Our House (1960)

[foha80]

The Following taken from The BBC Guide To Comedy

</div><div class='quotemain'>Our House

UK, ITV (Foster TV Productions for ABC), Sitcom, b/w, 1960



Starring: Hattie Jacques, Charles Hawtrey, Frederick Peisley



If you like Carry On movies, especially the earlier and more subtle ones - then chances are you would have loved Our House. Created and principally written by Norman Hudis - 'fresh' from scripting the first five Carry On films: Sergeant, Nurse, Teacher, Constable and Regardless, and just before penning the sixth, Cruising - the show reunited Carry On actors Hattie Jacques, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims, and featured Bernard Bresslaw, who would become a staple of the movie series from 1965. Hudis's TV idea was to bring together under one roof nine people of varying backgrounds and develop the interplay accordingly, so the opening episode found the nine - two couples and five individuals - all with an urgent need to find a place to live, meeting up in an estate agent's office and realising that if they pooled their finances they could buy a huge house together.



Hattie Jacques was arguably the main star of this riotous assembly, playing the role of a librarian who, forced to keep hushed at work, loved to make lots of noise at home. Charles Hawtrey played another prissy role, as an amiable loner working in the local council's rates office. Sims flitted in and out of jobs and was the bane of the local Labour Exchange; Rossington was a law student whose life was dictated by his father's wishes; Peisley was a shy and persecuted bachelor bank clerk; Captain Iliffe was a retired naval captain whose wife was a violinist; and Stephen and Marcia Hatton were newly-weds. The second series (see footnote) featured a drastically changed cast, adding Hylda Baker, Bernard Bresslaw and others but losing many stars from the first, while among those who appeared once apiece in Our House were McDonald Hobley, Jill Day, Deryck Guyler and a very young holiday-camp entertainer, Roy Hudd.



*Notes. Our House lost its network status after seven fortnightly episodes of the second series. The remaining 19 episodes, aired weekly, were not shown by London-area ITV, which screened its last on 9 December 1961.





Three of the 39 episodes have survived as tele-recordings (the others have been junked) but none has been seen on British television since 1962. [/b]

I would just loved to have seen this



Terry

[Jackdaw]

(foha80 @ Dec 2 2005, 03:05 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>

The Following taken from The BBC Guide To Comedy

I would just loved to have seen this



Terry

[/b]

I was lucky enough to see it ,Terry.

It went out on Sunday afternoons on ATV,which was then the London broadcaster at weekends, and at that time I had never seen A 'Carry On' film so it was entirely new to me.

My main memory is of Leigh Madison [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wub.gif[/img] possibly because I was 'of an impressionable age',but the lovely Hattie was the star, and I was hugely amused by Charlie Hawtrey,who was already familiar from THE ARMY GAME.You won't be surprised to learn that I had never met a man quite like Charlie at that time in my life.

At this distance I can't comment on the quality,but it was an enjoyable programme at the time.



Jacky

[foha80]

</div><div class='quotemain'>You won't be surprised to learn that I had never met a man quite like Charlie at that time in my life.[/b]

When you are young you thought of Charles Hawtry only as a man who made you laugh as soon as he enters a scene. I still laugh out loud whenever the image comes into my head of him as a Indian chief in Carry On Cowboy,

A true unique performer who brought smiles onto childrens faces back then, still does today

[cornershop15]

TVTimes cover, 27th November 1960

Less than two weeks before Coronation Street began and when Elvis Presley was No. 1 with It's Now or Never:


There's only a listing for that week's episode inside (Things of the Past, guest starring
MacDonald Hobley), so I have had to guess some of the less-familiar cast members ...

L-R (on staircase): Norman Rossington, Joan Sims, Ina De La Haye,
Frank Pettingell, Frederick Peisley, Leigh Madison & Trader Faulkner

Easier to identify are Hattie Jacques and Charles Hawtrey

Earlier that year Frederick was in The Angry Silence :

From the Actors Compendium. I still don't recognise him ...

Later that day, Mai Zetterling and Barbara Murray were The Sisters in a new episode of Danger Man and there was another (subsequently lost) Armchair Theatre production called Mister Nobody, with Clifford Evans, George Benson and Joyce Heron. Ironically, I bought the DVD boxset of early Danger Man episodes quite recently. That's what it's like being a fan of Sixties TV - some you win, some you don't.

[theuofc]

TVTimes cover, 27th November 1960
........................................

Later that day, Mai Zetterling and Barbara Murray were The Sisters in a new episode of Danger Man.... Ironically, I bought the DVD boxset of early Danger Man episodes quite recently. That's what it's like being a fan of Sixties TV - some you win, some you don't.

Hi, Cornershop,

Thanks for sharing this issue of TVTimes. Is The Sisters episode with Mai Zetterling and Barbara Murray in your Danger Man boxset? I'd like to see that one with two of Bogarde's leading ladies who were also excellent actresses.

Best,

Barbara

[cornershop15]

Hello again Barbara,

I've just had a look and noticed The Sisters is on the second disc, so I'll look forward to seeing that in a few weeks ... unlike the unfortunate Our House. There is a great photograph and article of Barbara Murray inside, which I will post at her thread in a moment.

Do you recognise Ina De La Haye, the lady standing next to Joan Sims? You should do as she was Dirk Bogarde's mother in The Spanish Gardener. Maybe you or darrenburnfan can provide a screencap of her from the film to compare with the photo above?

Our House co-star Trader Faulkner is the only survivor from that cast and I was interested to see, while putting together the previous post yesterday, that he has his own website, with several pictures of how he looked in other roles:

Trader Faulkner Home Page

Going by his IMDb filmography, I have only seen Mr. Faulkner in the final series of Public Eye so far, but that's set to change very soon as he is a guest in an episode of The Four Just Men I'll be watching next month.

[Harbottle]

A few captures from the episode Love to Georgina (S01E11 - 20/11/60), fellow librarian Deryck Guyler falls for Hattie in this episode. The last capture features Roy Hudd (on the left) apparently making his TV debut. Love to see the other two episodes, all that survives from this series alas.

[theuofc]

Hello again Barbara,

I've just had a look and noticed The Sisters is on the second disc ...

Do you recognise Ina De La Haye, the lady standing next to Joan Sims? You should do as she was Dirk Bogarde's mother in The Spanish Gardener. Maybe you or darrenburnfan can provide a screencap of her from the film to compare with the photo above?
.....................................

Hi, Cornershop,

Good news that The Sisters episode is in the boxset. I should have, but didn't! recognize Ina De La Haye. I will have to pay more attention to supporting actors in Dirk films.
I don't have all my Bogarde discs and materials with me, but when I get back to my home base, I have in mind to do screencaps of her and of the maid for you unless Darrenburnfan beats me to it.

I'm glad that you started this thread. It's quite interesting the actors, like De La Haye, who crop up.

Barbara

[theuofc]

TVTimes cover, 27th November 1960

Re: Nov 1960 TVTimes:

Hello, Cornershop,

Rather than make you wait, I had a friend do some screencaps for me of Ina De La Haye, who was Dirk Bogarde's mother in The Spanish Gardener (1956). She appears briefly in a scene toward the end when little Nicholas' father Harrington Brande (Michael Hordern) frantically comes to the home of Jose's parents in search of Nicholas (Jon Whiteley):







Best,

Barbara

[theuofc]

When you are young you thought of Charles Hawtry only as a man who made you laugh as soon as he enters a scene. I still laugh out loud whenever the image comes into my head of him as a Indian chief in Carry On Cowboy,

A true unique performer who brought smiles onto childrens faces back then, still does today

I'd forgotten that this thread was started by foha80, or Terry until I uploaded some images today. It's been a long time since we've received one of his cheerful and interesting messages. Has anyone heard from him?

Barbara

[cornershop15]

Hello, Barbara. I remember thanking you and your friend elsewhere for the captures of the hitherto-elusive Ina De La Haye but was somewhat taken aback just now to see they were posted here! I'd totally forgotten that. Thank you again.

Ina has since appeared in an episode of Emergency Ward 10, on DVD obviously, and I recall that she was awarded at least one generous close-up. When I get round to capturing an image, I'll post it at husband Derek Benfield's obituary thread.

Love to see the other two episodes, all that survives from this series alas.

Now's your chance, Harbottle. Network are about to release the three surviving episodes:

Our House: Network DVD

I shall have to assume the rest are in 'TV Heaven'. Likewise, Lollipop Loves Mr. Mole, which has even less on the DVD that came out last year.