Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Jimmy Edwards
James Keith O'Neill Edwards, DFC (23 March 1920 – 7 July 1988) was an English comedy writer and actor of stage, radio, television and film, known for his roles as Pa Glum in Take It from Here and as headmaster "Professor" James Edwards in Whack-O!
Edwards was born in Barnes, Surrey, the son of Reginald Walter Kenrick Edwards, lecturer in mathematics at King's College London, and Phyllis Katherine Cowan, from New Zealand. He was the eighth of nine children and fifth of five sons. His father died in 1935, leaving the family in dire financial straits. Jimmy's brother Alan had to leave school and enter the mounted police, while his brother Hugh joined the Merchant Navy as an apprentice aged fourteen. Hugh subsequently gained a reputation as a smuggler of cigarettes, whisky and occasionally people, and published a memoir, Midnight Trader, in 1959.
Edwards was educated at St Paul's Cathedral School, where he became head boy, and attended the Silver Jubilee of George V in that capacity. His poem "The Train", which first appeared in The Mortarboard – a school magazine founded by Edwards in competition with the existing one – was included in Walter de la Mare's compilation of children's poems, This Year, Next Year (1937). Having won a scholarship, Edwards went on to King's College School in Wimbledon. He subsequently became a choral scholar at St John's College, Cambridge, where he studied history and sang in the college choir.
Edwards served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, was commissioned in April 1942, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and ended the war as a flight lieutenant. He served with No. 271 Squadron RAF, based in Doncaster, which took part in the D-Day landings. His Dakota was shot down at Arnhem in 1944, resulting in facial injuries requiring plastic surgery, that he disguised with a large handlebar moustache that became his trademark. His injuries and their restitution made him a member of the Guinea Pig Club.
Edwards was a feature of London theatre in post-war years, debuting at London's Windmill Theatre in 1946 and on BBC radio the same year. His early variety act, where he first used the name Professor Jimmy Edwards, was described by Roy Hudd as being "a mixture of university lecture, RAF slang, the playing of various loud wind instruments and old-fashioned attack". Edwards was in the London Laughs revue at the Adelphi Theatre, London, from 12 April 1952 to 6 February 1954 with Tony Hancock and Vera Lynn. He had previously performed in the Cambridge Footlights revue. He gained wider exposure as a radio performer in Take It from Here, co-starring Dick Bentley, which first paired his writer Frank Muir with Bentley's script writer, Denis Norden. Also on radio he featured in Jim the Great and My Wildest Dream.
He appeared in Whack-O! on television, also written by Muir and Norden, and the radio panel game Does the Team Think?, a series which Edwards created. In 1960 a film of Whack-O! called Bottoms Up was written by Michael Pertwee with additional dialogue by Muir and Norden. On TV he appeared in The Seven Faces of Jim, Six More Faces of Jim and More Faces of Jim; Make Room for Daddy, Sykes, Bold As Brass, I Object, John Jorrocks Esq, The Auction Game, Jokers Wild, Sir Yellow, Doctor in the House, Charley's Aunt, Brendon Chase and Oh! Sir James! (which he also wrote).
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1958 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC's Piccadilly 1 Studio.
Edwards starred in The Fossett Saga in 1969 as James Fossett, an ambitious Victorian writer of penny dreadfuls, with Sam Kydd playing Herbert Quince, his unpaid manservant, and June Whitfield playing music-hall singer Millie Goswick. This was shown on Fridays at 20:30 on LWT; David Freeman was the creator.
Hub AI
Jimmy Edwards AI simulator
(@Jimmy Edwards_simulator)
Jimmy Edwards
James Keith O'Neill Edwards, DFC (23 March 1920 – 7 July 1988) was an English comedy writer and actor of stage, radio, television and film, known for his roles as Pa Glum in Take It from Here and as headmaster "Professor" James Edwards in Whack-O!
Edwards was born in Barnes, Surrey, the son of Reginald Walter Kenrick Edwards, lecturer in mathematics at King's College London, and Phyllis Katherine Cowan, from New Zealand. He was the eighth of nine children and fifth of five sons. His father died in 1935, leaving the family in dire financial straits. Jimmy's brother Alan had to leave school and enter the mounted police, while his brother Hugh joined the Merchant Navy as an apprentice aged fourteen. Hugh subsequently gained a reputation as a smuggler of cigarettes, whisky and occasionally people, and published a memoir, Midnight Trader, in 1959.
Edwards was educated at St Paul's Cathedral School, where he became head boy, and attended the Silver Jubilee of George V in that capacity. His poem "The Train", which first appeared in The Mortarboard – a school magazine founded by Edwards in competition with the existing one – was included in Walter de la Mare's compilation of children's poems, This Year, Next Year (1937). Having won a scholarship, Edwards went on to King's College School in Wimbledon. He subsequently became a choral scholar at St John's College, Cambridge, where he studied history and sang in the college choir.
Edwards served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, was commissioned in April 1942, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, and ended the war as a flight lieutenant. He served with No. 271 Squadron RAF, based in Doncaster, which took part in the D-Day landings. His Dakota was shot down at Arnhem in 1944, resulting in facial injuries requiring plastic surgery, that he disguised with a large handlebar moustache that became his trademark. His injuries and their restitution made him a member of the Guinea Pig Club.
Edwards was a feature of London theatre in post-war years, debuting at London's Windmill Theatre in 1946 and on BBC radio the same year. His early variety act, where he first used the name Professor Jimmy Edwards, was described by Roy Hudd as being "a mixture of university lecture, RAF slang, the playing of various loud wind instruments and old-fashioned attack". Edwards was in the London Laughs revue at the Adelphi Theatre, London, from 12 April 1952 to 6 February 1954 with Tony Hancock and Vera Lynn. He had previously performed in the Cambridge Footlights revue. He gained wider exposure as a radio performer in Take It from Here, co-starring Dick Bentley, which first paired his writer Frank Muir with Bentley's script writer, Denis Norden. Also on radio he featured in Jim the Great and My Wildest Dream.
He appeared in Whack-O! on television, also written by Muir and Norden, and the radio panel game Does the Team Think?, a series which Edwards created. In 1960 a film of Whack-O! called Bottoms Up was written by Michael Pertwee with additional dialogue by Muir and Norden. On TV he appeared in The Seven Faces of Jim, Six More Faces of Jim and More Faces of Jim; Make Room for Daddy, Sykes, Bold As Brass, I Object, John Jorrocks Esq, The Auction Game, Jokers Wild, Sir Yellow, Doctor in the House, Charley's Aunt, Brendon Chase and Oh! Sir James! (which he also wrote).
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1958 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC's Piccadilly 1 Studio.
Edwards starred in The Fossett Saga in 1969 as James Fossett, an ambitious Victorian writer of penny dreadfuls, with Sam Kydd playing Herbert Quince, his unpaid manservant, and June Whitfield playing music-hall singer Millie Goswick. This was shown on Fridays at 20:30 on LWT; David Freeman was the creator.