Big Red Book

Celebrating television's This Is Your Life

• HOME
• |
• SERIES
• |
• SUBJECTS
• |
• FEATURES
• |
• ARTICLES
• |
• INTERVIEWS
• |
• ABOUT

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Alfred Edward Matthews, actor, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre, having been led to believe he was there to be interviewed by Eamonn for a different programme.

'Matty', as he was affectionately known, began his theatrical career in 1886 as a fifteen-bob-a-week call boy. Eventually, he took up acting and made his professional debut in a play entitled The Nobel Vagabond. In a career that lasted over 70 years, Matty made over 30000 stage appearances, in the West End, on Broadway and on tour.

He was among several theatre figures who began a film career during the silent era and became a familiar face in post-war British films of the 1940s and 1950s, most often cast as crotchety and sometimes rascally older men in such films as Quiet Wedding, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and The Chiltern Hundreds.

programme details...

• Edition No: 65
• Subject No: 65
• Broadcast live: Mon 5 May 1958
• Broadcast time: 8.45-9.15pm
• Repeated: Thu 10 Jul 1958 9.30pm
• Venue: BBC Television Theatre
• Series: 3
• Edition: 31

on the guest list...

• Ellaline Terriss
• Marie Lohr
• Charles Moore
• Pauline Chase
• Margaret Lockwood
• William Douglas Home
• Cecil Parker
Filmed tributes:
• Robert Morley
• Gladys Cooper

production team...

• Researchers: Ray Marler, Bill Nolan
• Writer: Peter Moore
• Director: unknown
• Producer: T Leslie Jackson

• names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

An Actor's Life For Me

spotlight on the stars

Timeline

the show's fifty year history

Somewhere, Someone - This Is Your Life

Talk of Thames feature on the programme's 1969 relaunch

Margaret Lockwood

Robert Morley

Ellaline Terriss

Photographs of A E Matthews This Is Your Life

Eamonn Andrews recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is My Life...

The programme that springs to a number of minds as one of the liveliest of the lot was the one that featured the late A E Matthews. Matty had been a bit of a hellion all his life, a loveable, unpredictable rebel whose sense of fun was monumental. I knew I had a tough assignment on my hands once the decision was made to present his "life". On transmission he did just about every solitary thing calculated to wreck the show's intricate timing and drive me up the drapes.

He snorted, contradicted, interrupted, laughed, and at one stage even stretched out on the couch and said he was going to have a snooze. When I came off at programme's end, the perspiration had soaked right through my vest, shirt and jacket, making a huge dark stain where my jacket clung to my back.

It was at a time when the programme was receiving a dose of its periodic criticism from the Press. Words like "intrusion", "unfair", "torture" were being bandied about with gay abandon. At the end of that programme there was a little incident which in its own way was the most effective answer to most of the accusations.

Usually at the end of a programme, after the presentation of the book, and when the end-titles have faded off the screen, I say a few words to the studio audience. This time though, before I had a chance to walk downstage, Matty held up his hand to quell the applause that was still rolling in from the packed auditorium. There were tears brimming his eyes, this tough old actor who had been on the stage most of his nearly ninety years, and so had experienced just about everything show-business can offer in the way of honours and surprises. He had never seen This Is Your Life before, and had no idea what was involved. But now, when the hush clamped down on the theatre audience, he came downstage and said in a voice shaking a little – "Ladies and gentlemen, I would just like to say, this has been the greatest experience in my whole life..."

He obviously wanted to go on, but his voice broke. Then after a pause he said: "Thank you, and God Bless you."

It was one of the most moving scenes I have watched. Two minutes before Matty had been full of mischief and fun. Now, near the end of his life, he was saying that he had had to wait until this night for his greatest experience.

There was nothing I could say.

Gus Smith recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, Eamonn Andrews His Life...

One of the programmes that Eamonn liked to remember involved the veteran actor A.E. Matthews. It stretched his nerves to breaking point. Even now, some years after Life was first introduced to British viewers, Eamonn was nervous at the pick-up moment and was often seen to perspire freely. He knew he faced in Matthews a warm-hearted but unpredictable 'rebel'. 'I had a tough assignment on my hands once the decision was made to present his life,' he said later. 'On transmission he did just about every solitary thing calculated to wreck the show's intricate timing and drive me up the drapes.'

Viewers at one point watched in amazement as Matthews contradicted, interrupted and laughed aloud. He was seen to stretch out on the couch and told all and sundry he was going to have a snooze. But there was a happy ending when he told the audience with tears in his eyes, 'Ladies and gentlemen, I would just like to say, that it has been the greatest experience in my whole life...'

He wanted to go on, but his voice broke. Then after a slight pause, he muttered, 'Thank you, God Bless You.' For Eamonn, it was a memorable moment. The old actor was nearly ninety years of age and had all the fame theatre can offer, yet that night he had tasted an altogether new experience, or as Eamonn put it: 'Two minutes before Matty had been full of mischief and fun. Now, near the end of his life, he was saying that he had to wait until this night for his greatest experience. There was nothing I could say.'

Eamonn was pleased for another reason. Occasionally the newspaper critics sniped at him - and at the programme. They accused him of 'intruding in people's private lives' and of 'inflicting a kind of torture'. He dismissed these accusations out of hand. He saw Life as a celebration. As he liked to say, 'We do not shock, nor do we pry. We try to make the show a joy. It brings people together.'

Daily Express 6 May 1958

MATTIE'S BBC FADE-OUT ANGERS VIEWERS

By ROBERT CANNELL

VIEWERS rang up the BBC to protest when A.E. Matthews, the 88-year-old actor, was faded out just as he began to speak at the end of last nights' This Is Your Life.

They said it was clumsy and unforgivable. And the BBC apologised for "an unintentional mistake which we regret. It was a pure misunderstanding."

"Mattie," subject of the programme, had been laughing and wiping away a tear by turns during half an hour of the most human television that this series has screened.

Complaining

Again and again he complained "I can't get a word in" as he met some of the actresses with whom he has worked in his long career – Margaret Lockwood, Pauline Chase (the original Peter Pan), Marie Lohr ("Darling, have you got a job?"), and Ellaline Terriss, 87-year-old widow of Sir Seymour Hicks.

Lady Hicks talked of the time when "Dear Mattie" gave her famous husband his first stage job: "You used to walk to and from the theatre to save the bus fare."

But Mattie glared: "We hadn't got the bus fare to save."

There was a filmed tribute from Robert Morley in Vienna. And Mattie, ignoring the fact that it was a film, talked to Morley about "a boy called Rex Harrison whom I read about every morning in the papers."

Startling

He was startled when Eamonn Andrews produced the birth certificate of Alfred Edward Matthews, born November 22 1869.

"Where did you get that?" he demanded. "I've been looking for it. I'm off to Naples on Friday and they won't let me go without it."

Once he burst through the script to exclaim: "This is the night of my life. This is the greatest thrill of my few years on the stage. This is wonderful. Is there a good house out there?"

This was THE life of the whole series. Mattie was so touched that as Eamonn Andrews began the closing ritual the actor beckoned him and whispered.

It was obvious he wanted to say something. He got up and walked to the footlights.

A finger ran round his collar. For the first time Mattie looked serious, close to tears.

And then he was faded out.

Yorkshire Post 6 May 1958

ON TELEVISION LAST NIGHT

By JOHN MARSHALL

THERE has never been a This Is Your Life quite like it. The subject was the 89-year-old Mr A.E. Matthews, who declared it to be "The greatest night of my life in my few years on the stage."

Mr Matthews is an unpredictable person and threw all the carefully pre-arranged timing plans out of gear. He chattered on about all manner of things – his boots, his leading ladies, his work, his pay on a long-forgotten Australian tour – and it was quite impossible at times for anyone else to get a word in edgeways. But the result was wonderful television.