Web Page  No 2220

16th December 2015

Top Picture: Brian Rix

Second Picture: Elspet Grey

Third Picture: This is Your Life

Brian Norman Roger Rix, Baron Rix, CBE, DL

For many people from the early 1950’s onwards Bank Holiday television would not be complete until they had seen the Whitehall farce starring Brian Rix, Larry Noble, Basil Lord and Leo Franklin. But it all revolved around Brian Rix.

He was born in Cottingham, the youngest of four children. His father, Herbert Rix and Herbert's two brothers, ran the shipping and oil company in Hull, founded by his grandfather.  Brian was a talented cricketer but only wanted to play for Yorkshire in his childhood, but when he was being educated at Bootham School, York his ambitions changed. He did play for Hull CC when he was 16 and after the war for the MCC but during his school days his sister Sheila became an actress and Brian developed the same ambition. In fact all four Rix children had become interested in the theatre, their mother, Fanny, ran an amateur dramatic society and was the lead soprano in the local operatic society. All her children performed in the plays and two of them, Brian and Sheila, became professional actors. Sheila Mercier, as she was known, went on to play Annie Sugden for 25 years in Emmerdale Farm having worked regularly with her brother in the Whitehall farces in the 1950s and 1960s.

Brian became a professional actor when he was 18, on deferred service from the RAF with Donald Wolfit's Shakespeare Company. His deferment was extended and he gained his first weekly repertory experience with the White Rose Players at the Harrogate opera house. From there he went into the RAF, eventually ending up as a Bevin Boy working down the coal mines near Doncaster. After the war, he returned to the stage, forming his own theatre company in 1947 as an actor-manager and while at Bridlington, in 1949, he found the play that was to bring him fame and fortune – Reluctant Heroes. In the same year, he became engaged to Elspet Gray, an actress in his company and six months later they married. They were together, domestically and professionally, for 64 years, until her death in February 2013, appearing alongside each other in many of the TV farces.

In 1950 the newly-weds toured together with Reluctant Heroes until Brian managed to persuade the Whitehall Theatre management that this army farce was the ideal play for the West End. It was a happy choice, for Rix's productions ran there for the next 16 years, before he moved to the Garrick Theatre.

During the next 18 years, he presented more than 90 one-night-only television farces on the BBC, these were hugely popular, with viewing figures regularly topping 15 million. In the early 1960s he was the highest paid actor  to appear on BBC TV. Alongside the regulars from his theatre company. Unfortunately only 6 of his 90 farces are in the BBC archive. The earliest were never recorded and many of the latest were wiped. This may be why Brian Rix is rarely mentioned in programmes looking at the early days of television. He also appeared in 11 films and though he felt these were less suited to his talents they also met with some box-office success.

Reluctant Heroes, the first Whitehall farce and during its four-year run he also sent out national tours of the play, generally with John Slater playing the dread Sergeant Bell. To give some sense of its popularity, at one time he had the play running at the Whitehall, three tours on the road and the film (which was no. 1 at the UK box office in 1952) on release. Brian Rix himself played the gormless north-country recruit, Horace Gregory, in both film and throughout the four-year run at the Whitehall. This is where his reputation for losing his trousers began. He subsequently lost them at least 12,000 times in the 26 years in the farces.

In 1967, he moved to the Garrick Theatre after the Whitehall Theatre lease expired.

In the meantime Brian Rix Elspet became involved in the world of learning disability. In December 1951 the first of their four children was born. She was a daughter, Shelley, and had Down syndrome. There was no welfare support for such children and certainly no education. The only state offering was a place in a run-down so-called hospital where "patients" were left to their own devices for hours on end. The Rixes were determined to try and do something to better matters and became involved with various charities fighting to do the same. Among these roles, in the early 60s he became the first Chairman of the Special Functions Fundraising committee at the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children and Adults. Both his personal experience and his leading position as a fundraiser in the field finally lead to him applying for the job at Mencap and then when he retired in 1987 to him becoming chairman in 1988. In 1998, he became president, an office he holds to this day.

Since entering the House of Lords as a crossbencher in 1992, he has campaigned ceaselessly on any legislation affecting people with a learning disability and every year has introduced numerous amendments to legislation, mainly that associated with health, social welfare and education.

Brian became a radio ham at the age of 13 and became a life vice-president of the Radio Society of Great Britain in 1979. His call sign is G2DQU. He has been the subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions, in October 1961 and again in April 1977. He was also a castaway on Desert Island Discs on two occasions. The first was with Roy Plomley on 16^th May 1960, his second was with Kirsty Young on 1 March 2009.

He was created a (CBE) in 1977 and knighted in June 1986 for his services to charity. On his 68th birthday, 27th January 1992, he was created a life peer, becoming Baron Rix, of Whitehall. He was Vice Lord Lieutenant of Greater London from 1987–1997 and was the first Chancellor of the University of East London from 1997–2012. He is now the Chancellor Emeritus. He has been awarded eight honorary degrees.

Keep in touch

Peter

gsseditor@gmail.com

You Write:

Peter Writes:

I left Court Lane in 1958 at the end of I believe was the first 5th year.  Incidentally,  Norman Folland was my form teacher. Before that, virtually everybody left Court Lane at the end of the 4th year (aged 16).   To my knowledge, that was normal in Secondary Modern Schools up to then.  It was only the Grammar Schools that went on to a 5th year.  Also, as far as I can remember, my class was the first class at Court Lane to do GCE "O" levels.  

The people that I remember  in my class in the 5th year were:

Barry Christie, Malcolm Munday, Bob Seal, Roger Cooke, Malcolm Lee, David Christopher,  Richard Farnfield, Arthur Dobson, Philip Harding, Harry Bligh, Peter Birch, Barclay Williams I think?

Dianne Bartlett, Pearl Wilson, Lesley Brown, Kay Lucas, Sandra Gard, Dawn Aylmer,  Carol Hughes, Beverly Hatch, Pauline Williams, and probably one or two others. I am sorry if I have missed anyone but we were a fairly small class.  It would be great to here from any of the above and I apologise if I have spelt anyones name incorrectly.

News and Views:

On this day 16^th December 1960-1965

On 16/12/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Tottenham Hotspur. The top rated TV show was The Army Game (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £not very interesting and 13.68 were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada).

On 16/12/1961 the number one single was Tower of Strength - Frankie Vaughan and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 16/12/1962 the number one single was Return to Sender - Elvis Presley and the number one album was West Side Story Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 16/12/1963 the number one single was I Want to Hold Your hand - The Beatles and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 16/12/1964 the number one single was I Feel Fine - The Beatles and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 16/12/1965 the number one single was Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out - The Beatles and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.