Product Code Database
James Keith O'Neill Edwards, DFC (23 March 19207 July 1988) was an English comedy writer and actor of stage, radio, television and film, known for his roles as Pa Glum in Take It from Here and as headmaster "Professor" James Edwards in Whack-O!.
Edwards was educated at St Paul's Cathedral School, where he became head boy, and attended the Silver Jubilee of George V in that capacity. His poem, "The Train", which first appeared in The Mortarboard – a school magazine founded by Edwards in competition with the existing one – was included in Walter de la Mare's compilation of children's poems, This Year, Next Year (1937). Having won a scholarship, Edwards went on to King's College School in Wimbledon. He subsequently became a choral scholar at St John's College, Cambridge, where he studied history and sang in the college choir.
He appeared in Whack-O on television, also written by Muir and Norden, and the radio panel game Does the Team Think?, a series which Edwards created. In 1960 a film of Whack-O called Bottoms Up was written by Michael Pertwee with additional dialogue by Muir and Norden. On TV he appeared in The Seven Faces of Jim, Six More Faces of Jim and More Faces of Jim; Make Room for Daddy, Sykes, Bold As Brass, I Object, John Jorrocks Esq, The Auction Game, Jokers Wild, Sir Yellow, Doctor in the House, Charley's Aunt, Brendon Chase and Oh! Sir James! (which he also wrote).
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1958 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC's Piccadilly 1 Studio.
Edwards starred in The Fossett Saga in 1969 as James Fossett, an ambitious Victorian writer of , with Sam Kydd playing Herbert Quince, his unpaid manservant, and June Whitfield playing music-hall singer Millie Goswick. This was shown on Fridays at 20:30 on LWT; David Freeman was the creator.
On 2 April 1966, he played at the last night of Melbourne's Tivoli circuit. His final words closed a tradition of music hall. "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."Van Straten, F (2003) Tivoli p. 233; Lothian Books, Melbourne, Australia
Edwards frequently worked with Eric Sykes, acting in short films that Sykes wrote: The Plank (1967), which also starred Tommy Cooper; alongside Arthur Lowe in the remake of The Plank in 1979; and in Rhubarb (1969), which again featured Sykes. The films were not silent but had very little dialogue. He also appeared in The Bed Sitting Room (1969) as Nigel, a man who lives in a left luggage compartment after being mistaken for a suitcase.
Edwards and Sykes toured British theatres with their farce Big Bad Mouse which, while scripted, let them ad lib, involve the audience and break the "fourth wall". The show initially had a six-week run at the Palace Theatre, Manchester during which Edwards and Sykes had followed the script, with these performances greeted with universally poor reviews. Sensing that cancellation was imminent Edwards told Sykes that he intended to "have a bit of fun" with the show and for what was expected to be the last week of the run the two stars began to deviate heavily from the script. However the new, more improvised version proved a success with audiences and led to a long run for the show at the Shaftesbury Theatre.Eric Sykes, Eric Sykes' Comedy Heroes, Virgin Books, pp. 60–61
Sykes was replaced by Roy Castle in later runs in its three-year residency at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End and in tours of the Middle East and Australia. Edwards and Sykes also performed the show for troops at the request of the country's prime minister, Ian Smith, a controversial event at the time.Slide 2018, p. 213 Edwards also starred in the stage revival of Maid of the Mountains.
Edwards was a lifelong Conservative and in the 1964 general election stood for Paddington North, without success. His candidature drew wide media attention, much of it derisive, although the local party insisted they had chosen "Jimmy Edwards the man" rather than the comedian. As a result of this failed candidature, he took to introducing himself as "Professor James Edwards, MA, Cantabrigian, Failed MP".Sykes, p. 54
In the 1970s, Edwards and his friend Eric Sykes took part in a show for Ian Smith in Rhodesia.
He was a devotee of fox hunting at Ringmer, near Lewes. He was Rector of the University of Aberdeen for three years in the 1950s, a university with a history of celebrities and actors as honorary rector.
press reports spoke of his engagement to [[Joan Turner]], actress, singer and comedian, but the reports were suspected to be a mutual publicity stunt. During the 2015 Gold documentary ''[[Frankie Howerd]]: The Lost Tapes'', Edwards was mentioned by [[Barry Cryer]] as one of several performers of the post-war era forced to conceal their homosexuality as a result of prevailing norms. He lived in Fletching, [[East Sussex]] and died from [[pneumonia]] in London in 1988 at the age of 68.
His home movies are held by the Cinema Museum in London.
|
|
