Professor Jimmy Edwards

Name:      Jimmy Edwards

Birth:     Date:     March 23, 1920
Place:     Barnes, London, England.
Death:     Date:     July 7, 1988
Place:     London, England.
Occupation:     Comedian
Biographical Notes:

Jimmy Edwards was a British radio and television comedy actor, best known as Pa Glum in Take It From Here and as the headmaster ‘Professor’ James Edwards in Whack-O.

Born James Keith O’Neill in Barnes, London, Edwards served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross. His Dakota was shot down at Arnhem in 1944, resulting in plastic surgery — he disguised it with the huge handlebar moustache that later became his trademark.

A feature of London theatre in the immediate post-War years, having previously performed in the Cambridge Footlights review, Edwards gained wider exposure as a radio performer, appearing in the long-running Take It From Here, where he developed the Glums alongside June Whitfield.

Graduatating to television, his appeared in shows such as the panel game Does the Team Think?, The Seven Faces of Jim, as well as guest slots in Make Room for Daddy and Sykes. Edwards also worked with Eric Sykes when he acted in the Sykes-penned short films The Plank (1967) (alongside Tommy Cooper) and Rhubarb (1969) (which also featured Harry Secombe).

He published his autobiography, Six of the Best, in 1984, as a follow up to the earlier Take it From Me. Amongst his outside interests were brass bands and the handlebar Club, in which all the members had such moustaches. During the 1970s he also came out as a homosexual.

————————————————————————————————-

‘Take it From Here’ shows are fairly easy to obtain so I have chosen some less common material to let you enjoy Jim with. There is a complete set of his Radio Biography ‘The Life of Jim’ and episodes from ‘Blowing Bubbles’, ‘Mr Murgatroyd and Mr Winterbottom’, a ‘Just Jim Tribute’ and an edition of Radio Lives called ‘Wake up at the back there…Jimmy Edwards!’ Hope you enjoy them and do let me know if you find any more.

Life of Jim

JIM MISC

Whacko – Jimmy Edwards

In todays age of political correctness one wonders how a story about a rogue of a headmaster thrashing his pupils with a cane daily would go down? Such abuse surely would not be funny…well, actually it was, and still is! That’s me blindfolded and up against the wall then. Like most adolescents growing up in the 50s and 60s on a diet of Jennings and Just William this was of course ‘just like real life’ and ‘jolly exciting’ as the boys invariably got one over on ‘Jim’

This classic sit-com started life on BBC Television in October 1956 and starred ‘Professor’ Jimmy Edwards. Written by the masterful team of Frank Muir and Denis Norden, this was undoubtedly one of the major successes of early British television. There were 8 series in all with a couple of special shows, giving a grand total of 60 half hour shows, and 3 shorts. But the story doesn’t stop there, and this is one of the more unusual shows where a radio series and even a film were spawned from the TV version.

RADIO.
Cast list

* Professor James Edwards- Jimmy Edwards
* Mr. Oliver Pettigrew- Arthur Howard (first show only)
* Mr. Aubrey Potter- Roddy Maude-Roxby
* Mr. Alfred Tennyson- Frederick Treves
* Mr. Arnold Halliforth (series 2&3)- Edwin Apps
* Matron- June Whitfield
* A.J.Lumley (series 2&3)- Roger Shepherd
* Phipps (series 2)- John Coxall
* Fenner (series 3)- John Coxall

The Radio ran for three series from 1961 to 1963. Of the 44 known episodes 41 exist still and can be be found to enjoy on the links at the end of this item. Should you have any of the 3 missing ones please contact me!!!

The film ‘Bottoms Up!’ was made at Elstree in 1960. The script was written by Michael Pertwee with contributions from Frank Muir and Denis Norden – some lines from the film are reproduced exactly in the radio series, identifying them as the work of Muir/Norden. The film was directed by Mario Zampi and provided Professor Edwards with a main student irritant by the name of Wendover (inspirationally played by John Mitchell), who would become Lumley in the radio series.

Now you’ve finished reading the comic here’s the Radio episode links

WKO SERIES1

WKO SERIES 2

WKO SERIES 3