Web Page  No 2418

27^th   October 2017

First Picture: Joan Simms 1957

 Second Picture: In sexy mood

 Third Picture: In Carry On Nurse

Forth Picture; The dust jacket of her biography

Joan Simms

Irene Joan Marion Simms was that extremely rare commodity, a natural comedienne, who immersed herself in the bawdiness of the Carry On films. She brought to 24 of them - 20 in an unbroken sequence - a plump, high-spirited raucousness, that might have been offensive, but for her obvious good nature.

She never married, though in her youth she had two close relationships - with actor Tony Baird, and the stage manager John Walters - she claimed generally, men were put off by funny women and that sometimes she had had to steel herself to get through the filming of the Carry Ons - especially as the male cast were apt to play practical jokes on her. She was not in the first of the series, Carry On Sergeant, but, in November 1958, she was hired to play the student nurse in the second, Carry On Nurse, the biggest box office success of 1959. Playing the gym mistress in the next, Carry On Teacher (1959), she developed thrombophlebitis, and had her bad leg propped up on off-camera cushions before being hospitalised for 10 days. In Carry On Constable (1960), her role was that of a WPC called Gloria Passworthy.

Simultaneously, she was also appeared in that other highly successful, if slightly more genteel the Doctor series. By 1960, she had reached her third, Doctor In Love, followed by Doctor In Clover but the Doctor films satisfied her less than the Carry Ons, which she said gave her a unique comradeship and fun during shooting.

The producer Peter Rogers did, in fact, claim that he would do anything for his Carry On team - except pay them. The top men in the cast got a £5,000 fee and the women, including Joan Sims, £2,500 - well below the market rate. By the final one, Carry On Columbus (1992), she wrote that she was glad she was not in it.

Her motivation for acting was a child's desire to please. Her mother had been deeply in love with a man who, after a misunderstanding, took off, returning after a few weeks to discover that his beloved had married on the rebound. Divorce not being an option in those days, Sims's father and mother showed no affection towards one another - and little to their daughter who was born on 9^th May 1930. Joan compensated by dressing up and entertaining passengers at Laindon station where her father was station-master. A neighbour brought a gramophone to spice up the act, and Joan became adept at increasing her wardrobe by asking the passengers for cast-off clothes.

At Brentwood county school for girls, she became determined to find something at which she could excel. Acting seemed the most likely - she arranged entertainments in the school air-raid shelter, joined amateur groups, played old ladies and danced in Gilbert and Sullivan. But she failed her school certificate twice, and only got a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art on her third application, after her father persuaded the academy to give her a chance.

An agent, who also handled Ronnie Barker took her on and she progressed through repertory at Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Southend, Luton and Salisbury to being principal girl in the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre's production of the pantomime The Happy Ha'Penny. After that she showed her adaptability in the West End by appearing in two plays at once one at the Irving Theatre Club and the other in a revue called The Bells Of St Martin's.

In 1952, she got her first small role in a British film, Colonel March Investigates. The following year, she had a bigger part, with George Cole, in Will Any Gentleman? and appeared in the revue High Spirits, from which she took the title for her autobiography, High Spirits.

A string of stage revues, films and radio comedies followed. Her association with Kenneth Horne, the straight man of the BBC radio comedy, Round the Horne, began in 1968, but was cut short by Kenneth Horne’s death the following year. She was in the show's successor, Stop Messing About, starring her friend Kenneth Williams, but, with no straight man to play against it fell flat.

In her last years, she struggled against illness, heavy drinking and depression. but she successfully appeared in September 2001 with Judi Dench, in the award-winning BBC TV film, Last of the Blonde Bombshells. She died nine months later on 27^th June 2001.

Keep in touch

Yours

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

You Write:

Mary Writes:

Hello, I moved out into the country that June which I loved. I did miss my old school and friends but was so busy settling into the new school, which was for girls only. Boys were treated like aliens and even on the school bus taking us home we were kept apart. My brother and I were so happy  running through the fields to a small wood, where we discovered a water bird had built a nest. There was a large wood opposite our house and we saw our first fox. It was so beautiful, a sight I`ve never forgotten. My brother made a new friend, Alan, and he took us into a cornfield where we met John, a farm labourer. He was having a meal break  and he and his family lived next door to Alan. Over the next few months we met all of Alan and Johns` families and we learned all about life in the countryside. My parents were very happy with our new house and we were occupied with our new lives. I think it was a very good year

News and Views:

On this day 27^th October 1960-1965

On 27/10/1960 the number one single was Only the Lonely - Roy Orbison and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 27/10/1961 the number one single was Walkin' Back to Happiness - Helen Shapiro and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. 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 27/10/1962 the number one single was Telstar - The Tornadoes and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (BBC) 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 27/10/1963 the number one single was You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Please Please Me - 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 27/10/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd 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. The big news story of the day was 7 die in UK hurricane-force winds.