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The Little Man Comedies of Charlie Drake and Their Relation to the Unconscious

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THE LITTLE MAN COMEDIES OF CHARLIE DRAKE AND THEIR RELATION TO THE UNCONSCIOUS JOHN BANNISTER Ph.D. Thesis 2012 THE LITTLE MAN COMEDIES OF CHARLIE DRAKE AND THEIR RELATION TO THE UNCONSCIOUS John BANNISTER School of Media, Music and Performance College of Arts and Social Sciences University of Salford, Salford, UK Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, December 2012 THE LITTLE MAN COMEDIES OF CHARLIE DRAKE AND THEIR RELATION TO THE UNCONSCIOUS Portrait of Charlie Drake by the artist Gerard de Rose (c.1960s) Source: reproduced by kind permission of Theodore de Rose Contents Introduction i. Methodology………………………………………………………………………..13 ii. A critical review of psycho-analytic and comedy theory………………………….16 Chapter 1. Building up a psycho-biographical profile of Charlie Drake………………….29 Chapter 2. “Frood started it you know”…………………………………………………...58 Chapter 3. The Descent of the ‘Little Man’ in British Comedy………………………......91 Chapter 4. Psycho-analysis of the film Petticoat Pirates………………………………...132 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………......178 Appendix…………………………………………………………………….…………...188 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………...243 Television Index………………………………………………………………………….258 Film Index………………………………………………………………………………..262 List of Illustrations Frontispiece: Portrait of Charlie Drake by the artist Gerard de Rose (c.1960s) Charlie Drake self-portrait…………………………………………………………..page 28 Figure 1. The ‘little man’ rides the giant father-phallus through the amniotic sea in the Oedipus Stakes…………………………………………………………….……………...71 Figures 2-8. The ‘contraphallic’ Drake in his phallocentric pram….…………………….87 Figure 9. Admiral Charlie Drake whose comic sketches scuttled his own ship in the ABPC film Petticoat Pirates………………….……………….………………………………...132 Figure 10. Dream trial before a jury of Drakes/a league of Laius’……………………....155 Figure 11. Lieutenant Commander Drake/Charlie reading out the charges…………..…155 Figure 12. Admiral Sir Charles Drake/Charlie “’ang ‘im! ‘ang ‘im!”…………………...157 Figure 13. Admiral Nelson Drake/Charlie Blind to justice. “Has a defending council been appointed?”………………………………………………………………………….…...158 Figure 14. American psychiatrist/Charlie “He, he , he…”.……………………………...158 Figures 15-18. Jury of Drakes/Charlie “Guilty!” “Guilty!” “Guilty!” “Guilty”………..160 Figures 19-22. The look-to-camera invites the audience to look through Drake’s phallic periscope to see if they measure up……………………………………….……………..165 Figure 23. “Smile for the camera/men ladies”…………………………………………...165 Figure 24 & 25. Charlie recoils from the periscope shocked by/for looking…………....166 Figure 26. The “Black finger nail” unflanked – all men together…………………...…..168 Figure 27. Dragging Charlie to the dressing-up room to drag up?....................................170 Figure 28. Lieutenant. Pattinson “Ooh, steady!”………………………………………...170 Figure 29. Restraining Lieutenant Pattinson/phallus/arm/phallus………………………..171 Figure 30. Castration or “master”bation………………………………………….……...171 Figure 31. Castrated Charlie in skirts masquerading as a wren……………….………....172 Figure 32. Hengist: “I plead for my life, I plead for forgiveness, I plead for mercy!” Mark Antony: “You miserable little pleader.”…………..…………………....175 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my doctoral supervisor, Professor John Mundy, School of Media, Music and Performance at Salford University for his ‘fatherly’ guidance and unfailing encouragement. I owe a debt of gratitude to him for his guidance that helped me to realize what Cherie (Marilyn Monroe) in Bus Stop already knew, that “You gotta have direction”. He made sure I ran “straight as an arrow” each time I strayed off my direction. This thesis would not have been possible without the co-operation of many librarians and archivists. My thanks go to Rachel Lawson at the BBC Written Archives Centre who organised my two overnight visits in December 2008, and August 2009. I cannot overstate my appreciation to her for helping me to sift through the inevitable “dross” of BBC interdepartmental memos and financial contracts, which it turned out, revealed a lot about Drake’s tenacious personality and the BBC’s willingness to negotiate contracts with an artist they recognised had star quality. It was something the BBC never recognised in Kenneth Connor, who sent dozens of letters to the BBC begging for any kind of work he could get. Drake never sent one, or ever had to. My thanks also go to Rachel for putting me in touch with Kathleen Luckey, TV Curator at the BFI, who provided me with ‘viewing’ copies of some of the Charlie Drake In… television series. I was thus able to utilize the two sources and compare the television series with the scripts kept on microfiche at the Written Archive Centre. I am indebted to Carol Kenyon, secretary/PA to Peter Rogers (the producer of the Carry On films) at Pinewood Studios for putting me in touch with Jane Ashley at the BBC, who very kindly sent me copies of Radio 4 broadcasts, and for directing me to the British Film Institute Archive where the Carry On film scripts written by Norman Hudis are held in the Gerald Thomas Special Collection. These were a particularly useful source for comparing the ‘little man’ type characters played by Kenneth Connor with the type co-written by Hudis and Drake in Mister Ten Per Cent (1967). Carol Kenyon also brought my attention to two very important sources for making personal contacts with actors who had worked with Drake: International Artistes and the Spotlight database. I wish to thank Drake’s close friend and manager Laurie Mansfield at International Artistes, who not only provided me with a personal insight into Charlie Drake’s personality, but introduced me to his son, Chris Drake, who (after numerous phone conversations) invited me to visit him on February 5th 2009. Chris was not only candid about his famous father (his aide- mémoire proved invaluable to a psychological analysis of this kind) but he brought a treasure trove of previously unpublished photographs and working scripts to our first meeting; some of which are included in the thesis. I would like to thank Chris for his help and continued interest in the thesis and for his kind permission to reproduce material in his possession here. So too, my thanks go to Theodore de Rose for his permission to reproduce a photograph of a portrait painting of Drake by his father, Gerard de Rose, ‘painter to the stars’ in the 1960s. Laurie Mansfield very kindly forwarded a letter to another of his clients, the comedian, Jim Davidson, who worked with Drake in the adult panto SINderella (1995). I would like to thank Davidson for not just answering all the questions I asked him about his ‘fellow performer’, but for adding a post-script which clearly reflected his genuinely affectionate feelings for someone who had become a close friend too. Similarly, my appreciation extends to another of Drake’s friends, the comedian, Danny Blue (who appeared as one of The Oddballs in SINderella performing a comic Strip Show version of Drake’s balloon routine). His telephone conversations, full of anecdotes about Drake, were amusing and enlightening. The internet database Spotlight was a useful source because I was able to contact and correspond with actors who had worked with Drake in films. Wanda Ventham, in particular, wrote me a very endearing letter about working with Drake in Mr. Ten Per Cent. She describes what she thought he thought of himself and what she and the other actresses really thought of him on and off set, but she does it with so much grace that it is difficult to believe she is being unflattering. A seemingly unlikely source was the ‘user’ comments’ facility on YouTube, which brought me into contact with Simon Trewin who had an unhappy time working as a stage manager with Drake in the panto ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ at the Beck Theatre, Hayes. I am deeply indebted to Trewin and Ventham for not allowing my assessment of Drake’s personality to become erroneously one-sided. By way of contrast my correspondence with the nephew of Kenneth Connor on YouTube and the reactions of many users who rushed to defend Connor after I posted a provocative comment about the ‘little man’ character[s] he plays in the Carry On films confirmed my suspicions that the way the public relate psychologically to the characters they play is coloured as much by an intensely cosseted private life as by any sleaze that a star becomes identified with under the intense spotlight (cosseted or not) of the media gaze, and it is the public who cannot or do not want to separate persona from personality. I am grateful to Nicholas Parsons for the telephone interview he gave me in 2009 where he discussed working with Connor in Carry On Regardless. Parsons helped me to understand that there is a fundamental difference between an actor who plays the ‘little man’ type written for him by a scriptwriter and a comic like Drake who creates the ‘little man’ character he plays. Thanks go to Louisa Clifton at Diamond Management, London, for contacting Parsons on my behalf. A very warm thank you goes to Norman Hudis who corresponded with me on several occasions to discuss the ‘little man’ characters he created for the Carry On films and for providing me with a copy of his autopsychography, No Laughing Matter: How I Carried On (2008) which reveals his own ‘little man’ complex and the cathartic release he found for it in the films. Hudis talked frankly about his meagre contribution to the scriptwriting on Drake’s film Mister Ten Per Cent
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