This Is Your Life: Brian Rix 1

Brian RIX (1924-2016)

The first time the programme was not recorded immediately after the surprise

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Brian Rix, actor-manager, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews while attending a friend's house party in Henfield, Surrey. The show was recorded at the BBC Television Theatre the following evening.

Brian, who was born in Cottingham near Hull, began acting with Donald Wolfit's Shakespeare Company when he was 18 before gaining repertory experience with the White Rose Players at Harrogate's Opera House in 1943. At the same time, he joined the Royal Air Force, but having been invalided out, he volunteered as a Bevin Boy working down the coal mines near Doncaster.

After the war, he formed his own theatre company in Ilkley before moving to Bridlington, where, in 1949, he found an army farce called Reluctant Heroes. After touring the play, Brian was invited to present it at London's Whitehall Theatre, where it ran for almost four years. Further success with the farces Dry Rot and Simple Spyman and a series of farces broadcast on BBC television during the 1950s and 1960s made Brian the most successful actor-manager in London.

Brian Rix was a subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions - surprised again by Eamonn Andrews in March 1977 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.

programme details...

Edition No: 167
Subject No: 168
Broadcast date: Mon 23 Oct 1961
Broadcast time: 7.30-8.05pm
Recorded: Mon 18 Sep 1961 6.15pm
Venue: BBC Television Theatre
Series: 7
Edition: 4

on the guest list...

Dr Gilbert Bickmore
Donald Wolfit
Cecil Korer
Elspet Gray - wife
George Jeger
Wally Patch
Herbert - father
Fanny - mother
John Chapman
Susan Stroud
Mrs L Shaffner
Mr H Farrow
Colin Cowdrey
Hattie Jacques
George Radford
Louisa - daughter
Jamie - son
Leo Franklyn
Jonathan - son
Bastien - dog
members of his company including:
Charles Cameron
Terry Scott
Sheila Mercier - sister
Larry Noble

production team...

Researcher: Nickola Sterne
Writer: Nickola Sterne
Director: Yvonne Littlewood
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Brian Rix

second tribute

An Actor's Life For Me

spotlight on the stars

Life Second Time Around

surprised again!

Family Life

keeping it in the family

The Night of 1000 Lives

a celebration of a thousand editions

Timeline

the show's fifty year history

Hattie Jacques

Sheila Mercier

Photographs of Brian Rix This Is Your Life

Brian Rix recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, My Farce From My Elbow, reproduced here with kind permission of the author...

...some people, however, can keep news to themselves. I know women are supposed to tattle about everything but I can honestly say that Elspet was like a clam for nearly a year when it came to the preparation of my This Is Your Life on BBC Television. They had wanted to do the programme in 1960, but Elspet was expecting Jonty so felt it would be safer if they could postpone. They could, and Elspet (plus my father and mother and a great many friends) kept absolutely shtum for all that time and I had absolutely no inkling at all that it was going to happen. In fact, they caught me at a party and we were at least a couple of hours late arriving.

Let me explain what happened. On Sunday 17th September I had two dates. One was a cricket match for my brother-in-law, Peter Mercier, at Ewell. After that I was supposed to go home, change, pick up Elspet and drive off to the depths of Surrey for a house-warming party given by Johnnie Koon, who runs a number of splendid Chinese restaurants in town. As I was packing my cricket bag I noticed Elspet kept on at me to be back early from cricket, but I got a bit stroppy about this for Johnnie's invitation said the party would last till dawn.

"So why should I hurry back if I'm enjoying myself after the match?" I queried.

"Because it will look very rude if we're not there on time," said Elspet rather lamely.

"Bollocks," quoth I, and went off happily to play cricket, confident I had won that round of repartee.

Well it so happened that I did enjoy myself at the match and didn't get home till 8.30, wanting a leisurely bath first before dressing for the party. Elspet was frantic, but I still didn't twig that anything was up and about 9.15 we drove off to Surrey and met the first of the autumn fogs. Two hours later we finally found our way to the Koon household, in a state of great tension to say the least, and were met by a distraught Eamonn Andrews and a number of his equally panicky production acolytes. Still I didn't guess and wandered off with Eamonn to have a drink. That was it. A hidden film camera appeared, the book was thrust into my hands and we were off, with me giggling weakly the while and wishing I hadn't been so beastly to Elspet – for you're supposed to love your wife in This Is Your Life. Anyway, the programme wasn't ruined, in spite of our late arrival, for it was recorded and shown several weeks later. I had a terrible lump in my throat for most of the time. My father came on and dried.

"What do you think of your son's achievements?" prompted Eamonn.

"Not bad," was the laconic reply, and there my father stuck and no amount of help from Eamonn could get him going on his rehearsed story. Donald Wolfit was the very opposite. Eamonn couldn't stop him and by the time Donald finished he'd ascribed to me many parts I had never played. Colin Cowdrey made me very proud when he said I could certainly have made a county cricketer – but Colin is notoriously kind. A BBC studio manager was produced, who claimed he was with me in the RAF, but I honestly couldn't remember him at all. Two old age pensioners and an ardent fan enlivened the proceedings. Hattie Jacques dealt with charity. George Radford was flown from Canada, and the rest of the Whitehall was represented by Wally Patch, George Jeger, John Chapman and all the children (plus their parents) who had been born to members of the company over the past decade. By now I was blubbing quite openly and kneading Elspet's hand as though it were dough. The knock-out punch came when our own kids arrived and Leo Franklyn, dressed as a nanny, wheeled on Jonathan in his pram, followed by an over-excited, barking Bastien. I know it's mawkish – but my quick was really touched that night...

Series 7 subjects