Mr Magersfontein Lugg

Campion’s manservant/butler has led an interesting life. Before taking up his current occupation he was a thief and burglar. Having experienced much of the shadier side of life, skills as varied from lock picking to cat burglary all appear within his reach. Always ready with a helpful, and characteristically earthy, hint Lugg appears the perfect straight man to Campion’s comic persona, but the relationship between the two is not that simple.

Through the many novels in which he appears we see Lugg growing old alongside his younger master, but whenever he is there we can be sure that he will be seeing all, and appearing in the most unlikely places.

He was played in the BBC television series by the actor Brian Glover.
Born 2 April 1934, Barnsley, Yorkshire, England
Died 24 July 1997, London, England

Brian Glover was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire and used to be a professional wrestler going by the name of “Leon Arris the Man From Paris” before retiring to become an actor. He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1973, playing Peter in Romeo & Juliet; the Bishop of Carlisle in Richard II; Charles in As You Like It; and Grumio in Taming of the Shrew. He also appeared as the Bishop of Carlisle in Richard II for the first two weeks at the Brooklyn Academy, New York in January 1974. Television credits to his name include Campion, The Bill as well as All Creatures Great And Small. He also provided one of the voices for the animated “Tetley Tea” TV adverts.

Mr Albert Campion

Biography: Campion, Albert, b. 20 May 1900.
Educated at Rugby and St Ignatius College, Cambridge.
Embarked on adventurous career 1924.
Chief cases include the Black Dudley Murder, the Affair at Mystery Mile, the Protection of the Gyrth Chalice, and the incidents at Cambridge which entailed Police at the Funeral. Name known to be a pseudonym, but real identity hitherto unpublished.
Clubs: Puffin’s, The Junior Greys.
Hobbies: Odd.
Address: 17 Bottle St, Piccadilly, London, W1.

The quintessential Englishman, Campion is a true creature of his age, ‘born’ at a time when London was alive with excitement and adventure, when the world was experiencing the boom of the “roaring Twenties”.

Campion is a pseudonym, and although his true first name “Rudolph” is mentioned in Police At The Funeral his true parentage is never discovered. However relatives appear in the most unexpected places, and his parentage appears to be of the highest order. With shadowed references to past titles, and a steady income from undisclosed sources Campion is most certainly a man of impecable means.

In the BBC television series he was played to great effect by Peter Davison, who also played Dr Who for the BBC during the early 1980’s, and made a fabulous cameo appearance in The Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy as ‘The Dish Of The Day’ in the infamous Restaurant At The End Of The Universe sequence.

The opening credits to the first and second season of the BBC television series can be found at the BBC Cult TV website.