Hudson and Halls

Did You Know?

• Halls' niece, Mandy Putnam, was the police officer on duty the night he died and had to inform her parents.
• The duo were the subject of a 2001 documentary titled Hudson & Halls – A Love Story.

Early lives

Peter John Hudson was born on 8 November 1930 in Toorak, Melbourne, Australia. He was adopted and did not know his biological parents. His adopted mother, Mary Ethel Hudson, was a midwife who ran an adoption agency and arranged illegal abortions; she was charged and tried for murder. She died when Peter was 10, and her daughter Biddy, 21 years his senior, took over the maternity business and was later regarded by Hudson as his mother. At 17, Hudson left school and worked in the soft furnishings department of George's department store, then was sent to England before returning to Melbourne as a shipping agent. David George Halls was born on 14 October 1936 in Epping, England, to Hilda and George Taylor Halls. During his childhood, his mother was hospitalised, and Halls began cooking Sunday lunch for the family. When he was 10, his parents became caretakers of Theydon Hall, where the owners treated Halls and his sister as family. At 15, his family moved to a council flat; Halls left school and worked at a Coop store. After a stint as a footwear salesman, he emigrated to New Zealand in 1959. Hudson and Halls met in 1962 at a party in Parnell, Auckland, where Halls was living. Hudson moved to Auckland, and they soon lived together, first in Halls' flat, then in a small cottage with a swimming pool at 103 Brighton Road, Parnell.

Career

Before they were TV stars, Hudson and Halls ran a women’s shoe store called Julius Garfinkle’s in Auckland’s Strand Arcade, then opened Quagg’s, one of the city’s first ice-cream parlours, in the same block. By 1975 they had sold both businesses and auditioned for a cooking spot on the afternoon show Speakeasy by making a beef wellington. They got the gig: six ten-minute segments at $20 each. The following year they launched their own half-hour programme on South Pacific Television, mixing cooking with a celebrity guest interview. It did so well in its afternoon timeslot that it was expanded to an hour and shifted to prime time, regularly landing in the weekly top five. In 1981 they won a Feltex Award for Best Entertainer of the Year. They never used a script, and their fiery personalities were part of the appeal. Publicity noted they were unmarried and lived together but didn’t define their relationship; when asked about their sexuality, the network said, “We don’t know if they are gay, but they certainly are merry.” The show took a break from 1978 to 1980, during which they opened the Hudson & Halls Oyster and Fish Restaurant in Ponsonby, open only for lunch. As their fame grew, they pushed for higher pay from TVNZ. They bought a 17-acre farm in Leigh and a 1962 Bentley, even though neither had a valid driver’s licence. They appeared on telethons, endorsed products, and graced women’s magazine covers. They hosted a morning radio show on Radio Pacific, and Halls briefly presented the game show Blankety Blank. Cookbooks came out in 1977, 1978, 1985, and 1988. Their TV series ran until 1986, when it was suddenly cancelled after more than 300 episodes.

Personal lives and deaths

In 1990, the duo Hudson and Halls relocated from New Zealand to London, settling into a flat at 60 Jermyn Street. Their partnership, spanning three decades both professionally and personally, came to an end when Peter Hudson was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died in London in September 1992 at age 61, with David Halls by his side; the news was made public on 20 September. The following January, a devastated Halls legally changed his surname to Hudson-Halls and appeared on television a few times alone. Overwhelmed by grief and facing severe financial trouble, Halls took his own life in 1993 by overdosing on Hudson's leftover morphine pills. On 24 November, two friends discovered his body in the back bedroom of his London flat. He was clutching a photograph of Hudson, and his diary contained a note expressing his unwillingness to grow old without Peter, calling him his life and stating he wanted to be with him forever. Halls was 57. He had already arranged and paid for his own funeral, noting the service date in his diary. At the inquest, his brother-in-law, Alan Putnam, told the Westminster Coroners Court that Halls was deeply upset and that the two men were homosexual partners.

BBC television series

Hudson & Halls first appeared on BBC1 on 12 October 1987. The show, which ran for four series until 1990, aired on Monday afternoons and typically lasted 25 minutes. Each episode involved the pair cooking three dishes, with a celebrity guest helping to prepare one of them before being interviewed. The hosts wore tuxedos and bow ties while cooking and frequently argued. After finishing the dishes, they changed into dinner jackets, brought the food to the table, and interviewed the guest as they tasted the meal. The first three series were repeated on BBC1 during mid-mornings in the summer of 1990, and the fourth series was repeated in autumn 1992.