Brian Hibbard

Died June 18, 2012. Born November 26, 1946.
Welsh actor and singer, best remembered as the lead vocalist in the original Flying Pickets.
Hibbard was born in Ebbw Vale, and 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. He performed two concerts at Ebbw Vale Leisure Centre when touring with the Flying Pickets, and formed a picket line on Top of the Pops at the height of the miners' strike (1984-1985).
Following the group's success in the early 1980s, Hibbard went on to pursue a career as a television actor, appearing in Coronation Street as garage mechanic Doug Murray, in Emmerdale as Bobby-John Downes, and as Johnny Mac in the Welsh-language soap Pobol y Cwm as well as the youth drama Pam Fi, Duw?. He was in the 1997 film Twin Town as the self-styled "Karaoke King" Dai Rees. He has also appeared in the drama serial Making Out; in the Doctor Who story Delta and the Bannermen; in comedy The Armando Ianucci Shows; and the film Rancid Aluminium. Hibbard appeared in EastEnders from 4 to 8 July 2011 playing Henry Mason, a man who ran a children's home where Billy Mitchell and Julie Perkins were in care.
In 2000, Hibbard was diagnosed with prostate cancer; he died of the disease on 18 June 2012. He is survived by his wife, Caroline and their children: Lily, Hafwen and Cai.








