Hattie Jacques

File:Hattie Jacques.jpg

Hattie Jacques

Hattie Jacques (/dʒɛks/; born Josephine Edwina Jaques; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980), was an English comedy actress whose career spanned from 1946 until her death. She started her career in 1946 with the Players' Theatre in London, but came to national prominence through her radio appearances on three hugely popular radio series on the BBC: with Tommy Handley on ITMA; with ventriloquist's dummy Archie Andrews, operated by Peter Brough on Educating Archie; and then with Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour. From 1958 to 1974 she appeared in fourteen Carry On films, playing roles such as a hospital matron. She had a long professional partnership with Eric Sykes, with whom she co-starred in his long-running television series Sykes and Sykes and a....

Jacques was married to the actor John Le Mesurier from 1949 until their divorce in 1965; the separation was brought about by her affair with a younger man John Schofield, a used-car dealer. Their relationship ended after five years: after their break-up, Jacques, who had had a weight problem since her teens, began eating "comfort food" and her weight increased to nearly 20 stone (130 kg). In later years her health was affected by both her weight and her chain smoking; she died of a heart attack on 6 October 1980, at the age of 58.

Biography

Early life: 1922–44

Jacques was born Josephine Edwina Jaques on 7 February 1922 at 125 Sandgate High Street, Sandgate, Kent. She was the youngest child of Robin Rochester Jaques (1897–1923), a serviceman in the British Army and latterly the Royal Air Force, and Mary Jaques née Thorne, a nurse who served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment.

Jacques's alma mater, the Godolphin and Latymer School, London

The Jaques family were predominantly non-theatrical, with the exception of Mary who appeared in the small role of Harry Hathaway in the Christmas pantomime Robinson Crusoe at the Palace Theatre, Cologne in 1920. As well as his flying duties for which he reached the rank of flight lieutenant, Robin Rochester Jaques was a keen sportsman who became semi-professional in football. He signed to Clapton Orient and Fulham F.C., the latter of which he never fulfilled as a result of his early death in a flying accident on 8 August 1923. Upon his death, Mary, Jacques and her elder brother Robin moved from Newton in Lincolnshire to London, and Jacques commenced her schooling at the Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith.

During the Second World War Jacques served as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment and worked as a welder in a factory in north London. Around this time an American soldier, Major Charles Kearney, proposed to her; Jacques later claimed he had been killed in action. During research for Jacques' 2007 biography, however, author Andy Merriman discovered that Kearney had a wife and children in the United States when he had proposed to Jacques and in 1984 had been living in Massachusetts.

Early post-war work: 1944–50

In 1944, at the age of 19 and after being auditioned by Leonard Sachs, Jacques made her professional theatrical debut as Josephine Jacques at the Players' Theatre, London in a revue called Late Joys. Almost immediately, she became a regular performer with the company, appearing in music hall revues and playing the Fairy Queen in their Victorian-style pantomimes. Her biographer, Frances Gray, described the Players' as being Jacques's drama school, as acted, directed, wrote lyrics and "developed the persona she was to use in pantomime for years, the large, bossy, but vulnerable fairy queen". It was while appearing in a Late Joys revue in June 1946 that she had her debut on television, when the show was broadcast on the BBC. During 1946 she acquired the nickname "Hattie", which she adopted for the rest of her professional care. While appearing in the minstrel show Coal Black Mammies for Dixie, she took to the stage blacked up; a member of the backstage staff drew the parallel between her and the American actress Hattie McDaniel, who had appeared in Gone with the Wind.

"It was planned that I should play a character named 'Ella Phant'. Ted thought the laughs would come on the size gags but, being radio, and coupled with the fact my voice didn't have the timbre of a 'heavy', that didn't really work out ... A large lady with a little voice hit the spot, so 'Sophie Tuckshop' was born—the terrible child who never stopped eating".

Jacques on her role in ITMA

Jacques made her big-screen debut, albeit briefly and uncredited, in the 1946 film Green for Danger, directed by Sidney Gilliat. In December that year, she joined the Young Vic Theatre Company and played Smeraldina in The King Stag. The play ran at the Lyric Theatre for a month before going on a five-month tour of the UK. Both Jacques and the play received favourable reviews with the Gloucestershire Echo describing the production as "a noble play", and thought that Jacques was "very solidly in step" as part of the supporting cast. In March 1947 the Alberto Cavalcanti-directed film Nicholas Nickleby was released in which Jacques had her first credited big-screen role, playing Mrs Kenwick. On her return to the Players' in June 1947, the actor John Le Mesurier went with fellow thespian Geoffrey Hibbert to see the revue Late Joys. After the performance, Le Mesurier was introduced to Jacques and the two began to see each other regularly despite Le Mesurier being married albeit estranged from his wife.

ITMA, during a wartime recording session

In August 1947 Ted Kavanagh, the scriptwriter of the BBC radio show It's That Man Again (ITMA), visited the Players' and invited Jacques to audition for the series, which she did on 18 September, for a fee of five guineas; she became so nervous during the audition that Tommy Handley, the show's star, held her hand, which she found made her more nervous. She joined the cast of ITMA as the greedy schoolgirl Sophie Tuckshop, where she "would regale listeners with terrifying accounts of epic binges", before finishing her stories with the catchphrase "But I'm all right now". Jacques started her run in ITMA in September 1947, at the beginning of series eleven, which ran for 38 episodes, and was paid ten guineas per episode.

For much of 1948 Jacques continued to record episodes of ITMA for half the week, while spending evenings in the Players' Theatre; she also found time during the spring to record No, No, Nanette for the BBC and appear at the Whitehall Theatre in Bates Wharf with the Under Thirty Theatre Group. Later that year she appeared as a singer at the "Three Cripples" tavern in the David Lean-directed film Oliver Twist. In September that year she started recording her second series of ITMA—the show's twelfth—before returning to the Players' for the Christmas pantomime, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood. In the latter performance, The Times commented that Jacques "must surely be among the funniest faries" in her role as the Fairy Queen Antedota—which was one of her favourite parts.

Tommy Handley died suddenly on 9 January 1949; the BBC decided that he was "so much the keystone and embodiment of the actual performance" of ITMA, that they cancelled the show immediately. Jacques later remarked that Handley was "one of the greatest radio performers we have ever known. I learned ... so much from him". Later that year Le Mesurier divorced his wife; shortly after the divorce came through, Jacques proposed to him, asking, "don't you think it's about time we got married?" The couple married on 10 November that year, at Kensington Registrar's Office. After a week's honeymoon in Southsea, she returned to the Players' where she was engaged to appear as Marrygolda in the Christmas pantomime, Beauty and the Beast.

Increasing fame: 1950–58

In the early months of 1950 Chance of a Lifetime was released into British cinemas; it was a film in which Jacques "really made her mark", according to her biographer, Andy Merriman. Chance of a Lifetime is a social and industrial relations drama based in a plough factory whose manager, Dickinson (Basil Radford), cedes control to the workforce. Jacques played Alice, a welder: when she was offered her fee for 17 days filming, she replied "I've done this job welding Bailey and Pontoon Bridges and I know how hard it is. That's not enough money!" and the offer was raised accordingly. The film critic Geoff Mayer considered that Jacques had "the best scene in the film with her mock seductive dance in front of an angry [Niall] MacGinnis".

On 6 June 1950 Jacques was broadcast in the first episode of the weekly radio show Educating Archie as Agatha Dinglebody. The "Archie" of the title was the ventriloquist's dummy Archie Andrews, operated by Peter Brough. The first series ran for 29 weeks until 19 December. As well as Brough, Jacques appeared alongside Max Bygraves, Julie Andrews, Beryl Reid and—in later series—Tony Hancock. It was on this show that she first worked with Eric Sykes, who was providing scripts for the series. Sykes had been impressed with Jacques since he visited the Players' in 1948. He later wrote that she "moved about the stage with an elegance and grace as if she owned it. At the end of her act, to great applause, she leapt in the air, finishing in the splits, landing as softly as a snowflake in July". After the show Sykes was introduced to Jacques backstage and thought that the meeting was "the beginning of a new flight" in his professional life. At the end of the series Jacques returned to the Players' to appear in the Christmas pantomime, Ali Baba and the Thirty-nine Thieves, which she and Joan Sterndale-Bennett had adapted after they had copied it out long-hand from the British Museum. The reviewer in The Times thought that Jacques was "as appealing as last year", in her performance as Ali Baba's wife, Cogia.

During 1951 Jacques continued to mix work in different media, including appearing in the film Scrooge as Mrs Fezziwig, with George Cole as the younger Ebenezer Scrooge (Alastair Sim played the main Scrooge role); from 3 August until 25 January 1952 she appeared in a second radio series of Educating Archie, as well as appearing in the related stage show, The Archie Andrews Christmas Show at the Prince of Wales Theatre between December 1952 and January 1953. She again appeared in—and co-adapted—a Christmas pantomime at the Players' Theatre, Riquet with the Tuft, a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault.

Terry-Thomas, with whom Jacques appeared on stage and in film

Jacques became pregnant in 1952, but worked though most of her pregnancy, appearing in the Players' revue The Bells of St Martins between August and November 1952: she slid down the table and did the splits at the end—something The Times thought was "especially good", although The Manchester Guardian considered that she was "monumental of person but surprisingly thin of voice". Le Mesurier reported that he was "faintly relieved" when the revue came to an end because of her exertions, which also included appearing in the 27 episodes of the third series of Educating Archie between September 1952 and June 1953. She then directed—but did not appear in—the Players' Christmas pantomime of 1952, Babes in the Wood. In March 1953 Jacques gave birth to her first son, Robin: after a few days of rest she returned to work, filming Up to His Neck. Later that year the short film The Pleasure Garden was released: filmed in 1952, she appeared alongside Le Mesurier in the 38-minute "movie-masque" which won the Prix de Fantasie Poetique at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival. From October—and running until April 1954—she was in series four of Educating Archie, while in December 1953 she also appeared in and directed Cinderella at the Players'; The Times commented that "Miss Jacques as actress, playing a deliciously arch and absent-minded Fairy Queen, goes a long way to retrieve the failure of Miss Jacques as dramatist".

In 1954 Jacques continued to work on radio: between April and July 1954 she was in Paradise Street a spin-off series from Educating Archie, while in June she was in Archie in Goonland, a on-off special programme that was a collaboration between Educating Archie and The Goon Show. As well as recording in series five of Educating Archie between February and April 1955—where she was cast as Mrs Leathers for 18 episodes of Mrs Dale's Diary—she also produced and directed Twenty Minutes South, first at the Players' Theatre, and then for 105 performances at the St Martin's Theatre. She finished the year with seven episodes of The Granville Melodramas on ITV between October and December.

A second pregnancy led to the birth of a son Kim, "who came rollicking and laughing into the world in October 1956, a trifle before his alloted time", according to Le Mesurier. In June 1956 she appeared in an episode of The Tony Hancock Show on ITV; this led to the role of Hancock's secretary, Griselda Pugh, in the BBC radio series Hancock's Half Hour, where she appeared in 16 episodes between November 1956 and February 1957, alongside Hancock and regulars, Sid James, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. Jacques's arrival on Hancock "provided an additional boost to the series", according to television historian Richard Webber. She appeared again in five further episodes of Hancock's Half Hour between April and June 1957, and again for a further 20 episodes between January and June 1958, before the Christmas special edition on Christmas Day 1958. She spent much of 1958 at the London Palladium, undertaking 380 performances of the revue Large as Life, alongside Terry-Thomas, Eric Sykes and Harry Secombe. She appeared in the sketches "Concerto for Three Buffoons" with Secombe and Sykes, "The Good Old Days", and the two full company numbers that closed each of the two halves of the show.

The Carry On series: 1958–63

Jacques in Carry On Nurse

From 1958 to 1974, Jacques was part of the original Carry On team, appearing in fourteen films over a sixteen year period. Like many of her Carry On co-stars, Jacques became typecast, mainly as a no-nonsense Matron, a role which she played in five of the films – Carry On Nurse, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Again Doctor, Carry On Camping and Carry On Matron. She was known by the team as a warm, kind-hearted and endearing lady and was close friends with many of her co-stars, including Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims, whom Hattie provided with a great deal of advice and practical help. In return, Sims regarded Hattie as her "greatest friend".

Jacques began her association with the Carry On series in March 1958 with the first film in the series, Carry On Sergeant. She played the small role of Captain Clark, a strict medical officer who fails to believe the fabricated ailments of the hypochondriac Private Horace Strong, played by Kenneth Connor. The following year she played "Matron" for the first time in Carry On Nurse, which broke box office records for that year selling over 10 million tickets in British cinemas. Although Jacques' role was still relatively small, she appeared in perhaps the best known scene of the film, in which she retrieves a daffodil from Wilfrid Hyde-White's bottom which was put there by a mischievous nurse as revenge for his constant harassment of the staff. So popular was Jacques' scene, that the producers imported 2 million plastic daffodils from Japan which were then used to promote the comedy. Other formidable characterisations followed, including the no-nonsense Maths mistress Grace Short in Carry On Teacher (1959) and the friendly Police Sergeant Laura Moon in Carry On Constable (1960). Of the former film, Derek Prouse of The Sunday Times thought that Jacques "triumph[ed] over [the] material so remorselessly juvenile that one is battered into a kind of fascinated admiration".

On 29 January 1960 Jacques appeared in the first episode of the BBC comedy series Sykes and a..., co-starring with Eric Sykes as a pair of twins; Richard Wattis and Deryck Guyler were also regulars in the cast. Sykes and a... went on to run for sixty episodes over nine series over the next five years. According to the media historian Graham McCann, the show was "one of the best-natured, least pretentious and most successful British sitcoms of the 1960s". Because of the show's success, Jacques and Sykes "became embedded in the public mind as a priceless comic partnership". Later that year she also appeared in two smaller roles, Watch Your Stern and School for Scoundrels, before playing the part of Nanette Parry alongside Terry-Thomas in Make Mine Mink, which she later described as being her favourite film.

In October 1961 Jacques appeared on Desert Island Discs, where she said that "it would be very lonely and far too quiet on the island for someone of her extrovert nature." By the later months of 1961, Carry On had become a leading film franchise, with the author Robert Ross describing the series as a "phenomenon". That year's film, Carry On Regardless became the fifth entry in the series and Jacques received a fee of £100 in exchange for the small role of a disgruntled hospital nurse who appeared briefly on screen alongside the English character actor Kynaston Reeves who played her cantankerous boss. Jacques was initially destined for a major part, but she was unable to commit to this as a result ill-health. She appeared in her sixth Carry On, Carry On Cabby in 1963, in which she appeared as "Peggy Hawkins", the emotionally neglected wife of taxi-firm boss "Charlie", played by Sid James. Jacques later confessed to the film being her favourite of the series as she was allowed to drop her "battle axe" persona and play the romantic lead opposite James.

Jacques continued with her charitable works; when, in 1962, she attended an event in support of the Leukaemia Research Fund, she quickly became attracted to the driver provided to her, John Schofield, a cockney used-car dealer, who gave her the attention and support that Le Mesurier did not.

Private turmoil; new acting ventures: 1963–67

Blue plaque at Jacques's former house: 67 Eardley Crescent, Earls Court, London, showing wrong year of birth

Jacques's house, 67 Eardley Crescent

When Jacques decided to move Schofield into the family home, Le Mesurier moved into a separate room and tried to repair the marriage. He later commented about this period: "I could have walked out, but, whatever my feelings, I loved Hattie and the children and I was certain—I had to be certain—that we could repair the damage". During these upheavals in her personal life, Jacques was surprised to be the subject of This Is Your Life in February 1963, when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews during rehearsal for the sixth series of Sykes and a.... Although Le Mesurier did not mention the marital situation, although he made the comment that for Jacques "the home comes first", which Merriman considered had been said "rather pointedly". Despite the matrimonial upsets, Jacques and Le Mesurier both appeared in the 1963 Tony Hancock vehicle, The Punch and Judy Man. In 1964 Le Mesurier moved out of his marital house and allowed Jacques to bring a divorce suit on grounds of his own infidelity, to ensure that the press blamed him for the break-up, thus avoiding any negative publicity for her.

In 1964, as well as recording four episodes of Housewife's Choice, Jacques starred in her own series, Miss Adventure as the private investigator Stacey Smith in thirteen episodes. Although she wanted the series to be full of suspense, the result was more comedic and she was disappointed with the results. In August that year she appeared in an ITV production of Blithe Spirit, where she appeared as Madame Arcati; her performance was such that the play's writer, Noël Coward, thought that "finally someone had delivered a performance that wasn't overshadowed by Margaret Rutherford", who played the role in the 1945 film version.

Jacques was went to Rome in 1966 to film The Bobo with Peter Sellers; she went on a strict diet beforehand and lost five stone, although she was disappointed that so few people noticed. She enjoyed the filming experience, saying it was "one of the loveliest things I've worked on". While in Italy, Schofield came out to stay and ran off with an Italian heiress. Jacques, who had had a weight problem since her teens, began eating "comfort food" and her weight increased to nearly 20 stone (130 kg).

Return to Carry On: 1967–74

In the summer of 1967, the Carry On producer Peter Rogers assembled the cast for what would be the 15th film of the series, Carry On Doctor. Rogers initially chose Joan Sims to play the role of "matron", but Sims refused citing an inability to achieve the kind of success that Jacques had experienced eight years previously in Carry On Nurse. Having received this rejection, Rogers then cast Jacques as the formidable hospital matron, with Sims accepting a smaller role as the timid assistant of the film's lead character "Francis Bigger" played by Frankie Howerd. Compared to Jacques' earlier roles, her Carry On screen time had now been increased; Jacques's part was intended by the producers to be an extension of her earlier role in Carry On Nurse. The film was released in December of that year to much success.

Life after Carry On: 1974–80

In 1960 she joined Eric Sykes on his BBC comedy series Sykes and A..., in which they played a brother and sister who got into all sorts of comic scrapes. The joke was that they were meant to be twins, but were physically very dissimilar, Jacques being short and plump, while Sykes was thin and gangly. The show ran from 1960 to 1965 and was revived as Sykes from 1972 to 1979. They took the show on a national and international stage tour. However this put a strain on their professional relationship; in her view Sykes cut her lines and laughs because he resented Jacques's popularity with the audiences.

Jacques was a chain smoker. In her later years she was plagued by health problems, which included breathing difficulties, arthritis, high blood pressure and swollen, ulcerated legs. As a result of these she was unable to get insurance for films. She carried on working by taking to the road in a stage version of Sykes, which allowed her to continue supporting her favourite charities, as well as keeping up her busy social life.

She died of a heart attack on 6 October 1980, at the age of 58, shortly after completing a television advertisement campaign for UK supermarket Asda. Her family refused to allow Sykes to attend her funeral because they resented the way he had allegedly treated her during the stage show, Sykes. She was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium, where her ashes were also scattered.

A memorial plaque to Jacques is situated in St Paul's, Covent Garden, otherwise known as the Actors' Church. On 5 November 1995, a blue plaque was unveiled by Eric Sykes and Clive Dunn at her former residence: 67 Eardley Crescent, Earls Court, London.

Portrayals

Ruth Jones, who portrayed Jacques in Hattie

Jacques and Le Mesurier's marriage was the subject of a BBC Four biographical films, the 2011 Hattie, which focused on Jacques's affair with John Schofield. She was played by Ruth Jones, who Robin Le Mesurier thought "had captured my mother perfectly".

Filmography and other works

Main article: Hattie Jacques on stage, radio, screen and record

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

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• Gray, Frances (2004). "Jacques, Josephine Edwina (Hattie) (1922–1980)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53976. Retrieved 18 July 2013. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help) (subscription or UK public library membership required)
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• Merriman, Andy (2007). Hattie: The Authorised Biography of Hattie Jacques. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-84513-257-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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• Snelgrove, Kevin (2008). The Official Carry On Facts, Figures and Statistics. Norfolk: Apex Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-906358-09-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Sykes, Eric (2003). Eric Sykes' Comedy Heroes. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-7535-0966-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Sykes, Eric (2005). If I Don't Do It Someone Else Will: An Autobiography. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-717784-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Took, Barry (2004). "Handley, Thomas Reginald (Tommy) (1892–1949)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33682. Retrieved 12 October 2013. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help) (subscription or UK public library membership required)
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External links

• Hattie Jacques at IMDb
• Hattie Jacques at the BFI's Screenonline
• Hattie Jacques appearance on This Is Your Life