Dick Emery - A Comedy Career in Fear
 
 

It's over fifteen years since the talented Dick Emery died.
A staple of television comedy, be it in his own show or in others,
for a quarter of a century, and with a successful career in radio before.
However, despite his successes in broadcasting, Dick was a man in fear of practicing his art,
a fear stemming from his childhood.

 

In the blood

Born Richard Gilbert Emery at the University College Hospital in St.Pancras on 19th February 1915, he was the son of a family in the business. His father, Laurence Cuthbert Emery,was an actor himself, and his mother, Bertha, was a former Gaiety girl. They performed together as music-hall act Callen and Emery ( Callen being Bertha's maiden name ) during much of Dick's early childhood, a factor that resulted in him having little formal education as the family were always touring.

Fear and family

His parents separated in 1926, and Dick went to live with his mother. She stopped performing herself, but took pride in her son's own talents. After her death, Dick is quoted as saying, "I adored her, but I was also frightened of her." It is clear that his fear of performing started around this time, as his mother would always insist that he sing for visitors as he had a good voice - Dick once considered a career in opera. Performing for strangers, while undeniably useful for his future career, was a nightmare for Dick at this age, and one that continued to haunt him throughout his career.

War and peace

It wasn't until his National Service in the RAF that Dick started to perform in shows. As a member of ENSA, he regularly appeared in gang shows entertaining the troops and this was also the first time he appeared as a female impersonator,something which would become a staple of his future peace-time act. While the war was on, Dick was kept busy, but after demob he struggled to find work, attending many auditions while trying to find an agent. Eventually, like many others who started professionally after the war, he managed to get work at the Windmill Theatre in 1948, and was on the way.

Radio calling ...

But it wasn't until the Fifties, when many Forces radio favourites were given their own shows, that Dick really started to become known. In fact, along with people like Ronnie Barker and Jon Pertwee, who he worked with on Pertwee's Progress in 1955, Dick worked consistently as a voice man and this is wheresome of his most famous television characters started out. The doddery old man, later to become known as the character Lampwick, started out in Educating Archie, around the same time as Beryl Reid's famous Monica. Out of all the stars who worked on the radio series, and they included Tony Hancock, Sid James, Bruce Forsyth and Warren Mitchell, only Dick - and of course Peter Brough as the voice of Archie - transferred to television when Educating Archie was made on film by Associated Rediffusion in 1958. Dick played a jack-of-all-trades, alongside Irene Handl as Peter Brough's housekeeper and Freddie Sales as his lodger. Dick also appeared with Irene in We're In Business, on radio in 1960.

In demand

Other series which featured Dick during the Fifties, although often as a single character rather than as a voice man, included Happy Holliday in 1954 with Peter Sellers and Service With A Smile in 1957 with Ken Platt, who had also appeared in Educating Archie. Service with A Smile followed the ineffectual staff of a hotel, where Platt played the gormless junior sidekick to Dick's head porter. Happy Holliday focused around the Mayor of the coastal resort of Littleham-On-Sea, played by Sellers, who wanted to put it firmly on the tourist map. The resort attracted various eccentrics, the most frequent visitor being Dick as Frederick Featherstonehaugh. He worked with Sellers again later on, as a guest artist on The Goon Show. Dick's career on radio was going well, although he still had many doubts about his abilities. In 1952, his fears had reached such a point that he resorted to hypnosis and finally psychoanalysis to restore his confidence. Even so, this self-criticism would continue for the rest of his career.

Sound off, vision on ...

In the Sixties, and for the rest of his life, Dick transferred from radio to the small screen on a permanent basis, with one or two infrequent returns to the medium. One of these, It's A Fair Cop, in 1961 with Eric Sykes, Hattie Jacques, and Deryck Guyler was a precursor to the television Sykes in many ways, revolving around Eric and Deryck as police officers. Dick was a permanent prisoner at the station, with his own cell complete with armchair and television - very much an early version of the Genial Harry Grout-type character later seen in Porridge. Before finally getting his own show, Dick worked on the final series of The Army Game as Private 'Chubby' Catchpole opposite Michael Medwin and returning regular William Hartnell, as well as in It's A Square World, created and starring ex-Goon Michael Bentine and other comedy actors including Frank Thornton, later of Are You Being Served? fame. But in 1963, The Dick Emery Show propelled him into the front-line solo for the first time in his career.

A cavalcade of characters

The series, which ran for the best part of two decades, would see him launch a whole host of characters on the public. Some of the less well-remembered included a country yokel farmer, a Jack-the-lad sailor, a leather-clad biker and a city gent-cum-Pakistani. But he provided a good half dozen or more which were indisputably Dick at his finest, and all are fondly remembered by viewers to this day. Along with Lampwick, the old codger who would connive to get his own way with his daughter andson-in-law, there was Hettie, the frustrated spinster - "Excuse me, Madam", "It's Miss!" - who would always try to grab the interviewer for a night of passion. Then, there was the toothy Vicar, who would always preach the moral high ground to his flock, but was no saint himself and was usually quick to take offense at any real or imagined double-entendres. College, the upper-class tramp, was another creation. While less of a comic character in himself - the humour of the inserts featuring him and his mate focused on their circumstances - he was probably the closest that anyone got to seeing the real Dick, as he didn't alter his own vocal performance very much for the character.

One of the best, and which showed that even within the structure of a sketch show a good partnership could form, was the 'bovver boy' Gaylord, and his 'Daad' played superbly by the much-missed Roy Kinnear. They would always be trying to pull the wool over someone's eyes and make a fast buck, but no matter how well his Dad showed him how to do it, he would always mess it up and land Dad in trouble. His catchphrase - "Daad - I think I've got it wrong again!" - became one of Dick's most famous. Another - "Hello, Honky Tonk!" - belonged to the effeminate swinger in some very outrageous clothes.

But the most remembered will always be Mandy, the brassy blonde who always misunderstood the interviewer and dispatched him amorously with "Ooh, you are awful - but I like you!" and a hefty slap, which usually resulted in his falling into ponds, onto park benches or into litter baskets. The first part of the catchphrase was used as the title for a film starring Dick as many of the characters and a few new ones in 1972.

His doubts persisted all the while, despite his shows regularly being in the top twenty. He also found time to appear in other shows. In 1964, he appeared as tv station boss Mr. Hughes in the original version of Room At The Bottom, a show which would be remade in the Eighties with Keith Barron in the role. In 1970, he also appeared in Dick Emery's Grand Prix, a spoof comeback race for Dick as a vintage driving ace against drivers of the day, including an appearance by British driver Graham Hill.

Switching channels

In 1979, after over fifteen years of success with the BBC, Dick switched channels to Thames for The Dick Emery Comedy Hour, which though longer was basically the same format he had always worked on except that it featured special guests and the Irving Davies Dancers. In 1982, Dick returned to the BBC for the first of two comedy-thriller series. Billed simply as Emery, the first series, known as Legacy Of Murder, saw Dick playing small-time private detective Bernie Weinstock, employed to trace six people who hadn't been seen for over twenty years. Needless to say, they were all played by Dick. Aided by his gofer, played by Barry Evans, and with supporting cast including Richard Vernon and Michael Robbins, it made for interesting viewing and gave Dick the chance to concentrate on new characters in a different situation. It also gained very respectable ratings, giving rise to a second series to feature Bernie. Known as Jack Of Diamonds, this story had him on the trail of diamonds hidden in Holland during World War 2. This time, his trusty aide was Norman Lugg, played by the excellent Tony Selby, and Dick again played a succession of minor characters. Unfortunately, Jack Of Diamonds was the last series Dick made and it wasn't transmitted until shortly after his death.

A personal legacy

Dick's insecurity contributed to his troubled personal life, which saw its fair share of joy and sadness. He married five times in total, resulting in three sons and a daughter. His third wife, Iris, died of a brain tumour, which no doubt contributed to a period of depression before Dick married again. At the time of his death, he was separated from his wife Josephine and was living with dancer Fay Hillier. On the 2nd January 1983, Dick died in King's College Hospital, London, aged 67.

Dick rose through the ranks from Forces gang show member, through radio voice-man and finally became a star in his own right, entertaining the public for the best part of thirty-five years, in spite of his own doubts, insecurities and fears. He was a master of his craft, and the world of variety-comedy lost one of its best talents when he died. But he left a wealth of classic comic characters behind, and for that he will always be remembered by the public with affection.

article copyright PPS / M.Hearn 1999