Brian Hibbard

Brian Hibbard was a Welsh actor and singer from Ebbw Vale, Wales, best remembered as the lead vocalist in the original The Flying Pickets.

Early life and career

Hibbard was born into a working class family in Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, and had a History of the [socialist movement in the United Kingdom|socialist] upbringing. He was educated at Ebbw Vale Grammar School. After various jobs including teacher, steel worker, barman and chimney sweep, he formed The Flying Pickets with a group of other actors who had practised a cappella singing while travelling by coach to their appearances. Their cover version of Yazoo's track "Only You" was the List of [Christmas number one singles |Christmas number one] in 1983 on the UK Singles Chart.
Following the group's success, Hibbard pursued a career as a television actor, making a guest appearance in the 1987 Doctor Who story Delta and the Bannermen. His first regular TV role came in 1989, playing petty criminal "Chunky" in three series of Manchester-based comedy drama Making Out, followed by a two-year stint in Coronation Street as garage mechanic Doug Murray. Other soap appearances included brief stints in Emmerdale as Bobby-John Downes, and as Henry Mason, a man who ran a children's home where Billy Mitchell and Julie Perkins were in care, in EastEnders.
Other appearances include Minder, The [Armando Iannucci Shows], Satellite City, Welsh language soap Pobol y Cwm as well as the youth drama Pam Fi, Duw? and in the 1997 film Twin Town as the self-styled "Karaoke King" Dai Rees.

Personal life and death

Hibbard and his wife Caroline had three children.
In 2000, Hibbard was diagnosed with prostate cancer; he died of the disease on 17 June 2012 at the age of 65.