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Arthur Haynes (14 May 1914GRO Register of Births: JUN 1914 1a 447 FULHAM — Arthur H. Haynes, mmn = Parris – 19 November 1966)GRO Register of Deaths: DEC 1966 5b 17 EALING — Arthur H. Haynes, aged 52 was an English comedian and star of The Arthur Haynes Show, a comedy sketch series produced by ATV from 1956 "Missing or incomplete episodes for programme The Arthur Haynes Show", lostshows.com. The BFI screenonline page (see below) gives 1957 as a start date for the series until his death from a heart attack in 1966. Haynes also appeared on radio and in films.
On 21 February 1956, Haynes appeared in the first edition of ATV variety series Strike a New Note, which was supposed to air talent for the new independent television station. Nicholas Parsons (in That Reminds Me, April 1999) said the show was awful, but he was offered a role after the first few episodes and joined it. After a few more shows there was a clearout and everyone but Haynes and Parsons went. After several appearances in this show, written by Dick Barry and John Antrobus along with Johnny Speight who had been sending in sketches for Haynes. The show was soon renamed Get Happy. Haynes, who had been a stand-up comedian, was given his own series later in the year and Parsons, who had been an all-rounder, found himself cast as his straight man.
His ATV series, The Arthur Haynes Show (1956–66), networked on ITV Network, made Haynes the most popular comedian in Britain. There were 95 thirty-minute shows, 62 thirty-five-minute shows and one fifty-minute show, spread over fifteen series. Haynes's most popular character was a working class tramp – created by Johnny Speight, now better known for creating Alf Garnett. Speight said he got the idea of the tramp from a real tramp who climbed into his Rolls-Royce when it was stopped at a traffic light. In 1963 and 1964 Haynes worked with Dermot Kelly who played another tramp (called Irish), who was not very bright. Sometimes Patricia Hayes would join them as a female tramp. In early episodes, the shows were played out on a theatre stage, and basic scenery and props were used where, for instance, the audience could see outside and inside a house, as there was no wall on their side. Later episodes had improved sets. The stars sometimes forgot (or did not bother to learn) their lines, and would ad lib them. If someone fluffed a line, that would be used to get more laughs. Haynes and others sometimes failed to keep a straight face and occasionally burst into laughter.
The shows would also feature musical guests, such as the Springfields in 1963, Kenny Ball and the Rolling Stones in 1964, and Joe Brown and the Bruvvers and the Dave Clark Five in 1965. A number of the shows started and ended with Arthur Haynes driving a horse and cart along a narrow country lane, whistling and (unconvincingly) playing a harmonica. Some began with a cartoon workman using a road drill on the show's title.
Haynes received the Variety Club's award as ITV Personality of 1961 and appeared on the Royal Variety Performance in the same year. The shows also made a star of Nicholas Parsons, who had first appeared with Haynes in Strike a New Note and Get Happy and who tended to play supercilious neighbours and authority figures in the comedy sketches. Eventually, as the public began to recognise Parsons' skill as a straight man, Haynes decided to dispense with his services. Other stars also made early appearances: in 1962 Michael Caine played a burglar burgling the same house as Haynes's character. Haynes had a good singing voice, which he rarely used on TV, and in 1960 performed a sketch called The Haynes Brothers, where he and Dickie Valentine, wearing a moustache, sang together.
In 1965, Haynes appeared in the Rock Hudson/Gina Lollobrigida film Strange Bedfellows. While in Hollywood, Cary Grant turned up with an entourage at a place where Haynes was staying and lavished great praise on him, calling him the greatest comedy star in the world. In 1966, he appeared as a patient in the British film Doctor in Clover.
A single collection set titled The Collected Arthur Haynes Show, consisting of all seven volumes, was released on 24 April 2017.
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