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Arthur English

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Arthur Leslie Norman English (9 May 1919 – 16 April 1995) was an English television, film and stage actor and comedian from the music hall tradition.

Early lifeEdit

File:22 Lysons Road Aldershot 2018.jpg
The house where English was born in 1919

English was born at 22 Lysons Road in Aldershot,<ref>English, Arthur (with Linton Mitchell) Through the Mill and Beyond The Basingstoke Press (1989) p. 16</ref><ref name=AHAS>'Arthur English, Aldershot Historical & Archaeological Society (AHAS), Yearbook 23 (2010) pg7</ref> Hampshire, the son of Walter Frederick English (1856–1948)<ref>– Walter Frederick English on Ancestry.com – pay to view</ref> and Ethel English (née Parsons) (1886–1975), who married at Holy Trinity church in Aldershot in 1909. Arthur English had two older brothers: Walter (born 1910) and John Edgar (born 1912). All three boys were born in their parents' bedroom in Lysons Road and all three were baptised at Holy Trinity church.<ref name=AHAS/><ref>Ethel Parsons on Ancestry.com – pay to view</ref> He attended West End Boys School in Aldershot (now the West End Centre) from the age of 5 to 14.<ref>English, pg18</ref> His first stage appearance was aged 10 when he joined a group from Gale & Polden called the 'Five O'clock Follies' as an acrobat.<ref name=AHAS8>AHAS, pg8</ref> On leaving school in 1933 he briefly worked at Fisher's Hotel in nearby Farnham before becoming an errand boy in a local grocery shop.<ref>English, p. 24</ref>

After serving in the British Army in World War II with the Hampshire Regiment and the Royal Armoured Corps, reaching the rank of sergeant,<ref>English, p. 36</ref> English worked as a painter and decorator in his native town and in the evenings worked as a semi-professional entertainer in various local venues polishing up his comedy routines.<ref name="AHAS8"/><ref name=Independent/> He married Ivy Ruth Martin in 1941;<ref>Arthur N L English in the England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1916–2005 – Ancestry.com- pay to view</ref> it was she who made his enormous kipper ties out of brightly coloured curtain material at the beginning of his stage career.<ref name=Independent/> They had two children, Ann Faith (1942–1999) and Anthony (born 1947).

In 1949, while still employed in Aldershot as a painter and decorator, English and his then stage partner Jonny Carrol unsuccessfully auditioned at the Windmill Theatre in London. On a second, and this time solo audition with Vivian Van Damm, English became resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre at the same time compering a show for Bob Potter. English stayed at the Windmill as the principal comic until August 1950.<ref name=AHAS8/>

His early professional career was as a stand-up comic in the persona of a stereotypical wartime "spiv", and he became known as "The Prince of the Wide Boys"<ref name=Independent>Template:Cite news</ref> dressed in a trilby hat, a white jacket and padded shoulders with a pencil moustache set off with a flamboyant kipper tie four inches wide.<ref name=AHAS8/>

Acting careerEdit

File:Arthur-english.jpg
Arthur English as his "Spiv" character

His radio work began with the BBC series Variety Bandbox, using as always his own Aldershot accent but in the persona of a Cockney spiv. His usual delivery was to tell a long rambling shaggy dog story at ever-increasing rapidity without losing clarity until, at top speed, he would end with the catch-phrase: "Play the music! Open the cage!" Another popular catch-phrase was "Mum. Mum. They're laughing at me!".<ref name=Independent/>

He began to appear on British television in mainly comedy roles in the 1970s, and is probably best remembered for playing the truculent and somewhat bolshy (though not entirely unsympathetic) maintenance man, Mr. Harman, in Are You Being Served? which he played from 1976 to 1985, including the 1977 film adaptation. He played Arthur, Alf Garnett's mate, in In Sickness and in Health, a follow-up series to Till Death Us Do Part from 1985 to 1990.<ref name=Independent/> He also appeared in The Sweeney.<ref name=IMDb>English on the Internet Movie Database</ref>

He had more likeable roles in two British children's TV series: The Ghosts of Motley Hall, which ran from 1976 to 1978 on ITV (produced by Granada Television), and as "Slugger" in Follyfoot, which ran from 1971 to 1973, also on ITV (produced by Yorkshire Television). He was in several other films including For the Love of Ada (1972) as "Arthur" and Everyday Maths (1978), a British TV schools programme starring Jack Wild as English's grandson. In 1978 he was the subject in This Is Your Life,<ref>English on This Is Your Life (1978) – tv.com</ref><ref>English on This Is Your Life (1978) – Internet Movie Database</ref> while in May 1983 he was a guest on Desert Island Discs with Roy Plomley.<ref>English on the Desert Island Discs website</ref> Also in 1983 he played Frosch in Die Fledermaus with English National Opera at the London Coliseum. In 1985 he appeared in an episode of the American TV series Magnum, P.I..<ref name=IMDb/>

English appeared in the Royal Variety Performance in 1951<ref name=Independent/> and 1980.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He had been president of Aldershot Town F.C.<ref>English, p. 49</ref><ref>– Message from the Chairman Template:Webarchive – Aldershot Town F.C. website</ref> which had been formed out of the ashes of Aldershot F.C. The new club badge depicted a rising phoenix and was designed by English. He had also been a long-standing member of the showbusiness charity the Grand Order of Water Rats, which he joined in 1970,<ref>English, p. 166</ref> a Freeman of the City of London and an Honorary Freeman of the Borough of Rushmoor.

Personal lifeEdit

File:Arthur English memorial.jpg
Memorial to Arthur English at the Park Crematorium in Aldershot
File:Arthur English Blue Plaque 2017.jpg
The blue plaque on the house in Lysons Road in Aldershot where English was born

Following the death of his wife Ivy (1919–75), English began to drink. On 27 August 1977, English married a young dancer, Teresa Mann<ref>England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1916–2005 for Arthur Ln English – Ancestry.com – pay to view</ref> (born 1955), whom he met while they were performing in a pantomime together at Wimbledon, and in 1981, the couple had a daughter – Clare-Louise English, the deaf mute actress director and writer who founded Hot Coals Productions, a Production company working the theatre film and TV who specialise in creating accessible content. The performers John Inman and Jack Douglas were the child's godparents.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The couple separated in 1986, and the marriage was dissolved in 1987. The last four years of his life were spent in Devereux House, a care home in Farnborough where he liked to play draughts and bred canaries.

Arthur English died in 1995 at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey as a result of complications from emphysema.<ref>Arthur Leslie N English in the England & Wales, Death Index, 1916–2007 – Ancestry.com – pay to view</ref> After a funeral service at St Michael's church at which fellow Water Rat Jimmy Perry read the oration,<ref>Funeral Service card for Arthur Leslie Norman English at the Church of St Michael the Archangel, Aldershot – Glenn Christodoulou Collection</ref> his body was cremated at the Park Crematorium in Aldershot where his ashes were later interred in a plot with those of his first wife.

HonoursEdit

An Aldershot Civic Society blue plaque was unveiled by actor and singer Jess Conrad OBE on 15 July 2017 at 22 Lysons Road where English was born in 1919.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>'Are You Being Served? actor Arthur English honoured with blue plaque' – BBC News Online – 15 July 2017</ref><ref>'Blue plaque unveiled for Aldershot's Arthur English' – Eagle Radio – 15 July 2017</ref><ref>Arthur English Honoured – Grand Order of Water Rats website</ref>

Selected television appearancesEdit

Selected filmographyEdit

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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