Charles Hawtrey

Sentences containing the words Charles and Hawtrey often also include 'comic', 'legend' and 'icon'. Certainly there have been few people in the history of mankind who could more easily and instantly bring a smile to my face. As a youngster, I would watch Carry On films, and the characters portrayed by Charles Hawtrey, were often the funniest and most memorable. I am not altogether certain what was so funny about him. Maybe the vulnerability......... he was of course scrawny and wimpish visually. Or his ineptitude to get things right. Probably it was his absurdity. With his posh voice and stubborn but camp disposition, I used to love the appearance of Charles Hawtrey into a Carry On scene because suddenly the laughter possibilities were endless. He was a superb comedy foil, most especially to Sid James whose nature was a complete opposite. This was never better witnessed than in Carry On Cabby in 1963, with Hawtrey playing the willing but largely incompetent Terry 'Pintpot' Tankard, alongside James' typically aggressive and opportunistic character, taxi company owner Charlie Hawkins. Perhaps the memory that stuck with me the longest was his part in Carry On Doctor (1967) in which he played Mr Barron, who was in hospital because he thought he was having a baby!!

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In all, Charles Hawtrey appeared in 23 Carry On films between 1958 and 1972. Other roles in the series that I have enjoyed were as Eustace Tuttle in Carry On Abroad in 1972 ( the last time all the regulars appeared together) and as Professsor James Widdle in Carry On Up The Khyber in 1968. The writers were always generous in the gags handed to Hawtrey. He provided some of the best one-liners from the series. I remember a great gag from Carry On Don't Lose Your Head. He played the Duc De Pommfrit, who ,when at the guillotine and about to get be-headed, was told an urgent letter had just arrived for him. He replied 'Oh, drop it in the basket. I'll read it later'. However, he was never top of the bill, usually appearing fourth or fifth on the film publicity material. 'Abroad' was to prove to be his final Carry On appearance. Hawtrey was disillusioned with not being top of the bill and after a drink fuelled argument with producer Peter Rogers, was never again seen in a Carry On film.

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Being the age I am, I can only remember Charles Hawtrey from the Carry On's. He had though been a child star. He was born in November 1914 in Hounslow, Middlesex. His real name was George Frederick Joffre Hartree. He took the name Charles Hawtrey from a celebrated and knighted actor of the time and encouraged rumours that he was his son in an attempt to further his own chances in the business. His father had in fact been a mechanic. The Charles Hawtrey we all know and love started his career as a boy soprano, making records and appearing on the radio in Children's Hour. He was in fact a very good musician. Aged 11 he made his stage debut in Boscombe, playing a street Arab. He was to go on to appearing at the London Palladium. As far as films were concerned, he was in Tell Your Children as early as 1922. His first prominent roles were alongside Will Hay in Good Morning Boys (1937) and Where's That Fire (1939). Hawtrey also produced a film in 1945, Dumb Dora Discovers Tobacco, starring Flora Robson, in 1945. His TV career took off in 1957 when he appeared as Private 'Professor' Hatchett in The Army Game, with Alfie Bass, Bill Fraser and Bernard Bresslaw. In 1960 he played Simon Willow, a council official in Our House, a sitcom also starring Carry On favourites Bresslaw, Hattie Jacques and Joan Sims (as well as Hylda Baker).

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The Carry On period was to prove to be the pinnacle of Charles Hawtrey's life, both personally and professionally. After 1972 he made a handful of TV appearances, but was largely reduced to playing pantomime roles, using his enormous former popularity to great effect. But his private life took on a darker side as he turned increasingly to drink. He retired to Deal in Kent, where he gained the reputation of being a lonely and unpredictable man. He had never hidden his homosexuality, and alcohol and cigarettes led him to an unhealthy and promiscuous lifestyle. Any publicity he received often portrayed him as a broken and pathetic figure. In 1988, ironically following a fall in a Public House, he faced the reality of having to have his legs amputated. He refused an operation and died a month later, aged 73.

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Back to happier times. Charles Hawtrey will go down in comedy history. He was much loved by the British public because of his Carry On connection. Anyone around at the time and those who have caught the series since will remember his voice, his snooty mannerisms, his campness, his granny glasses and his mummy boy ways.They may simply remember him saying 'Oh. Hello' and giggling. He was a natural comic, funny just entering the room. Regrettably, his private life would suggest he had much emotional turmoil. It is quite probable we never saw the real George Frederick Joffre Hartree.