FEATURING
Ghost of St. Michaels
Black Sheep of Whitehall
Radio Parade of 1935
Out to own on DVD 29 OCTOBER 2007
Born in Stockton-on-Tees, William Thomson Hay initially toured with the Fred Karno troupe. After 25 years in music hall and radio, and at the age of forty-six Hay finally made his feature film debut in 1934 with Those Were the Days.
Finding his metier portraying inept, somewhat rapscallion schoolmasters who know far less than their pupils, the films collected here, all taken from Hay’s most prolific period, ably demonstrate his capacity for scoundrels, but also reveal more of his extensive repertoire of characters. An enjoyable satire about a BBC-type corporation, Radio Parade of 1935 casts Hay against type as a suave if remote Director-General who comes to cherish his staff in the face of adversity. The perennially popular The Ghost of St. Michael’s is one of Hay’s signature roles with the comedian appearing as William Lamb, a pedagogue called out of retirement to join the staff of a school that has been evacuated to a remote and apparently haunted Scottish castle. The final film in the set, The Black Sheep of Whitehall is from Hay’s fertile Ealing period. Co-directed with Basil Dearden, the film, a riveting comic yarn involving Nazi activity features Hay in no less than six guises.
Frequently working in collaboration with performers Moore Marriott, Graham Moffatt and Claude Hulbert, Hay went on to make 19 films in total. Making a significant contribution to the British comedy oeuvre, Hay’s films remain enduring British comedy masterpieces.
This collection, along with Comic Icons: The Alastair Sim Collection, marks Part Four of the Optimum Comic Icons series which has also celebrated Peter Sellers, Terry-Thomas, Leslie Phillips, Sidney James and Tony Hancock.
