Hattie Jacques talks about her on-screen partnership with Eric Sykes. This was one of the last interviews (possibly the very last) before her death in October 1980.
I grew up on Hattie as did everyone of my age. I loved her from when I was a child. We all did. Apparently her colleagues loved her too. I was so shocked when she died, shortly after this interview. It’s such a treat when I find a little gem like this. Thank you so much for posting it. It’s comforting to know others haven’t forgotten Hat either. Tony Bilbow is still with us. He turned 96 yesterday. God, how I miss all the old performers, most of them had a very hard struggle to break through, starting in rep or end of the pier shows and taking decades to get to radio, TV or British movie stardom, but their life experience showed in their brilliant performances.
Hattie was adored by all her Carry On cast mates (Kenneth Williams talks of it in his diaries). An incredibly warm and caring friend (her open house Sunday lunches were legendary) she was a kind of ‘Earth Mother’ figure. Joan Sims was particularly close to her and fell into a deep depression after she died. Her sweetness shines through in this interview and it’s nice to know how genuine it was.
I've just read Terry-Thomas' autobiography "Tell's Tales", and he talks of her as one of the loveliest people he ever met. It does seem like she was genuinely a kindly person.
@@pedanticradiator1491too much at once then. The Carry On cast got fame without fortune so they were recognised everywhere but had been paid relative peanuts and Joan died in very straightened circumstances.
@@pedanticradiator1491 Poor Joan, I alas she fell prey to the demon drink, as depression set in. I think Hattie had been a wonderful, supportive friend and confidante to her for many years. The loss of her alone was a terrible blow, but losing her mother and Peter Eade her old friend and agent, all within two years, must have been dreadfully hard. Joan never married, saying the right man never came along.
1977 Glasgow, it's the Queen's Silver Jubilee, and the Royal Command Performance is held at the King's Theatre in Glasgow. Hattie Jacques and Eric Sykes are part of the line up and I was lucky to have met them both at the hotel that all the performers were staying at. Both Hattie Jacques and Eric Sykes were absolutely brilliant and they stood and spoke to me and the other people who were there. She was a fantastic person who is very sadly missed.
Lovely to see these great actors ..keep them coming ,I'm pleased I've stumbled across your channel we will never get the likes of these great stars again..👌
Not sure how you can mention those two names in the same sentence. Hattie Jacques was a great talent, a national treasure, and a legend of British comedy. Alison Hammond isn't even a legend in her own imagination!
Hattie Jacques was a very talented actress, with superb comic timing. Alison Hammond is simply a failed reality show contestant with a big personality but no discernible talent.
@@bob23301I've met people live well into there 80s who drank and smoked every day and super healthy people who died young... It's makes a difference but most of it is just genetics and life's lottery.
As an American child in 1960 I think it was I was 9 years old and I saw make mine mink. Loved Hattie Jacques great comedy timing been a fan of British comedy ever since. Not so much now. .
Marvellous actress sadly missed as was her Brother Eric Sykes both Iconic comic actors and actresses respectively the Carry on Films were very much a iconic comedy that the Late Hattie Jacques was made for as was the series with her brother Eric Sykes in the sitcom Sykes I could not imagine any future carry on films without Hattie Jacques they simply wouldn't be the same without her or indeed the classic Carry on crew beautiful video and fantastic memories ❤
Dearie me! Dick Emery, Yootha Joyce and now Hattie Jacques, all dead within a few months of an interview with Tony Bilbow. Was he an emissary of the Grim Reaper?
My brother was the grim reaper years ago. He wrote to Benny Hill for an autograph and within the week of receiving it Benny died, same thing with Peter Cushing and someone else I can't remember but he stopped at 3 thankfully.
Hattie was so beautiful inside and out, she radiated a powerful femininity - even her voice was gorgeous. So very missed! She was very generous about Eric Sykes here, when in fact he hadn't always been so kind to her behind the scenes (Hattie's sons were so cross with him and his treatment of their mother, they banned him from her funeral). It saddened me to see her make a reference to her size. It was something she was sensitive about, and I think she wanted to get the self-deprecating jabs in before anyone else did. That was one thing I loved about the 'Sykes' show, it didn't reference Hattie's weight or do cheap 'fat gags' like the 'Carry On' films.
I loved her performances in the Carry On films. The earlier films in that series were the best. Later on, they relied far too heavily on crudity jokes and ‘double entendres’. A very gifted actress who left us far too young.
The sad thing is that Hattie Jacques, owing to her weight issues (as she perceived them) never had a truly loving, caring wholesome relationship that she had yearned so many years for...So very sad 😔😔😔
She was a great comedy actress, no doubt. There will always be a shadow for me regarding her treatment of her husband John Le Mesurier. I met Eric Sykes personally, and he was a very down to earth person.
I don't think it's for you or anyone else to judge. We didn't know her or any of the parties personally. John Le Mesurier was a lovely guy, but even his best friends would say he was not the easiest man or husband (from time to time he would disappear for 24 hours or more, returning home to tell Hattie he got distracted at a jazz club and lost track of the time - meanwhile she was juggling her successful career with raising their two little boys, pretty much single handed!) John Le Mesurier too had sexual indiscretions during the marriage, so it's not as black and white a situation as it's been portrayed, with Hattie painted as the villain. I blame that sensationalist BBC drama starring the ghastly Ruth Jones, who doesn't posses a bit of Hattie's charisma and star quality, and frankly did her best to cheapen her image. Hattie Jacques will always be greatly loved and respected as the legend and national treasure she is, despite all the curtain twitching, gossip and voyeurism that's followed her sadly premature death at 58. Eric Sykes behaved badly towards Hattie in the last years of her life when her health was failing. Their relationship rapidly deteriorated during UK and international theatre tours of the 'Sykes' stage show, when among other slights, he accused her of being starry because she requested easily accessed, ground floor dressing rooms. Her legs were being bandaged from time to time due to ulcers, and she was unsteady on her feet, so stairs were difficult for her. She was publicly loyal to him, but privately very hurt by his behaviour. Her sons were so angry about Sykes' treatment of her, they banned him from her funeral.
@@glamdolly30 Many thanks for your reply and information. You’re quite right about the dramatisation, which I suppose I took a-lot of information from. It did paint Hattie in a bad light. I loved them all of course, thought they were individually fabulous . I shall take away what you said and ponder. Thanks all the same.
@@jasoncoman9328 Thanks for your considered reply. I can see you appreciate the talents of all these remarkable people, as do I. If you're into biographies, I highly recommend Andy Merriman's book on Hattie Jacques. It's well researched, with fascinating insights into her working and home lives and her famous contemporaries, many of whom she was a supportive friend to in her private life. Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims and Terry-Thomas were among stars deeply saddened at her death and the loss of her friendship. Hattie died in her sleep of a heart attack aged 58. But I think it's more accurate to say she died of a broken heart. Merriman gives a fair and unbiased account of her marriage and its sad end. He's equally fair in assessing the doomed relationship which was the catalyst for her divorce, but which ultimately brought her great pain and sadness. Good chatting with you!
