Second Picture: With Margaret Rutherford
Third Picture: Up to His Neck
Forth Picture: Original Navy Lark
Ronald Shiner
Ronald Alfred Shiner (8 June 1903 – 29 June 1966) was a British stand-up comedian and comedy actor whose career encompassed film, West End theatre and music hall.
When he was seventeen, Shiner joined the Royal North-West Mounted Police, after which he became a signalman and a wireless operator, then a farmer. He also worked as a greengrocer, milkman and book makers clerk. He served for three years in the British Army.
Army concerts gave him a taste for the stage. He made his stage debut in 1928 in Dr Syn and the following year became a stage director at the Stage Society. During the early 1930s he appeared in a number of West End plays at the Whitehall Theatre by Walter C. Hackett including Good Losers, Take a Chance, Afterwards and Road House.
His first film was Wild Boy (1934) with Sonnie Hale and Flanagan & Allen. He had support roles in My Old Dutch (1934), Doctor's Orders (1934) and It's a Bet (1935). He could also be seen in Gentlemans Agreement (1935), Royal Cavalcade (1935), Squibs (1935), Once a Thief (1935), While Parents Sleep (1935),Line Engaged (1935), Invitation to the Waltz (1936), King of Hearts (1936), Limelight (1936) with Anna Neagle and Arthur Tracy, Excuse My Glove (1936) and Dreaming Lips (1937).
He was in another with Anna Neagle, London Melody (1937), then was in Doctor Syn (1937), The Black Tulip (1937), Beauty and the Barge (1937), and Silver Blaze (1937).
He was uncredited in A Yank at Oxford (1938) and Sidewalks of London (1938), and had bigger parts in They Drive by Night (1938), The Gang's All Here (1939), The Mind of Mr. Reeder (1939), Trouble Brewing (1939) with George Formby, The Nursemaid Who Disappeared (1939), I Killed the Count (1939), Flying Fifty-Five (1939), Discoveries (1939), The Lion Has Wings (1939), Come On George! (1939) with Formby, Bulldog Sees It Through (1940) with Jack Buchanan, The Missing People (1940) with Will Fyffe, The Middle Watch (1940) with Buchanan, Let George Do It! (1940) with Formby,[3] The Case of the Frightened Lady (1940), Spare a Copper (1940) with Formby, Salvage with a Smile (1941), The Seventh Survivor (1941), Old Bill and Son (1941), South American George (1941) with Formby.
On stage he was in Behind the Schemes (1940) and notably Something in the Air (1943–44). He had a popular radio segment Home Town. His film parts remained small in They Flew Alone (1942), Those Kids from Town (1942), The Big Blockade (1942), The Black Sheep of Whitehall (1941) with Will Hay, Unpublished Story (1942), Sabotage at Sea (1942), The Young Mr. Pitt (1942), King Arthur Was a Gentleman (1942) with Arthur Askey, The Balloon Goes Up (1943) and The Gentle Sex (1943).
He was fourth billed in George Formby's Get Cracking (1943). He had smaller roles in Miss London Ltd. (1943) with Askey, Thursday's Child (1943), My Learned Friend (1943) with Hay, The Butler's Dilemma (1943), and The Night Invader (1943). He was in Askey's Bees in Paradise (1944) and had small roles in I Live in Grosvenor Square (1945) with Anna Neagle, and Caesar and Cleopatra (1945).
His career received a massive boost when he appeared in a stage hit Worm's Eye View which ran from 1945 to 1947 performing in it over 1,700 times,
On screen, George Formby gave him another good part in George in Civvy Street (1946) and had a decent role in The Man Within (1947). He was in a children's film Dusty Bates (1947) and had a good part in Forbidden (1949).
He had another huge stage success when he headlined the wartime play Seagulls Over Sorrento (1950–54) which he played for almost 2,000 performances.
He became a film star almost overnight when cast as a drill sergeant in the comedy Reluctant Heroes (1951) which he had played on stage. Directed by Jack Raymond, this was one of the most popular films in British cinemas in 1952. Also popular was Worm's Eye View (1952), the film version of the stage comedy, with Diana Dors. These two films saw him voted Britain's most popular local male star in cinemas in 1952.
He remained a star for Top of the Form (1953), his first film for the Rank Organisation. He was in Innocents in Paris (1953) with Alastair Sim and supported, He was voted the third biggest British star of 1953, after Jack Hawkins and Alec Guinness.
At the height of his career he insured his nose for £10,000 because he said "it's me beak which made 'em larf."[
He took the lead Up to His Neck (1954), Aunt Clara (1954) with Margaret Rutherford, See How They Run (1955), Keep It Clean (1956), Dry Rot (1956) and My Wife's Family (1956). His role as Badger in Seagulls Over Sorrento was taken by Sid James, although he reprised it for the BBC in 1956 and 1961. He played in My Three Angels on stage in 1955.
He had a cameo in Carry On Admiral (1957) and was the lead in Not Wanted on Voyage (1957), Girls at Sea (1958) and The Navy Lark (1958). He had a support part in the popular Operation Bullshine (1959) and supported in The Night We Got the Bird (1961).
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1958 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre.
He starred in the London production of Aladdin as Widow Twankey with Bob Monkhouse at the Coliseum in 1960.
On the BBC he was in productions of Seagulls Over Sorrento (1961) and Worm's Eye View (1962). He also made a TV series Send for Shiner.
In retirement he owned a pub at Blackboys in Sussex. British Pathe News filmed a newsreel of him in his pub, being visited by Jimmy Edwards, in 1954.
Shiner suffered ill health during his last few years. In 1963 he moved from London to Eastbourne for his health. He died in hospital there in June 1966 leaving an estate of £30,955.
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I like to study the pictures Peter puts up on the website for the details. Yes, I know it's a bit Nerdy but it's harmless. Looking at the latest picture I would say it was taken during the period 1949 to 1953. Peter can correct me on that if he does know the actual date.
To the details. Southwick Hill road of course is sharp left turn in the picture and up to QA hospital and beyond. Looking up the picture and the road is the A3 London Rd to Purbrook and Waterlooville, Cowplain and beyond.
People often call the A3 London Rd. Portsdown Hill Rd. but it's not. That road runs along the top of Portsdown Hill East to West. Note the prefab homes built on the lower slopes of the hill in the picture. These were quickly erected during and post WW2 to accommodate those families bombed out in Portsmouth air raids. They remained in place up until the 1960's and were demolished to make way for the ill fated Portsdown Park homes which were also demolished not long after being built due to uncontrollable penetrating damp problems and very poor construction.
Just across from the Southwick Rd entrance you can see a black car parked up. It looks like a 1947'ish Ford or Morris 10 Can't quite see the details. Next to that is a rarity with it's back to the picture. A mobile camper on the back of the van/car. If that was around today it would fetch a small fortune in good condition. Anybody else spot the trolley bus to Horndean in the picture? These were kept overnight in a large bus shed in Cowplain which had previously served for the Horndean light railway engine shed. How the old HLR is really needed today to relieve traffic congestion.
It does look like the Kid's are off to school and my guess it would be Portsdown Park school. The original school wooden huts are no longer there of course. Note PC Plod on traffic school crossing duty just out of picture.
Regards to Everyone
Melvyn ( Griff ) Griffiths.
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