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Arnold Ridley

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Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person William Arnold Ridley (7 January 1896 – 12 March 1984)<ref name="ODNB">Template:Cite ODNB</ref> was an English playwright and actor, known early in his career for writing the 1925 play The Ghost Train and later in life for the British television sitcom Dad's Army (1968–77), in which he played the elderly, bumbling Private Godfrey. He also appeared in such Dad's Army spin-offs as the feature film version and the stage production.

Early lifeEdit

William Arnold Ridley was born in Walcot, Bath, Somerset, England, the son of Rosa Caroline (née Morrish, 1870–1956) and William Robert Ridley (1871–1931).<ref name="Imperial War Museum">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His father was a gymnastics instructor and ran a boot and shoe shop. He attended the Clarendon School and the Bath City Secondary School where he was a keen sportsman. A graduate of the University of Bristol,<ref name="SomersetLive">Template:Cite news</ref> he studied in their Education Department, and played Hamlet in a student production. Ridley undertook teaching practice at an Elementary School in Bristol.<ref name=Ghost>Template:Cite book</ref>

Military serviceEdit

Ridley was a student teacher and had made his theatrical debut in Prunella at the Theatre Royal, Bristol when he volunteered for service with the British Army on the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. He was initially rejected because of a hammer toe.<ref name=heroics>Dad's Army star's First World War heroics, The Daily Telegraph, 26 July 2008</ref> In December 1915, he enlisted as a private with the Somerset Light Infantry, British Army.<ref name="WW1 medal card" /> He saw active service in the war, sustaining several wounds in close-quarter battle. His left hand was left virtually useless by wounds sustained on the Somme;<ref name=heroics/><ref>"Godfrey's secret war horror" p13 of Sunday Telegraph (Issue 2,459- dated 27 July 2008)</ref> his legs were riddled with shrapnel; he received a bayonet wound in the groin; and the lasting impacts of a blow to the head from a German soldier's rifle butt left him prone to blackouts after the war.<ref name=heroics/><ref name="radio46Jul12">Excusing Private Godfrey, BBC Radio 4, 6 July 2012.</ref> He was medically discharged from the army with the rank of lance corporal in May 1917.<ref name="WW1 medal card">Ridley's WW1 medal index card at The National Archive, Kew Surrey. Document code: WO 372/17/728.</ref> He received the Silver War Badge having been honourably discharged from the army due to wounds received in the war,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal for his service.<ref name="WW1 medal card" />

Ridley rejoined the army in 1939 following the outbreak of the Second World War.<ref name=radio46Jul12 /> He was commissioned into the General List on 7 October 1939 as a second lieutenant.<ref name="LG 10 November 1939">Template:London Gazette</ref> He served with the British Expeditionary Force in France during the "Phoney War", employed as a "Conducting Officer" tasked with supervising journalists who were visiting the front line. In May 1940,<ref name="BBC">The real-life wars of Dad's Army actor Arnold Ridley. Bethan Bell, BBC News, 5 February 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2016.</ref> Ridley returned to Britain on the overcrowded destroyer HMS Vimiera, which was the last British ship to escape from the harbour during the Battle of Boulogne.<ref name="cambridgeairforce">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Shortly afterwards, he was discharged from the Armed Forces on health grounds.<ref name=radio46Jul12 /> He relinquished his commission as a captain on 1 June 1940.<ref name="LG 28 May 1940">Template:London Gazette</ref> He subsequently joined the Home Guard,<ref name="radio46Jul12" /> in his home town of Caterham, and ENSA, with which he toured the country.<ref name="cambridgeairforce"/> He described his wartime experiences on Desert Island Discs in 1973.<ref>Interview with Roy Plomley on Desert Island Discs, 1973 "Desert Island Discs", BBC radio, 1973, retrieved 8 February 2016</ref><ref>The real-life wars of Arnold Ridley, BBC News website, retrieved 8 February 2016</ref>

Acting careerEdit

After his medical discharge from the army in 1916, Ridley commenced a career as a professional actor. In 1918 he joined the company of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, staying for two years and playing 40 parts before moving on to Plymouth, where he took a break from the stage when his war injuries began to trouble him.<ref name="SomersetLive"/>

After being stranded for an evening at Mangotsfield railway station, near Bristol, Ridley was inspired to write the play The Ghost Train (1925),<ref name="radio46Jul12" /> a tale of passengers stranded at a haunted railway station in Cornwall, with one of the characters being an incognito British Government agent trying to catch Bolshevik revolutionaries active in Great Britain. The play became a hit, with 665 consecutive performances in London's West End, and numerous revivals. The first credited film version was a German-British silent film, The Ghost Train, in 1927. The Ghost Train was also filmed in 1931, with Jack Hulbert, and again in 1941, when it starred Arthur Askey. A novelisation of The Ghost Train was published by The Readers Library Publishing Company, in 1927. Ridley also wrote more than 30 other plays, including The Wrecker (1924), Keepers of Youth (1929), The Flying Fool (1929) and Recipe for Murder (1932).<ref>Obituary, The Times, 14 March 1984</ref><ref>Amnon Kabatchnik Blood on the Stage, 1975–2000: Milestone Plays of Crime 2012 -. – Page 554 "A dastardly blackmailer is shot and poisoned simultaneously in Arnold Ridley's Recipe for Murder (1932)."</ref>

During his time in military service in the Second World War he adapted the Agatha Christie novel Peril at End House into a West End play that premiered in 1940. Ridley's post-war play, Beggar My Neighbour, was first performed in 1951<ref>"Plays by Arnold Ridley" Template:Webarchive, Doollee website</ref> and adapted for the Ealing Comedy film Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953).

Ridley worked regularly as an actor, including an appearance in the British comedy Crooks in Cloisters (1964). He also played Doughy Hood, the village baker, in the radio soap opera The Archers and the Rev. Guy Atkins in the ATV soap Crossroads from the programme's inception in 1964 until 1968. However, he became a household name only after he was cast as Private Godfrey, the gentle platoon medic in the television comedy series Dad's Army (1968–1977). He continued to appear into his eighties, and was appointed an OBE in the 1982 Queen's New Year Honours List, for services to the theatre.<ref name="SomersetLive"/>

He was the subject of This Is Your Life<ref>Arnold Ridley, This Is Your Life, Thames Television, 1976</ref> in 1976 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London's Marylebone Station.

Personal lifeEdit

Ridley was married three times. His first marriage lasted from January 1926 to 1939, and was followed by a short marriage to Isola Strong, an actress (It's Hard to Be Good), at Kensington in 1939,<ref>Nicolas Ridley Godfrey's Ghost, Mogzilla, 2009 pp.191–93</ref> before his final marriage to actress Althea Parker (1911–2001) on 3 October 1945;<ref>Nicolas Ridley Godfrey's Ghost, Mogzilla, 2009 p.194</ref> they had one son, Nicolas (b. 1947).<ref>Nicolas Ridley Godfrey's Ghost, Mogzilla, 2009 p.1</ref> He was a Freemason, and belonged to the Savage Club Lodge in London.<ref>See reference on the Lodge's official website.</ref><ref>Report of actor's son, Nicolas Ridley, discussing his father.</ref><ref>Report in UGLE magazine MQ.</ref> The actress Daisy Ridley is his great-niece.<ref name="BBC" />

A keen rugby player in his youth, he was President of Bath Rugby from 1950 to 1952.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

DeathEdit

Ridley died in hospital in Northwood in 1984 at the age of 88 after falling at his residence in Denville Hall, a home for retired actors.<ref>The Times, death announcement, 13 March 1984</ref> His body was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium and an urn holding his ashes was buried in his parents' grave at Bath Abbey Cemetery.<ref name="radio46Jul12" /> His collection of theatrical memorabilia was left to the University of Bristol and has been made available online.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

WorksEdit

PlaysEdit

  • The Ghost Train (1923)
  • The Wrecker (with Bernard Merivale, 1924)
  • Old Leeds (1928)
  • The Flying Fool (with Bernard Merivale, 1929)
  • Keepers of Youth (1929) (filmed in 1931)
  • Third Time Lucky (1932)
  • Half a Crown (1934)
  • Recipe for Murder (1936)
  • Peril at End House (1945, from Agatha Christie novel)
  • Easy Money (1948)
  • East of Ludgate Hill (1950)
  • Murder Happens (1951)
  • The Return (1953)
  • Mrs Tredruthan's Son (1953)
  • Beggar My Neighbour (1953)
  • Geranium (1954)
  • Tabitha (1956) (written with Mary Cathcart Borer)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • You, My Guests (1956)
  • Bellamy (1960)
  • Hercule Poirot Strikes (1967, from Agatha Christie novel)<ref>from WorldCat</ref>

Film adaptations (original author)Edit

ScreenwriterEdit

FilmographyEdit

FilmsEdit

Year Title Role Notes
1949 The Interrupted Journey Mr Saunders Uncredited
1951 Green Grow the Rushes Tom Cuffley
1952 Stolen Face Dr Russell
1963 Wings of Mystery Mr Bell Children's Film Foundation
1964 Crooks in Cloisters Newsagent
1966 A Man for All Seasons Innkeeper Uncredited
1971 Dad's Army Private Godfrey
1973 Carry On Girls Alderman Pratt
1975 The Amorous Milkman Cinema Attendant

TelevisionEdit

Year Title Role Notes
1959 Charlesworth Bank Clerk
1964–1968 Crossroads Rev. Guy Atkins
1965 The Human Jungle Mr Swinnerton Episode: "Heartbeats in a Tin Box"
1967 The Avengers Elderly Gentleman at lake Episode: Never, Never Say Die
Z-Cars Gardener Episode: I Never Meant to Drop Him: Part 1
Coronation Street Herbert Whittle
Mrs Thursday Director
Beggar My Neighbour Man 2 episodes
1968–1977 Dad's Army Private Godfrey 80 episodes, (final appearance)
1968 Theatre 625 Tunicliffe
The War of Darkie Pilbeam Hospital patient
The Very Merry Widow Sir Frederick Snayle, QC
The Caesars Nigrinus
1969 The Contenders Walrus
Out of the Unknown Munnings
Special Branch Mr. Turner
1970 As Good Cooks Go Mr. Charmers
The Doctors Percy
W. Somerset Maugham London Club Waiter
1971 Crossroads Guy Atkins
The Flaxton Boys Mr. Mooney
1972 The Persuaders! Uncle Rodney Episode: The Ozerov Inheritance
1973 Thriller 1st Old Man
1975 Hogg's Back Old Man

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

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