June 1991(1991-06-14) (aged 83) Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England
Spouse	Josephine Wilson ​ ​ (m. 1931; died 1990)​
Children	3, including John Miles

Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE (27 September 1907 – 14 June 1991) was an English character actor, writer and director.^[1] He opened the Mermaid Theatre in 1959, the first new theatre that opened in the City of London since the 17th century.^[2]

He was known for playing character roles that usually had bucolic backgrounds or links to countrymen. His strong accent was typical of rustic dialects associated with the counties of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. His pleasant rolling bass-baritone voice made him a regular presence on the stage and in films for more than fifty years. In addition to his acting, he was a voice-over artist and published author.

Miles was educated at Uxbridge County School, Pembroke College, Oxford, and the Northampton Institute (later City University of London) in London.^[3] He lived for a while in New Road, Hillingdon Heath.

In 1946 his comedy about the Home Guard Let Tyrants Tremble! was staged at the Scala Theatre in the West End, with Miles in the cast.

By the 1950s, he had started to work in television. In 1951 he played Long John Silver in a British TV version of Treasure Island. A decade later he reprised the role for a performance of Treasure Island at the Mermaid Theatre in the winter of 1961–62, where the cast included Spike Milligan as Ben Gunn.^[4]

Miles was always keen to promote up-and-coming talent. Impressed with the writing of English playwright John Antrobus, he introduced him to Spike Milligan, which led to the production of the one-act play The Bed Sitting Room. It was later expanded and staged by Miles at Mermaid Theatre on 31 January 1963, with critical and commercial success.^[5][6][7]

Miles was also known for his comic monologues, often delivered with a rural dialect, which were issued on record albums.^[8]

Miles married the actress Josephine Wilson, with whom he had two daughters and one son,^[3] the racing driver John Miles, in 1931. She co-founded and was involved actively with Miles in the Mermaid Theatre.^[3] She predeceased him on 7 November 1990.

Miles was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1953,^[9] was knighted in 1969,^[10] and was created a life peer as Baron Miles, of Blackfriars in the City of London, on 7 February 1979.^[11] He was only the second British actor to receive a peerage, after Laurence Olivier.^[12]

Miles survived his wife by six months and died in June 1991. He had been born in the same year, and died on the same day, as the actress Peggy Ashcroft.^[13]

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• Nathaniel Titlark (1956–1957, Woodsman, 10 Episodes, BBCTV. Lost) (with Maureen Pryor as Jessie Titlark) – Nathaniel Titlark
• Long-running ITV commercial advertisement (1960s) Himself, drinking and recommending Mackeson as a beverage that 'Looks good, tastes good and, by golly, does you good'. Popularly believed to have been the main financial support for the Mermaid Theatre, for many years.^[15]

• The British Theatre^[3]
• God's Brainwave^[3]
• Favourite Tales from Shakespeare^[3]

• Strachan, Alan. Adventurer: Bernard Miles and the Mermaid Theatre (Salamander Street, 2023) ISBN 978-1-91422-898-8

• Bernard Miles at IMDb
• Bernard Miles performances listed at The Theatre Collection, University of Bristol