boilerboy

My dad and I used to watch Arthur Askey on weekend afternoons on the TV. The Ghost Train was my favourite of his. My God he was short! I wonder if his glasses really had lenses in them? Boy, those were the days.

fred kite

yep...i liked the ghost train ,written by godfrey off of dads army...sorry cant think of his name...im yet to get it on dvd......didnt mr askey appear in one of those shitty confession films in the 70s..dreadful mistake surely he must have regretted....them film were pure crap....loved arthur though.....

Joenoir

Rosie Dixon - Night Nurse.

Start every day with a smile and get it over with.

smudge

Which one of my old drama teachers also appeared in...

Arnold Ridley wrote THE GHOST TRAIN; the recent theatrical revival was great fun.



Smudge

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

hankoler

Arthur Askey sometimes appearred with his daughter Anthea i think.

DB7

Apart from The Ghost Train I find Askey (and Formby) films rather tedious and they've not aged as well as those of Will Hay or Gordon Harker.

Joenoir

I tend to agree with DB7's comments. Askey needed a live audience, and Formby needed his ukulele in his hand all the time! The latter's songs are still enjoyable. As for Harker, I am rediscovering his films, and what a pleasure that is!

Start every day with a smile and get it over with.

boilerboy

I think we have to remember that a lot of these guys stepped into film from vaudville or radio.
Not making excuses for them, but If my dad was still alive and we watched Arthur Askey again together I think we'd have a good laugh. Why? ..... because Arthur, me and my Dad and you and you are all sharing those precious moments together.
....hmmm I miss my Dad, .. might pop old Arthur on.

Joenoir

I agree with you also, boilerboy, I did like Arthur Askey and I can still gain pleasure from watching his films, but I think some of it is because of my memories of watching him with my family in the 1950s & 1960s.

Start every day with a smile and get it over with.

Windthrop

I think that is because essentially they were character actors, despite Hay having Music Hall roots, and therefore fitted into conventional film narratives quite easily. Hay's first films were in fact Pinero adaptations. I also feel that where Hay has a real advantage over Formby watching his films now is that there was never any attempt at romantic sub-plots and escapades in Hay's films which in Formby's films now look desperately dated and coy. Hay's films are pure character based character comedy.

When it comes to Askey, looking at The Ghost Train a few years ago I can only reiterate another Britmovie comment that he comes across like an irritating pest who needs walloping. Murdoch is actually quite a good light comic actor. Indeed he worked to the end of days as such - Rumpole, Mr Majeilka, Just A Minute et al - I even saw at Billingham Forum towards the end of his life in An Ideal Husband as the Earl of Caversham, and very good he was to. The one Askey film I have any affection for is one of the films he made in the '50s when presumably TV revived his profile - The Love Match. He seems to have calmed down a bit by then and is abley supported by Thora Hird, Robb Wilton, Shirley Eaton and the man Ronnie Barker said taught him everything about performing - Glenn Melvyn

Joenoir

I saw The Love Match recently and thought it an odd little film. It did betray its stage origins, and there was several nods to Askey's, then current, television popularity. However, as Windthrop mentions, there was good support from Hird, Danny Ross, Wilton, Melvyn and Patricia Hayes.

Start every day with a smile and get it over with.

orpheum

I agree with that .On tv Askey or on stage Askey wasnt too bad but on film he was a bore and his films have aged badly.I once did the conveyancing on a flat he once owned near Lancaster Gate.

Welcome To Highbury The Home Of Football

cymro glan

I have a feeling that I've seen another (earlier?) version of the Ghost Train which I enjoyed enormously. I've seen two or three stage productions which were also good fun. The Askey version is disappointing.

Mr Martin

Yes, The Ghost Train (1931) - Unfortunately the complete film does not still exist in both picture and sound - the opinion on this version by some people, is that it was better than the Arthur Askey film.

When Network released the Askey Film on DVD, I think they missed an opportunity to release the 1931 surviving parts of the earlier film, as an extra feature. I believe what does still exist is preserved by the BFI/ National Film Archive.

Mr Martin - Mrs Barrows we never open the windows !

Arthur Linden-Jones

I read an article in the magazine Steam World which said the reason for there not being a complete version of the 1931 film was because an "eastern" European country (Hungary, I think it was) wanted to make their own language version of The Ghost Train, so they were loaned the original print.

Unable (or financially unwilling!!) to replicate the outdoor, and some other, scenes, they cut and spliced the original print into their version!!!



We have a television network here in Aus called SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) whose raison-d'être is to cater for our extensive multicultural society (provided with sub-titles, we get a great range of non-english language movies and television programs ... many of which have a cult following, like Inspector Rex.)

Anyway, a few years ago, on a Saturday afternoon, I saw a subtitled Dutch version of The Ghost Train. Assuming the subs were translated as literal as possible, it was all but word-for-word with the Askey version (which I probably know off by heart .... "You can't stay 'ere" ... "If it be a natural thing, where do 'e come from, where do 'e go" .....)

This is war Wilson, not Sainsburys!