
Jimmy Edwards
1920 - 1988James Keith O'Neill "Jimmy" Edwards, DFC (23 March 1920 – 7 July 1988) was an English comedy writer and actor on radio and television, best known as Pa Glum in Take It From Here and as headmaster "Professor" James Edwards in Whack-O!
Edwards was born in Barnes, London, (then Surrey), the son of a professor of mathematics. He was educated at St Paul's Cathedral School, at King's College School in Wimbledon and at St John's College, Cambridge.
He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross.
In December 1958, Jimmy Edwards played the King in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella at the London Coliseum with Kenneth Williams, Tommy Steele, Yana and Betty Marsden Bobby Howell was the Musical Director. In April 1966, he played at the last night of Melbourne's Tivoli Theatre.
Edwards frequently worked with Eric Sykes, acting in short films that Sykes wrote: The Plank (1967), which also starred Tommy Cooper; alongside Arthur Lowe and Ronnie Barker in the remake of The Plank in 1979; and in Rhubarb (1969), which again featured Sykes. The films were not silent but had no dialogue other than grunts. He also appeared in the The Bed Sitting Room (1969) as Nigel, a man who lives in a left luggage compartment after being mistaken for a suitcase.
Mr. H Is Late
Eric Sykes
John Alderton, Bobby Ball
A team of inept undertakers attempt to get a coffin to a funeral on time. An undertaker is in charge of moving a coffin from a home to the church. The home is on the 26th floor of a skyscraper; the stairs are narrow; the lift is small and prone to stop working. Chaos ensues.
Mr. H Is Late
The Plank
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes, Arthur Lowe
Classic short British comedy, full of stars, about two workmen delivering planks to a building site. This is done with music and a sort of "wordless dialogue" which consists of a few mumbled sounds to convey the appropriate emotion. TV remake of the 1967 short.
The Plank
It's Your Move
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes, Richard Briers
A silent slapstick comedy depicting the travails of young couple moving into a new home, who hire an accident-prone firm of house removers, headed by Sykes. It features an all-star cast including Tommy Cooper, Bernard Cribbins, Jimmy Edwards, Irene Handl, Bob Todd and Andrew Sachs.
It's Your Move
Rhubarb Rhubarb
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes, Jimmy Edwards
During a game of golf between a police inspector and a vicar the inspector cheats by having a constable move his ball into favourable positions and the vicar's into hazardous ones. when the vicar discovers this he prays for divine intervention which turns the tables.
Rhubarb Rhubarb
Bottoms Up!
Mario Zampi
Jimmy Edwards, Arthur Howard
An incompetent boarding school headmaster, Professor Jim Edwards, devises a bizarre plot to raise the profile of his boarding school, and thus save his job, by passing off his bookie's son as a Middle Eastern prince. The headmaster's madcap scheme is further complicated when an official from the Foreign Office arrives and announces that a real prince is to be placed under Edwards supervision, not due to the schools lofty reputation, but that a gang of kidnappers are unlikely to look for the regal child there.
Bottoms Up!
The Bed Sitting Room
Richard Lester
Rita Tushingham, Dudley Moore
In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room.
The Bed Sitting Room