Wayne was born in Wales, a compere, comedian, and concert-party entertainer
for the first eight years of his career from his 1920 debut in the Pavilion
at South Wales's Barry Island. He came to London in 1928 and was general
jokester in several West End shows, also appearing in cabaret at some
of the town's swishest night-spots, including the Ritz, the Dorchester
and the Cafe de Paris. He didn't take a straight acting role until 1937,
and the following year Alfred
Hitchcock teamed him with Basil Radford
in The Lady
Vanishes.
They played Charters and Caldicott, names dreamed up by screenwriters
Sidney Gilliat and Frank
Launder, later to become famous producer-directors. The characters
cropped up again in the Gilliat/Launder-scripted Night
Train to Munich: more trains, more Nazis. When Radford and Wayne
returned to radio, Launder and Gilliat claimed copyright on their film
characters. So it was as Woolcott and Spencer that Radford and Wayne
appeared in their first post-war series, Double Bedlam. These most popular
wearers of the old school tie were half-way through their 1952 radio
adventure, Rogues' Gallery, when Radford collapsed and died from a heart
attack. Wayne gallantly carried on to the end of the story alone. It
was a gesture in keeping with two characters that always 'played up
and played the game'.
