A Star Like No-other... John Inman and how he changed comedy

When the name John Inman is said by people, usually it is associated with the character Wilberforce Claybourne Humphries in Are You Being Served? Though actually there is a lot more to Inman's sitcom career, through 'Odd Man Out' to 'Take a Letter Mr Jones'. But for other comedians and variety stars who had their own vehicles, it seems that Inman could have gone down that route but stayed with the familar.

Born in Preston in 1935, he made his stage debut at age 13 on Blackpool's South Pier. After leaving school, he worked at a gentleman's oufitters in Blackpool before moving to London. Evenutally he became a scenic artist with Kenneth Kendall's touring theatre group in Crewe earning Equity Card. His ambition had always to been a professional actor, having risen through the ranks to appear in the West End, his television debut did not come until 1970 appearing in the sitcom Two in Clover. 

Intially approached in 1972 to appear in a Comedy Playhouse by David Croft about a department store, the pilot co-written with Jeremy Lloyd around Lloyd's experience of working at Simpson's of Piccadilly. The character of Mr Humphries was only a minor part, with the character who he was to develop into barely recognisable at all. Seemingly only where the pilot was left to be broadcast at some point, it was the tragedy at the Munich Olympics which meant BBC 1 had to rearrange their schedules post haste, meaning the pilot for Are You Being Served was aired to fill air time but to take people's minds off what had happened. With an audience desperate for light relief, the show had grabbed attention through even what was saw as fortuitous circumstances. 

Even then in the show's first full series early in 1973 which was put opposite Coronation Street, it was not until a repeat run later in the year did the series take off, the full spectre of Mr Humphries had been launched on the nation, but for seeming all the attention, that the character and the way that Inman was portraying him was not to everyone's taste. His mannerisms were seen as over the top, though in his defence Inman did state there were far more people in the country who were far more camp then the character he was playing in Are You Being Served and that himself and David Croft described Mr Humphries as a 'mummy's boy'. For all what was seen on this side of the Atlantic of Mr Humphries being too camp, that when Are You Being Served was shown in the United States, Wilberforce Humphries became a gay cultural icon. Leading to the series' popularity abroad with an Australian remake with Inman playing Mr Humphries in that show.

With being such a big star, it was little surprise when John Inman moved to ITV star in 'Odd Man Out' as the joint inheritor of a rock factory in Littlehampton, though much like Mollie Sugden's experience in 'Come Back Mrs Noah', the public want to see the actors playing the parts they are used to seeing them as. The reflective nature of this series looking back at it, it is by no means awful. Though its seems almost unsophsticated compared to the shows around back then, where the character of Mr Humphries worked in the surroundings of Grace Brothers, by doing the same type of character in another show. It had felt that all the ground and jokes had been covered.

Though not a ratings success, Take a Letter, Mr Jones was much like Are You Being Served? with much more of a gang feel to the sitcom adding to the cast with Rula Lenska and Miriam Margolyes to make sure that Inman was not out there alone. But as the series went out in Autumn 1981, it seems with Southern Television leaving the ITV network in December 1981 that the series was almost bound to itself. With it possibly being a success, that another ITV company would have to pick up the show and there was no guarantees of that at all. Though the feel of the series felt that sitcoms were moving into a new age during the 1980's, but of later series such as Me and My Girl, this show can owe a lot to them. Where as Odd Man Out was written by Vince Powell, Take a Letter, Mr Jones was written by Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe. The experience of these writers had made the characters come to life in their previous shows but were seemingly incapable to do anything with Inman then just rework Mr Humphries with a new name.

With Grace and Favour reuniting most of the cast of Are You Being Served? in 1992, such with the other sitcoms apart from Are You Being Served? The reception of series was not favourable apart from the fans of the previous series, though it did manage to get to a second series. Inman became one of the nation's best known dames in Panto after Are You Being Served?  and appeared in over 40 pantomimes. His appearances in Summer season and in other shows, showed a natural versatile ability for entertaining audiences with his own style, telling jokes and using his humour to entertain across the United Kingdom.He also toured Australia starring in a number of productions capitalising on his popularity in the country. Though not coming out as Gay official during his time on the stage and screen, Inman entered into a Civil Partnership with his partner of 33 years (at the time), Ron Lynch in December 2005.

Though he suffered from poor health in his later years. He was hospitalised with bronchitis in 1993, and collapsed on stage in 1995.He was admitted to St Mary's Hospital, Paddington in 2001 when suffering from breathing difficulties spending three days in intensive care. Following a Hepatitis A infection in 2004, this eventually prevented from working any more via the complications. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium after a funeral on 23 March 2007. Though he has left us, the legacy which he has left us through his appearances one of Britain's most loved sitcoms and how he took a character with a few lines and made him one of the biggest icons of comedy during the 1970's and 80's allowing Inman to become a household name. Not bad for a man who started out in a Gentleman's Outfitters.

David Croft – The Man who made Britain laugh...

At one put and another, it is fair to say that most people have come across a certain type of person in their lives, whether that be during their own leisure time, the workplace or just generally. Whoever they are, the first thought anyone has is “Aren't they a right little...” usually accompanied with a sitcom character. Its the power and effect of one man who reigned supreme over the world of situation comedy for so long, that no matter most people in Britain no matter how old they are have seen one of his pieces of work, that man being David Croft.

Born David John Andrew Sharland in Sandbanks, Dorset on the 7^th of September, 1922. He was born into a family steeped in show business, his mother Anne Croft was an established stage actress and his father Reginald Sharland, already famous for having a career as one of Hollywood's early radio actors. But his Croft's actual career started when seven appearing in a cinema commercial of the late 1920's. Though by the end of the next decade, the aspiring young actor appeared in an uncredited role in the 1939 film version of Goodbye, Mr Chips as Perkins.

His own school days were spent at St John's Wood Preparatory School and later at Rugby School in Warwickshire, but come 1942 and with the second World War happening, he enlisted in the Royal Artillery, serving in the North African campaign and also in India and Singapore. It was during his time in North Africa that Croft contracted rheumatic fever and was sent home to convalesce back in Britain. Afterwards he undertook officer training at Sandhurst Military Academy, before being posted to India just as the war in Europe was just ending itself. Assigned to the Essex Regiment, he rose the rank eventually becoming a Major during his time in the Army.

When his military service ended, Croft went back to his first love of entertainment becoming first an actor and singer, thought this was to lead to his career in writing as well. His start came though himself meeting, Freddie Carpenter who at that time produced many pantomimes for Howard and Wyndham across Britain at that time. From this, it resulted with Croft writing scripts for their pantos. But in his friendship with lifelong friend, the composer and conductor Cyril Ornadel, he met theatre producer Fiona Bentley who had just purchased the right to some of Beatrix Potter's stories and was looking to adapt and musicalise them. The task was given to himself to write the scripts and lyrics for a series of these stories to be released on records to be narrated by the Hollywood actress Vivien Leigh and starring with Croft, actors and actresses of the calibre of Graham Stark and Cicely Courtneidge.

Afterwards his career took a move into television when he joined the fledgling Tyne Tees Television to direct shows for them including early madman Ned's Shed and Mary Goes to Market, but his heart lie in entertainment and he was charged with producing the variety show The One O’clock Show, inviting the best of local talent to appear to perform their act in front of the cameras and also inviting the best of the entertainment industry to come up to to Newcastle to appear as well. But it was during his time at Tyne Tees where he produced his first ever sitcom Under New Management, it was the story about a derelict pub in the North of England. This being the earliest recorded example of Croft producing a sitcom for television. Come the mid-sixties, he moved to the BBC and using his experience of producing Under New Management, shows like Beggar My Neighbour, Further Up Pompeii plus Hugh and I were given to him to produce. But this put him into the BBC Light Entertainment department with Bill Cotton Jnr, who he was to have a fruitful working relationship for most of his writing and producing career.

At that time whilst producing Hugh and I, he met Jimmy Perry. Perry himself was tired of having just small parts in sitcoms, so he decided to write a pilot for a series initially called The Fighting Tigers about the British Home Guard. When Croft saw the script, he consulted with his agent wife Ann and said to her “I've got a script from Jimmy Perry here and I think its got something about it..” and she agreed as well. From that Croft said he liked it to Perry and that they should write it together, thus Dad's Army was born. First broadcast in 1968, the initial title sequence was to have film footage of the war over Bud Flannigan's tune of 'Who do you think you're kidding Mr Hitler?'. But when Bill Cotton Jnr. saw it, he thought it was a bit too much and so the footage was dropped for the now familiar map and arrows title sequence. The craft that both of them put into the series, made the show much bigger then the war itself. The antics of the Warmington-On-Sea Home Guard kept viewers amused and made bigger stars out of Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring, John Le Measuieras Sergeant Wilson , Clive Dunn, Arnold Ridley, John Laurie, James Beck, Ian Lavender. All of them not top line stars until Dad's Army changed their lives forever.

But it was a mark of Croft that he used jobbing actors in other parts in other of his shows and then when it came around casting for his next project, they would get a leading role for example Wendy Richard appeared in Dad's Army, which lead her to getting the part of Ms Brahms in Are You Being Served and one customer making a brief and fleeting appearance during the episode The Apartment in the 1979 series of the show was later to become Spike Hollins in Hi-de-Hi, Jeffrey Holland of course. But his memory of actors and actresses in other shows was legendary and allowing them to come into the spotlight to play major parts. As Jeffrey Holland and Paul Shane said in a BBC 2011 tribute to the man “He ruled with a rod of iron, but with a smile on his face..” “Like a smiling viper..”

Whist Croft was still producing Dad's Army, he joined forced with Jeremy Lloyd, another actor was jobbing and looking for something different. So himself and Croft wrote a one off sitcom for the Comedy Playhouse season called Are You Being Served, with the show itself being shelved until tragedy intervened. With the Munich Olympics cancelled postponed because of the Israeli hostage crisis, the BBC had time to fill and the decision was taken to play Are You Being Served to both fill time where the Olympics would have been and also as a moral booster after such tragic events. With a captive audience, the filler programme garnered viewers who enjoyed the light relief of Grace Bros. over the heavy new coming out of Munich.

Time again Croft had the magic touch over sitcoms, co-creating It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Hi-de-Hi, You Rang M'Lord, 'Allo 'Allo and Oh, Doctor Beeching. But his knowledge of comedy was second to none as every time he picked the right person for the role in sitcoms, he managed to bring Gordon Kaye and Vicki Michelle from Come Back Mrs Noah starring Molly Sugden and Ian Lavender into 'Allo 'Allo. The second of the wartime sitcoms, but this time from the other side of the channel seeing what life was life was like in occupied France at that time. Just like Dad's Army it proved that there was no difference between either of the channel and the antics were just as silly, but the writing was still magnificent as Melvyn Hayes recalled “He'd laugh on all the run throughs, right upto the day of transmission..” Proving the jokes were good but when it came to make them right, Croft was always serious about that.

The way that David Croft rode the nostalgic angle is an interesting one, at the end of the 1970's there was a big 1950's revival and by the time the early 80's had come around Perry and Croft had the right sitcom written and made look at life in a 1950's holiday camp.

In Hi-de-Hi, Perry's experiences as a redcoat at Butlin's provided material for the show, but like all the rest of the sitcoms co-written and produced by Croft, there was always a piece of one of the writers experiences in there such as the experience of working in a department store or the experiences of the British Army abroad. With a common theme of class structure, not always would the top man be a person who was privileged, Mainwaring being the Captain and Wilson being the Sergeant, reversing roles allowing the class structure to be played out, not in a socio-political way but with the day to day working of people from different classes and seeing how they would interact with each other. But this was pretty much like Croft himself, a shy man who would observe other people and how they went about their business, mentally noting down anything which could used in the writing.

Even in 2007, Croft had created a pilot for Wendy Richard and Les Dennis called Here Comes The Queen. Proving that Croft still had an eye for a good sitcom even in his later years, but he was a man always looking to revisit ideas or make new ones. His style of scripting was unique, writing head to head with his co-creators to allow them to bounce ideas off each other, but also recording the scripts onto dictaphones to allow him to here the right intonations of the words being put to paper. Very much in the style of a self rehearsal, this method came from his time as an actor rehearsing with other actors their lines. For all his work came the honours which were richly deserved such as winning the Writer's Guild award for Best Comedy Script three years running between 1969 and 1971 for Dad's Army, earning a lifetime achievement award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards with young bit part actor who had appeared in some of his shows turned host of the awards Jonathan Ross was there to see him pick up the award.

The legacy of David Croft lives on through the repeats of his shows, the DVD's and also other projects as well. Everyone can at least claim they have seen a bit of his work if they liked it or not, but truly David Croft will be remembered in Television. Light Entertainment and Comedy circles as the man who made Britain laugh...

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