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'''Hattie Jacques''' ({{IPAc-en|dʒ|eɪ|k|s}}; born '''Josephine Edwina Jaques'''; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the [[Carry On (franchise)|''Carry On'']] films, where she typically played strict, no-nonsense characters, but was also a prolific television and radio performer. |
'''Hattie Jacques''' ({{IPAc-en|dʒ|eɪ|k|s}}; born '''Josephine Edwina Jaques'''; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the [[Carry On (franchise)|''Carry On'']] films, where she typically played strict, no-nonsense characters, but was also a prolific television and radio performer. |
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Jacques started her career in 1944 |
Jacques started her career in 1944 at the [[Players' Theatre]] in London and came to national prominence through appearances on three popular radio series on the [[BBC]]: with [[Tommy Handley]] on ''[[It's That Man Again]]''; with ventriloquist [[Peter Brough]] on ''[[Educating Archie]]''; and then with [[Tony Hancock]] on ''[[Hancock's Half Hour]]''. After the second world war, Jacques made her cinematic debut in ''[[Green for Danger (film)|Green for Danger]]'', in a brief, uncredited role. From 1958 to 1974 she appeared in 14 ''Carry On'' films, playing roles including the formidable hospital [[matron]]. On television she had a long professional partnership with [[Eric Sykes]], with whom she starred in his long-running series ''[[Sykes]]'' and ''[[Sykes and a...]]''. The role endeared her to the public and the two became staples of British television. |
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Jacques led a turbulent life. She was married to [[John Le Mesurier]] from 1949 until their divorce in 1965,<ref>''Complete A-Z of Dad's Army'' (Webber, Ed)London, Orion 2000 ISBN 0-7528-1838-4</ref> a separation caused by her five-year affair with another man. Jacques, who had been overweight since her teenage years, was ill soon after separating from Le Mesurier and her weight rose to nearly 20 stone (130 kg). She died of a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] on 6 October 1980, at 58. Her biographer, Francis Gray, said she had a "talent for larger-than-life comedy which never lost its grip on humanity", while she could also display "a broader comic mode" as a result of her "extraordinary versatility".{{sfn|Gray|2004}} |
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==Biography== |
==Biography== |
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{{multiple image | align = right| direction = vertical | header_align = center | footer_align = left | footer_background = | image1 = Hattie Jacques Sandgate blue plaque.jpg| width1 = 200 | caption1 = [[Blue plaque]] at the house where Jacques was born: 125 High Street, Sandgate|alt1=blue plaque commemorating Hattie Jacques | image2 = 125 High Street, Sandgate (2).JPG |width2 = 200 |caption2 =125 High Street, Sandgate}} |
{{multiple image | align = right| direction = vertical | header_align = center | footer_align = left | footer_background = | image1 = Hattie Jacques Sandgate blue plaque.jpg| width1 = 200 | caption1 = [[Blue plaque]] at the house where Jacques was born: 125 High Street, Sandgate|alt1=blue plaque commemorating Hattie Jacques | image2 = 125 High Street, Sandgate (2).JPG |width2 = 200 |caption2 =125 High Street, Sandgate}} |
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Jacques was born Josephine Edwina Jaques on 7 February 1922 at 125 Sandgate High Street, [[Sandgate, Kent|Sandgate]], [[Kent]].{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=1}} She was the youngest child of Robin Rochester Jaques (1897–1923), a serviceman in the British Army and later the [[Royal Air Force,]] and Mary Jaques {{ |
Jacques was born Josephine Edwina Jaques on 7 February 1922 at 125 Sandgate High Street, [[Sandgate, Kent|Sandgate]], [[Kent]].{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=1}} She was the youngest child of Robin Rochester Jaques (1897–1923), a serviceman in the British Army and later the [[Royal Air Force,]] and Mary Jaques {{née}} Thorne, a nurse in the [[Voluntary Aid Detachment]] (VAD).{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=2}}{{efn|Robin was born into relative affluence in [[Newcastle upon Tyne]]. His fathe,r Joseph Rochester Jaques, was a billiard room manager from [[Northumberland]] who married Florence King, the daughter of a Devon-born bookseller.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=2}} Hattie's maternal grandfather Joseph Thorn (1875–?){{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=8}} was a jeweller who lived at 65 Brompton Road in London. The address is today the jewellers [[Mappin & Webb]].{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=8}}}} |
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The Jaques family were |
The Jaques family were non-theatrical, with the exception of Mary who appeared as Harry Hathaway in the Christmas [[pantomime]], ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'', at the Palace Theatre, [[Cologne]], in 1920.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=2–3}} Mary enjoyed the theatre, and took Jacques to performances from an early age. The result had a "profound effect" on the girl, particularly a love of dance.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=12}} Robin Rochester Jaques, who attained the rank of [[flight lieutenant]] with the RAF, became a semi-professional footballer. He signed to Clapton Orient and [[Fulham F.C.]], but died in a flying accident on 8 August 1923.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=4–5}}{{sfn|Joyce|2004|p=137}} Upon his death, Mary, Jacques and her elder brother, [[Robin Jacques|Robin],] moved from [[Newton and Haceby|Newton]] in [[Lincolnshire]] to London,{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=6}} where Jacques was sent to Lady Margaret primary school in Chelsea. In July 1930 Jacques started secondary schooling at the [[Godolphin and Latymer School]] in [[Hammersmith]],<ref name="D Tel: Lewis" />{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=13}} and attended a local dance school, the Dean Sisters Academy, where she was a principal dancer in shows.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=13}} She left Godolphin and Latymer in summer 1939 with unremarkable grades.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=17}} She continued intermittently with amateur theatricals and in May 1939 appeared with the Curtain Club in Barnes in productions of ''[[Fumed Oak]]'' and ''Borgia''.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=16}} |
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At the outbreak of |
At the outbreak of war, Jacques became a nurse in the VAD; she served in a mobile unit in London, attending bombed sites during [[the Blitz]].{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=17–18}} After a reorganisation in the VAD,{{efn|The VAD mobile units, based in communal air raid shelters and [[London Underground]] stations, were discontinued in June 1942.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=19}}}} Jacques sought new work and, in the summer of 1943, she became a [[welder]] in a factory in north London,{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=22}} a job that lasted until the end of the year.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=23}} Around this time she became romantically involved with an American soldier, Major Charles Kearney. Jacques claimed the pair had been engaged and that Kearney had been killed in action,{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=35}} although her biographer, Andy Merriman, discovered that Kearney had a wife and children in the United States when he proposed and had returned to them after the war.<ref name="D Tel: Lewis" />{{efn|The couple last saw each other in March 1945, and last corresponded in May of same year.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=33–34}}}} |
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===Early post-war work: 1944–50=== |
===Early post-war work: 1944–50=== |
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In 1944, after being auditioned by [[Leonard Sachs]],{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=31}} Jacques made her professional theatrical debut as Josephine Jacques{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=40}}—adding a "c" to her birth name |
In 1944, after being auditioned by [[Leonard Sachs]],{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=31}} Jacques made her professional theatrical debut as Josephine Jacques{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=40}}—adding a "c" to her birth name. {{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=24}}{{efn|Her brother also changed his name at the same time.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=23}}}}—at the [[Players' Theatre]], London in a revue called ''Late Joys''.{{sfn|Sheridan|1952|p=41}} Almost immediately she became a regular with the company, appearing in [[music hall]] revues and playing the [[Fairy Queen]] in Victorian-style pantomimes.<ref name="D Tel: Lewis" /> Her biographer, Frances Gray, described the Players' as Jacques's drama school, as she acted, directed, wrote lyrics and "developed the persona she was to use in pantomime for years, the large, bossy, but vulnerable fairy queen".{{sfn|Gray|2004}} It was in a ''Late Joys'' revue in June 1946 that she made her debut on television, when the show was broadcast on the [[BBC]].{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=40 & 224}} While at the Players' in 1946 she acquired the nickname "Hattie" after performing in the [[minstrel show]] ''Coal Black Mammies for Dixie''. A member of the backstage staff compared her "blacked up" appearance with the American actress [[Hattie McDaniel]], known for her work in ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'', and Jacques adopted the name.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=40}}{{efn|Although Jacques confirmed this version, another story was that the dancer and singer Josephine Gordon named Jacques after the musical ''[[Panama Hattie]]'', while another version is that she was given the name because of extravagant hats she wore on stage at the Players'.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=40–41}}}} |
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{{Quote box|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|align=left|quote="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".|source=Jacques on her role in ''[[It's That Man Again]]''{{sfn|Kavanagh|1970|p=136}}|width=200px|salign=right}} |
{{Quote box|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|align=left|quote="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".|source=Jacques on her role in ''[[It's That Man Again]]''{{sfn|Kavanagh|1970|p=136}}|width=200px|salign=right}} |
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Jacques made her |
Jacques made her screen debut, briefly and uncredited, in the 1946 film ''[[Green for Danger (film)|Green for Danger]]'', directed by [[Sidney Gilliat]].{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=56}} In December that year, she joined the [[Young Vic#Young Vic Theatre|Young Vic Theatre Company]] and played Smeraldina in ''The King Stag''. The play ran at the [[Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith)|Lyric Theatre]] for a month before a five-month tour of the UK.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=44}} It received favourable reviews; the ''[[Gloucestershire Echo]]'' described the piece as "a noble play", and thought Jacques "very solidly in step".<ref name="Glos Echo: Stag" /> In March 1947 [[Alberto Cavalcanti]]'s film ''[[Nicholas Nickleby (1947 film)|Nicholas Nickleby]]'' was released, in which Jacques had her first credited role as Mrs Kenwick.<ref name="BFI: Filmog" /> While engaged at the Players' in June 1947, Jacques was introduced to John Le Mesurier and the two began a relationship. Le Mesurier was estranged from his wife.{{sfn|McCann|2010|p=114}} |
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[[File:The Laugh!- the Recording of the Radio Comedy 'itma', London, England, UK, 1945 D24424.jpg|thumb|right|''[[ITMA]]'', during a wartime recording session]] |
[[File:The Laugh!- the Recording of the Radio Comedy 'itma', London, England, UK, 1945 D24424.jpg|thumb|right|''[[ITMA]]'', during a wartime recording session]] |
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In August 1947 [[Ted Kavanagh]], the scriptwriter of the [[BBC Home Service]] 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 |
In August 1947 [[Ted Kavanagh]], the scriptwriter of the [[BBC Home Service]] 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 five [[Guinea (British coin)|guineas]].{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=53–54}} She became so nervous that Tommy Handley, the star, held her hand, which made her more nervous.{{sfn|Kavanagh|1970|p=136}} Jacques joined ''ITMA'' as the greedy schoolgirl Sophie Tuckshop,{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=54 & 223}} where she "would regale listeners with terrifying accounts of epic binges",{{sfn|Gray|2004}} before finishing stories with the catchphrase "But I'm all right now".{{sfn|Gifford|1978|p=269}} Jacques started in ''ITMA'' in September 1947, at the beginning of series eleven, which ran for 38 episodes,{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|pp=37–38}} and was paid ten guineas per episode.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=55}} |
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For much of 1948 Jacques |
For much of 1948 Jacques recorded ''ITMA'' half the week, spending evenings in the Players' Theatre; in the spring she recorded the role of Flora in ''[[No, No, Nanette]]'' for the BBC{{sfn|Briggs|1961|p=206}} and appeared at the [[Whitehall Theatre]] in ''Bates Wharf'' with the Under Thirty Theatre Group.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=55 & 224}} Later that year she appeared as a singer at the Three Cripples tavern in the [[David Lean]] film ''[[Oliver Twist (1948 film)|Oliver Twist]]''.<ref name="BFI: Filmog" /> In September she started recording her second series of ''ITMA''—the show's twelfth{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|pp=37–38}}—before returning to the Players' for the Christmas pantomime, ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood''.{{sfn|Sheridan|1952|p=93}} Of the latter, ''[[The Times]]'' commented that Jacques "must surely be among the funniest fairies" in her role as the Fairy Queen Antedota—which was one of her favourite parts.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=56}}<ref name="Times: Sleeping Beauty 1948" /> |
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Tommy Handley died |
Tommy Handley died 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.{{sfn|Took|2004}} Jacques called Handley "one of the greatest radio performers we have ever known. I learned ... so much from him".{{sfn|Kavanagh|1970|p=136}} Later that year Le Mesurier divorced; shortly after the divorce, Jacques proposed to him, asking, "Don't you think it's about time we got married?"{{sfn|Le Mesurier|1984|p=71}} The couple wed on 10 November that year, at Kensington register office.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=60}}<ref>[[General Register Office for England and Wales|General Register Office]], ''England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes'', volume 5c, p. 2328.</ref> After a week's honeymoon in [[Southsea]],{{sfn|Le Mesurier|1984|p=71}} she returned to the Players' as Marrygolda in the pantomime ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]''.{{sfn|Sheridan|1952|p=73}} |
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===Increasing fame: 1950–58=== |
===Increasing fame: 1950–58=== |
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In |
In early 1950 ''[[Chance of a Lifetime (1950 film)|Chance of a Lifetime]]'' was released in British cinemas, a film in which Jacques "really made her mark", according to her Andy Merriman.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=61}} ''Chance of a Lifetime'' is a social and [[industrial relations]] drama in a plough factory whose manager cedes control to the workforce. Jacques played Alice, a welder: when 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.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=62}} The critic Geoff Mayer considered Jacques had "the best scene in the film with her mock seductive dance in front of an angry [[Niall MacGinnis|[Niall] MacGinnis]]".{{sfn|Mayer|2003|pp=61–62}} |
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On 6 June 1950 Jacques was cast in the first episode of the weekly radio show ''[[Educating Archie]]'' as Agatha Dinglebody. The "Archie" of the title was the [[ventriloquism|ventriloquist]]'s dummy [[Archie Andrews (puppet)|Archie Andrews]], operated by [[Peter Brough]]. The first series ran for 29 weeks until 19 December.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|pp=128–29}} |
On 6 June 1950 Jacques was cast in the first episode of the weekly radio show ''[[Educating Archie]]'' as Agatha Dinglebody. The "Archie" of the title was the [[ventriloquism|ventriloquist]]'s dummy [[Archie Andrews (puppet)|Archie Andrews]], operated by [[Peter Brough]]. The first series ran for 29 weeks until 19 December.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|pp=128–29}} Jacques appeared alongside [[Max Bygraves]], [[Julie Andrews]], [[Beryl Reid]] and — in the second series — [[Tony Hancock]].{{sfn|Barfe|2009|p=47}} It was on this programme that she first worked with [[Eric Sykes]], who was providing scripts. Sykes had been impressed with Jacques since he visited the Players' in 1948. He 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".{{sfn|Sykes|2003|p=100}} |
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Throughout 1951 Jacques continued to mix work in different media, including appearing as Mrs Fezziwig in the film ''[[Scrooge (1951 film)|Scrooge]]'' starring [[Alastair Sim]];{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=64}} from 3 August until 25 January 1952 she appeared in a second |
After the show Sykes was introduced to Jacques and thought the meeting was "the beginning of a new flight" in his professional life.{{sfn|Sykes|2005|p=231}} 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 longhand at the [[British Museum]].{{sfn|Kavanagh|1970|p=75}} The ''The Times'' thought Jacques "as appealing as last year",<ref name="Times: Ali Baba" /> as [[Ali Baba]]'s wife, Cogia.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=63}} |
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Throughout 1951 Jacques continued to mix work in different media, including appearing as Mrs Fezziwig in the film ''[[Scrooge (1951 film)|Scrooge]]'' starring [[Alastair Sim]];{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=64}} from 3 August until 25 January 1952 she appeared in a second series of ''Educating Archie'',{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=131}} as well as appearing in the ''The Archie Andrews Christmas Show'' at the [[Prince of Wales Theatre]] from December 1952 to January 1953.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=222–23}} She again appeared in — and co-adapted — a pantomime at the Players' Theatre, ''[[Riquet with the Tuft]]'', a [[fairy tale]] by [[Charles Perrault]].{{sfn|Sheridan|1952|p=73}}{{efn|Her other appearances included on radio, with ''Calling All Forces'',{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=224}} ''Fine Goings On''{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|pp=137–38}} and ''Further Goings On'';{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=224}} on stage she also appeared with the Players' in ''Apartments'', ''The Crystal Palace—1851'' and ''[[Going Up (musical)|Going Up]]''.{{sfn|Sheridan|1952|p=94}}}} In 1952 Jacques portrayed Mrs Jenks in [[John Gilling]]'s comedy horror ''[[Mother Riley Meets the Vampire]]'', co-starring [[Arthur Lucan]] and [[Bela Lugosi]].{{sfn|Rhodes|2006|p=39}} |
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[[File:Terry-Thomas in Where Were You When the Lights Went Out.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Terry-Thomas]], with whom Jacques appeared on stage and in film]] |
[[File:Terry-Thomas in Where Were You When the Lights Went Out.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Terry-Thomas]], with whom Jacques appeared on stage and in film]] |
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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 |
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 {{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=74}} — something ''The Times'' thought was "especially good",<ref name="Times: Bells of St Martins" /> although ''[[The Guardian|The Manchester Guardian]]'' considered she was "monumental of person but surprisingly thin of voice".<ref name="Guardian: Bells of St Martins" /> Le Mesurier was "faintly relieved" when the revue ended because of her exertions,{{sfn|Le Mesurier|1984|pp=71–72}} added to which she appeared in the 27 episodes of the third series of ''Educating Archie'' between September 1952 and June 1953.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|pp=131–32}}{{efn|The series was split into two: 18 September 1952 – 12 February 1953 and 21 May – 26 June 1953{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|pp=131–32}}}} 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, and returned to work after a few days to film ''[[Up to His Neck]]''.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=75}}{{sfn|Le Mesurier|1984|p=72}} Later that year she provided the lead alongside Le Mesurier in the 38-minute "movie-[[masque]]" ''[[The Pleasure Garden (1953 film)|The Pleasure Garden]]''; filmed in 1952, it won the {{Lang|for|Prix de Fantasie Poétique}} at the 1954 [[Cannes Film Festival]].<ref name="BFI:Pleasure Gdn" /> From October until April 1954 she was in series four of ''Educating Archie'',{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=132}} 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".<ref name="Times: Cinderella" /> |
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In 1954 Jacques continued |
In 1954 Jacques continued on radio. Between April and July she was in ''Paradise Street'', a spin-off series from ''Educating Archie'', while in June she was in ''Archie in Goonland'', a one-off collaboration between ''Educating Archie'' and ''[[The Goon Show]]''.{{sfn|Gifford|1985|p=18}}{{efn|The programme was the first collaboration between [[Eric Sykes]] and [[Spike Milligan]].{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=131}}}} As well as recording series five of ''Educating Archie'', she was cast as Mrs Leathers for 18 episodes of ''[[Mrs Dale's Diary]]'' between February and April 1955.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=79}} She produced and directed ''Twenty Minutes South'', first at the Players' Theatre, then for 105 performances at the [[St Martin's Theatre]], and finished the year in seven episodes of ''The Granville Melodramas'' on [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] between October and December.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=222–25}}{{sfn|Herbert|1978|p=774}} |
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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 allotted time", according to Le Mesurier.{{sfn|Le Mesurier|1984|p=74}} In June 1956 Jacques appeared in an episode of ''[[The Tony Hancock Show]]'' on ITV; this led to the role of Hancock's secretary, Griselda Pugh, in the |
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 allotted time", according to Le Mesurier.{{sfn|Le Mesurier|1984|p=74}} In June 1956 Jacques appeared in an episode of ''[[The Tony Hancock Show]]'' on ITV; this led to the role of Hancock's secretary, Griselda Pugh, in the radio series ''[[Hancock's Half Hour]]''. She appeared in 16 episodes from November 1956 to February 1957, alongside Hancock and regulars [[Sid James|Sidney James]], [[Bill Kerr]] and [[Kenneth Williams]].{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=84}}{{sfn|Webber|2004|p=111}}{{efn|Jacques joined as part of the story of episode five of the fourth series.{{sfn|Foster|Furst|1999|p=189}}}} Jacques's arrival "provided a boost to the series", according to television historian Richard Webber.{{sfn|Webber|2004|p=111}} She appeared in five further episodes between April and June 1957,{{sfn|Webber|2004|pp=247–51}} and for a further 20 episodes between January and June 1958,{{sfn|Webber|2004|pp=218–29}} before a special edition on Christmas Day 1958.{{sfn|Webber|2004|p=229}} 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]].{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=92–93}} 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.<ref name="LaL Programme"/> |
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===The ''Carry On'' series: 1958–63=== |
===The ''Carry On'' series: 1958–63=== |
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Jacques formed part of the cast when the first ''[[Carry On (film series)|Carry On]]'' film was made in 1958. This series would go on to employ actors known as the "[[List of Carry On films cast members|Carry On team]]". Jacques appeared in 14 of these films over a 15 years {{sfn|Snelgrove|2003|p=59}} and like many co-stars, became typecast. A reoccurring role was a no-nonsense matron which she played in five films – ''[[Carry On Nurse]]'',{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=22}} ''[[Carry On Doctor]]'',{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=88}} ''[[Carry On Again Doctor]]'',{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=104}} ''[[Carry On Camping]]''{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=100}} and ''[[Carry On Matron]]''.{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=136}} She became known by the team as "Mother Hen",{{sfn|Goddard|2012|p=64}} and was a friend to many, including Kenneth Williams and [[Joan Sims]], whom Jacques provided with advice and help. In return, Sims regarded Jacques as her "greatest friend", and as "both a sister and a mother to me".{{sfn|Sims|2000|p=173}}{{sfn|Goddard|2012|p=64}} Jacques frequently invited Sims, Williams and Hawtrey to her house for Christmas dinner.{{sfn|Goddard|2012|p=64}} |
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Jacques began |
Jacques began with the ''Carry On'' series in March 1958{{sfn|Snelgrove|2003|p=105}} with the first the series, ''[[Carry On Sergeant]]''.{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=141}} She played Captain Clark, a "battleaxe medical officer"{{sfn|Hartley|2013|p=493}} who fails to believe [[hypochondriac]] Private Horace Strong, played by [[Kenneth Connor]].{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=16}} The following year she played "Matron" for the first time{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=22}} in ''Carry On Nurse'', which broke that year's box office record, selling more than 10 million tickets in British cinemas.{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=26}}{{sfn|Webber|2008|p=50}} Although Jacques's role was still small, she appeared in the best known scene, in which she retrieves a daffodil from [[Wilfrid Hyde-White]]'s buttocks, put there by a nurse as revenge for his harassment.{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=23}} So popular was Jacques's scene that the producers imported two million plastic daffodils from Japan to promote the comedy.{{sfn|Snelgrove|2003|p=11}} Other characterisations followed, including the formidable maths mistress Grace Short in ''[[Carry On Teacher]]'' (1959){{sfn|Ross|2005|p=28}} and the friendly Police Sergeant Laura Moon in ''[[Carry On Constable]]'' (1960).{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=32}} Of the former film, Derek Prouse of ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' thought that Jacques "triumph[ed] over material so remorselessly juvenile that one is battered into a kind of fascinated admiration".<ref name="SX: Teacher" /> |
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On 29 January 1960 Jacques appeared in the first |
On 29 January 1960 Jacques appeared in the first 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.{{efn|Wattis's role, Charles Brown, was originally offered to Le Mesurier, but he turned down the role as he wanted "to make it on ... [his] own" without his wife's help.{{sfn|Le Mesurier|1984|p=73}} }} Jacques's character — Hattie (Hat) Sykes — was "a middle-class, pretentious lady struggling to keep her dignity as the men made fools of themselves".{{sfn|Gray|2004}} ''Sykes and a...'' ran for 60 episodes over nine series during the next five years.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=112}} 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".{{sfn|McCann|2007|p=209}} Jacques and Sykes "became embedded in the public mind as a priceless comic partnership";<ref name="BFI: Sykes and a" /> to capitalise, they released a comedy album entitled ''Eric and Hattie and Things<nowiki>!!!</nowiki>'', but it failed to chart.{{sfn|Debenham|1988|p=303}} In September 1960 she starred in her second television series, ''[[Our House (1960 TV series)|Our House]]'', alongside [[Charles Hawtrey (actor born 1914)|Charles Hawtrey]], [[Bernard Bresslaw]] and Joan Sims; Jacques played librarian Georgina Ruddy, forced to keep quiet at work but noisy at home.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1998|p=521}}{{efn|The first series ran until December 1960; a second ran from September 1961 to April 1962.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1998|p=521}}}} Later that year she played minor roles in ''[[Watch Your Stern]]'', with many ''Carry On'' regulars, and ''[[School for Scoundrels (1960 film)|School for Scoundrels]]'', opposite [[Ian Carmichael]]. After these her screen time increased with the part of Nanette Parry in ''[[Make Mine Mink]]'' in which she co-starred with Terry-Thomas and [[Athene Seyler]]. She described this as her favourite film.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=94–95 & 97}} |
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In October 1961 Jacques |
In October 1961 Jacques said on ''[[Desert Island Discs]]'' that she would be too lonely on a quiet island.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=119}}{{efn|The programme was on 16 October 1961; her choice was [[Ludwig van Beethoven]]'s [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 9 in D minor]] ("Choral") – [[Robert Shaw Chorale]] and the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra]], conducted by [[Arturo Toscanini]]; [[Duke Ellington]]'s "Hello Little Girl" – Ellington and his Orchestra; [[George Frideric Handel]]'s "Let the Bright Seraphim" from ''[[Samson (Handel)|Samson]]'' – [[Joan Sutherland]] and the orchestra of the [[Royal Opera House]]; [[Johann Sebastian Bach]]'s "[[Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543|Fugue in A minor]]" – [[Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra]]; [[Tommy Dorsey]]'s version of [[On the Sunny Side of the Street]]; The [[Modern Jazz Quartet]]'s version of "[[God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen]]"; [[Peter Sellers]]'s recording of "Lord Badminton's Memoirs"; and [[Judy Garland]] and the [[Gordon Jenkins]] Orchestra with "The Red Balloon". Her book was ''[[The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations]]'' and her luxury item a photograph and recording of her family.<ref name="BBC: DiD" />}} |
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By this time ''Carry On'' had become a leading film franchise, with author Robert Ross describing it as a "phenomenon".{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=38}} That year's film, ''[[Carry On Regardless]]'', was the fifth in the series; Jacques received £100 for the small role of a disgruntled hospital nurse, briefly on screen alongside the [[Kynaston Reeves]] who played her cantankerous boss. Jacques was intended for a major part but she was ill.{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=40}} She appeared in her sixth ''Carry On'', ''[[Carry On Cabby]]'', in 1963, as "Peggy Hawkins", the emotionally neglected wife of taxi boss "Charlie", played by Sid James.{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=48}} Jacques named the film her favourite of the series, as she was allowed to drop her "battleaxe" persona and play the romantic lead opposite James.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=128}} |
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===Private turmoil; new acting ventures: 1963–67=== |
===Private turmoil; new acting ventures: 1963–67=== |
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[[File:Hattie Jacques (4524484380).jpg|thumb|right|Jacques's house, 67 Eardley Crescent, London]] |
[[File:Hattie Jacques (4524484380).jpg|thumb|right|Jacques's house, 67 Eardley Crescent, London]] |
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Jacques's private life became complicated in 1963. The previous year she had met John Schofield, a [[cockney]] used-car dealer, who chauffeured her to a [[Leukaemia Research Fund]] event. The couple became romantically involved after |
Jacques's private life became complicated in 1963. The previous year she had met John Schofield, a [[cockney]] used-car dealer, who chauffeured her to a [[Leukaemia Research Fund]] event. The couple became romantically involved after he gave her attention and support that Le Mesurier did not.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=122–23}} When Jacques moved Schofield into the family home, Le Mesurier moved into a separate room.{{sfn|McCann|2010|p=162}} He said: "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".{{sfn|Le Mesurier|1984|pp=86–87}} During these upheavals, Jacques was the subject of ''[[This Is Your Life (UK TV series)|This Is Your Life]]'' in February 1963, when approached by [[Eamonn Andrews]] during rehearsal for the sixth series of ''Sykes and a...''. Although Le Mesurier did not mention the marital situation when questioned by Andrews, he commented that for Jacques "the home comes first", which Merriman considered had been said "rather pointedly".{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=124}} |
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Despite matrimonial upsets, Jacques and Le Mesurier appeared in the 1963 Tony Hancock film, ''[[The Punch and Judy Man]]''.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=125}} In 1964 Le Mesurier moved out,{{sfn|Le Mesurier|1984|pp=69–70}} to protect Jacques from negative publicity, and allowed her to bring a divorce suit on grounds of his own infidelity. This ensured the press blamed him, casting Jacques as the victim .{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=136}} |
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⚫ | In 1964, as well as |
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⚫ | In 1964, as well as four episodes of ''Housewife's Choice'', Jacques starred in her own television series, ''Miss Adventure'', as the private investigator Stacey Smith. Although Jacques wanted the series to be full of suspense, the programmes were more comedic and she was disappointed.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=133–34}} In August that year she appeared as Madame Arcati in an ITV production of ''[[Blithe Spirit (play)|Blithe Spirit]]''. The writer, [[Noël Coward]], felt that "finally someone had delivered a performance that wasn't overshadowed by [[Margaret Rutherford]]", who had originated the stage role in 1940 and played it in the 1945 [[Blithe Spirit (film)|film version]].{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=134–35}}{{efn|Between 1964 and 1967 Jacques continued to appear on television, in largely comedy programmes that included series eight and nine of ''Sykes and a...'' in late 1964 and late 1965;{{sfn|Lewisohn|1998|p=645}} an episode of ''Cribbins'', [[Bernard Cribbins]]'s sketch show;{{sfn|Lewisohn|1998|p=170}} ten episodes of the children's programme ''[[Jackanory]]'' between January 1966 and February 1967;{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=135}} ''Titipu'' (a re-working of ''[[The Mikado]]'');{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=158}} as Helen in the drama "The Memorandum" for the ''[[Theatre 625]]'' series on BBC;<ref name="BFI: Memorandum" /> and ''Sykes Versus ITV'' in November 1967.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1998|p=645}}}} |
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⚫ | Jacques went to Rome in 1966 to film ''[[The Bobo]]'' with [[Peter Sellers]]; |
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⚫ | Jacques went to Rome in 1966 to film ''[[The Bobo]]'' with [[Peter Sellers]]; she went on a diet and lost five stone (31 kg), although she was disappointed that so few noticed. She enjoyed the filming, calling it "one of the loveliest things I've worked on".{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=141}} While in Italy, Schofield came to stay, started an affair with an Italian heiress and broke off his relationship with Jacques; upset, Jacques began eating [[comfort food]] and her weight increased to nearly {{convert|20|stone|kg}}.<ref name="D Tel: Lewis" /> |
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===Return to ''Carry On'': 1967–74=== |
===Return to ''Carry On'': 1967–74=== |
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In |
In summer 1967 ''Carry On'' producer [[Peter Rogers]] assembled the cast for the 15th film of the series, ''Carry On Doctor''. Rogers chose Joan Sims to play the hospital matron but she declined, saying Jacques's performance of the role in ''Carry On Nurse'' could not be bettered.{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=89}} Rogers cast Jacques as Matron, with Sims accepting a smaller role as the timid assistant of the film's lead character Francis Bigger, played by [[Frankie Howerd]].{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=88}} Jacques's screen time was increased from ''Carry On Nurse'', as the producers considered her part extension of the earlier role.{{sfn|Ross|1996|p=70}} ''Carry On Doctor'' was released in December of that year, to much success.{{sfn|Snelgrove|2003|p=12}} |
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Jacques started 1968 |
Jacques started 1968 with [[Spike Milligan]] and [[Frank Thornton]] in 13 episodes of the sketch show ''[[The World of Beachcomber]]'', based on the [[Beachcomber (Pen name)|Beachcomber]] column in the ''[[Daily Express]]'' newspaper, broadcast on the BBC from January to April.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1998|p=437}} Shortly after the series, she appeared alongside Frankie Howerd in his sketch show, ''Howerd's Hour'', on ITV.{{sfn|Ross|2001|p=174}} She continued with appearances in six films for 1969,{{efn|The six films were ''[[Rhubarb (1969 film)|Rhubarb]]'', ''[[Monte Carlo or Bust!]]'', ''[[Carry On Camping]]'', ''[[Carry On Again Doctor]]'', ''[[Crooks and Coronets]]'' and ''[[The Magic Christian (film)|The Magic Christian]]''.<ref name="BFI: Filmog" />}} including another with Sellers, ''[[The Magic Christian (film)|The Magic Christian]]''. Here she portrayed Ginger, a "grotesque figure" with an "insatiable lust for bestsellers on the atrocities of world war tTwo".{{sfn|Films and Filming|1969|p=43}} She also appeared on television alongside Harry Secombe and [[Roy Castle]] in ''[[Pickwick (TV movie)|Pickwick]]'', based on the musical [[Pickwick (musical)|of the same name]],<ref name="BFI: Pickwick" /> and in ''[[Carry On Christmas Specials#Carry On Christmas|Carry On Christmas]]'', broadcast on Christmas Eve.{{sfn|Webber|2008|p=251}} |
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Although 1969 had been busy, 1970 was relatively quiet: apart from an episode of ''[[Catweazle]]'',{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=161}} she appeared alongside [[Willoughby Goddard]] in a six-episode series of ''Charley's Grants''.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1998|p=130}} She spent May and June filming ''[[Carry On Loving]]'', in which she played Sophie Bliss, released in September that year.{{sfn|Snelgrove|2003|p=127}} Another ''Carry On'' followed in 1971, ''[[Carry On at Your Convenience]]'', where she played Beattie Plummer, housebound wife of Sid Plummer, played by Sid James.{{sfn|Ross|1996|pp=98–99}} In the same year she completed another series with Sykes, ''[[Sykes and a Big, Big Show]]'', a music and sketch programme which had six episodes, broadcast between February and April.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1998|p=646}}{{efn|During the year Jacques also appeared with Sykes in the on-off ''Sykes – With the Lid Off'', as well as appearances in ''Frankie Howerd: The Laughing Stock of Television'', ''[[Doctor at Large (TV series)|Doctor at Large]]'', ''[[Ask Aspel]]'', ''Dangerpoint'' and ''[[Christmas Night with the Stars]]''.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=225}}}} |
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⚫ | Two further ''Carry On'' films followed |
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⚫ | Two further ''Carry On'' films followed in 1972: ''Carry On Matron'', for which she was in the title role,{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=136}} and ''[[Carry On Abroad]]'', as Floella, the fiery Spanish cook at a half-finished hotel. As well as the film being Charles Hawtrey's last, it marked a reduction in Jacques's screen time; she spent only one week filming her scenes. During post-production, the film's insurers became concerned about Jacques's health. In a letter to the series producer Peter Rogers, they expressed their reluctance to insure her on set.{{sfn|Ross|2005|pp=142–46}}{{efn|Her last film would be ''[[Carry On Dick]]'' in 1974, where she appeared as Martha Hoggett.{{sfn|Ross|2005|p=162}}}} |
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⚫ | During |
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⚫ | During 1972 Jacques co-starred in the first series of ''[[Sykes]]'', as Hattie Sykes, "the wide-eyed, less-knowing but remarkably patient sister-cum-mother-figure";{{sfn|Lewisohn|1998|p=646}}{{efn|''Sykes'' was an extension to ''Sykes and a...''. There were seven series and two Christmas specials of ''Sykes'', ending in November 1979.{{sfn|Lewisohn|1998|p=646}}}} at its height, ''Sykes'' had 17 million viewers.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=168}} In February 1972 Jacques was at home with her son Robin to watch Le Mesurier win the [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts]] best television actor for his portrayal of a "boozy British aristocrat ... who became a spy for the Soviets"{{sfn|Roberts|2009|p=60}}<ref name="BFI: 72 awards" /> in [[Dennis Potter]]'s television play ''[[Traitor (TV drama)|Traitor]]''.<ref name="traitor" /> Jacques cried when he won and told her son she "wasn't crying out of professional resentment or even envy about [[Joan Le Mesurier]] ... but from an unhappiness that, through her own actions, she lost John or there was now no-one with whom to spend her life".{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=162}} |
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===After ''Carry On'': 1974–80=== |
===After ''Carry On'': 1974–80=== |
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====Final appearances==== |
====Final appearances==== |
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The year 1974 was difficult |
The year 1974 was difficult. Her sons were arrested for [[Drug possession|possession of cannabis]], and her house was searched by police. In the week the two boys appeared in court, she received notification of the intention to appoint her as an [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]]. To protect her sons from further press intrusion she declined.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=172–73}}{{efn|Robin and Kim Le Mesurier were fined £20.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=173}}}} Later that year, filming the third series of ''Sykes'', she had a cancer scare and lost a lot of weight. When filming ended on 5 December she had surgery at [[Charing Cross Hospital]] for benign tumours on her kidneys.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=170–71}} |
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In 1976 Jacques appeared in a promotional film for [[British Rail]] which pitted her against racing driver [[Jackie Stewart]] in a race to London.<ref name="SC: race" /> From 1976 Sykes and Jacques appeared in the stage play ''A Hatful of Sykes'', in the UK and internationally.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=179–95}}{{efn|The play ran intermittently from 1976 to September 1979 in the UK including seasons at Torquay, Lincoln, Blackpool and Bournemouth; a UK national tour; and an international tour that included Hong Kong (February – March 1977), Rhodesia (April – May 1978), Canada (December 1978 – January 1979) and South Africa (February – March 1979).{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=179–95}}}} During the different tours relations between the two became strained and Sykes altered the act several times to ensure he received more acclaim than Jacques.<ref name="D Exp: heart breaking" /> |
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While appearing in Blackpool in 1977 Jacques suffered [[arthritis]] and ulcerated legs, which required daily dressing. Because her dressing room avoided stairs, Sykes accused her of special treatment.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=183}} When the show moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Sykes "began to behave rather strangely ... and he even accused Hattie ... of not being able to deliver a proper feed line".{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=191}} By Brighton in 1979 the relationship between the two "was rapidly deteriorating", and, although the pair praised each other in public, Jacques felt hurt by Sykes's treatment.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=199}} Despite the differences, the pair filmed the seventh series of ''Sykes'' in 1979,{{sfn|Lewisohn|1998|p=646}} and — in April 1980 — the television film ''[[Rhubarb Rhubarb]]''; although her part was small, she looked "a little unsteady on her feet", according to Merriman.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=203}}{{efn|''Rhubarb Rhubarb'' was on ITV on 15 December 1980, two months after Jacques's death.<ref name="BFI: Rhubarb, Rhubarb" />}} |
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====Death and tributes==== |
====Death and tributes==== |
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[[File:Ruth Jones Little Britain Gavin and Stacey.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Ruth Jones]], who portrayed Jacques in ''[[Hattie (television film)|Hattie]]'']] |
[[File:Ruth Jones Little Britain Gavin and Stacey.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Ruth Jones]], who portrayed Jacques in ''[[Hattie (television film)|Hattie]]'']] |
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In May 1980 Jacques's doctor advised her against travelling to Greece on holiday |
In May 1980 Jacques's doctor advised her against travelling to Greece on holiday, so she visited Ireland. During the return ferry crossing she told her friend Bruce Copp that "You know I'm not going to live long".{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=204}} Her health remained poor, and companies refused to insure her for film work. By October her weight had risen again; she had problems breathing and was again admitted to Charing Cross Hospital. She took a weekend break from hospital and returned home to Eardley Crescent, where on 6 October she died from a heart attack at 58; she also had kidney failure.{{sfn|Gray|2004}}{{sfn|Merriman|2007|pp=205 & 208}} |
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Jacques's funeral |
Jacques's funeral was at [[Putney Vale Cemetery|Putney Vale Crematorium]], where her ashes were scattered. Her sons barred Sykes because they resented the way he had treated her;<ref name="D Exp: heart breaking" /> Sykes was upset and failed to understand why he had been banned. The other notable absentee was Joan Sims, who "stayed in her home and spent the day drinking, reading old letters from Hattie and wallowing in self pity", according to Merriman.{{sfn|Merriman|2007|p=210}} |
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Kenneth Williams |
Kenneth Williams wrote that "all the chums have died ... one is left marooned on the shore ... the tide is receding and leaving some incongruous wrecks exposed ... I fear I am one of them".{{sfn|Stevens|2010|p=308}} John Le Mesurier described Jacques as "a remarkable lady ... [who] had an aura of love and kindness about her",<ref name="D Exp: Laughter & Tears" /> while her obituary in ''The Times'' observed that "she will be remembered with affection by all who saw her".<ref name="Times: Obit" /> A month after the funeral, a memorial service was held at [[St Paul's, Covent Garden]], otherwise known as the Actors' Church,<ref name="D Exp: Laughter & Tears" /> which was described by Le Mesurier as a "joyous occasion".{{sfn|Le Mesurier|1984|p=142}} |
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A memorial plaque |
A memorial plaque is in St Paul's, Covent Garden.{{sfn|Time Out|2003|p=123}} In November 1995 a [[blue plaque]] was unveiled by Eric Sykes and [[Clive Dunn]] — a colleague from Players' Theatre days — at her former house: 67 Eardley Crescent, [[Earls Court]], London.<ref name="PA: Blue plaque" /> In 2002 plaques were unveiled for Jacques, Sid James and Tony Hancock at BBC [[Broadcasting House]] in London.<ref name="D. Post: Jacques plaque" /> |
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In 2011 Jacques and Le Mesurier's marriage was the subject of a [[BBC Four]] biographical film called ''[[Hattie (television film)|Hattie]]'', which focused on Jacques's affair with John Schofield.<ref name="BBC: Hattie"/> She was played by [[Ruth Jones]], who Robin Le Mesurier thought "had captured my mother perfectly".<ref name="Mail: Robin: Secret lover" /> Jones |
In 2011 Jacques and Le Mesurier's marriage was the subject of a [[BBC Four]] biographical film called ''[[Hattie (television film)|Hattie]]'', which focused on Jacques's affair with John Schofield.<ref name="BBC: Hattie"/> She was played by [[Ruth Jones]], who Robin Le Mesurier thought "had captured my mother perfectly".<ref name="Mail: Robin: Secret lover" /> Jones described her as an "incredibly talented and fascinating woman both on and off screen".<ref name="W Mail: Jones" /> |
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==Reputation== |
==Reputation== |
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The writer Susan Leckey described Jacques as "one of the best-loved British comedy stars",{{sfn|Leckey|2013|p=493}} while Jacques's obituarist in ''The Times'' observed that "she was invariably successful" at making people "laugh with, rather than at you".<ref name="Times: Obit" /> Peter Chapman of ''[[The Independent]]'' stated that Jacques was "blessed with remarkable grace, delicacy and warmth, giving her an almost unique comic appeal".<ref name="Indie: Heroes" /> ''[[Sunday Life (newspaper)|Sunday Life]]'' said that for decades she was "Britain's favourite silly, sexually frustrated, fat woman".<ref name="S Life: man-eater" /> [[Nina Wadia]] of ''[[Goodness Gracious Me (BBC)|Goodness Gracious Me]]'' considers Jacques along with Joan Sims and [[Barbara Windsor]] to have "paved the way for younger comediennes in Britain today", remarking that "if it had not been for women like Hattie and Barbara, there is no way that younger actresses would have any role model, or probably the ambition to do what they do".<ref name="SM: last laugh" /> |
The writer Susan Leckey described Jacques as "one of the best-loved British comedy stars",{{sfn|Leckey|2013|p=493}} while Jacques's obituarist in ''The Times'' observed that "she was invariably successful" at making people "laugh with, rather than at you".<ref name="Times: Obit" /> Peter Chapman of ''[[The Independent]]'' stated that Jacques was "blessed with remarkable grace, delicacy and warmth, giving her an almost unique comic appeal".<ref name="Indie: Heroes" /> ''[[Sunday Life (newspaper)|Sunday Life]]'' said that for decades she was "Britain's favourite silly, sexually frustrated, fat woman".<ref name="S Life: man-eater" /> [[Nina Wadia]] of ''[[Goodness Gracious Me (BBC)|Goodness Gracious Me]]'' considers Jacques along with Joan Sims and [[Barbara Windsor]] to have "paved the way for younger comediennes in Britain today", remarking that "if it had not been for women like Hattie and Barbara, there is no way that younger actresses would have any role model, or probably the ambition to do what they do".<ref name="SM: last laugh" /> |
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Jacques's biographer, Francis Gray, highlighted two aspects of the actress's abilities; |
Jacques's biographer, Francis Gray, highlighted two aspects of the actress's abilities; in the sequence of post-war Dickens adaptations (''Nicholas Nickleby'', ''Oliver Twist'', ''Scrooge'' and ''Pickwick'') Jacques "reflected her talent for larger-than-life comedy which never lost its grip on humanity", while in films such as ''Mother Riley Meets the Vampire'', she displayed "a broader comic mode". In her later career Jacques showed "a comic talent of extraordinary versatility. In ''Sykes'' her performance had to be a foil for the main character; in the ''Carry Ons'' she blossomed".{{sfn|Gray|2004}} As a singer she was also praised; [[Jonathan Cecil]] of ''[[The Spectator]]'' said that her "bell-tone voice with its cut-crystal diction—perfect for radio—had an edge of pain which suggested a greater depth to her talents than she was generally allowed to express".<ref name="Spec: BiB" /> The actor Neville Phillips, who toured with Jacques, described her as having a "pretty voice" and able to "take an innocuous old Victorian or Edwardian ballad and with just a few intonations and expressions give it another meaning entirely".{{sfn|Phillips|2008|p=150}} |
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[[File:Hattie Jacques in Carry On Nurse.jpg|thumb|left|Hospital matrons continue to be closely associated with Jacques, who first played the role in ''[[Carry On Nurse]]'' (1959)]] |
[[File:Hattie Jacques in Carry On Nurse.jpg|thumb|left|Hospital matrons continue to be closely associated with Jacques, who first played the role in ''[[Carry On Nurse]]'' (1959)]] |
Revision as of 17:25, 24 December 2014
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fa/Hattie_Jacques_-_signed.jpg)
Hattie Jacques (/dʒeɪks/; born Josephine Edwina Jaques; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the Carry On films, where she typically played strict, no-nonsense characters, but was also a prolific television and radio performer.
Jacques started her career in 1944 at the Players' Theatre in London and came to national prominence through appearances on three popular radio series on the BBC: with Tommy Handley on It's That Man Again; with ventriloquist Peter Brough on Educating Archie; and then with Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour. After the second world war, Jacques made her cinematic debut in Green for Danger, in a brief, uncredited role. From 1958 to 1974 she appeared in 14 Carry On films, playing roles including the formidable hospital matron. On television she had a long professional partnership with Eric Sykes, with whom she starred in his long-running series Sykes and Sykes and a.... The role endeared her to the public and the two became staples of British television.
Jacques led a turbulent life. She was married to John Le Mesurier from 1949 until their divorce in 1965,[1] a separation caused by her five-year affair with another man. Jacques, who had been overweight since her teenage years, was ill soon after separating from Le Mesurier and her weight rose to nearly 20 stone (130 kg). She died of a heart attack on 6 October 1980, at 58. Her biographer, Francis Gray, said she had a "talent for larger-than-life comedy which never lost its grip on humanity", while she could also display "a broader comic mode" as a result of her "extraordinary versatility".[2]
Biography
Early life: 1922–44
Jacques was born Josephine Edwina Jaques on 7 February 1922 at 125 Sandgate High Street, Sandgate, Kent.[3] She was the youngest child of Robin Rochester Jaques (1897–1923), a serviceman in the British Army and later the Royal Air Force, and Mary Jaques née Thorne, a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD).[4][a]
The Jaques family were non-theatrical, with the exception of Mary who appeared as Harry Hathaway in the Christmas pantomime, Robinson Crusoe, at the Palace Theatre, Cologne, in 1920.[6] Mary enjoyed the theatre, and took Jacques to performances from an early age. The result had a "profound effect" on the girl, particularly a love of dance.[7] Robin Rochester Jaques, who attained the rank of flight lieutenant with the RAF, became a semi-professional footballer. He signed to Clapton Orient and Fulham F.C., but died in a flying accident on 8 August 1923.[8][9] Upon his death, Mary, Jacques and her elder brother, [[Robin Jacques|Robin],] moved from Newton in Lincolnshire to London,[10] where Jacques was sent to Lady Margaret primary school in Chelsea. In July 1930 Jacques started secondary schooling at the Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith,[11][12] and attended a local dance school, the Dean Sisters Academy, where she was a principal dancer in shows.[12] She left Godolphin and Latymer in summer 1939 with unremarkable grades.[13] She continued intermittently with amateur theatricals and in May 1939 appeared with the Curtain Club in Barnes in productions of Fumed Oak and Borgia.[14]
At the outbreak of war, Jacques became a nurse in the VAD; she served in a mobile unit in London, attending bombed sites during the Blitz.[15] After a reorganisation in the VAD,[b] Jacques sought new work and, in the summer of 1943, she became a welder in a factory in north London,[17] a job that lasted until the end of the year.[18] Around this time she became romantically involved with an American soldier, Major Charles Kearney. Jacques claimed the pair had been engaged and that Kearney had been killed in action,[19] although her biographer, Andy Merriman, discovered that Kearney had a wife and children in the United States when he proposed and had returned to them after the war.[11][c]
Early post-war work: 1944–50
In 1944, after being auditioned by Leonard Sachs,[21] Jacques made her professional theatrical debut as Josephine Jacques[22]—adding a "c" to her birth name. [23][d]—at the Players' Theatre, London in a revue called Late Joys.[24] Almost immediately she became a regular with the company, appearing in music hall revues and playing the Fairy Queen in Victorian-style pantomimes.[11] Her biographer, Frances Gray, described the Players' as Jacques's drama school, as she acted, directed, wrote lyrics and "developed the persona she was to use in pantomime for years, the large, bossy, but vulnerable fairy queen".[2] It was in a Late Joys revue in June 1946 that she made her debut on television, when the show was broadcast on the BBC.[25] While at the Players' in 1946 she acquired the nickname "Hattie" after performing in the minstrel show Coal Black Mammies for Dixie. A member of the backstage staff compared her "blacked up" appearance with the American actress Hattie McDaniel, known for her work in Gone with the Wind, and Jacques adopted the name.[22][e]
"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 It's That Man Again[27]
Jacques made her screen debut, briefly and uncredited, in the 1946 film Green for Danger, directed by Sidney Gilliat.[28] 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 a five-month tour of the UK.[29] It received favourable reviews; the Gloucestershire Echo described the piece as "a noble play", and thought Jacques "very solidly in step".[30] In March 1947 Alberto Cavalcanti's film Nicholas Nickleby was released, in which Jacques had her first credited role as Mrs Kenwick.[31] While engaged at the Players' in June 1947, Jacques was introduced to John Le Mesurier and the two began a relationship. Le Mesurier was estranged from his wife.[32]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/The_Laugh%21-_the_Recording_of_the_Radio_Comedy_%27itma%27%2C_London%2C_England%2C_UK%2C_1945_D24424.jpg/220px-The_Laugh%21-_the_Recording_of_the_Radio_Comedy_%27itma%27%2C_London%2C_England%2C_UK%2C_1945_D24424.jpg)
In August 1947 Ted Kavanagh, the scriptwriter of the BBC Home Service 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 five guineas.[33] She became so nervous that Tommy Handley, the star, held her hand, which made her more nervous.[27] Jacques joined ITMA as the greedy schoolgirl Sophie Tuckshop,[34] where she "would regale listeners with terrifying accounts of epic binges",[2] before finishing stories with the catchphrase "But I'm all right now".[35] Jacques started in ITMA in September 1947, at the beginning of series eleven, which ran for 38 episodes,[36] and was paid ten guineas per episode.[37]
For much of 1948 Jacques recorded ITMA half the week, spending evenings in the Players' Theatre; in the spring she recorded the role of Flora in No, No, Nanette for the BBC[38] and appeared at the Whitehall Theatre in Bates Wharf with the Under Thirty Theatre Group.[39] Later that year she appeared as a singer at the Three Cripples tavern in the David Lean film Oliver Twist.[31] In September she started recording her second series of ITMA—the show's twelfth[36]—before returning to the Players' for the Christmas pantomime, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.[40] Of the latter, The Times commented that Jacques "must surely be among the funniest fairies" in her role as the Fairy Queen Antedota—which was one of her favourite parts.[28][41]
Tommy Handley died 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.[42] Jacques called Handley "one of the greatest radio performers we have ever known. I learned ... so much from him".[27] Later that year Le Mesurier divorced; shortly after the divorce, Jacques proposed to him, asking, "Don't you think it's about time we got married?"[43] The couple wed on 10 November that year, at Kensington register office.[44][45] After a week's honeymoon in Southsea,[43] she returned to the Players' as Marrygolda in the pantomime Beauty and the Beast.[46]
Increasing fame: 1950–58
In early 1950 Chance of a Lifetime was released in British cinemas, a film in which Jacques "really made her mark", according to her Andy Merriman.[47] Chance of a Lifetime is a social and industrial relations drama in a plough factory whose manager cedes control to the workforce. Jacques played Alice, a welder: when 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.[48] The critic Geoff Mayer considered Jacques had "the best scene in the film with her mock seductive dance in front of an angry [Niall] MacGinnis".[49]
On 6 June 1950 Jacques was cast 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.[50] Jacques appeared alongside Max Bygraves, Julie Andrews, Beryl Reid and — in the second series — Tony Hancock.[51] It was on this programme that she first worked with Eric Sykes, who was providing scripts. Sykes had been impressed with Jacques since he visited the Players' in 1948. He 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".[52]
After the show Sykes was introduced to Jacques and thought the meeting was "the beginning of a new flight" in his professional life.[53] 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 longhand at the British Museum.[54] The The Times thought Jacques "as appealing as last year",[55] as Ali Baba's wife, Cogia.[56]
Throughout 1951 Jacques continued to mix work in different media, including appearing as Mrs Fezziwig in the film Scrooge starring Alastair Sim;[57] from 3 August until 25 January 1952 she appeared in a second series of Educating Archie,[58] as well as appearing in the The Archie Andrews Christmas Show at the Prince of Wales Theatre from December 1952 to January 1953.[59] She again appeared in — and co-adapted — a pantomime at the Players' Theatre, Riquet with the Tuft, a fairy tale by Charles Perrault.[46][f] In 1952 Jacques portrayed Mrs Jenks in John Gilling's comedy horror Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, co-starring Arthur Lucan and Bela Lugosi.[63]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Terry-Thomas_in_Where_Were_You_When_the_Lights_Went_Out.jpg/170px-Terry-Thomas_in_Where_Were_You_When_the_Lights_Went_Out.jpg)
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 [64] — something The Times thought was "especially good",[65] although The Manchester Guardian considered she was "monumental of person but surprisingly thin of voice".[66] Le Mesurier was "faintly relieved" when the revue ended because of her exertions,[67] added to which she appeared in the 27 episodes of the third series of Educating Archie between September 1952 and June 1953.[68][g] 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, and returned to work after a few days to film Up to His Neck.[69][70] Later that year she provided the lead alongside Le Mesurier in the 38-minute "movie-masque" The Pleasure Garden; filmed in 1952, it won the Prix de Fantasie Poétique at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival.[71] From October until April 1954 she was in series four of Educating Archie,[72] 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".[73]
In 1954 Jacques continued on radio. Between April and July she was in Paradise Street, a spin-off series from Educating Archie, while in June she was in Archie in Goonland, a one-off collaboration between Educating Archie and The Goon Show.[74][h] As well as recording series five of Educating Archie, she was cast as Mrs Leathers for 18 episodes of Mrs Dale's Diary between February and April 1955.[75] She produced and directed Twenty Minutes South, first at the Players' Theatre, then for 105 performances at the St Martin's Theatre, and finished the year in seven episodes of The Granville Melodramas on ITV between October and December.[76][77]
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 allotted time", according to Le Mesurier.[78] In June 1956 Jacques appeared in an episode of The Tony Hancock Show on ITV; this led to the role of Hancock's secretary, Griselda Pugh, in the radio series Hancock's Half Hour. She appeared in 16 episodes from November 1956 to February 1957, alongside Hancock and regulars Sidney James, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams.[79][80][i] Jacques's arrival "provided a boost to the series", according to television historian Richard Webber.[80] She appeared in five further episodes between April and June 1957,[82] and for a further 20 episodes between January and June 1958,[83] before a special edition on Christmas Day 1958.[84] 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.[85] 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.[86]
The Carry On series: 1958–63
Jacques formed part of the cast when the first Carry On film was made in 1958. This series would go on to employ actors known as the "Carry On team". Jacques appeared in 14 of these films over a 15 years [87] and like many co-stars, became typecast. A reoccurring role was a no-nonsense matron which she played in five films – Carry On Nurse,[88] Carry On Doctor,[89] Carry On Again Doctor,[90] Carry On Camping[91] and Carry On Matron.[92] She became known by the team as "Mother Hen",[93] and was a friend to many, including Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims, whom Jacques provided with advice and help. In return, Sims regarded Jacques as her "greatest friend", and as "both a sister and a mother to me".[94][93] Jacques frequently invited Sims, Williams and Hawtrey to her house for Christmas dinner.[93]
Jacques began with the Carry On series in March 1958[95] with the first the series, Carry On Sergeant.[96] She played Captain Clark, a "battleaxe medical officer"[97] who fails to believe hypochondriac Private Horace Strong, played by Kenneth Connor.[98] The following year she played "Matron" for the first time[88] in Carry On Nurse, which broke that year's box office record, selling more than 10 million tickets in British cinemas.[99][100] Although Jacques's role was still small, she appeared in the best known scene, in which she retrieves a daffodil from Wilfrid Hyde-White's buttocks, put there by a nurse as revenge for his harassment.[101] So popular was Jacques's scene that the producers imported two million plastic daffodils from Japan to promote the comedy.[102] Other characterisations followed, including the formidable maths mistress Grace Short in Carry On Teacher (1959)[103] and the friendly Police Sergeant Laura Moon in Carry On Constable (1960).[104] Of the former film, Derek Prouse of The Sunday Times thought that Jacques "triumph[ed] over material so remorselessly juvenile that one is battered into a kind of fascinated admiration".[105]
On 29 January 1960 Jacques appeared in the first 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.[j] Jacques's character — Hattie (Hat) Sykes — was "a middle-class, pretentious lady struggling to keep her dignity as the men made fools of themselves".[2] Sykes and a... ran for 60 episodes over nine series during the next five years.[107] 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".[108] Jacques and Sykes "became embedded in the public mind as a priceless comic partnership";[109] to capitalise, they released a comedy album entitled Eric and Hattie and Things!!!, but it failed to chart.[110] In September 1960 she starred in her second television series, Our House, alongside Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Bresslaw and Joan Sims; Jacques played librarian Georgina Ruddy, forced to keep quiet at work but noisy at home.[111][k] Later that year she played minor roles in Watch Your Stern, with many Carry On regulars, and School for Scoundrels, opposite Ian Carmichael. After these her screen time increased with the part of Nanette Parry in Make Mine Mink in which she co-starred with Terry-Thomas and Athene Seyler. She described this as her favourite film.[112]
In October 1961 Jacques said on Desert Island Discs that she would be too lonely on a quiet island.[113][l]
By this time Carry On had become a leading film franchise, with author Robert Ross describing it as a "phenomenon".[115] That year's film, Carry On Regardless, was the fifth in the series; Jacques received £100 for the small role of a disgruntled hospital nurse, briefly on screen alongside the Kynaston Reeves who played her cantankerous boss. Jacques was intended for a major part but she was ill.[116] She appeared in her sixth Carry On, Carry On Cabby, in 1963, as "Peggy Hawkins", the emotionally neglected wife of taxi boss "Charlie", played by Sid James.[117] Jacques named the film her favourite of the series, as she was allowed to drop her "battleaxe" persona and play the romantic lead opposite James.[118]
Private turmoil; new acting ventures: 1963–67
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Hattie_Jacques_%284524484380%29.jpg/220px-Hattie_Jacques_%284524484380%29.jpg)
Jacques's private life became complicated in 1963. The previous year she had met John Schofield, a cockney used-car dealer, who chauffeured her to a Leukaemia Research Fund event. The couple became romantically involved after he gave her attention and support that Le Mesurier did not.[119] When Jacques moved Schofield into the family home, Le Mesurier moved into a separate room.[120] He said: "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".[121] During these upheavals, Jacques was the subject of This Is Your Life in February 1963, when approached by Eamonn Andrews during rehearsal for the sixth series of Sykes and a.... Although Le Mesurier did not mention the marital situation when questioned by Andrews, he commented that for Jacques "the home comes first", which Merriman considered had been said "rather pointedly".[122]
Despite matrimonial upsets, Jacques and Le Mesurier appeared in the 1963 Tony Hancock film, The Punch and Judy Man.[123] In 1964 Le Mesurier moved out,[124] to protect Jacques from negative publicity, and allowed her to bring a divorce suit on grounds of his own infidelity. This ensured the press blamed him, casting Jacques as the victim .[125]
In 1964, as well as four episodes of Housewife's Choice, Jacques starred in her own television series, Miss Adventure, as the private investigator Stacey Smith. Although Jacques wanted the series to be full of suspense, the programmes were more comedic and she was disappointed.[126] In August that year she appeared as Madame Arcati in an ITV production of Blithe Spirit. The writer, Noël Coward, felt that "finally someone had delivered a performance that wasn't overshadowed by Margaret Rutherford", who had originated the stage role in 1940 and played it in the 1945 film version.[127][m]
Jacques went to Rome in 1966 to film The Bobo with Peter Sellers; she went on a diet and lost five stone (31 kg), although she was disappointed that so few noticed. She enjoyed the filming, calling it "one of the loveliest things I've worked on".[133] While in Italy, Schofield came to stay, started an affair with an Italian heiress and broke off his relationship with Jacques; upset, Jacques began eating comfort food and her weight increased to nearly 20 stone (130 kg).[11]
Return to Carry On: 1967–74
In summer 1967 Carry On producer Peter Rogers assembled the cast for the 15th film of the series, Carry On Doctor. Rogers chose Joan Sims to play the hospital matron but she declined, saying Jacques's performance of the role in Carry On Nurse could not be bettered.[134] Rogers cast Jacques as Matron, with Sims accepting a smaller role as the timid assistant of the film's lead character Francis Bigger, played by Frankie Howerd.[89] Jacques's screen time was increased from Carry On Nurse, as the producers considered her part extension of the earlier role.[135] Carry On Doctor was released in December of that year, to much success.[136]
Jacques started 1968 with Spike Milligan and Frank Thornton in 13 episodes of the sketch show The World of Beachcomber, based on the Beachcomber column in the Daily Express newspaper, broadcast on the BBC from January to April.[137] Shortly after the series, she appeared alongside Frankie Howerd in his sketch show, Howerd's Hour, on ITV.[138] She continued with appearances in six films for 1969,[n] including another with Sellers, The Magic Christian. Here she portrayed Ginger, a "grotesque figure" with an "insatiable lust for bestsellers on the atrocities of world war tTwo".[139] She also appeared on television alongside Harry Secombe and Roy Castle in Pickwick, based on the musical of the same name,[140] and in Carry On Christmas, broadcast on Christmas Eve.[141]
Although 1969 had been busy, 1970 was relatively quiet: apart from an episode of Catweazle,[142] she appeared alongside Willoughby Goddard in a six-episode series of Charley's Grants.[143] She spent May and June filming Carry On Loving, in which she played Sophie Bliss, released in September that year.[144] Another Carry On followed in 1971, Carry On at Your Convenience, where she played Beattie Plummer, housebound wife of Sid Plummer, played by Sid James.[145] In the same year she completed another series with Sykes, Sykes and a Big, Big Show, a music and sketch programme which had six episodes, broadcast between February and April.[146][o]
Two further Carry On films followed in 1972: Carry On Matron, for which she was in the title role,[92] and Carry On Abroad, as Floella, the fiery Spanish cook at a half-finished hotel. As well as the film being Charles Hawtrey's last, it marked a reduction in Jacques's screen time; she spent only one week filming her scenes. During post-production, the film's insurers became concerned about Jacques's health. In a letter to the series producer Peter Rogers, they expressed their reluctance to insure her on set.[148][p]
During 1972 Jacques co-starred in the first series of Sykes, as Hattie Sykes, "the wide-eyed, less-knowing but remarkably patient sister-cum-mother-figure";[146][q] at its height, Sykes had 17 million viewers.[150] In February 1972 Jacques was at home with her son Robin to watch Le Mesurier win the British Academy of Film and Television Arts best television actor for his portrayal of a "boozy British aristocrat ... who became a spy for the Soviets"[151][152] in Dennis Potter's television play Traitor.[153] Jacques cried when he won and told her son she "wasn't crying out of professional resentment or even envy about Joan Le Mesurier ... but from an unhappiness that, through her own actions, she lost John or there was now no-one with whom to spend her life".[154]
After Carry On: 1974–80
Final appearances
The year 1974 was difficult. Her sons were arrested for possession of cannabis, and her house was searched by police. In the week the two boys appeared in court, she received notification of the intention to appoint her as an OBE. To protect her sons from further press intrusion she declined.[155][r] Later that year, filming the third series of Sykes, she had a cancer scare and lost a lot of weight. When filming ended on 5 December she had surgery at Charing Cross Hospital for benign tumours on her kidneys.[157]
In 1976 Jacques appeared in a promotional film for British Rail which pitted her against racing driver Jackie Stewart in a race to London.[158] From 1976 Sykes and Jacques appeared in the stage play A Hatful of Sykes, in the UK and internationally.[159][s] During the different tours relations between the two became strained and Sykes altered the act several times to ensure he received more acclaim than Jacques.[160]
While appearing in Blackpool in 1977 Jacques suffered arthritis and ulcerated legs, which required daily dressing. Because her dressing room avoided stairs, Sykes accused her of special treatment.[161] When the show moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Sykes "began to behave rather strangely ... and he even accused Hattie ... of not being able to deliver a proper feed line".[162] By Brighton in 1979 the relationship between the two "was rapidly deteriorating", and, although the pair praised each other in public, Jacques felt hurt by Sykes's treatment.[163] Despite the differences, the pair filmed the seventh series of Sykes in 1979,[146] and — in April 1980 — the television film Rhubarb Rhubarb; although her part was small, she looked "a little unsteady on her feet", according to Merriman.[164][t]
Death and tributes
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Ruth_Jones_Little_Britain_Gavin_and_Stacey.jpg/170px-Ruth_Jones_Little_Britain_Gavin_and_Stacey.jpg)
In May 1980 Jacques's doctor advised her against travelling to Greece on holiday, so she visited Ireland. During the return ferry crossing she told her friend Bruce Copp that "You know I'm not going to live long".[166] Her health remained poor, and companies refused to insure her for film work. By October her weight had risen again; she had problems breathing and was again admitted to Charing Cross Hospital. She took a weekend break from hospital and returned home to Eardley Crescent, where on 6 October she died from a heart attack at 58; she also had kidney failure.[2][167]
Jacques's funeral was at Putney Vale Crematorium, where her ashes were scattered. Her sons barred Sykes because they resented the way he had treated her;[160] Sykes was upset and failed to understand why he had been banned. The other notable absentee was Joan Sims, who "stayed in her home and spent the day drinking, reading old letters from Hattie and wallowing in self pity", according to Merriman.[168]
Kenneth Williams wrote that "all the chums have died ... one is left marooned on the shore ... the tide is receding and leaving some incongruous wrecks exposed ... I fear I am one of them".[169] John Le Mesurier described Jacques as "a remarkable lady ... [who] had an aura of love and kindness about her",[170] while her obituary in The Times observed that "she will be remembered with affection by all who saw her".[171] A month after the funeral, a memorial service was held at St Paul's, Covent Garden, otherwise known as the Actors' Church,[170] which was described by Le Mesurier as a "joyous occasion".[172]
A memorial plaque is in St Paul's, Covent Garden.[173] In November 1995 a blue plaque was unveiled by Eric Sykes and Clive Dunn — a colleague from Players' Theatre days — at her former house: 67 Eardley Crescent, Earls Court, London.[174] In 2002 plaques were unveiled for Jacques, Sid James and Tony Hancock at BBC Broadcasting House in London.[175]
In 2011 Jacques and Le Mesurier's marriage was the subject of a BBC Four biographical film called Hattie, which focused on Jacques's affair with John Schofield.[176] She was played by Ruth Jones, who Robin Le Mesurier thought "had captured my mother perfectly".[177] Jones described her as an "incredibly talented and fascinating woman both on and off screen".[178]
Reputation
"I don't like playing battleaxes, I want to feel protected like any other woman. I'm just a helpless little kitten. I'm pathologically shy".
Jacques, on herself[179]
The writer Susan Leckey described Jacques as "one of the best-loved British comedy stars",[180] while Jacques's obituarist in The Times observed that "she was invariably successful" at making people "laugh with, rather than at you".[171] Peter Chapman of The Independent stated that Jacques was "blessed with remarkable grace, delicacy and warmth, giving her an almost unique comic appeal".[181] Sunday Life said that for decades she was "Britain's favourite silly, sexually frustrated, fat woman".[182] Nina Wadia of Goodness Gracious Me considers Jacques along with Joan Sims and Barbara Windsor to have "paved the way for younger comediennes in Britain today", remarking that "if it had not been for women like Hattie and Barbara, there is no way that younger actresses would have any role model, or probably the ambition to do what they do".[183]
Jacques's biographer, Francis Gray, highlighted two aspects of the actress's abilities; in the sequence of post-war Dickens adaptations (Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, Scrooge and Pickwick) Jacques "reflected her talent for larger-than-life comedy which never lost its grip on humanity", while in films such as Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, she displayed "a broader comic mode". In her later career Jacques showed "a comic talent of extraordinary versatility. In Sykes her performance had to be a foil for the main character; in the Carry Ons she blossomed".[2] As a singer she was also praised; Jonathan Cecil of The Spectator said that her "bell-tone voice with its cut-crystal diction—perfect for radio—had an edge of pain which suggested a greater depth to her talents than she was generally allowed to express".[184] The actor Neville Phillips, who toured with Jacques, described her as having a "pretty voice" and able to "take an innocuous old Victorian or Edwardian ballad and with just a few intonations and expressions give it another meaning entirely".[185]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/81/Hattie_Jacques_in_Carry_On_Nurse.jpg/220px-Hattie_Jacques_in_Carry_On_Nurse.jpg)
Gray observes that "Jacques is enduringly associated with the role of hospital matron"[2] and her portrayal of the character in five films had a lasting impact on both her legacy and on the role and view of Matrons in the National Health Service. An article in The Guardian by Mark Lawson mixed fiction with reality when he wrote that "standards of hygiene have slipped since Hattie Jacques ran NHS wards".[186] According to The Scotsman, the 2003 Labour Party Conference "applauded deliriously because the government has revived Hattie Jacques", in relation to a change in government policy.[187] After complaints about the NHS in 2008, the Western Morning News suggested the government should "clone a Hattie Jacques-type matron to run a tight ship everywhere".[188] NHS nurses have complained about the stereotype: in August 2013 the Nursing Times quoted one matron, who protested that they were "not like Hattie Jacques anymore".[189]
Alan Simpson, the co-writer of Hancock, enjoyed writing for Jacques, and thought that she was "almost like a fella in terms of playing comedy; you didn't write for her thinking she's a woman so we've got to write the feminine point of view. That made it easier for us".[190] Neville Phillips thought she was a "complete revelation", adding "although she was a large lady (very large, in fact), her movements were dainty, light and graceful, and she had a way of playing comedy that put me in mind of the great Beatrice Lillie ... a subtle, sophisticated actress".[185] Her friend Bob Monkhouse thought that her career was overshadowed by her size: "She was such a great comedienne ... everyone wanted her but the movers and shakers of entertainment didn't perceive her as anything other than a fat lady".[160] Guy Pearce, writing in the Daily Express, noted that "she always chose to play women in funny situations, rather than refer directly to her weight. She concentrated on the script and its interpretation instead of winning easy laughs by playing 'the fattie'."[191] The approach of writers differed in how they dealt with the characters they asked Jacques to portray. Morwenna Banks and Amanda Swift consider Jacques to have been "unimaginatively cast as the 'fat person'" in ITMA,[192] while in Sykes, her weight was rarely referred to—and Jacques said that Sykes "hardly ever made jokes about my size which was a refreshing change".[193] Gray considers that "although often cast in broad comedy, she never played it broadly, but with an elegance of voice and body that belied all the clichés about women and weight".[2]
See also
Notes and references
Notes
- ^ Robin was born into relative affluence in Newcastle upon Tyne. His fathe,r Joseph Rochester Jaques, was a billiard room manager from Northumberland who married Florence King, the daughter of a Devon-born bookseller.[4] Hattie's maternal grandfather Joseph Thorn (1875–?)[5] was a jeweller who lived at 65 Brompton Road in London. The address is today the jewellers Mappin & Webb.[5]
- ^ The VAD mobile units, based in communal air raid shelters and London Underground stations, were discontinued in June 1942.[16]
- ^ The couple last saw each other in March 1945, and last corresponded in May of same year.[20]
- ^ Her brother also changed his name at the same time.[18]
- ^ Although Jacques confirmed this version, another story was that the dancer and singer Josephine Gordon named Jacques after the musical Panama Hattie, while another version is that she was given the name because of extravagant hats she wore on stage at the Players'.[26]
- ^ Her other appearances included on radio, with Calling All Forces,[60] Fine Goings On[61] and Further Goings On;[60] on stage she also appeared with the Players' in Apartments, The Crystal Palace—1851 and Going Up.[62]
- ^ The series was split into two: 18 September 1952 – 12 February 1953 and 21 May – 26 June 1953[68]
- ^ The programme was the first collaboration between Eric Sykes and Spike Milligan.[58]
- ^ Jacques joined as part of the story of episode five of the fourth series.[81]
- ^ Wattis's role, Charles Brown, was originally offered to Le Mesurier, but he turned down the role as he wanted "to make it on ... [his] own" without his wife's help.[106]
- ^ The first series ran until December 1960; a second ran from September 1961 to April 1962.[111]
- ^ The programme was on 16 October 1961; her choice was Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor ("Choral") – Robert Shaw Chorale and the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini; Duke Ellington's "Hello Little Girl" – Ellington and his Orchestra; George Frideric Handel's "Let the Bright Seraphim" from Samson – Joan Sutherland and the orchestra of the Royal Opera House; Johann Sebastian Bach's "Fugue in A minor" – Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra; Tommy Dorsey's version of On the Sunny Side of the Street; The Modern Jazz Quartet's version of "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen"; Peter Sellers's recording of "Lord Badminton's Memoirs"; and Judy Garland and the Gordon Jenkins Orchestra with "The Red Balloon". Her book was The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and her luxury item a photograph and recording of her family.[114]
- ^ Between 1964 and 1967 Jacques continued to appear on television, in largely comedy programmes that included series eight and nine of Sykes and a... in late 1964 and late 1965;[128] an episode of Cribbins, Bernard Cribbins's sketch show;[129] ten episodes of the children's programme Jackanory between January 1966 and February 1967;[130] Titipu (a re-working of The Mikado);[131] as Helen in the drama "The Memorandum" for the Theatre 625 series on BBC;[132] and Sykes Versus ITV in November 1967.[128]
- ^ The six films were Rhubarb, Monte Carlo or Bust!, Carry On Camping, Carry On Again Doctor, Crooks and Coronets and The Magic Christian.[31]
- ^ During the year Jacques also appeared with Sykes in the on-off Sykes – With the Lid Off, as well as appearances in Frankie Howerd: The Laughing Stock of Television, Doctor at Large, Ask Aspel, Dangerpoint and Christmas Night with the Stars.[147]
- ^ Her last film would be Carry On Dick in 1974, where she appeared as Martha Hoggett.[149]
- ^ Sykes was an extension to Sykes and a.... There were seven series and two Christmas specials of Sykes, ending in November 1979.[146]
- ^ Robin and Kim Le Mesurier were fined £20.[156]
- ^ The play ran intermittently from 1976 to September 1979 in the UK including seasons at Torquay, Lincoln, Blackpool and Bournemouth; a UK national tour; and an international tour that included Hong Kong (February – March 1977), Rhodesia (April – May 1978), Canada (December 1978 – January 1979) and South Africa (February – March 1979).[159]
- ^ Rhubarb Rhubarb was on ITV on 15 December 1980, two months after Jacques's death.[165]
References
- ^ Complete A-Z of Dad's Army (Webber, Ed)London, Orion 2000 ISBN 0-7528-1838-4
- ^ a b c d e f g h Gray 2004.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 1.
- ^ a b Merriman 2007, p. 2.
- ^ a b Merriman 2007, p. 8.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 2–3.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 12.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Joyce 2004, p. 137.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 6.
- ^ a b c d Lewis, Roger (18 October 2007). "Carry on Hattie Jacques". The Daily Telegraph. London.
- ^ a b Merriman 2007, p. 13.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 17.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 16.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 17–18.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 19.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 22.
- ^ a b Merriman 2007, p. 23.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 35.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 31.
- ^ a b Merriman 2007, p. 40.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 24.
- ^ Sheridan 1952, p. 41.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 40 & 224.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 40–41.
- ^ a b c Kavanagh 1970, p. 136.
- ^ a b Merriman 2007, p. 56.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 44.
- ^ "'The King Stag' a Noble Play". Gloucestershire Echo. Cheltenham. 6 May 1947. p. 9.
- ^ a b c "Filmography: Jacques, Hattie". Film & TV Database. British Film Institute. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
- ^ McCann 2010, p. 114.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 53–54.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 54 & 223.
- ^ Gifford 1978, p. 269.
- ^ a b Foster & Furst 1999, pp. 37–38.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 55.
- ^ Briggs 1961, p. 206.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 55 & 224.
- ^ Sheridan 1952, p. 93.
- ^ "Players' Theatre: The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood". The Times. London. 23 December 1948. p. 6.
- ^ Took 2004.
- ^ a b Le Mesurier 1984, p. 71.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 60.
- ^ General Register Office, England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, volume 5c, p. 2328.
- ^ a b Sheridan 1952, p. 73.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 61.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 62.
- ^ Mayer 2003, pp. 61–62.
- ^ Foster & Furst 1999, pp. 128–29.
- ^ Barfe 2009, p. 47.
- ^ Sykes 2003, p. 100.
- ^ Sykes 2005, p. 231.
- ^ Kavanagh 1970, p. 75.
- ^ "Players' Theatre: 'Ali Baba'". The Times. London. 20 December 1950. p. 2.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 63.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 64.
- ^ a b Foster & Furst 1999, p. 131.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 222–23.
- ^ a b Merriman 2007, p. 224.
- ^ Foster & Furst 1999, pp. 137–38.
- ^ Sheridan 1952, p. 94.
- ^ Rhodes 2006, p. 39.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 74.
- ^ "St. Martin's Theatre: Bells of St. Martin's". The Times. London. 30 August 1952. p. 6.
- ^ Hope-Wallace, Phillip (3 September 1952). "Douglas Byng in New Revue: Bells of St Martin's". The Manchester Guardian. Manchester. p. 5.
- ^ Le Mesurier 1984, pp. 71–72.
- ^ a b Foster & Furst 1999, pp. 131–32.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 75.
- ^ Le Mesurier 1984, p. 72.
- ^ "The Pleasure Garden". British Film Institute. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
- ^ Foster & Furst 1999, p. 132.
- ^ "Players' Theatre: Cinderella". The Times. London. 23 December 1953. p. 4.
- ^ Gifford 1985, p. 18.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 79.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 222–25.
- ^ Herbert 1978, p. 774.
- ^ Le Mesurier 1984, p. 74.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 84.
- ^ a b Webber 2004, p. 111.
- ^ Foster & Furst 1999, p. 189.
- ^ Webber 2004, pp. 247–51.
- ^ Webber 2004, pp. 218–29.
- ^ Webber 2004, p. 229.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 92–93.
- ^ Souvenir programme Large as Life (1958) London: Tribe Bros.
- ^ Snelgrove 2003, p. 59.
- ^ a b Ross 2005, p. 22.
- ^ a b Ross 2005, p. 88.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 104.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 100.
- ^ a b Ross 2005, p. 136.
- ^ a b c Goddard 2012, p. 64.
- ^ Sims 2000, p. 173.
- ^ Snelgrove 2003, p. 105.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 141.
- ^ Hartley 2013, p. 493.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 16.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 26.
- ^ Webber 2008, p. 50.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 23.
- ^ Snelgrove 2003, p. 11.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 28.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 32.
- ^ Prouse, Derek (6 September 1959). "Licence with the Devil". The Sunday Times. London. p. 13.
- ^ Le Mesurier 1984, p. 73.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 112.
- ^ McCann 2007, p. 209.
- ^ Oliver, John. "Sykes and a... (1960–65)". Screenonline. British Film Institute. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
- ^ Debenham 1988, p. 303.
- ^ a b Lewisohn 1998, p. 521.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 94–95 & 97.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 119.
- ^ "Desert Island Discs: Hattie Jacques". BBC. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 38.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 40.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 48.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 128.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 122–23.
- ^ McCann 2010, p. 162.
- ^ Le Mesurier 1984, pp. 86–87.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 124.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 125.
- ^ Le Mesurier 1984, pp. 69–70.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 136.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 133–34.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 134–35.
- ^ a b Lewisohn 1998, p. 645.
- ^ Lewisohn 1998, p. 170.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 135.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 158.
- ^ "Theatre 625: The Memorandum". British Film Institute. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 141.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 89.
- ^ Ross 1996, p. 70.
- ^ Snelgrove 2003, p. 12.
- ^ Lewisohn 1998, p. 437.
- ^ Ross 2001, p. 174.
- ^ Films and Filming 1969, p. 43.
- ^ "Pickwick". British Film Institute. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
- ^ Webber 2008, p. 251.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 161.
- ^ Lewisohn 1998, p. 130.
- ^ Snelgrove 2003, p. 127.
- ^ Ross 1996, pp. 98–99.
- ^ a b c d Lewisohn 1998, p. 646.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 225.
- ^ Ross 2005, pp. 142–46.
- ^ Ross 2005, p. 162.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 168.
- ^ Roberts 2009, p. 60.
- ^ "The British Screen Awards". Film & TV Database. British Film Institute. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
- ^ "BAFTA Awards 1971". BAFTA Awards Database. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 162.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 172–73.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 173.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 170–71.
- ^ "Hattie vs Jackie in rail race". Sevenoaks Chronicle. Sevenoaks, Kent. 28 July 2011. (subscription required)
- ^ a b Merriman 2007, pp. 179–95.
- ^ a b c Edge, Simon (18 May 2010). "Hattie's Heart Break; A new drama explores the torrid secret life of one of our greatest comediennes – the married man, toyboy lover and a betrayal that caused her binge eating". Daily Express. London. pp. 72–73.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 183.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 191.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 199.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 203.
- ^ "Rhubarb, Rhubarb". British Film Institute. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 204.
- ^ Merriman 2007, pp. 205 & 208.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 210.
- ^ Stevens 2010, p. 308.
- ^ a b Gill, Liz (11 November 1980). "Laughter and Tears for Hattie". Daily Express. London. p. 10.
- ^ a b "Obituary: Miss Hattie Jacques". The Times. London. 7 October 1980. p. 14.
- ^ Le Mesurier 1984, p. 142.
- ^ Time Out 2003, p. 123.
- ^ Raif, Shenai (5 November 1995). "Comedy Tribute to Carry On Star". Press Association.
- ^ "Plaques Honour Comic Legend". Daily Post. Liverpool. 9 September 2002. pp. 4–5.
- ^ Chamberlain, Laura. "Ruth Jones stars in BBC Four drama Hattie". BBC: Wales. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
- ^ Cable, Amanda (15 January 2011). "The secret lover who broke Hattie's heart: Hattie Jacques' son recalls the love triangle he believes killed one of Britain's best loved actresses". Daily Mail. London.
- ^ Gibson, Mike (17 May 2010). "Hattie Jacques is a Comedy Heroine of Mine and I'm Thrilled to Have Been Asked to Play Her; Ruth Jones to Play Carry On Star in BBC Film". Western Mail.
- ^ Pratt, Tony (7 October 1980). "Hattie: Four Decades of Fun with Britain's Biggest Smile". Daily Mirror. London. p. 5.
- ^ Leckey 2013, p. 493.
- ^ Chapman, Peter (7 March 2003). "TV Heroes: #165: Hattie Jacques". The Independent. London. p. 31.
- ^ "Hattie Adored a Bit of Carry On; Randy Actress Was an Insatiable Man-Eater". Sunday Life. Belfast. 16 January 2011. p. 50.
- ^ Gallagher, Paul (1 September 2001). "Feminists carry on having the last laugh". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. p. 16.
- ^ Cecil, Jonathan (10 November 2007). "Big is beautiful". The Spectator. London. p. 66.
- ^ a b Phillips 2008, p. 150.
- ^ Lawson, Mark (4 September 2004). "Comment&Letters: Stuff would still happen". The Guardian. London. p. 23.
- ^ "Labour Party Conference: Cheering to Rafters as Happy-Clappy Tony is Forgiven by a Faithful Flock". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. 1 October 2003. p. 7.
- ^ "Streamline hospitals to fund vital drugs". Western Morning News. Plymouth, Devon. 3 October 2008. p. 11.
- ^ "Trust launches matron awareness campaign". Nursing Times. 22 August 2013.
- ^ Webber 2004, p. 112.
- ^ Pearce, Garth (7 October 1980). "Hattie: The Big Sister who was Good for a Thousand Laughs". Daily Express. London. p. 3.
- ^ Banks & Swift 1987, p. 54.
- ^ Merriman 2007, p. 151.
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(help) - Gifford, Denis (1978). The Illustrated Who's Who in British Films. London: B.T. Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-1434-9.
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(help) - 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.
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(help) - Sheridan, Paul (1952). Late and Early Joys at the Players' Theatre. London: T.V. Boardman. OCLC 504084581.
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(help) - Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-1-84854-195-5.
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(help) - Sykes, Eric (2003). Eric Sykes' Comedy Heroes. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-7535-0966-1.
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(help) - Sykes, Eric (2005). If I Don't Do It Someone Else Will: An Autobiography. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-717784-4.
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(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.
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(help) - Webber, Richard (2008). 50 Years of Carry On. London: Arrow. ISBN 978-0-09-949007-4.
{{cite book}}
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(help)
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Template:Bfidb individual
- Hattie Jacques at the BFI's Screenonline
- Hattie Jacques at IMDb
- Hattie Jacques at the TCM Movie Database
- Hattie Jacques on Pathé News
- Hattie Jacques plaques recorded on openplaques.org
- Use dmy dates from April 2012
- 1922 births
- 1980 deaths
- Actresses from Kent
- Burials at Putney Vale Cemetery
- Deaths from myocardial infarction
- English film actresses
- English radio actresses
- English stage actresses
- English television actresses
- People from Sandgate, Kent
- People educated at Godolphin and Latymer School
- 20th-century English actresses