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.
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‘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.
