This Is Your Life: Jack Train

Jack TRAIN (1902-1966)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Jack Train, actor, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the audience at the BBC Television Theatre.

Jack, who was born in Plymouth, began performing as an entertainer while serving with the Royal Navy during the First World War. After leaving the Navy in 1922, he found some work as an entertainer and was eventually spotted and advised to turn professional. After setting himself up with a London agent, he made his West End debut in a revue called Merry Go Round and appeared in several London theatrical productions during the 1930s.

In October 1939, he found fame through the BBC radio comedy series ITMA (It's That Man Again), playing various characters, notably Funf the German Spy and Colonel Chinstrap. Although Jack missed one series due to contracting tuberculosis, he returned and stayed with the programme until 1949. After ITMA, he became a regular panellist on the popular BBC radio quiz show Twenty Questions and appeared in several films during the 1940s.

programme details...

Edition No: 41
Subject No: 41
Broadcast live: Mon 11 Nov 1957
Broadcast time: 7.30-8.00pm
Venue: BBC Television Theatre
Series: 3
Edition: 7

on the guest list...

Mrs Knapman
Alec Luckes
Cdr Sydney Russell
Wally Goodman
Harry Grose
William Owen
Archie de Bear
Horace Percival
Dr Walter 'Paddy' Halley
Pat McGowan
Dorothy Summers
Sydney Keith
Clarence Wright
Dino Galvani
Maurice Denham
Fred Yule
Ted Kavanagh
Fay - wife
Eddie Gray

production team...

Researchers: Nigel Ward, Ray Marler
Writer: Peter Moore
Director: unknown
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

An Actor's Life For Me

spotlight on the stars

This Is Your Life

Radio Times marks the 200th edition

Maurice Denham

Photographs of Jack Train This Is Your Life

Evening Express article: Jack Train This Is Your Life

Evening Express 12 November 1957

LAST NIGHT'S TV

Chinstrap 'Through The Mill'

By RAMSDEN GREIG

THE tricks used by the producers of This Is Your Life to inveigle what is called the unsuspecting victim into the studio could fill a book, and one day probably will.

So far, however, the producers have not yet dreamed up a ruse that will keep the viewing audiences constantly in front of their seats while the programme is on the air.

Such a trick is urgently required for if This Is Your Life continues in its melancholy rut, there will eventually be more people on the studio set than there will be watching at home.

THEIR CHANCE

Last night the programme dug itself another couple of feet of rut. The life the BBC looked back upon was Jack Train's.

No one can blame Mr Train for the fact that his past did not yield material for an absorbing programme. He did not, after all, ask that his life should be made the subject of a half-hour show.

As generally happens, Eamonn Andrews started off by introducing the theatrical celebrities in the studio audience. This gave the celebrities the opportunity of blatantly plugging their current histrionic activities.

Having grasped the opportunity, they then looked surprised when Mr Andrews suggested to each of them that his might be the life story under review. They also tried with varying degrees of success not to look disappointed when told they would be "spared the ordeal."

SOLEMN

This palaver took so long that it knocked years off Mr Train's life and added years to mine. Mr Andrews then reeled off a list of facts concerning his subject.

The solemnity with which he recited the comedian's biography was overwhelming. You would have thought the poor fellow had passed on - or over to ITV.

Mr Train took it all remarkably well. He did not visibly flinch once.

The Birmingham Post and Gazette article: Jack Train This Is Your Life

The Birmingham Post and Gazette 12 November 1957

LAST NIGHT

This Is Your Life (BBC television) has a well-worn formula for extracting the human story, and too often it is applied to people in show business. It pays actors to assume that everybody is interested in the personal details of their lives, and for the sake of publicity they are only too happy to oblige. Last night's subject was Jack Train, and the usual stream of people were brought before the curtains to say how fond they were of him. The feature did not come to life at all until the last few minutes, when characters from the classic ITMA, including the raucous Mrs Mopp, came forward to recall past programmes in which Jack Train played Funf and Colonel Chinstrap and others.

The Stage 14 November 1957

'This Is Your Life'

THE flashback of the life of Jack Train provided interesting viewing on BBC-TV on Monday, although the last few moments of the programme when he was delightedly greeted by his miniature white poodle which had been waiting for him behind the scenes, were more moving and more illuminating than much of the recalling of old memories which had gone before.

The ordeal of sitting in the public gaze whilst voices and names which haven't been heard for years were flashed before the victim in confusing profusion and speed, frequently results in the emotional aspect ousting the piquancy and entertainment value of the programme, but fortunately the programme has Eamonn Andrews, prince of comperes, to gloss swiftly over the moments when the programme is endangered through no fault of the personality involved.

Depicted against a station background and with a miniature comic engine tracing his ups and downs with sparkling humour, the life of Jack Train served well to illustrate the lives of many radio and variety personalities whose humour and hard work in the face of adversity has seen them through the days of misfortune to sunnier times.

Helping to make the programme interesting were Archie de Bear, Eddie Gray, Horace Perceval, Dorothy Summers, Sydney Keith, Clarence Wright, Dino Galvani, Fred Yule, Maurice Denham and Ted Kavanagh.

Series 3 subjects