Jimmy Edwards
Encyclopedia
Jimmy Edwards DFC
Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)
The Distinguished Flying Cross is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force and other services, and formerly to officers of other Commonwealth countries, for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against...

 (23 March 19207 July 1988) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 comedic script writer and comedy actor on both radio and television, best known as Pa Glum in Take It From Here
Take It From Here
Take It From Here was a British radio comedy programme broadcast by the BBC between 1948 and 1960. It was written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, and starred Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley and Joy Nichols...

and as the headmaster 'Professor' James Edwards in Whack-O!

Biography

Edwards was born James Keith O'Neill Edwards in Barnes, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, the son of a professor of mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

. He was educated at St Paul's Cathedral School
St Paul's Cathedral School
St. Paul's Cathedral School is a school associated with St Paul's Cathedral in London and is located in New Change in the City of London.The School has around 220 pupils, most of whom are day pupils, both boys and girls, including up to 40 boy choristers who are all boarders and who singing the...

, at King's College School
King's College School
King's College School, commonly referred to as KCS, King's, or KCS Wimbledon, is an independent school for day pupils in Wimbledon in south-west London. The school was founded as the junior department of King's College London and occupied part of its premises in Strand, before relocating to...

 in Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon is a district in the south west area of London, England, located south of Wandsworth, and east of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated within Greater London. It is home to the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and New Wimbledon Theatre, and contains Wimbledon Common, one of the largest areas...

, and later at St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....

.

He served in the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. His Dakota
Douglas DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is an American fixed-wing propeller-driven aircraft whose speed and range revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. Its lasting impact on the airline industry and World War II makes it one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made...

 was shot down at Arnhem
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time....

 in 1944, resulting in his sustaining facial injuries requiring plastic surgery
Plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. Though cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is the best-known kind of plastic surgery, most plastic surgery is not cosmetic: plastic surgery includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand...

 — he disguised the traces with the huge handlebar moustache
Handlebar moustache
A handlebar moustache is a moustache with particularly lengthy, upward curved, extremities. It is named for its resemblance to the handlebars of a bicycle. It is also known as a "spaghetti moustache", because of its stereotypical association with Italian men...

 that later became his trademark. He was a member of the Guinea Pig Club
Guinea Pig Club
The Guinea Pig Club was formed of patients of Archibald McIndoe at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, Sussex who underwent reconstructive plastic surgery during World War II, generally after receiving burn injuries in aircraft....

.

Radio and television

Edwards was a feature of London theatre in the immediate post-war years, debuting at London's Windmill Theatre
Windmill Theatre
The Windmill Theatre, later The Windmill International, was a variety and revue theatre in Great Windmill Street, London. The theatre was famous for its nude tableaux vivants...

 in 1946 and on BBC radio the same year. He later did a season with Tony Hancock
Tony Hancock
Anthony John "Tony" Hancock was an English actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in...

, having previously performed in the Cambridge Footlights review. He gained wider exposure as a radio performer in Take It From Here
Take It From Here
Take It From Here was a British radio comedy programme broadcast by the BBC between 1948 and 1960. It was written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden, and starred Jimmy Edwards, Dick Bentley and Joy Nichols...

, co-starring Dick Bentley
Dick Bentley
Charles Walter "Dick" Bentley , born in Melbourne, Australia, was a comedian and actor. He starred with Jimmy Edwards in Take It From Here for BBC Radio....

, which first paired his writer Frank Muir
Frank Muir
Frank Herbert Muir was an English comedy writer, radio and television personality, and raconteur. His writing and performing partnership with Denis Norden endured for most of their careers. Together they wrote BBC radio's Take It From Here for over 10 years, and then appeared on BBC radio...

 with Bentley's personal script writer Denis Norden
Denis Norden
Denis Mostyn Norden CBE is a former English comedy writer and television presenter. After an early career working in cinemas, he began scriptwriting during World War II. From 1948 to 1959, he co-wrote the successful BBC Radio comedy programme Take It from Here with Frank Muir...

. Also on radio he appeared in My Wildest Dream.

Graduating to television, he appeared in Whack-O
Whack-O
Whack-O! was a British sitcom TV series starring Jimmy Edwards. Broadcast 1956 to 1960 and 1971 to 1972.The series ran on the BBC from 1956 to 1960 and from 1971 to 1972...

, also written by Muir and Norden, and the radio panel game Does the Team Think?
Does the Team Think…
Does The Team Think? is a radio panel game broadcast originally on the BBC Light Programme from 1957 to 1976, and revived, again on Radio 2, with a new cast in 2007.-Format:...

a series which Edwards also created. In 1960 a film version of Whack-O called Bottoms Up
Bottoms Up (1960 film)
Bottoms Up is a 1960 British comedy film.It stars Jimmy Edwards in a spin-off of his TV comedy series Whack-O!, playing a seedy headmaster.The plot involves Melvyn Hayes playing a Cockney youth who tries to impersonate an Indian prince.-Cast list:...

was made, written by Muir and Norden. On TV he also appeared in The Seven Faces of Jim, in guest slots in Make Room for Daddy and Sykes
Sykes
Sykes is a British sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1972 to 1979. Starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques, it was written by Eric Sykes, who had previously starred with Jacques in Sykes and A... and Sykes and a Big, Big Show ....

, in Bold As Brass, I Object, John Jorrocks Esq, The Auction Game, Joker's Wild
Joker's Wild (TV series)
thumb|200px|Host Barry Cryer on Joker's WildJoker's Wild is a British comedy panel game that was produced by Yorkshire Television and broadcast for eight series on ITV from 1969 to 1974...

, Sir Yellow
Sir Yellow
Sir Yellow was a British TV sitcom aired on ITV from 15 July - 19 August 1973. It starred Jimmy Edwards in the title role and also featured Melvyn Hayes, Alan Curtis, and Michael Ripper. The show was set in the 13th century and followed the misadventures of a cowardly, womanising, alcoholic knight...

, Doctor in the House
Doctor in the House
Doctor in the House is a 1954 British comedy film, directed by Ralph Thomas and produced by Betty Box. The screenplay, by Nicholas Phipps, Richard Gordon and Ronald Wilkinson, is based on the novel by Gordon, and follows a group of students through medical school.It was the most popular box office...

, Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....

and Oh! Sir James! (which he also wrote).

Edwards also starred in The Fossett Saga in 1969 as James Fossett, an ambitious writer of Victorian 'Penny Dreadful
Penny Dreadful
A penny dreadful was a type of British fiction publication in the 19th century that usually featured lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing an penny...

s', with Sam Kydd
Sam Kydd
Sam Kydd was an Ulster-born English actor. An army officer's son, he was born in Belfast, but moved to London, England when he was a child. He was educated at Dunstable Grammar School in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England....

 playing Herbert Quince, his unpaid manservant, and June Whitfield
June Whitfield
June Rosemary Whitfield, CBE is an English actress, well known in the United Kingdom since the 1950s for roles in radio and television comedy series....

 playing music hall singer Millie Goswick. This was shown on Fridays at 8:30 pm on LWT
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...

. (David Freeman was the creator.)

Stage and film

In December 1958, Jimmy Edwards played the King in Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...

's Cinderella at the London Coliseum with Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Charles Williams was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows, and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.-Life and career:Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February...

, Tommy Steele
Tommy Steele
Tommy Steele OBE , is an English entertainer. Steele is widely regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star.-Singer:...

 and Yana and Betty Marsden
Betty Marsden
Betty Marsden was an English comedy actress.Originally from Liverpool, she attended the Italia Conti Stage School and ENSA.In the radio series Beyond Our Ken, she played Fanny Haddock, a takeoff of Fanny Cradock...

. In April 1966, Edwards performed at the last night of the Melbourne Tivoli theatre. His final words closed a long tradition of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...

. "I don't relish the distinction of being the man who closed the Tiv. Music hall's dead in Britain. Now this one's dead, there's nowhere to go. I'll either become a character comedian or a pauper."

Edwards frequently worked with fellow comedian Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...

, acting in the short films written by Sykes, The Plank (1967) which also starred Tommy Cooper
Tommy Cooper
Thomas Frederick "Tommy" Cooper was a very popular British prop comedian and magician from Caerphilly, Wales.Cooper was a member of The Magic Circle, and respected by traditional magicians...

, alongside Arthur Lowe
Arthur Lowe
Arthur Lowe was a BAFTA Award winning English actor. He was best known for playing Captain George Mainwaring in the popular British sitcom Dad's Army from 1968 until 1977.-Early life:...

 and Ronnie Barker
Ronnie Barker
Ronald William George "Ronnie" Barker, OBE was a British actor, comedian, writer, critic, broadcaster and businessman...

 in the remake of The Plank
The Plank (1979 film)
The Plank is a popular 30-minute, 1979 British slapstick comedy, which was a remake of an earlier 1967 version of the film which was written and directed by Eric Sykes. The 1967 version of "The Plank" was, in turn, based on an episode called "Sykes and A Plank", which Eric Sykes wrote for his...

during 1979 and in Rhubarb (1969), which again featured Sykes. The films were unusual in that although they were not silent films, there was no dialogue other than various grunts and sound effects.

Edwards and Sykes also toured UK theatres with their theatrical farce Big Bad Mouse
Big Bad Mouse
Big Bad Mouse is a frequently revived 1960s British stage play and theatrical comedic farce that, although not specifically written for them, became famous as a loose vehicle for the many talents of the British comedy actors Jimmy Edwards and Eric Sykes and has constantly seen various revivals with...

which, while keeping more or less to a script, gave them rein to ad lib, involve the audience, and generally break the 'fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...

'. Sykes was replaced by Roy Castle
Roy Castle
Roy Castle OBE was an English dancer, singer, comedian, actor, television presenter and musician. He attended Honley High School, where there is now a building in his name...

 in later runs of the show both in its three year residency at the Shaftesbury Theatre
Shaftesbury Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End Theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911 with a production of The Three Musketeers, as the New...

 in London's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 and also extensive tours of the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

 and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Edwards also starred in the stage revival of Maid of the Mountains.

Private life

Jimmy Edwards published his autobiography, Six of the Best, in 1984, as a follow-up to Take it From Me. Among his interests were brass bands and he was himself an accomplished player of both the tuba
Tuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...

 and euphonium
Euphonium
The euphonium is a conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek word euphonos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced"...

. Edwards was a keen member of the Handlebar Club
Handlebar Club
The Handlebar Club is an association of aficionados of the handlebar moustache, based in London. The club's sole requirement for membership is "a hirsute appendage of the upper lip and with graspable extremities"; beards are absolutely forbidden...

, in which all the members had such moustaches. He was also a keen amateur polo
Polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...

 player and played at Ham Polo Club
Ham Polo Club
Ham Polo Club is a Hurlingham Polo Association Polo Club situated in Richmond, South West London. It is one of the oldest polo clubs in the United Kingdom and the last surviving club in London. The club occupies a location between Richmond Park and the River Thames overlooked by Ham House, eight...

.

Edwards was a lifelong Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 and in the 1964 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1964
The United Kingdom general election of 1964 was held on 15 October 1964, more than five years after the preceding election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party had retaken power...

 stood as a candidate in Paddington North
Paddington North (UK Parliament constituency)
Paddington North was a borough constituency in the Metropolitan Borough of Paddington in London which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system...

, without success. He was a devotee of fox hunting
Fox hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...

 at Rottingdean
Rottingdean
Rottingdean is a coastal village next to the town of Brighton and technically within the city of Brighton and Hove, in East Sussex, on the south coast of England...

, near Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...

. He also served as Rector of Aberdeen University for three years during the 1950s, a university that has a history of appointing celebrities and actors as their honorary rector.

He was married to his wife Valerie Seymour for eleven years. During the 1970s, however, he was publicly outed by others as a lifelong homosexual, much to his annoyance. After the ending of his marriage, there were press reports of his engagement to Joan Savage, a singer and comedienne, but these came to nothing and were suspected to be a publicity stunt by both of them. His home was in Fletching, East Sussex
Fletching, East Sussex
Fletching is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. It is located three miles to the north-west of Uckfield, near one of the entrances to Sheffield Park. The A272 road crosses the parish. The settlement of Piltdown is part of the parish...

 and he died in London in 1988 at the age of 68 from pneumonia.

A Brighton & Hove bus is named after him.

Selected filmography

  • Trouble in the Air (1948)
  • Helter Skelter
    Helter Skelter (1949 film)
    Helter Skelter is a 1949 British romantic comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Carol Marsh, David Tomlinson and Mervyn Johns. A police detective becomes involved with a wealthy socialite....

    (1949)
  • Treasure Hunt
    Treasure Hunt (film)
    Treasure Hunt is a 1952 British comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Martita Hunt, Jimmy Edwards, Naunton Wayne and Athene Seyler.-Cast:* Martita Hunt - Aunt Anna Rose* Jimmy Edwards - Hercules Ryall / Sir Roderick Ryall...

    (1952)
  • Innocents in Paris
    Innocents in Paris
    Innocents in Paris is a 1953 British French international co-production comedy film produced by Romulus Films, directed by Gordon Parry and starring Alastair Sim, Jimmy Edwards, Claire Bloom, Margaret Rutherford, James Copeland and Ronald Shiner as Dicky Bird...

    (1953)
  • An Alligator Named Daisy
    An Alligator Named Daisy
    An Alligator Named Daisy is a 1955 British comedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Donald Sinden, Jeannie Carson, James Robertson Justice, Diana Dors, Roland Culver and Stanley Holloway.-Plot:...

    (1955)
  • Three Men in a Boat
    Three Men in a Boat (1956 film)
    Three Men in a Boat is a 1956 British CinemaScope colour comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Laurence Harvey, Jimmy Edwards, Shirley Eaton and David Thomlinson. It is based on the 1889 novel Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome...

    (1956)
  • Bottoms Up
    Bottoms Up (1960 film)
    Bottoms Up is a 1960 British comedy film.It stars Jimmy Edwards in a spin-off of his TV comedy series Whack-O!, playing a seedy headmaster.The plot involves Melvyn Hayes playing a Cockney youth who tries to impersonate an Indian prince.-Cast list:...

    (1960)
  • Nearly a Nasty Accident
    Nearly a Nasty Accident
    Nearly a Nasty Accident is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Don Chaffey and starring Jimmy Edwards, Kenneth Connor, Shirley Eaton and Eric Barker.-Cast:* Jimmy Edwards as Group Captain Kingsley* Kenneth Connor as AC 2 Alexander Wood...

    (1961)
  • Rhubarb
    Rhubarb (1969 film)
    Rhubarb was a 1969 British short film written and directed by Eric Sykes, starring Sykes and Harry Secombe. The dialogue consisted entirely of repetitions of the word "rhubarb", all the characters last names were "Rhubarb", and even the license plates on vehicles were "RHU BAR B"...

    (1969)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK