Doris Hare

Presenter0:00

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

Doris Hare0:08

Doris, you come from a theatrical family, don't you? Yes. My mother, my father, my grandmother all of us we've all been in the theatre for years. We were my mother had a portable theatre. Yes.

Presenter0:18

What's the difference between a fit-up and a portable?

Doris Hare0:21

Well a portable theatre you build. A fit up you take uh things into a hall and fit up the the stage and the scenery. But with a portable you you build the theatre, you have great tarpaulin over the top and you have seats inside and my mother's theatre theatre was really quite something and they used to do uh a concert first, then a play, then a farce and they changed those six times a week. How long did you play in each town? Well, it depends if the business was good. Some places they would play for six months, some places for only a few weeks, some places for three months.

Presenter0:58

But in six months you must have got through an incredible number of plays. They certainly did, and they got

Doris Hare1:02

got through an incredible number of children too,'cause they never stopped having

Presenter1:05

Yeah.

Doris Hare1:06

Going back to these plays, um what were they? All sorts? All sorts. All they did Shakespeare, the classics, they did East Lynn, Ten Nights in a Bar Room, these wonderful old melodramas. A lot of them must have been improvised, have you? Well, a lot of them were, because uh my mother had the greatest uh ram erama ra ra ra and that's me off, she used to say.

Presenter1:30

How old were you m when you made your first appearance?

Doris Hare1:33

Well, I was carried on when I was three weeks old in Uncle Tom's cabin with Eliza when she's crossing the ice. I was the baby. We all were, you know, they always put them on in case they had to go in the business, and they all did.

Presenter1:44

Uh Yeah.

Doris Hare1:44

Uh

Presenter1:44

Uh

Doris Hare1:44

Yes. And your first speaking part? Uh, when I was I was I was about three years old, and it was a play called Queen's Evidence, and I said, uh, my father didn't tell you to say that and burst into tears, and I was furious because I didn't get a laugh.

Presenter2:00

Oh dear.

Presenter2:01

What area did your mother's portable play in?

Doris Hare2:04

Well, it was all in South Wales.

Presenter2:06

You were ponder.

Doris Hare2:07

Yes, we were all born there. But as my mother said when they say, When did you have your children? She said, It'd a long wait.

Presenter2:13

How many were you?

Doris Hare2:14

Six.

Doris Hare2:15

Six of us all uh you know, one night she would be playing a big fat lady and running around the stage, the next night, and about three weeks later, she would return playing Josephine in the Royal Divorce.

Presenter2:28

Was there a good living in in the

Doris Hare2:30

Uh

Presenter2:30

Portable or

Doris Hare2:30

Oh, yes, yes, they did. It was very hard work. But, you know, it was a fantastic time. I can't remember so much about it, but my my sister Betty and Wynne.

Presenter2:30

Yeah, yeah.

Doris Hare2:41

I mean they remember more about it and you know it was unbelievable what they did and what they got through.

Doris Hare2:47

How long did you stay with the portable? Well, my mother had it for

Doris Hare2:52

I was about about two or three when it it blew down, you see, and then she just left it there and we all moved on. Doing what?

Doris Hare3:00

Well, I went into juvenile troops and my mother and my sister did a uh sort of three handed, rather terrible variety act and they went all over the place there.

Presenter3:10

Doris, looking back, do you feel that you regret your childhood, that you wish you had had a normal childhood?

Doris Hare3:16

Uh

Presenter3:16

Oh no.

Doris Hare3:17

No, you see, it was very exciting. Did you have any schooling?

Presenter3:21

Uh Yeah.

Doris Hare3:23

I went for three weeks in Cumvelle in Vaar in Wales, and I learned God bless the Prince of Wales, which uh helped me out under many, many, many times when I've been to these Welsh reunions, you see.

Doris Hare3:35

When did you first play in London?

Doris Hare3:37

When I was nine, about nine, seven no, about seven, at the Palace Theatre Walthamstow in a play called Kate Till Kingdom Come with a most wonderful actress called Grace Warner, who I used to go in and and whitewash her back. You know, they used to wet white themselves in those days, the ladies. And she used to teach me how to use my hands, how to come on the stage, how to she was fantastic.

Presenter3:54

Lazy.

Doris Hare4:02

She has to knock the bottle back a bit too, but you know

Presenter4:02

Yeah.

Presenter4:04

Out of context.

Presenter4:05

Well, for some years it was touring reviews. Yes. And you played overseas as well.

Doris Hare4:10

Yes. I went to South Africa and Australia with Henry Debray in doing variety.

Doris Hare4:15

and played all up and down the country, everywhere. What was your your first break, your big break? Well, the f my first big break was when I came I was in in a variety show and I came to the Hermann Empire.

Doris Hare4:28

And Frank Collins, who was Cochrane's manager, came to see Sid Seymour. Sid Seymour wasn't there and saw me. I did impersonations, I did all sorts of things. And of course when he saw this the hat on the piano, the straw hat, Chevalier, all the various bits and bobs on the piano,

Doris Hare4:45

He thought, my God, she's going to do impersonations, and I did. And I did them, and I also did a Jewish one. Well, now, at that time.

Doris Hare4:53

Not being Jewish, to do a Jewish impersonation at the Hoban Empire took a bit of courage, but he loved it. He rang my agent the next morning and said, I saw a kid last night, Doris Hare. Um I'd like her to come and do an audition for Noel Carl. And I went along and I did the audition for Noel and I got words and music.

Presenter5:11

Words and Music, his review. That, of course, was vintage cowardic.

Doris Hare5:16

Oh he was at the height of

Presenter5:16

He was at the height of his career then.

Doris Hare5:18

It was glamour. I think really it was just the end of the glamourless period. We had the twelve children of the Ritz who were so beautiful. They really did come in Rolls-Royces. And everything about it was beautiful. Noel doing his best, and he wrote me the most best song I've ever had in my life, Three White Feathers. And of course, we did Mad Dogs and Englishmen in it.

Presenter5:38

Mm.

Doris Hare5:39

And it was such a success. It was beautiful to be in.

Presenter5:39

Mm-hmm.

Presenter5:43

After that I remember you in two of the funniest reviews I've ever seen, both at the Comedy Theatre. How do you do and um

Doris Hare5:49

Yeah.

Presenter5:49

Yeah. Yeah.

Doris Hare5:50

When I was in that, Emryn Williams saw me in this review and rang me up and asked me if I'd like to play Mrs. Terrence in Night Must Fall and go to New York. Well, I mean the idea of going to New York, which had been my dream, and my brother Bertie was in it with me. My sister Betty was with Noel Card and Gertie Lawrence in Tonight at 8.30 in New York, and the three of us met in New York.

Presenter6:14

Yes.

Doris Hare6:15

Oh, it was simply marvellous.

Presenter6:17

Was Night Must Fall a success in the State?

Doris Hare6:19

Well, no, not really. It should have been, but of course it was oversold.

Doris Hare6:23

But the most wonderful thing that when I was in New York was the fact that I met up again with Jean Sablon and I had been the first to introduce him in this country in a Charlotte hour. Yes, on BBC. On BBC. And we were both in New York, both doing radio programmes. And it was marvelous. We had great fun. We went everywhere together.

Presenter6:43

When the war started you went into another Cochrane show, another Cochrane review.

Doris Hare6:47

Yes, a lovely review called Lights Up with Evelyn Lay, Martin Greene, Cliff Mollison and a whole lot of us. And it was during that time, it was wartime.

Doris Hare6:58

when we were the first to go up. There was no entertainment up for the for the n the Navy up at Scaba Flo. And Evelyn Lay, who was and is a fabulous person,

Doris Hare7:09

arranged for us to be flown up to the Navy and we got in to the smallest aeroplane I've ever seen. I don't know how it ever took off. In the most tele I think we were the only thing that was up that day. We were all given paper bags, which was all very jolly. And we had to change planes and Boo had taken all her lovely clothes and flowers and things for everybody. I'd got a little fringe dress and a bit of wool's makeup.

Doris Hare7:34

And we changed planes, and when we got to Hoy the plane had gone back to Edinburgh with all Boo's beautiful clothes and make up, all the presents.

Doris Hare7:45

And she looked at me as when we got into this very strange place we dressed in, and said, And to think, I've come all this way and I'm going to sing to the sailors in the face I've been sick in.

Doris Hare7:56

Ha s.

Presenter7:56

Ha ha ha.

Doris Hare7:57

And that night we did the concert and I'll never forget it was the most wonderful thing a hangar filled with sailors.

Presenter8:05

Uh

Doris Hare8:05

Yeah.

Presenter8:05

You had a lot to do with sailors during the war, right through the war, didn't you? Yes. And I had my lovely Merchant Navy sailors. Yes, shipmates ashore. That's it. Well, you were the sweetheart of the Merchant Navy all those years. Yes, bless them.

Doris Hare8:17

Uh

Presenter8:18

I love'em.

Doris Hare8:18

Love

Presenter8:19

Now after those wartime years of broadcasting and raising a family, you went back to the theatre.

Presenter8:26

One of the musical plays written by A. P. Herbert and Livia Daniels.

Doris Hare8:29

Oh, water gypsies, wonderful. Water gypsies. Yes, that's right.

Presenter8:31

Water gypsies.

Doris Hare8:33

That was tremendous fun to do. I did that with the we did a wonderful dance in that, but you used to stop the show every night. It was great fun. With Dear Jerry Burner. Yes, that's it. What else do you remember? And then I did Valmouth, which was a oh, a lovely, marvellous play, way ahead of its time. And I played A Lady of a Hundred and Twenty.

Presenter8:41

Uh

Presenter8:49

I'm

Presenter8:53

And you have done a lot of straight work, of course.

Doris Hare8:54

Yes, I went I was well, I was with the the Royal Shakespeare Company. I did Pinta, Shakespeare, I wasn't very good in Shakespeare, I brush over that. Uh but we did all the most wonderful plays and then I also went over to the National and I did Heartbreak House, uh Trelawney of the Wells, oh marvellous, it was really tremendous fun doing all those straight plays. They're much easier than doing comedy, you know.

Doris Hare9:19

Uh

Presenter9:19

And you've played at Chichester for several seasons? Yes, that was lovely too. I love Chichester.

Presenter9:24

And you've been in a very successful television series. Yes, on the buses. On the buses.

Doris Hare9:29

The passage.

Doris Hare9:31

Darling on the buses, I love it. We had tremendous fun doing it. And it's so lovely when you have a programme like that that everybody knows you and says, Oh, hello, mum, how going on, Girl? All right. Yes. And you did some film versions. Yes, we've done three films of it, still going around.

Presenter9:45

And now you're in a West End comedy that looks as if it's going to run forever.

Doris Hare9:49

Yes. Well, I'm in it and it's lovely. No sex, please. We're British.

Doris Hare9:54

And I'm going to be there for another year. It's simply marvelous.

Presenter9:57

Yes, you're gonna take a bit of time off to go to an island or two, I guess.

Doris Hare9:59

Yes, I'm going to the Caribbean for a lovely holiday.

Presenter10:02

Doris, you've done everything in your career, it seems. Is there anything you haven't done that you really still want to do?

Doris Hare10:09

Well, I suppose if anybody asked me to do something that I really would like I would love to do restoration.

Doris Hare10:14

'Cause they're such marvellous parts, those lovely ladies and those restoration pieces with all their clothes and things and lovely lines too.

Presenter10:22

You never know who may be listening.