Dick Emery

Presenter0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Dick Emery0:07

My mother started her career at uh Daly's Theatre. Now Daly's Theatre used to stand where Warner's Theatre is, the cinema in Leicester Square.

Dick Emery0:20

The stories are many that she tells me about show business.

Dick Emery0:24

how it was in those days, what a wonderful business it was. Uh for instance, in those days they used to rehearse for thirteen weeks.

Dick Emery0:32

I mean, when you think that I put a show on in four days now they rehearsed for thirteen weeks without any pay.

Dick Emery0:39

But uh of course the result was a wonderful show and of course uh uh George Edwards was a wonderful showman, a wonderful man to work for and uh the shows from London were put out on tour, but nobody

Dick Emery0:54

went from the London show on tour, no, you had the number one touring company, the number two touring company, the number three touring company, and each of those companies had their own train which took them to their destination and that was, you know, to my mind, show business.

Presenter1:09

Your parents

Dick Emery1:09

Yes. Uh my father was a comedian. Uh my mother became a comedienne. She was very lovely and nobody nobody believed that she could be a comic. She had to sort of prove it, you know, by making herself up funny.

Presenter1:22

What did they call themselves?

Dick Emery1:22

They call themselves Callan and Emery. My mother's maiden name is Callan, she's Irish, you see. They did a double act for years. They went all over the all over the world. They

Dick Emery1:32

Australia, Africa.

Presenter1:35

Did you travel with them as a youngster?

Dick Emery1:36

Uh yes, not as far afield. I I travelled uh with them in England. Um I actually I went on tour when I was three weeks old.

Presenter1:40

Yeah.

Dick Emery1:43

Good job.

Presenter1:44

Uh

Dick Emery1:44

Um then I toured from that age up till about the age of six.

Dick Emery1:49

Um

Dick Emery1:50

I the touring in those days was really tough. You know, you'd be on a train on Sunday and you'd be shunted into a siding in the train and have to stay there sort of half a day.

Presenter1:57

And how to

Dick Emery2:00

Uh I was a very cheerful little thing, though, on tour. We used to I remember we used to get to these awful towns on a November night looking for digs, a Sunday night.

Dick Emery2:10

And there I'd be singing away a little song. I always sang um

Dick Emery2:14

All the nice girls love a sailor. For and there's a little bit in it r which goes first he flirts with Kate and Jane and I always sang first he flirts with Plate and Jane, then he's off to see her again I don't know why, but uh that was my version. And uh Just to keep her spirits up. Yes, yes, and I did too. And I used to sit on a little little leather portmanteau bag that they carried about with them when I was tired.

Presenter2:36

Was it taken for granted that you'd go into the profession?

Presenter2:39

No.

Presenter2:40

Yeah.

Dick Emery2:40

Uh

Dick Emery2:42

When I was about eight or nine years of age, my mother and father

Dick Emery2:47

Parted.

Dick Emery2:48

And um

Dick Emery2:50

A mother wanted me to have a home life.

Dick Emery2:54

because having been on tour all those years. So uh she um did a wonderful job. She ch she gave up show business and she took up journalism.

Dick Emery3:03

And we lived on a pound a week.

Presenter3:05

Really?

Dick Emery3:06

What was your ambition as a kid?

Dick Emery3:08

As a child, I don't know. There are so many things.

Dick Emery3:12

I left school at an early age because uh I'd you see I'd been to so many different schools that school uh I found it difficult to to settle in any school. I had a not a good schooling. What did you do when you left? I was an office boy. And after that?

Dick Emery3:27

Uh after that, oh, many things. I went on a farm, but I'm afraid it was no good for me. Then uh I uh went into journalism with my mother, helped her out on many things she did in journalism, writing myself.

Dick Emery3:41

Uh then I was in chorus in show business, did a lot of chorus work.

Dick Emery3:46

But then came a a time when I uh discovered I had a singing voice, and uh I thought, well, now I must give up show business because I must be in one place, and most shows were on tour. So I got a job as a chauffeur to stay in London and study, and then uh uh that lasted three weeks, by the way.

Dick Emery4:04

And then I got a job as a uh a driving instructor.

Presenter4:07

Mm-hmm.

Dick Emery4:08

And that lasted for three years and helped me a great deal with the uh the vocal training.

Presenter4:12

Yes.

Dick Emery4:13

What interrupted?

Presenter4:14

Yeah.

Dick Emery4:14

At the war.

Dick Emery4:16

Uh uh just before the war I I had um

Dick Emery4:21

made arrangements to go to Italy to study under Tetrazzini,

Dick Emery4:25

And uh

Dick Emery4:27

The war came and of course all the nobody was allowed out of the country and I was going to be called up at any moment.

Presenter4:32

What?

Presenter4:32

So you were called up into the RAF. Into the RAF, yes. The dear old RAF. Any entertaining in uniform?

Dick Emery4:38

Yes. I was at St. Evil in Cornwall, was my first station, and I used to sing there and did a little bit of comedy.

Dick Emery4:49

And uh I was in the ordinary RAF for about three years.

Dick Emery4:54

And then came an opportunity to go into the R E F gang shows with Ralph Reeder.

Presenter4:58

Mm-hmm.

Dick Emery4:58

Which was of course that uh

Presenter4:58

Uh

Dick Emery5:00

One of the turning points in my uh show business career, shall we say.

Presenter5:04

And that's when you started comicking.

Presenter5:07

Yes.

Dick Emery5:07

There, I had to comic them my goodness me, I had fourteen changes a show.

Dick Emery5:12

What happened when the war was over? Uh I was still in the gang chair.

Dick Emery5:16

Because, uh, fortunately for all of us, you know, coming out of the raft,

Dick Emery5:20

What does one do? You know, some of them go to um if they've been apprenticed electricians they they would get a job. But uh if we hadn't had gang show to come out to, there'd have been nothing. And uh R Ralph Reeder devised the w what we call the Civvy Street Gang Show.

Dick Emery5:37

And uh we all got together a a whole load of units. You know, each um gang show was comp uh comprised of twelve men. There were about twenty-five units in all and uh they sort of got the best from all of them and produced a show. Uh we opened up in Blackpool, the Opera House, a great success, and then finally came after a small tour came down to the Stoll Theatre.

Dick Emery6:00

and played there about six or seven months. Who else was in the company? Uh Reg Dixon, Cardi Robinson.

Dick Emery6:07

Dick Emery? Oh, to name but a few. Watercutter. Yes. And then what? Ah

Dick Emery6:14

Then we uh then Ralph produced a show with girls, much to our delight, you know, having been through the war years with without any girls in the show. And um we opened uh we opened up in Blackpool in a show called uh Out of the Blue. And uh little Jeannie Carson was in the show. Oh, yes. Great friends we are. She married a great friend of mine called Bill Lowe, whose real name is Bill Redmond, and he was a double act called Lennon Bill Lowe. And we had a very happy time in that show. Marvelous.

Presenter6:43

Marvelous. Then you had a spell at the windmill. Six shows a day. Six shows a day, the windmill. How long for?

Presenter6:48

Thirty-six weeks

Dick Emery6:48

Yeah.

Presenter6:49

Yeah.

Dick Emery6:49

Hmm.

Presenter6:50

Yeah.

Dick Emery6:50

But it was a great grounding, great uh great training. Um you began to do a lot of radio.

Presenter6:55

Quite true or not.

Dick Emery6:55

Oh yes, I um uh

Dick Emery6:58

Um I did uh radio with Peter Sellers.

Dick Emery7:01

And then uh

Dick Emery7:03

We come to a turning point in my career when uh Peter Bruff, who's a very great friend of mine, asked me to do um

Dick Emery7:11

Uh the Educating Archer series with him.

Presenter7:13

Mm-hmm.

Presenter7:14

When did you start doing television?

Dick Emery7:16

Uh well I started immediately uh after the uh Educating Artie series with Peter Brough'cause he put on an Educating Artie on telly.

Dick Emery7:24

Uh then I did a a television uh series called Two's Company.

Dick Emery7:30

with Libby Morris, which kept me out of television for nearly two years. You came unstuck, did you? Oh, I came unstuck. They said this boy could never hold a show on his own.

Presenter7:35

Oh I

Dick Emery7:39

A big man said this. No, no, no.

Dick Emery7:42

So I didn't do anything, except little bits. Then I gradually got back into uh

Dick Emery7:47

Into it. And the turning first thing that started turning the corner, I had a meeting with Michael Benteen along the road.

Dick Emery7:55

At three o'clock in the morning, and a voice yelled at me,'Hello, Dick' and I looked over, and there was dear Michael Benty, and I said,'Where have you been this life?

Dick Emery8:02

I've been in Australia for two years and I've come back and I mentioned my name and they keep saying who because they've forgotten all about me.

Dick Emery8:09

and he said, I'm so determined to get the name going again, I want to start up a series.

Dick Emery8:15

On television, would you like to come in? It's only a little sort of twenty-five minute thing with Clive Dunn, and a fellow by the name of Dick Lester is going to produce it, direct it, which of course is Richard Lester, the famous film producer now.

Dick Emery8:27

And uh so we started this little series. We used to rehearse two afternoons a week.

Dick Emery8:33

and say, Well, so so so so so this is a jolly good idea and uh let's do something sitting in a tank of water, right oh, well uh and we'd do this show and we called it After Hours and it was a great success up north. They didn't uh show it down south.

Dick Emery8:48

Then um there was a little break after that that was quite successful, uh for the whole thing, not for any individual particularly. Yes. Then came a break and uh I

Dick Emery9:00

Got into the army game. Oh, you had a long run in that, didn't you? Oh, yes, this this enabled me to learn to fly.

Dick Emery9:05

That's uh uh I don't think it did me very much good as a as an artist, uh the the army game, uh but uh at least I was in uh London for forty weeks uh earning jolly good money and uh I thought now is the time I'm going to have a go at flying and I learnt to fly. Uh of course the best way to learn anything I think is to do it consecutively, you know, week after week rather than once a month I think.

Presenter9:28

Yeah.

Dick Emery9:29

And I learnt to fly in about uh

Dick Emery9:31

Ooh, thirty-nine hours.

Dick Emery9:34

And

Presenter9:34

After

Dick Emery9:35

After that, then Michael Benteen came to me again and said the BBC want to start another series.

Presenter9:35

After that

Dick Emery9:42

And he called it the square world. Now this really was a turning point.

Dick Emery9:47

This is where I came into my own, because Michael started writing things for me, and everything he wrote was me.

Dick Emery9:54

The the lovely old characters that are that uh come out today, the old boys especially, were written by uh Michael in the first place. And um this really started me off on my own series.

Presenter10:07

Now away from show business.

Dick Emery10:08

Yeah.

Presenter10:08

Your interest. You still fly your own plane. Yes.

Presenter10:11

To and from engagements? Oh yes, occasionally. Weather permitting, you know.

Dick Emery10:14

What else do you do? Um well, anything to do with machinery, the control of machinery, fast cars, I've taken up motor racing recently.

Dick Emery10:24

I'm uh undergoing instruction at the moment. That's very interesting, very absorbing.

Presenter10:27

And that's

Dick Emery10:29

And quite safe, you know, really. Is it? Oh, it is. That was a tremendous uh instruction on safety, on the safe way of going around a bit. And do you know, I've only had a couple of lessons and it's improved my driving no end.

Presenter10:36

On the safe

Dick Emery10:41

And I'm a driving instruct you know, I've been a driving instructor.