Famous faces of Torbay: From BBC star to Torquay wartime survivor

Read the first of three HERE

The first radio broadcasts of “Band Waggon” were not well received although, the BBC fortunately stuck to their contract and allowed Arthur to do a second and eventually a third series, both getting good reviews.

With his career assured, the BBC next appointed the rising comedian Richard Murdoch, who was to join Arthur once the scriptwriter Mr Harris had to create a new script and format, which involved both comedians being heard as permanent residents of an imaginary flat directly above British Broadcasting House.   

Arthur and Richard now enjoyed “Band Waggon” together in their mythical flat above the BBC which was instantly popular with it’s anarchic humour when and soon a subtitle “Big Hearted Arthur and Stinker Murdock” living out in an imaginary home was put on national radio. Arthur’s catch phrases were soon adopted like, “Ay-thang-yew and eventually “Before Your Very Eyes” etc, all adding especially to his charm and ever-growing popularity. 

His skillset then continued through the 3’s when performing in farce, variety pantomime etc, and never forgetting he also did stand-up alone as well. But then came film work for the large cinema screen and finally television opened up his career substantially.

He also discovered that somehow he had developed what he called an “infallible sense of his audience” when on the stage and to a lesser extent on radio.

Meanwhile, Band-Waggon was broadcast every week on radio and would soon appear on the large screen (in cinemas) when films featured Arthur in - “Charlies Big Hearted Aunt” in 1940  followed by “King Arthur Was a Gentleman” in 1942 before finally in 1953 the new medium television arrived, to give him another series he named “Before Your Very Eyes” yet another title he adopted as a catchphrase. 

During the Second World War, Arthur was in Torquay when a German bomber unloaded it’s spare bombs at St Marychurch on it’s return journey home. Arthur hiding in a gorse bush at Watcombe, suffered a minor injury.

Later with the war over, Arthur would make his debut on television in a new series he titled “Before Your Very Eyes” (1953) again, a title he added to his catchphrase portfolio. Sadly, like the first radio programme of this show, the TV version was not an instant success. It seems times had changed and radio scripts adapted for television would often not work.

The public now wanted a little more sex if modern viewing was to be sustainable and fortunately, this was resolved by adding the shapely and voluptuous 'dumb blonde' Norma Sykes (Sabrina) to the show who, with her natural assets and tight fitting dresses, were on display weekly. 

In time “Sabrina” became accepted as the UK’s first TV sex symbol (or “sex bomb”) while throughout the 1950 and 60’s Arthur continued to tour theatres widely and finally came to the Westcountry at last. By now a master of the ad-lib and catchphrase plus wit in his act, like the Morecambe and Wise shows later on TV it all seemed extremely easy for a live show whereas in fact it was very well rehearsed which involved huge personal commitment.

Many of Arthur’s followers saw him as quick witted and this was not so. Like Eric and Ernie, Arthur would rehearse his act so it never let him down. One night at the Victorian Palace Theatre London the safety curtain failed to rise (stuck three feet above the stage) and fortunately Arthur did manage to fill the unplanned time gap by calling upon his experience of his catch phrase humour and ad-libbing until the crew backstage sorted out the problem. The unrehearsed bit fortunately was filled - he was lucky. 

My deep research on Arthur found he was a huge admirer of America’s Jack Benny and that once when interviewed about this he confirmed and this was picked up by the “World of Radio and Television” magazine, his comments later. It seems Arthur said there was a “tendency on this side of the Atlantic for characters to be eccentric, even grotesque, yet in America in whatever strange happenings Jack was always himself, is himself, and nobody else”. (Continued in the final part 3 next week).

Arthur’s unique style and delivery of catchphrases are unlikely to ever be matched again so, those of us fortunate to have experienced them were fortunate.

Next week will see the final part of three on Arthur’s story.