Shaw Taylor
- Birth Date:
- 26.10.1924
- Death date:
- 18.03.2015
- Length of life:
- 90
- Days since birth:
- 36664
- Years since birth:
- 100
- Days since death:
- 3650
- Years since death:
- 9
- Categories:
- Actor
- Nationality:
- english
- Cemetery:
- Set cemetery
Shaw Taylor MBE (26 October 1924 – 18 March 2015) was a British actor and television presenter.
Taylor served in the RAF, and trained at RADA. He then acted on stage in the West End and on tour. He was an announcer for Associated TeleVision when the normal announcer was not available. He then had a variety of acting roles in film and television from the 1950s onwards, and presented various game shows including Password, Tell the Truth, Dotto, This Is Your Chance and The Law Game (BBC Radio 2). In the early sixties he co-hosted a music programme on Radio Luxembourg called 'The Friday Spectacular'. His co-host was Muriel Young. He hosted a pilot episode in 1972 called Whodunnit? on ITV, before the show was taken over by Edward Woodward for the first series (1973) and then Jon Pertwee from series two to series six (1974-78). He also made a guest appearance on the same show in a series one episode entitled "Knife in the Back".
Taylor is best known for presenting Police 5, a long-running 5-minute television programme first broadcast in 1962 that appealed to the public to help solve crimes. He later presented a spin-off show for younger viewers called Junior Police 5, aka JP5. His catchphrase was "Keep 'em peeled!" - asking viewers to be vigilant. This was originally used at the end of every JP5 programme but, according to Taylor himself, "...at the suggestion of a friend I tried it out on the adult Police 5. I thought it sounded a bit naff at first but then the studio crew seemed to get withdrawal symptoms if I didn't say it at the end of the programme and it became a catchphrase that complete strangers still shout at me in the street".
In 2008, at the age of 83, Taylor featured as himself hosting Police 5 in the seventh episode of the BBC TV drama Ashes to Ashes, set in October 1981, in which he uses the aforedescribed "Keep 'em peeled!" In 2014, at the age of 89, he returned to TV with a weekly segment on the new, Channel 5 version of Police 5, and revived his 'keep 'em peeled!' catchphrase. He played bridge and presented a television series on the subject.
Taylor died at his home in Totland on the Isle of Wight on 17 March 2015. He was survived by his partner Shirley.
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