On his return home a month later, things had become even more strained. Certainly the children enjoyed his happy-go-lucky ways and pestered him to take them bowling or on other exciting treats. The son of two of Britain's bestloved comedy actors, Dad's Army star John Le Mesurier and Carry On favourite Hattie Jacques, he enjoyed a Bohemian childhood. This ensured that the press blamed him for the break-up, casting Jacques as the victim in the matter. John Le Mesurier was married to his first wife, actress June Melville, when he began dating Hattie Jacques in 1947. [84] She appeared in the sketches "Concerto for Three Buffoons" with Secombe and Sykes, "The Good Old Days", and the two full company numbers that closed each of the two halves of the show. [11] She left Godolphin and Latymer in the summer of 1939 with unremarkable grades. During the war, she was a nurse for the Red Cross, once helping a woman give birth in a telephone kiosk. Best known for: Larger than life comedy actress who is most famous for being part of the repertory company of actors who made up the . "It was planned that I should play a character named 'Ella Phant'. He suffered a stroke, after having been struck down by a rare virus, which damaged his heart and lungs. During the return ferry crossing she told her friend Bruce Copp that "You know I'm not going to live long". Sykes had been impressed with Jacques since he visited the Players' in 1948. . [186] Her friend Bob Monkhouse thought that her career was overshadowed by her size: "She was such a great comedienne everyone wanted her but the movers and shakers of entertainment didn't perceive her as anything other than a fat lady". It was as if Jacques feared being alone, for then elements of self-loathing closed in. Save up to 50% on Swimwear when you shop now. The writer Susan Leckey described Jacques as "one of the best-loved British comedy stars",[181] while Jacques's obituarist in The Times observed that "she was invariably successful" at making people "laugh with, rather than at you". May 7, 2017 - Image result for John Schofield Hattie Jacques. Jacques joined as part of the storyline of episode five of the fourth series of the radio programme. [100] So popular was Jacques's scene, that the producers imported two million plastic daffodils from Japan which were then used to promote the comedy. The first series ran for 29 weeks until 19 December. In 1943, Josephine become a welder in a north London factory, and at the same time, she became romantically involved with an American officer. [141] Although 1969 had been busy, 1970 was relatively quiet in terms of her professional output: apart from an episode of Catweazle,[142] she appeared alongside Willoughby Goddard in a six-episode series of Charley's Grants. The following year, Josephine began her entertainment career in music hall revues, and this was where she acquired her new stage name albeit in a somewhat distasteful fashion. She liked to surround herself with company, her big house in Earls Court (sold after her death to Gloria Hunniford) crammed with out-of-work actors, window dressers, homosexuals wanted by the police, and the alcoholic and incapable Joan Sims. Joan Malin. [115] She appeared in her sixth Carry On, Carry On Cabby, in 1963, as "Peggy Hawkins", the emotionally neglected wife of taxi-firm boss "Charlie", played by Sid James. The comedian was so fed up with her stoned husband John Le Mesurier that she moved a Cockney used-car salesman into the marital bed instead. In Up to His Neck (1954), she played the grass-skirted Tahitian girlfriend of Brian Rix. Hatties biographer, Andrew Merriman, describes John as a devastatingly handsome, charismatic East Ender, to whom she was immediately attracted, adding: He was articulate, charming and funny, and flattered Hattie shamelessly. Hattie Jacques. Deals and discounts in Nails you dont want to miss. [55], Throughout 1951 Jacques continued to mix work in different media, including appearing as Mrs Fezziwig in the film Scrooge starring Alastair Sim;[56] from 3 August until 25 January 1952 she appeared in a second radio series of Educating Archie,[57] as well as appearing in the related stage show, The Archie Andrews Christmas Show at the Prince of Wales Theatre from December 1952 to January 1953. [88] Jacques's screen time was increased from Carry On Nurse, as the producers considered her part to be an extension of the earlier role. Find out more, The latest offers and discount codes from popular brands on Telegraph Voucher Codes, Hattie Jacques practicing the American craze of 'jumpology' in 1959, Hattie Jacques and John Le Mesurier in 1961, Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques in Carry On Camping, 1969, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. Nevertheless, she was a fleet-footed dancer in school plays, good at acrobatics. Her biographer, Frances Gray, considers Jacques had a "talent for larger-than-life comedy which never lost its grip on humanity", while she could also display "a broader comic mode" as a result of her "extraordinary versatility". [10], In the summer of 1967 the Carry On producer Peter Rogers assembled the cast for the 15th film of the series, Carry On Doctor. He always does something wrong so he wont be asked to do it again, she noticed. Ruth Jones takes on the role of the larger-than-life Carry On actress Hattie Jacques, revealing how her home life was blown apart by a secret sexual liaison with her handsome young driver while. Le Mesurier was married but estranged from his wife. I fear I am one of them". She slimmed down and placed a lonely hearts advertisement in a magazine, but she was destined to remain alone. By Claudia Joseph for MailOnline Updated: 19:36 EDT, 8 January 2014. My driver seems to have gone.. She told Andrews: After shed done her training in the wards of Hammersmith Hospital, she became a mobile VAD and continued her work in the hospital and in the air-raid shelters and around the area. But instead, Le Mesurier persevered to save his marriage, in the hope that Hattie would finally see sense. Carry On Matron: Hattie Jacques playing her most famous character alongside Joan Sims in the 1972 film. [159][s] During the course of the different tours relations between the two stars became increasingly strained and Sykes altered the act several times to ensure he received more acclaim than Jacques. I'm pathologically shy". Robin's dad John met Hattie Jacques in a suitably showbiz setting - the theatre - back in June 1947. She was born Josephine Jaques (there was no "c" at first) in Kent in 1922. Married comic actors Hattie Jacques and John LeMesurier seem the perfect couple, with their two young sons and the legendary Christmas dinners they host for their friends. "I don't like playing battleaxes, I want to feel protected like any other woman. Hattie is a television film about the life of British comic actress Hattie Jacques, played by Ruth Jones, her marriage to John Le Mesurier (Robert Bathurst) and her affair with their lodger John Schofield (Aidan Turner). [45][f] In 1952 Jacques also portrayed Mrs Jenks in John Gilling's comedy horror film Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, co-starring Arthur Lucan and Bela Lugosi. [6] Robin Rochester Jaques, who attained the rank of flight lieutenant with the RAF, was a keen sportsman and became a semi-professional footballer. Shop the best selection of deals on Cameras now. Do not sell or share my personal information. [91] She became known by the team as a "Mother Hen" figure,[92] and was a close friend to many of her co-stars, including Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims, whom Jacques provided with a great deal of advice and practical help. [184], Jacques's biographer, Frances Gray, highlighted two aspects of the actress's abilities; in her appearances in the sequence of post-war Dickens adaptations (Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, Scrooge and Pickwick) Jacques "reflected her talent for larger-than-life comedy which never lost its grip on humanity", while in other films, such as Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, she displayed "a broader comic mode". "[42] The couple wed on 10 November that year, at Kensington Registrar's Office. From 1958 to 1974 she appeared in 14 Carry On films, playing various roles including the formidable hospital matron. Falling in love with Cockney car dealer John Schofield, Hattie moved him into . Her son Robin Le Mesurier recalls: I was woken up at three or four in the morning by this racket from the living room, and I went in and there was Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine, all jamming and playing music!. In 1962, the Carry On actress met cockney driver and car-dealer John Schofield, who once chauffeured her to a . That's not enough money!" After all, Schofield was genuinely popular with the children. He really loved Hattie; she was everything, she was all woman.. When he visited her on location, they had a huge row, in which Schofield admitted he had fallen in love with another woman. Jacques on her role in It's That Man Again[26], Jacques made her big-screen debut, briefly and uncredited, in the 1946 film Green for Danger, directed by Sidney Gilliat. A 28-year-old shorthand typist, Brenda had moved back home with her parents in September 1961 six weeks after the birth of the couples second child, Mark and after their eldest, John, was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of just two years and five months. After these her screen time increased with the part of Nanette Parry in Make Mine Mink in which she co-starred with Terry-Thomas and Athene Seyler. [172], A memorial plaque to Jacques is situated in St Paul's, Covent Garden. Always an unlikely sex goddess, Jacques nevertheless acquired a lover called John Schofield, a cockney used-car dealer whom Barbara Windsor appraised as a gorgeous piece of crumpet and played by buff Aidan Turner in a 2011 BBC Four biopic of Jacques, which starred Ruth Jones. John Schofield. [134] As such, Rogers cast Jacques as Matron, with Sims accepting a smaller role as the timid assistant of the film's lead character Francis Bigger, played by Frankie Howerd. [27][40], Tommy Handley died suddenly on 9 January 1949; the BBC decided that he was "so much the keystone and embodiment of the actual performance" of ITMA, that they cancelled the show immediately. I never liked jokes about Hattie being overweight because that wasnt the point with Hattie. [104], On 29 January 1960 Jacques appeared in the first episode of the BBC comedy series Sykes and a, co-starring with Eric Sykes as a pair of twins; Richard Wattis and Deryck Guyler were also regulars in the cast. Although Jacques wanted the series to be full of suspense, the programmes were more comedic and she was disappointed with the results. [182] Sunday Life said that for decades she was "Britain's favourite silly, sexually frustrated, fat woman". Legendary comic actors Hattie Jacques and John LeMesurier seem the perfect couple, married with two young sons. She later said her war hero had been killed in the Ardennes, but research disclosed that Major Charles Kearney, who already had a wife and children when he was asking Jacques to marry him, lived on in Massachusetts until 1984. Find the best deals on More Pets Supplies from your favorite brands. Robin and Kim Le Mesurier were both fined 20 for the charge of the drugs possession. Deals and discounts in Pet Parents you dont want to miss. I hate being the size I am with all my heart and soul, she once confessed. The John we knew is not the man we recognise in the book or the TV programme.Hattie: The Authorised Biography Of Hattie Jacques, by Andrew Merriman, is published by Aurum Press. John had gone to visit the Players' Theatre in London with fellow actor Geoffrey Hibbert - and Hattie was one of the performers. Right here at FameChain. In 1962, unbeknown to John, Hattie began a relationship with chauffeur John Schofield. In music hall, Hattie was known as the Queen of the Players, and Eric Sykes said: I was intoxicated with the way she was doing it because everyone was singing old vaudeville songs. Rogers initially chose Joan Sims to play the role of the hospital matron but she declined the part, stating that Jacques's performance of the role in Carry On Nurse could not be bettered. [136], Jacques started 1968 by appearing with Spike Milligan and Frank Thornton in thirteen episodes of the sketch show The World of Beachcomber, based on the Beachcomber column in the Daily Express newspaper and broadcast on the BBC from January to April. She could be kindly, it is true, and occasionally romantic. She was born in Kent in 1922 as Josephine Edwina Jaques, later adding the c to her surname in a bid for Frenchification. [41] Jacques later remarked that Handley was "one of the greatest radio performers we have ever known. She moved him into the family home, with "Le Mes" moving . In Sykes her performance had to be a foil for the main character; in the Carry Ons she blossomed". [78][79][i] Jacques's arrival on Hancock "provided an additional boost to the series", according to television historian Richard Webber. Publicity about the affair would have hurt Hatties career, so it was a closely guarded secret until two decades after Hatties death in 1980.
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