Charlie Drake
Charlie Drake (19 June, 1925, - 23 December, 2006), was an English comedian, actor, writer and singer.
Born Charles Edward Springall in Elephant and Castle, South London, he took his mother's maiden name "Drake" for the stage and, later, television and film, achieving success as a comedian especially.
With his small stature, curly red hair and liking for slapstick he was a popular comedian with children in his early years.
He made his TV debut in "The Centre Show" in 1953. He then joined his wartime comrade Jack Edwardes to form a double act, named "Mick and Montmorency".
He appeared in the television shows "Laughter in Store" (1957), "Drake's Progress" (1957), "Charlie Drake In..." (1958 to 1960) and "The Charlie Drake Show" (1960 to 1961), being particularly remembered for his opening catchphrase "Hello My Darlings!" Filming of the Charlie Drake Show by the BBC was cut short, however, by a serious accident that occurred in 1961, during live transmission. Drake had arranged for a bookcase to be set up in such a way that it would fall apart during a slapstick sketch in which he was pulled through it. It was later discovered that an over-enthusiastic workman had "mended" the bookcase before filming. The actors working with him, unaware of what had happened, proceeded with the rest of the sketch which required that they pick him up and throw him through an open window. Drake fractured his skull and was unconscious for three days. It was two years before he returned to the screen.
TV fame led to four films, none of them successful - "Sands of the Desert" (1960), "Petticoat Pirates" (1961), "The Cracksman" (1963) and "Mr Ten Percent" (1967). He returned to TV in 1963 with "The Charlie Drake Show" again, a compilation of which won an award at the Montreux Festival in 1968. Other shows included "Who is Sylvia" (1967) and "Slapstick and Old Lace" (1971), but it was "The Worker" (1965 to 1970) that gained most acclaim.
In "The Worker" he played a perpetually unemployed labourer who, in every episode, was dispatched to a new job by the ever-frustrated Mr. Pugh (Henry McGee) at the local labour exchange. All the jobs he embarked upon end in disaster, sometimes with a burst of classic slapstick, sometimes with a bewildered Charlie himself at the centre of incomprehensible actions by the people employing him. Bookending these sequences were the encounters between Charlie and Pugh which were often funnier than the core of the episode. Running jokes included Charlie's inability to manage Mr Pugh's name, his mispronunciations ranging from a childish "Mi'er Poo" to "Peeyooo".
Charlie sang the theme song himself, using an old music hall number which naturally became famous in its own right.
I gets up every mornin' when the clock strikes eight I'm always punctual, never never late With a nice cup of tea, a little round of toast The Sporting Life and the Winning Post. I gets all nice and cozy, then I toddles off to work I do the best I can Cos I'm only a-doin' what a bloke should do Cos I'm only a workin' man!
He made a few more appearances on TV, but concentrated on straight stage acting, including Shakespeare and Harold Pinter, and a TV performance as "Smallweed" in "Bleak House" (1985) and even as a criminal in a thriller series.
He recorded a remarkable number of records (see Discography), the first of which, a rock and roll number, got into the Top 10, but the rest were mostly novelty songs.
He suffered a stroke in 1995 and retired, staying at Brinsworth House, a retirement home for actors and performers, run by the Entertainment Artistes Benevolent Fund, until his death on December 23 2006, after he suffered from multiple strokes in the night. [1]
Discography
- Splish Splash / Hello My Darlings (1958) #7
- Volare / Itchy Twitchy Feeling (1958) #28
- Tom Thumb's Tune / Goggle Eye Ghee {1958)
- Sea Cruise / Starkle Starkle Little Twink (1959)
- Naughty / Old Mr Shadow (1960)
- Mr Custer / Glow Worm (1960) #12
- My Boomerang Won't Come Back / She's My Girl (1961) #14
- Tanglefoot / Drake's Progress (1962)
- I Bent My Assigai / Sweet Freddy Green (1962)
- I've Lost The End Of My Yodel / I Can, Can't I (1963)
- I'm Too Heavy For The Light Brigade / The Reluctant Tight-Rope Walker (1964)
- Charles Drake 007 / Bumpanology (1964)
- Only A Working Man / I'm A Boy (1965)
- Don't Trim My Wick / Birds (1966)
- Who Is Sylvia / I Wanna Be A Group (1967)
- Puckwudgie / Toffe And Tears (1972) #47
- "Gimme That Punk Junk" (punk rock spoof record, 1976, recorded under the name The Water Pistols)