Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Jimmy Perry
James Perry (20 September 1923 – 23 October 2016) was an English scriptwriter and actor. He devised and co-wrote the BBC sitcoms Dad's Army (1968–1977), It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974–1981), Hi-de-Hi! (1980–1988) and You Rang, M'Lord? (1988–1993), all with David Croft. Perry co-wrote the theme tune of Dad's Army, "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr. Hitler?" along with Derek Taverner, for which Perry received an Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in 1971.
Perry was born in Barnes, Surrey on 20 September 1923. His father, Arthur, was an antiques dealer, whose shop was in South Kensington, London. He was a founder of the British Antique Dealers' Association. His son was educated at two independent schools, Colet Court and St Paul's School, which at the time were both based in Hammersmith in West London.
The teenaged Perry partly served as the model for the mummy's boy character Private Pike in Dad's Army. In a 2013 interview with Neil Clark for The Daily Telegraph, he said his own mother "didn't go so far as making me wear a scarf, but she came pretty near". A regular visitor to the cinemas and the theatres in Hammersmith, his school report said: "We fear for his future". He left school aged 14. In an exchange with his father Perry commented, "I don't need any qualifications. I'm going to be a famous film star or a great comedian", to which his father responded with the phrase "you stupid boy".
After leaving school, he was sent to Clark's college to learn shorthand, typing and bookkeeping. He truanted, spending the whole of one summer reading Tarzan books on Barnes Common, rather than attending class. He worked in his father's antique shop and the carpet department of Waring & Gillow, before training as the maker of scientific instruments and working in a factory making naval telescopes. With the outbreak of the Second World War, his family moved to Watford just outside London, his father taking over the shop of an uncle.
In Watford, he served in the Home Guard, which he joined in 1940, and became involved in amateur dramatics.
Delaying call up at the insistence of his mother, he joined the First (Mixed) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment of the Royal Artillery at Oswestry in 1943, and the camp concert party. The following year, he was sent to Bombay in India, and then Burma, being promoted in rank from gunner to bombardier in the process. He was active in the concert party at the Deolali base of the Royal Artillery, and later in Combined Services Entertainment. Demobbed and back in the UK, he trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) on a serviceman's scholarship, where his contemporaries included Joan Collins, Lionel Jeffries and Robert Shaw. He spent his holiday period working as a Redcoat in Butlin's Holiday Camps.
Initially working in repertory and West End musicals from 1950 after graduating from RADA, during the period 1956–1965, Perry was actor-manager at the Watford Palace Theatre, in collaboration with his wife, Gilda. Ruth Llewellyn, later Ruth Madoc, and best known for her role as Gladys Pugh in Hi-de-Hi, was one of the performers who appeared there during this time. The company included Glenda Jackson, along with many actors that would later join him in his comedy writing career including Michael Knowles, Colin Bean, John Clegg, and Mavis Pugh.
After leaving Watford Palace Theatre in 1965, when Watford council took over the theatre, Perry joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop as an actor working at its base, the Theatre Royal Stratford East. He remained with the company for two years.
Hub AI
Jimmy Perry AI simulator
(@Jimmy Perry_simulator)
Jimmy Perry
James Perry (20 September 1923 – 23 October 2016) was an English scriptwriter and actor. He devised and co-wrote the BBC sitcoms Dad's Army (1968–1977), It Ain't Half Hot Mum (1974–1981), Hi-de-Hi! (1980–1988) and You Rang, M'Lord? (1988–1993), all with David Croft. Perry co-wrote the theme tune of Dad's Army, "Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr. Hitler?" along with Derek Taverner, for which Perry received an Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in 1971.
Perry was born in Barnes, Surrey on 20 September 1923. His father, Arthur, was an antiques dealer, whose shop was in South Kensington, London. He was a founder of the British Antique Dealers' Association. His son was educated at two independent schools, Colet Court and St Paul's School, which at the time were both based in Hammersmith in West London.
The teenaged Perry partly served as the model for the mummy's boy character Private Pike in Dad's Army. In a 2013 interview with Neil Clark for The Daily Telegraph, he said his own mother "didn't go so far as making me wear a scarf, but she came pretty near". A regular visitor to the cinemas and the theatres in Hammersmith, his school report said: "We fear for his future". He left school aged 14. In an exchange with his father Perry commented, "I don't need any qualifications. I'm going to be a famous film star or a great comedian", to which his father responded with the phrase "you stupid boy".
After leaving school, he was sent to Clark's college to learn shorthand, typing and bookkeeping. He truanted, spending the whole of one summer reading Tarzan books on Barnes Common, rather than attending class. He worked in his father's antique shop and the carpet department of Waring & Gillow, before training as the maker of scientific instruments and working in a factory making naval telescopes. With the outbreak of the Second World War, his family moved to Watford just outside London, his father taking over the shop of an uncle.
In Watford, he served in the Home Guard, which he joined in 1940, and became involved in amateur dramatics.
Delaying call up at the insistence of his mother, he joined the First (Mixed) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment of the Royal Artillery at Oswestry in 1943, and the camp concert party. The following year, he was sent to Bombay in India, and then Burma, being promoted in rank from gunner to bombardier in the process. He was active in the concert party at the Deolali base of the Royal Artillery, and later in Combined Services Entertainment. Demobbed and back in the UK, he trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) on a serviceman's scholarship, where his contemporaries included Joan Collins, Lionel Jeffries and Robert Shaw. He spent his holiday period working as a Redcoat in Butlin's Holiday Camps.
Initially working in repertory and West End musicals from 1950 after graduating from RADA, during the period 1956–1965, Perry was actor-manager at the Watford Palace Theatre, in collaboration with his wife, Gilda. Ruth Llewellyn, later Ruth Madoc, and best known for her role as Gladys Pugh in Hi-de-Hi, was one of the performers who appeared there during this time. The company included Glenda Jackson, along with many actors that would later join him in his comedy writing career including Michael Knowles, Colin Bean, John Clegg, and Mavis Pugh.
After leaving Watford Palace Theatre in 1965, when Watford council took over the theatre, Perry joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop as an actor working at its base, the Theatre Royal Stratford East. He remained with the company for two years.