Will Hay Collection [DVD]

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Hay kept his career in astronomy separate from his comedy career and published Through My Telescope under the name of W.T. Hay, using the same title when giving lectures on astronomy. [6] Hay was an advocate for education on astronomy and considered those who had an interest in astronomy "the only men who see life in its true proportion". In a 1933 interview with the Daily Mail he stated "If we were all astronomers, there'd be no more war." [33] He was a friend of William Herbert Steavenson, who would go on to become the President of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1957. [33] He was known to be a hypochondriac, and would often complain of illness to his colleagues when working. [6] Despite the majority of the film being set in Northern Ireland, none of the filming took place there; the railway station at Buggleskelly was the disused Cliddesden railway station on the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway, which had closed to goods in 1936. [1] Oh, Mr Porter! was filmed at Cliddesden between May and July 1937. All the interior shots were made at Gainsborough Studios, Shepherds Bush, during the August. [2] The windmill in which Porter and his colleagues are trapped is located at Terling, Essex, [3] and "Gladstone", the ancient steam locomotive, was portrayed by No. 2 Northiam 2-4-0T built by Hawthorn Leslie in 1899 and loaned by the Kent and East Sussex Railway to the film. The engine was returned to the company after completion of the film and remained in service until 1941, when it was scrapped. [4] [5] Will Hay's new direction: My Learned Friend". The British Film Institute. 1 June 2015 . Retrieved 11 May 2017.

Hay's work at Gainsborough was his most successful, and source of his reputation as a great comic actor. During this period he became one of the most prolific film stars in Britain. On three occasions, British film exhibitors voted him among the top ten box office stars in an annual poll run by the Motion Picture Herald. He was ranked 8th in 1936, 4th in 1937 and 3rd in 1938. [13] Hay decided to become an actor when he was 21 after watching W. C. Fields perform a juggling act in Manchester. In the early years of the twentieth century Hay experienced some moderate success as a stand-up comedian and an after-dinner speaker. [5] Hay's first professional job came when he was offered a contract to perform at a theatre in Belper. [5] In 1914 Hay began working with the impresario Fred Karno who had previously helped Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin achieve success. He worked with Karno for four years. [5] He first performed his schoolmaster character in 1910 which he based upon a colleague of his sister, who was a teaching mistress. [4] The characterisation was initially performed in drag as a schoolmistress, but he transferred the character to a headmaster. [6]In his later years, Marriott kept a grocer's store in Bognor Regis, and it is where he died on 11 December 1949; only eight months after the death of his comedy partner Will Hay. Cause of death was cardiac syncope, acute pulmonary oedema and chronic myocardiac degeneration caused by earlier pneumonia. He outlived his mother and his father by merely three years and nine years respectively. [3] He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, where his ashes were also interred.

Dean, Martin; Kevin Robertson; Roger Simmonds (1998). The Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway. Crusader Press. pp.76–81. In the mid-1940s he semi-retired from show business to become a publican with his wife, Joyce Muriel Hazeldine, whom he married in June 1948 and remained married to for 17 years until his death in July 1965. Together, they ran the Swan Inn at Braybrooke (near Market Harborough), followed by the Englishcombe Inn at Bath. Whilst landlord of the Swan Inn, Moffatt became good friends with local musician and actor Jim Dale who would often drink at the pub. [2] Archive of Channel 4 Review (UK)". Archived from the original on 29 August 2005 . Retrieved 16 March 2007. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL ( link) From 1934 to 1943, he was a prolific film star in Britain and was ranked the third highest grossing star at the British box office in 1938, behind George Formby and Gracie Fields. He is widely regarded as one of the most prolific and influential British comedians of all time. [6]

Side guide

a b c d e f g h i j k "Will Hay – Master of Comedy". YouTube. BBC Radio 4. 2 June 1976 . Retrieved 10 May 2017.

a b Mobberley, Martin P.; Goward, Kenneth J. (April 2009). "Will Hay (1888-1949) and his telescopes". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 119 (2): 67–81. Bibcode: 2009JBAA..119...67M. The film critic Barry Norman included it among his 100 best films of all time, and fellow critic Derek Malcolm also included the film in his Century of Films, describing it as "perfectly representing a certain type of bumbling British humour", [10] despite being directed by a Parisian director. The Will Hay Appreciation Society' was founded in 2009 by British artist Tom Marshall and aims to preserve Hay's legacy and bring his work to a new generation of fans. As of October 2023, the organisation has over 8000 members. [44] The Will Hay Appreciation Society unveiled a memorial bench to Will Hay, Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt in October 2018, in Cliddesden, Hampshire, the filming location for 'Buggleskelly' in Oh, Mr. Porter!. The bench was unveiled by Pete Waterman. [45] The film was produced by Gainsborough Pictures, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and released on 28 August, 1939.In March 1952 he was admitted to hospital in Kettering after two weeks of hiccuping. [3] He still made sporadic cinema film appearances in minor parts, the last being in the 1963 film 80,000 Suspects, directed by Val Guest, who was a writer of many of the films that Moffatt starred in with Will Hay and Moore Marriott. [4] Personal life and death [ edit ] The humour of Hay's films has been described as subversive and similar to that of fellow English comedian Frank Randle. His films are often characterised as exhibiting traits of anti-authoritarianism and having a satirical approach towards how authority figures are portrayed. This is notable with Hay himself, who often played an incompetent authority figure who struggled not to be found out, but whose idiocy was discovered by those around him. [11] In June 1932 he joined the British Astronomical Association, in November of the same year he became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. [29] [30] He is noted for having discovered a Great White Spot on the planet Saturn in 1933. [31] [32] Top 100 Movie Lists – BFI's 360 Classic Feature Films". Archived from the original on 27 October 2009 . Retrieved 16 March 2007. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL ( link)