Of all the dads army cast, he was my favorite and he’s probably one of my favorite people of all time. ; Hello. So nice to hear from you again. It happens such a long time, hasn’t it? ; He had me on the edge of the seat whenever I watched him. I didn’t want to, you know, miss a moment.
; You show me yours, I’ll show you mine. You just wait for that twitch of an eyebrow. They slightly quizzical look. ; He had depths to him that nobody knew about. I think ; he would always have that elegant relaxed facade and underneath it was tumult. ; He was the typical English gentleman in so many ways.
That sort of type of actor has disappeared. Shame. ; Yes, I do believe you like matter. [laughter] What do you think of this? Oh, it’s awful. [laughter] No, no, no, no. It’s awfully good. Awfully good. Oh dear. [laughter] Oh dear. Oh dear. ; [laughter] ; What’s up, Wilson? ; You might snap your girdle.
Yes. Uh, Madison, ; I’ve told you you have to tell a joke. ; Yes, that’s all right. [laughter] I’ve forgotten that. Yes, we had that fascinating journey on the train. Anyways, you mind if I have a look at that parry book of yours? Do ; so, by all means. ; Will it tell me all I want to know? Despite being a seemingly everpresent face on cinema and television screens for over 50 years, John Leasurer never considered himself anything other than an ordinary jobbing actor.
; I went into the workman’s canteen and a young man said to me when I was having my coffee, “Were you in such and such a film?” And I said, “Yes, I I think I might have been. I I don’t find that particularly amusing. ; And I wasn’t helping him at all. I was being rather naughty with it. And I could see his embarrassment.
Poor little thing as he was getting redder and redder in the face. ; Do you think that’s wise? ; No. No. That’s moral. ; Finally, he blurted out, “It is definitely Jarier, isn’t it?” [laughter] He was one of those actors that worked all the time but never became a big star. But that that suited him. He just liked to go in and get the laughs, play the small parts and come home and and go down to Ramsgate and put his feet up.
; I got back from Djon this afternoon and I since heard some disturbing rumors about Madma Anna. ; Nowadays he would have had agents and people rushing around saying you’ve got to do this and that. You’ve got to be in Harry Potter. You’ve got to do this that and the other. You’ve got to be in casualty.
Can you imagine that? John measuring plague a patient in bed in casualty after his legs saw off or something like that. He said no. No, not a not a not a leg I I use very much. Um left one relatively modest leg. ; Are we to call the sergeant the honorable Sergeant Wilson or Sergeant the Honorable Wilson? [laughter] ; I don’t want any fuss.
I just want to be like an ordinary sergeant. I’m sure that would suit us all. Wilson. ; Before joining the annals of television history as Sergeant Wilson in Dad’s Army, John Lameaser was the go-to man for any director wanting a slightly uncomfortable but oh so British authority figure, appearing in a 100 films in the 50s and 60s alone.
; Would you tell his lordship exactly how your married life went? ; Well, it wasn’t a life at all. Really, not what I call life. Would you explain what you mean by that? ; Well, he was always picking on me. Said I paid more attention to the borders than I did to him. ; And did you, madam? ; He stole moments in films, John.
Little cameos. ; Every film he was in when he came on. I just all everything I saw of him. I just felt very comfortable. I knew he knew what to do. ; You’ve never committed misconduct except on this one occasion? ; No, my lord. ; Has he asked you to? Certainly not. ; Why not? ; What you saw on screen with John was almost exactly the way he was.
It was only an extension of him. ; How do you do? It’s awfully nice to meet you. Did you uh did you have a jolly crossing? ; Oh, it was very jolly except for one thing. ; Oh, what was that? ; Those beastly crowd submarines that kept firing torpedoes at us. ; Oh my dear, how awful. I never heard John raise his voice ever, which is quite a I mean he was just really a very a very gentle and a very funny a very you know easygoing man.
; John Luri did describe him once as a dilitant and he was a dilitant. He he just enjoyed doing what he was doing. It was fun to do [snorts] and in that respect John never grew up. ; Oh yes, it’s all sparkly. You know it’s just like fair. He did say to me once, he said, “At a very early age, I pretended to know all about anything.
” And he said, “As a consequence, nobody ever asked me to do anything.” So, I think he cultivated a kind of sort of if you know, don’t ask John to do it because he’ll make an absolute mess of it. ; I suppose everything will be all right on the night. ; This is the night. [laughter] ; Oh. Oh, yes. Yes. ; Totally useless.
I mean, he really couldn’t make a cup of tea and and adorable every always because he was so liked by everybody that was no problem because there’s always somebody rush and do it for him. And that’s how he sailed through life. When John decided to give up driving and he was the worst driver ever, he got out of his car ; under Hammersmith flyover in a traffic jam and he thought, “I can’t handle this anymore.
” Left the keys in the ignition, left the doors open and just walked away from his car, never went back and decided, I’m done with driving now. And that was very John, you know, just left the thing under Amster fly over. [laughter] I trust you had a comfortable journey. ; Thank you. Yes. Very smooth. Thank you. Uventful.
Quite without incident, I’m glad to say. ; Good. That’s blending. ; John is sort of little fragment of what it was like in a certain time, his sort of upbringing in Eduwardian to well 1920s England and all that sort of thing. And and he carried that with him without it ever being made a point of his performance. It was just informed everything he did was this kind of feeling of bit like the empire.
Slightly sort of faded. Yeah. Enjoy good time. Now it’s gone. ; Right. Over. OVER. [laughter] ; Pretend that you’re doing a cartwheel. ; No, I’ve never done a cartwheel. ; What about when you were a child? ; Well, I just never did that sort of thing. ; Extraordinary. John Lameasurer was born in 1912 and grew up in gentile berry St. Edmunds.
It was a world of tennis parties and stiff upper lips. But even as a child, John longed for something more. His nanny was pushing him and he said, “Who are those people, Nanny?” They were they were all made up and overdressed and the women had lots of makeup on and she said, “Those are theatricals and you must have nothing whatever to do with them.
” And he said that kind of fired his appetite up to uh to meet people like that. And he did. He was fascinated by people who are different from what he was used to. ; Mr. Wilson does not appear as other men. ; What? ; His little legs are pointing in the wrong direction. ; What’s the matter with him? Don’t do try and sort yourself out, will you? I haven’t done it before.
It’s very difficult. ; His father was a very strict man. I remember him and I never ever actually never really got close to him at all. Uh I don’t think he suffered children very well. ; His childhood had been dominated by his nanny. She was the one that gave him all the kisses and the cuddles and and you know sang lullabibies.
; I got after what is it, Frank? ; I’m never so cold. ; Can I cuddle up to you? ; He said mommy and daddy would never let their feelings show and and and be emotional, have a row or anything like that. Frankly, I’d rather you didn’t. I should tell mom. ; All right. ; All right then. ; His father wanted him to go into law, but his love was acting in a theater, and you know, he went he studied law and he went and worked in the solicitor’s office for a long time, but his heart was never in it.
; He had quite a struggle. I mean, you know, repetry, thank God, was the best way for anybody to learn to act in those days. I remember this very handsome man, you know, that everybody was madly in love with and we practically dropped a curtsy when we spoke to him and then he spoke to me and you sort of swooned with delight.
You know, ; all cinemas, theaters, and other places of entertainment are to be closed immediately until further notice. In 1940, John’s rep career was rudely interrupted as he was called up to join the army, reporting for duty in his own inimitable style. ; His sergeant said, “When you turned up here, lay major, you looked as if you were coming on a weekend’s holiday cuz he took his golf clubs with him ; of arriving in the back of an open Austin 7 or whatever in a in his dinner jacket with his golf clubs and his jazz
records. ; Get your shoulders back and your chin in. Stand up like a man. ; Is that better? ; Not really. No. ; After a while, he said, “You’ll be no effing use as a [laughter] as a soldier. I’m going to make I’m going to recommend you to be an officer.” ; You must have told the time. Thank God for that. ; Now, we like to be here for some time.
; Yes. Yes. ; We’re going to keep these men chilled until help arrives. ; Of course. Right. So, whatever I do, I want you to back me up. Right. With a smile on your face. ; Yes. Is that all right then you think? ; It’s better than nothing. I suppose ; John didn’t really let you see anything that was going on inside, but he had this knack of um pretending it wasn’t there, you know, and uh trying to ignore it and it would all go away.
And uh I mean his first wife, for instance, um was taken to drink Caught up in the urgency of wartime, John had married the rich and glamorous June Melville. Not long after, he was posted to India while June stayed in London and partied the war away. ; She was a lovely lady, brilliant, marvelous woman and but an alcoholic and that’s really what destroyed their relationship.
I mean, she was just totally alcoholic. I mean, she would be brilliant and talk brilliantly on three different subjects at a party and suddenly bomb passed out completely. ; He found that so humiliating for her. He he he didn’t have a thing about women being drunk, but he it pained him that anybody would make uh the kind of exhibition like that.
; And now, ladies and gentlemen, that queen of the player theater, your own Hatty Jake. ; His first marriage collapsed and then he met Hattie, of course, and she was the great love of his life. She really was. Can I help you, madam? ; Yeah. No, thank you. Just looking around for the moment. ; They were ideal because they both had very strong senses of humor.
; Wonderful. Marvelous. [singing] You should care for me. ; They really got on terribly well together. You know, I mean, Hattie was Hattie was a very bright personality, but then so was John. He was a bright personality, too. ; She was a lovely woman. I mean, it was an extraordinary liazison because Patty was so big.
John was so thin. It was like a sort of male or female really. Smiley beak. It’s what I think you should care for me. ; They married and um they had a very very two wonderful sons. ; They bounced off each other. They relied upon each other and they needed each other and when one was feeling a little down, the other one would pick him or her up.
They were a good team, you know. It did work. ; He loved it. Loved a daughter. She was a mother. She was the mother that he’d never had with his own mother. She was the mother, you know, was gentile and and polite. But Hattie was vulgar and rhombus and fun, wonderful sense of humor and loved parties and would stay up all night and then cook everybody bacon and eggs for breakfast.
Waking up and finding Peter Sillers and Millig Spy Millig and jamming in the basement with my dad and my mom singing was the norm. ; I was very lucky to grow up in that family. Really, really was. I mean, I don’t feel blasier about it at all. At that time, John wasn’t very successful and had long periods of no work and so on.
And Hattie was the the bread winner as it were. She was the star. John was still a jobbing actor and getting his feet back on the rung because um he’d been away through the war and uh he he’d only had a very tenuous hold of um uh before the war of um he’d made a couple of movies I think but you know supporting and by luck he met the Bolting brothers.
; One of the funniest performance I ever saw from him on film was in I’m all right Jack as the as as the time emotions study man. I say, “Are you sure I’m not keeping you from your work?” ; Oh, no, no, no. ; Oh, wouldn’t like to get you into trouble or anything, especially as you’re new here. ; Not at all. I’m learning a lot.
; Oh, good. Right. Watch this. ; I didn’t know who John the Measure was. I couldn’t even say the name. ; Don’t want to get you into trouble, ; but that was a performance I went away talking about as a teenager. And [snorts] I think it’s one of the best things he ever did. ; Thanks, Charlie.
I remember sometime in the 50s we went to see a film and it was called The Blue Parrot and John was the villain. ; I must say you played your part very well. Meen get over by that safe. ; It was amazing. Even then he was sort of so [laughter] laidback. ; Well, never doubt you. People used to say, “He must be so rich.
He’s been in so many things.” But he’d be in for half a day sometimes in literally a cameo and get something like £50 or 75. It wasn’t America, you know, and so um but he he he made his mark. ; The parts he played were these rather small, slightly upper class people. Um and I’d been to public school. I knew a few sort of people.
And he he made them very funny without ever a mugging at all. That was the great thing about John. ; Don’t you think the nose is a little bit too large? ; No. It’s just a question of how one sees it. The underlying feature of the composition is basic. ; Yeah. Very rarely um broke a smile at all. And we loved that.
We thought that was so funny. But it was also quite selfless. It brings out a lot of other people like the Hancocks and others got the laugh in the end. ; These rubbers are very good, aren’t they? ; Would you care to step into my office? ; Oh, come now, sir. You’re a busy man. You don’t want to bother with the likes of me. It’ll upset you.
I mean, you ; And bring your books with you. All of them. All of them? Yes. Yes. ; They were like best friend as in naughty school boys. It’s kind of way, you know, they were they were just best mates. They adored each other. They were real companions and they’d been in several movies and shows, you know, um Hanok’s half hours over the years.
; How long did this rubbish take you? ; Only two or three hours. ; Two or three hours. Mhm. And do you know how long the time motion study experiments allow for the preparation of a statement of accounts? ; Yes, sir. 3 minutes 45.5 seconds. ; Exactly. ; He had no aspirations to be, you know, like a sort of movie star.
He was always support actor. He was always somebody that would walk on and steal the show. ; I’m not having all that money running around London outside police control. ; Quite right. Good point. Good point. ; Yes, Parker. And I’m making it your personal responsibility to see that the money returned intact at the end of the operation.
I’m assigning Parker to you as from now. ; Somebody said in films where he appeared, good or bad, there was if he was in it, there was always one shining lame measure moment. ; It’s all right, Parker. It’s all right. I’ve written one of these things before, you know. ; Oh, yes, of course. So, the cabaret, wasn’t it? So the blues or was it the user? Metropolitan police you must know the fan isn’t it? Children would love it.
; Go and sit next to him. Go on. Get on. ; But this thing’s moving. It’s about it was a busy busy house. He didn’t really notice as he wouldn’t any domestic thing. He was having a wonderful he was busy. So it kind of happened insidiously that um his marriage started to crumble. She was introduced to this charming guy, John Scoffield.
And I don’t blame her at all. ; He was a real rascal. Actually, I always used to say to her, he’s a getaway driver. you know that’s what he is cuz he’s the most brilliant driver I know and he always drove much too fast and uh I said that’s what he is getaway driver and I think he was too ; he was deonire he was a kind of a rogue he was very good-looking he was very funny he was totally different from my dad and I think she just fell for that ; I think you know she had been neglected by John for a little while and she was
very glad to have a lover. ; It was getting more and more um obvious and in the end Hattie said, “You know, we’re lovers.” And John was moved out of the bed and uh a lovely big bed sitting room was made for him, but that was it. The guy was in the house and there was nothing anybody could do about it.
Unwilling to damage Hattie’s reputation by revealing the truth of his shattered home life, John reluctantly agreed to appear on her This Is Your Life. It was an excruciating experience for both of them. ; Well, John, I understand, and I know that you’re at double risk now, of course, but I understand that you were surprised that Tatty was on time at the wedding.
Well, I must confess I am rather inclined to be a bit surprised, you know, when uh when Hattie arrives for anything really. But [laughter] ; it was very difficult for him to be on on and her when he appeared. She said what she was going to say, you know. ; So there’s never a dull moment with Hattie. In fact, ; no, no, there isn’t really.
I would like um I would like to say that I I am eternally grateful to the way she uh runs the home, looks after the children, looks after me, the home comes first really. if I’m right and saying but uh I think for somebody who is so busy all the time and so much in the public eye all the time to do all these things is very difficult and a jolly neat trick.
; Thank you John the mercy man. [applause] ; He couldn’t bear any confrontation. He didn’t like that at all. He found it, you know, really distasteful. So, as a consequence, he would not. He would appear to be walk to be walked all over, but I don’t think he it ever was. It was actually kindness as opposed to foolishness.
He was the saddest person. He was so sad about it because he had two sons, the house, the home, and this boy, this man kind of bullied him. and he was resolutely was not going to leave his home and his children. ; He it had his own little bedroom and bathroom or something and it he lived in the same house, you know.
I mean, who could I don’t know how he did that, but he did. He decided that to resort to anger or retaliation was futile and he just treated people with respect. He was kind and he was gentle. Haty fell in love and uh broke his heart really. But I was there to pick the pieces up which was good. Broken by Hattie’s betrayal.
It was only after meeting Joan Malin that John finally found the strength to leave the family home. I think she injected to an a certain extent a new lease on living. Not on life, but on living. ; How long have we known that? Well, I’ve quite quite a few years now, sir. ; Why on earth have you asked a male? ; I don’t know, sir.
I just It’s one of those things. I just haven’t been able to get around to it. Somebody better get around to it, can’t you? [laughter] ; You can’t go about behaving like like Errol Flynn. Apparently he he’d proposed marriage to me quite some time before um in a place called Grumbles, a restaurant called Grumbles.
And he said, “I don’t talking about Haty and the the affair.” And he said, “I don’t I don’t know what to do. I don’t know which way to turn now. I don’t suppose you take me on for a start.” And I said, “Oh, darling, you and that was a proposal. That was him proposing marriage.” And when Tony met me, he said, “Go, you’ve got to grab this one, John.
This she’s lovely and this, that, and the other.” And John said, “Well, I already have asked her to marry me, and she’s turned me down.” And I said, “When did you do that?” He [laughter] said, “Gosh, all that time in grumbles.” I said, “Gosh, I didn’t know that was a proposal. I had no idea. ; Will you marry me?” ; As darling, ; I couldn’t not marry him.
John wanted to be married and I couldn’t leave him in that mess. He was amling about without being able to make tea. I loved him. I cared about him deeply. But in retrospect, that wasn’t really being in love. And when I met Tony, I fell in love. They enjoyed each other’s company. And it was so sad that they having brought Tony Hank back for dinner one night that it all kind of fell apart.
; Well, you’re pretty well set up here. ; Oh, yes. It’s quite comfortable. Of course, it’s not quite like a home, but well, it has its compensations. ; You’re very lucky. ; You want to hang on to it. ; When Tony’s marriage split up, he went to stay with John and Joan in Baron’s court. ; You don’t know how lucky you are.
Uh it’s a matter of opinion. ; Well, my dad was of course come in. You know, you’re my best friend. Trusting, you know. ; You made a very wise decision to stay single. ; Yes. Well, actually, it wasn’t my decision. The lady said no. John went through with Tony Hancock. What he’d gone through with uh John Scoffield really twice it happened to him.
You see John Scoffield it was Hattie and with Tony Hancock it was Joan and Joan left John and went to live with Tony. ; As I understand it marriage is a matter of give and take. Not all of us are equipped for that sort of thing. Another cup. No, thank you. ; I mean, the guilt was well unbelievable that both Tony and I felt.
And Tony said, “If only you’d come around and smash me in the face.” But the fact is he didn’t. And he’d said, “I I I can understand, my darling. I know.” He knew what real love was. It wasn’t a a passing thing. He knew it was genuine and that did grieve him because he thought he’d lost me completely. ; I can’t help feeling it’s really a matter of your own conscience, isn’t it? ; Conscience.
Thanks very much for the tea. ; It was terrible. It was a terrible thing to do. It was like John mainly he had somewhere to get away from me. ; England. ; John didn’t know whether he wanted to do the program or not and I didn’t. And so we we used to phone each other up. And eventually John decided he was going to do it.
And then I said, “All right, if you do it, I’m going to do it.” ; Eden, Mr. Maning. He Mr. Wilson. You know me, don’t you, sir? ; It’s Mr. Jones, the butcher from the high street, isn’t it? ; That’s right, Chuck. ; Don’t you think Mr. Jones is perhaps a little bit too old, sir? ; Old? Who you calling old? ; You give me a chance to get to those Jerry Paris units, I’ll soon sort him out.
He took a a sort of negative attitude and he didn’t back the series or anything and it took some time but it was his wife Joan that awakened him to the fact that he was starring in a hit series. ; He said no it’s it’s about a lot of old codgers and there’s no glamour in it um in shabby old uniforms. I mean, who’s going to really this, you know, who’s going to it’ll he said, “I’ll give it I’ll give it the six episodes, but they’ll never do ; how very, very good John Lamera was.
” He used to drive me mad. I said, “Oh, lighten up, John. Show a bit of it.” ; Demannering to be the sergeant. ; I thought that’s absolutely perfect, you know, to have a a gent playing the sergeant will will absolutely twist the whole thing around. And of course, it did. That’s one of the things that made Dad’s Army a popular program.
I think ; the type of bomb we’re going to use will be represented by the scam. Have you got it? You got the bomb? [laughter] Yes. Well, show [laughter] as we got to know John, we wrote the part exactly for him. All his little idiosyncrasies all and John Lameisra was Sergeant Wilson. He was type cast to be that gentle um gentle gentleman who who uh was put in a position of some sort of authority but didn’t really know how to to use it.
; I would like to say on behalf of Captain Maning and myself how very grateful we are for the trouble that you’ve taken in your appearance in this parade and well ; you all look absolutely lovely. [laughter] ; Same time, same place tomorrow and do please try and get here at the right time.
Will you do that? Wilson, get here. Right. [laughter] ; He was so wellmannered. That was the great thing about him. He was he was nice to the underdog. ; He always tipped his hat if he was wearing one to a lady. Do you know what I mean? He was old-fashioned and surrounded by women listening to him and he was in his element.
; You know, I can remember, you know, women sobbing at parties saying, “I love this man.” And John say, “My darling girl, just calm down.” Pat them on the head and say, “Darling, how sweet.” saw a woman, he’d always find something nice to say to them, like, you know, you’ve done something to your hair.
What a lovely dress you’re wearing. ; Come along, mad. What a very pretty blouse you’re wearing. Absolutely lovely. Where did you get that? ; He thought they were very clever because they could cook and do things, you know. [laughter] Amazing. When I first met him and I made him an omelette and he said, “You’ve just saved my life, my darling.
How clever of you to make an omelette. You know, [laughter] ; well, now I’ve got to get this machine going. Would you know anything about that, Wilson? ; Oh, no. Not really, sir. No, very not. ; Mom says you can’t even use a tin, don’t you, Uncle Arthur? ; People just loved to look after John. He had inspired such affection in people and they love to sort of look after him.
He came to me one day when we’re on tour and he said, “Frank, what do you do with your dirty washing when you’re on tour?” And I said, “Well, I find the laundry will take it in on Monday and have it ready for the Saturday when we leave.” He said, “I see.” And he turned to Teddy Sinclair, the Virgin.
He said, “What do you do, Teddy?” And Teddy said, “Well, I take it down to the Nordet, and I do it there.” And John said, “What do you mean? You you you sit there and you watch it going round and round.” Oh, I couldn’t do that. So I said, “Well, what do you do, John?” He said, “Well, I just sort of leave it around the room, and somehow some kind person always comes and does it for me.
” And that was absolutely typical of John. Some kind person would always look after him. ; He pretended to know, you know, to be vague, but actually I think he knew exactly what he was doing. He wasn’t fooling me for a second. I think he fooled most people there. [laughter] ; I don’t want to take up too much of your time.
After all, you’re a very important man. ; All right. I wouldn’t say I was all that important. ; You? [laughter] No, I don’t think so. [laughter] ; Whenever he was brought in, there was a kind of energy, you know, which is an odd contradiction because it was such a laid-back, quiet performance, but there was an energy, a buzz around everyone else when he was there and the way and Arthur Low couldn’t react to anybody else the way he reacted to ; all the time.
You felt he had this sort of rather sarcastic way with Arthur. Everyone is shouting to get in front of the camera, do their line, mug their part, go away. John would be completely the opposite. This sort of still small voice of rather benign confusion in his own head as much as anybody else is. ; Episode Arthur was getting very pompous, I think, organizing a court marshal over some very trivial offense.
; Area has ordered us to hold a court of inquiry into the disappearance of the ammunition. ; Oh dear. And John just walked around the desk saying, “Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. ; Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. [laughter] Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. I used to stop reading the newspaper at rehearsal just to watch that because the timing between them was absolutely splendid.
” ; What on earth’s the matter with you? ; Nothing, sir. Nothing at all except for a few portrait shillings. He might be might have been able to hush all this up. ; If John was frightened of anything, I think he was frightened of being bored for two seconds. Half a second of worry about being bored and he decided to play that line differently.
; I don’t think anybody ever appreciated that John could have been a very great serious actor. John would always have gone for the easy shot. He didn’t want to put himself through like anything too complicated. And while he was being employed to do, you know, you know, light-hearted comedy with, you know, raise of an eyebrow, he was quite happy to do that.
; Other people saw John’s potential as an actor, even if he himself didn’t. In 1971, he was offered a role unlike any other he’d played. ; He was offered traitor. He brought the script in. [sighs] Um, Clive took it home. I think Arthur took it home. He let me have a look at it. and you’re saying, “I don’t know whether I should do this.
I don’t know whether I should do it.” ; I thought it was the best thing. I said, “This is this is the peak of your career. You must do it.” And he said, “Oh, darling.” There were there were um speeches um a page and a half nonstop ranting speeches, somebody not wonderful performance. And uh he kept saying it’s so ephemeral. Um people will forget they they’ll see it.
I’m going to put myself through the hoop about this and it’s it’s it’s killing me and and and um it’ll all be forgotten and I kept nagging and nagging and nagging and saying go on you know raise your eyebrows in like comedy and you don’t that’s bread and butter you do that standing on your head this is hard work and one night he said oh bloody hell then I’ll bloody well do it over the head to make him do it was such a wonderful part and he didn’t want to do it he Yeah, but he did and he won a BAFTA ; for his performance in traitor.
John Misura gets best acting award in television. ; They called his name and he won it and I remember my mom tearing up and saying I wish I was still with him, you know. And it was sad to see to hear that and see that, you know. I said, “You were marvelous in that.” He said, “Well, I didn’t really like playing it very much.
” He’d always very funny protest if you paid him any compliment. No, not quite. Congratulating him on winning this award. And typically John he said yes Betty it’s lovely to have won it but the thing is all they put is the name of the actor and the name of the play. So I’ve got this award that just says John the measurer traitor and that was like his sort of ry sense of humor.
He wasn’t nakedly ambitious in any shape or form. And this in a sense did two things. one, it kept him always in work cuz he would never turn something down because I’ve done that before. I want to go on and play Henry V or something like that or King Leah. Didn’t seem to have any of that. He he he he was, you know, happy to be to be working.
But at the same time, I think, you know, one felt there should be a little bit more of a fire of ambition would have produced more things like traitor and that other thing he did with on the motorbike on the church. ; Never go into the church, Austin. My grandmother said to me, “Because God is not fun.” ; I don’t think John ever really wanted to be a leading actor in that respect.
Um, the duties might have been too ownorous. He just liked to go in and do get the laughs, play the small parts, and come home and and go down to Ram’s gate and put his feet up and go and look at the sea. a nice calm around him which you didn’t want to sort of um intrude too much into. I just bask in it.
I thought it was very very nice there so many people shouting on a film set. It’s rather nice to have someone who’s completely in a different world. Nobles, gentry, the king. ; The first time I worked with John was um Jabawocki and I remember once he said um I think it might be a good thing if I refer to his message just just just occasionally his darling one just suggest some something might have happened in the past and all that.
I mean nothing nothing too obvious but I thought might quite quite quite well. Yes. We I think you probably hear it. ; And now you must prove yourself in mortal combat with a monster so terrifying, so all inspiring, so horrible, so soul destroying that even I would hesitate to meet it face to face in hand to hand combat.
Is that all right? Well, I suppose so, my darling. Yes. He’d occasionally slip something into the conversation which knocked everybody sideways. You know, a witty thing. He was a wit when he wanted to be. ; John the measurer. John, your subject, the Joker. Any subject at all. Any subject. Any subject ; really? ; Yes.
[laughter] ; You know a lot of subjects. You know a lot of subjects. ; Yes, I know you were. He was one of those confident ones in a pos. ; Oh yeah. In a pos. ; John was asked to do jury service which is quite a ridiculous concept. John sitting on a jury jury and he wrote back a letter saying I’m entirely unsuited to this line of work owing to the fact that I’m prone to bouts of uncontrollable compassion.
[laughter] ; I’m quite prepared to go on now because I remember it now. Somebody told me the other day about a fellow who had a racehorse and he was on pretty good terms this raceh horse with his jockey. ; Lovely talker, isn’t he? ; Yeah. [laughter] ; He was kind of naughty. He had a very, very naughty, playful, wicked side.
; And the jockey said to the racehorse one day, said, “Now look here, unless you win this race tomorrow, [laughter] ; you’ll find yourself on a milk round the following day.” ; Interruption by Joe Brown. Hey. Yeah, ; I’ve just told every That’s where I heard it. [laughter] [applause] ; We were having dinner one night in in I think it was Jerry’s and and this man came up smoking a pipe and he slapped him on the shoulder and he said, “Oh, John, long time no see.
” And John said to me, “This man BS for England, you know, right in front of him, this man bors for England, you know.” He said, “I believe you you’ve taken the word abroad, haven’t you? You you you’ve taken it to the antipodies I think boredom haven’t you dear boy and the guy said well you are funny you but he was being completely serious you know [applause] ; I give him six points to Jean for cold courage six points ; how could you not love the man you know he was one of a kind and so gentle and loving and giving and funny
; John’s way of showing you like any affection to you rather and being gushy or saying, “Oh, I love you.” He would pat you on the shoulder very gently and say, “I’m not entirely unfond of you, my little friend.” And that meant he really loved you. And that’s about as much as you would ever get as far as voicing his affection, but he felt it very, you know, very deeply.
But he was a very understated man, you know. I think in fact, I would go as far as saying John was the master of the understatement. ; He’d say, “I’m quite fond of you. You know, I’m inordinately fond of you.” He’d say that was that was a terribly that was a great compliment to me. ; Looking forward to the dance, are you? ; Oh, yes. Thank you, uncle.
; Yes. Well, you don’t have to keep on calling me uncle, you know. ; Sorry, Sergeant. ; Well, that either. I mean, both grown up men of the world. I’m Frank. ; No, I’m not. Uh, [laughter] you’re Frank. I’m Arthur. How’d you do? [laughter] I don’t know how old I was. about 22 or something and I was going slightly off the rails at the time being in the sort of music business.
My lifestyle was a little erratic and my mother was very very worried about me at the time and she had a word with John and she was at her wits end. So John uh John made a special journey up to London to sort of try and talk some sense into me and it was very funny because he really really wasn’t good at that sort of thing.
and he turned up at the flat. He said, “Now, my darling boy, if you don’t mind, I just want to have a word with you. Um, your mother’s very, very worried about your lifestyle.” And he said, “I know you’re not going to take any notice of me whatsoever, and you’re going to carry on doing exactly what you’ve been doing, but just for my sake, could you sort of go along with it and just pretend that you’re like, you know, mending your ways?” He said, “You know, you’ll be doing me an enormous favor cuz she’s so worried about you, my darling boy, and
you know, like as am I, but um you know, but I know you’re perfectly all right.” And you know, when he got his little pep talk out of the way, he said, “You don’t have a joint on you, do you? If by any chance.” [laughter] All ; right, Frank. Last night. ; I know we shouldn’t have taken it. We didn’t do the car no harm.
; Yes. Well, I’m not talking about the car. I’m talking about the girl. A lot of people will know that you spent the night together and a lot of people will tell you that what you did was wrong. ; I was pushing, she was steering. ; Yes, [laughter] he was one of the major influencers of my life.
He was, you know, you know, real gentleman in, you know, every sense of the word and I was Yeah, I really loved him. ; One of the greatest things I learned from him, I think, was patience and not to panic. I don’t mean that as a dad’s army pun or anything, but just keep calm. Things will have a find a way of of finding their true direction.
; Just that was the way life came. Things went well. Things went badly. He had difficult problems in his private life and all that, but always seemed to just sort of bob along like a cork on the water. ; It took me a long time to to get to understand the things that he kept hidden very deeply.
um when he was a young man he had psoriasis. Well, he had it all his life. And this is, you know, it’s a um it’s a kind of illness. It’s a nervous thing. And um he used to break out with this every time he started a new job because he couldn’t talk about it. He couldn’t say, “I’m I’m scared. I’m, you know, uh he couldn’t show that.
” He would always have that uh elegant, relaxed facade. And uh underneath it was tumult when his house got bombed in the war and the whole house was completely reduced to I mean it was gone and John just sat on the stairs crying about his jazz records. That was the only thing he cared about. Things didn’t matter to him at all. Not in any way.
He loved jazz and he would was so happy. For example, when I was old enough to go to Ronny Scots with him or looked old enough anyway. ; It’s about inordinate amount of time in Ronny’s. He loved the music, loved the atmosphere. Nobody bothered him there. It was dark. Uh Ronny’s loved him. ; My dad was a amazing piano player and he often told me that he would have preferred to earn a living playing piano rather than acting.
; [applause] ; He said, “If you happen to walk into a cocktail bar and you see an elderly gay-haired old gent in a white jacket playing the piano rather badly, take another look. It might be me.” That’s the last line of his his autobiography. Isn’t that lovely? A lifetime spent in jazz clubs and bars finally took its toll and in 1977 John Lameasurer was diagnosed with cerosis of the liver.
He was a very good drinker. You know there were good drinkers and bad drinkers. John just became funnier and warmer and kinder and some people become horrible. U John was a good drinker but I think eventually that’s what got him. John went up to this policeman and said, “Could you tell me where I could find um Alcoholics Anonymous and the council said, “Why do you want to join sir?” He said, “No, I want to resign.
” ; He would go and sit in the garden on his own looking out to see and for hours on end just with a glass in his hand. You know, ; I never saw John drunk, but uh on the other hand, I very seldom saw him without a drink in his hand from early in the morning till bedtime. ; Despite surprising doctors by making a recovery which enabled him to carry on working for another 6 years, John’s health problems finally caught up with him.
; I went to see him and he was in the hospital and I’d grown a bit. I was doing uh uh educating Rita somewhere and and playing a college and he said, “Oh my dear fellow, you’ve you’ve grown a beard.” And I said, “Yes, John, I’m I’m playing a college professor and I thought perhaps it might make me look a bit more intellectual.
” He said, “And has it?” With just a hint of a smile. And as Joanie said, that was his last joke. The actor John Lameasurer, one of the stars of Dad’s Army, died today in Armsgood Hospital. He was 71. A hospital spokesman said he died peacefully with his wife at his bedside. ; I don’t think John would like to have uh stayed around and made a nuisance of himself.
I think he would have he always had in a expert timing. I think he left in a way when he wanted to. The actor who made so many laugh refused even to take the prospect of his death seriously and he’d already written his own obituary for the Times. He wished it to be known that he just conked out. I remember the Times refused to print it.
They said, “We’re not printing that.” But they um they uh they decided, “Okay, yeah, we can we’ll go with it. Why not?” The Guardian, apart from doing um an obituary, they did a leader. He somehow embodied a symbolic British reaction to the whirlpool of the modern world, endlessly perplexed by the dizzying and incoherent pattern of events, but doing his courteous best to ensure that resentment never showed.
Isn’t that lovely? He was absolutely a marvelous man. I mean, they don’t make them like that anymore. ; He just inspired people to love him because he he was just such a lovely man. You realize in comparison when you look at other people that there there aren’t many of the John Leasures around anymore. They’re very, very rare people.
I feel very privileged to have known him actually. He was one of the special ones. On the night before he died, he said, “My darling, it’s all been rather lovely.” A charmed life. He really did. He He was He was the charm. Making merry with the immortal barge. Next on BBC 2.
A very special QI coming up. One little poem he used to say, “If you want to have some fun, put your finger up your bum and we’ll all have a jolly jolly time.” That was that was one of his poems. [laughter] I don’t think you’ll be able to use that.
