Yes, What? - de Pledge (Richard Harding-Browne)
Intro | Characters | Episode List
Richard
Harding-Browne played the part of Francis Marmaduke Algenon Depledge
(the two middle names were reversed in a later episode), the boy who
moved in when Greenbottle left the series, around March 1939.Depledge was so well behaved, so well mannered, and so well educated that he was the perfect target for Bottomley's pranks and abuse. (Bottomly nicknamed him "Pickles".)
Because Dr Pym was so easily flustered, the impression was given that Depledge knew more about the subjects than Dr Pym.
Depledge remained for a few episodes after Greenbottle returned, but then his parents withdrew him from the school after a particularly bad time at the opening of the new classroom.
Long before Depledge came on the scene, Richard Harding-Brown played the part of lawyer for the defence in an episode when Dr Pym was in court answering an assault charge from Greenbottle.
Richard died on January 15, 1942, although Jim Williams (Standforth) was later quoted as saying that he died in Malaya in 1941, in active service in the air force.