As a teenager, Wally developed a stand-up comedy act and entered various talent contests on the Isle of Wight. "Most of my material was nicked from the radio," he admitted. "But I found I got even bigger laughs with the gags I made up myself." During his National Service in the 1950s, Malston learnt a trade; stationed at Aldershot in Hampshire, he studied dentistry with the Royal Dental Corps. He became a dental technician, but wrote comedy material in his spare time with a friend, Gary Knight.
When Knight went to work for the comedian Freddie "Parrot-Face" Davies, Malston began writing on his own, fashioning gags for Mike and Bernie Winters, Ken Dodd and others. After writing for Bob Monkhouse on ATV's Sunday Night at the London Palladium and Anglia's Carnival Time, he was persuaded by Monkhouse to become a full-time writer, working with him on over 200 editions of ATV's The Golden Shot. The show was live, and Malston's topical material was one of its most popular features.In the 1970s, while Malston was working on an edition of the sitcom On the Buses, his co-writer was Garry Chambers, who was also writing for Bruce Forsyth. In 1987, when Chambers received an offer to work for Joan Rivers in Hollywood, he suggested Malston to Forsyth for the game show Play Your Cards Right. Later Chambers and Malston collaborated on Forsyth's You Bet! and Bruce's Price is Right.Malston was a naturally affable man - that is, until a comedian altered the wording of one of his lines.
"He was a real stickler," said Ted Rogers, "Nobody could stickle quite like Wally!" Malston's brisk one- liners ideally suited Rogers's rapid-fire delivery, and the two worked together successfully on Yorkshire Television's 3-2-1. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Rogers toured with Bing Crosby, and Malston went along, creating new material nightly.In 1976, when the Crosby troupe performed in New York at the Lincoln Center, Rogers created a minor furore when he described the ex-President Richard Nixon as "the only US President lying in state while he was still alive". As Nixon's daughter happened to be in the audience, the line was widely quoted in the American press. "Wally was tickled pink by the notoriety," says Rogers.Malston developed stomach cancer in 1997, just after he finished the last series of The Price is Right. Bruce Forsyth spoke at his funeral:We would like this to be a happy day, because Wally loved to laugh - especially at his own jokes. He'd come to me with a script and laugh at every line as I read it. I'd say, "Wally, are the audience going to laugh at this material the way you are?" He'd say, with those stary eyes of his, "Of course they are.
