This Is Your Life: Donald Sinden

Donald SINDEN CBE (1923-2014)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Donald Sinden, actor, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews while filming a scene for the ITV sitcom Never the Twain on location in Surrey.

Donald, who was born in Plymouth but grew up in East Sussex, worked initially as a trainee carpenter, before a stint with a local amateur theatrical group led to an offer to join a company entertaining the troops during the Second World War. Following training at drama school, he joined Leicester Repertory Theatre and then the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford.

Having made his film debut in The Cruel Sea in 1953, he became a leading man in British films during the 1950s, later moving on to character roles. His television appearances, notably in ITV sitcoms, as the butler in Two's Company and the miserable in-law in Never The Twain, made him a household name.

"You're pulling my leg! You're not. It isn't. It isn't. Oh you... you lousy lot!"

programme details...

Edition No: 677
Subject No: 671
Broadcast date: Wed 1 May 1985
Broadcast time: 8.00-9.00pm
Recorded: Wed 10 Apr 1985
Venue: Royalty Theatre
Series: 25
Edition: 26
Code name: Butler

on the guest list...

Windsor Davies
Derek Deadman
Maria Charles
Teddy Turner
Ray Cooney
Wendy Craig
Geoffrey Palmer
Bernard Cribbins
Richard Briers
Diana - wife
Delia - daughter-in-law
Jeremy Sinden - son
Joanne - daughter-in-law
Marc Sinden - son
Gillian Cadell
John Cadell
Selina Cadell
Simon Cadell
Leon - brother
Joy - sister
Jack Freestone
Harry Goldsmith
Gilbert Elphick
Avril Conquest
Robert Harris
Guy Rolfe
Mai Zetterling
Nigel Davenport
Doreen Hawkins
Leslie Norman
Muriel Pavlow
Derek Farr
Jeffrey Archer
Joyce Carey
Patrick Cargill
John McCallum
Googie Withers
Joanna McCallum
Elaine Stritch
Judi Dench
Michael Williams
Anna Neagle
Henry - grandson
Kezia - granddaughter
May Sinden - aunt
Harriet - granddaughter
Danny La Rue
Anne Baxter
Tim Piggott-Smith
Sir Geoffrey Howe
Lady Howe
Sir Peter Hall

production team...

Researchers: Claire Jenkinson, Miriam O'Callaghan
Writers: Tom Brennand, Roy Bottomley
Directors: Terry Yarwood, Michael D Kent
Associate Producer: Brian Klein
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

An Actor's Life For Me

spotlight on the stars

Extended Life

the special editions

Timeline

the show's fifty year history

Secret names that have special meaning

TV Times reveals more secrets from television's most secretive show

Screenshots of Donald Sinden This Is Your Life

Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...

If ever an actor sounded to the theatre born, he has to be Donald Sinden, but this one-time carpenter's apprentice started his career by accident, as we discovered on 10 April 1985, on the stage of the Royalty Theatre in the West End.

This time the pick-up was not onstage, but on location for the long-running television comedy Never The Twain, with co-star Windsor Davies as Eamonn's co-conspirator.

They were joined by the other regular members of the cast, Maria Charles, Teddy Turner and Derek Deadman.

Donald's two sons, Jeremy and Marc, both actors, were there too. One day Marc, understudying in a play at the Cambridge Theatre, got the chance to go on. His father was appearing in London Assurance at the Albery nearby, and stopped the traffic when he strolled down to the Cambridge to observe his son's performance – still wearing full Regency costume.

It was a far cry from Plymouth, where he was born in 1923, and where his father had a chemist's shop. Donald became an apprentice carpenter with no thought of the stage until he got a call from his cousin Frank. Frank had been called up for wartime service – in fact he was later killed in action – and asked the young Sinden to take his part in an amateur production.

Said the future star: 'Don't be so damned silly.' But he did it, was spotted and invited to join a services entertainment unit. There he got the acting bug and went to drama school.

Then leading man at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, eighty-five-year-old Robert Harris, remembered how Donald started to lose concentration, then realised it was because his eyes were on Helen of Troy, who was to become his wife, Diana.

Classical roles were interrupted when he was invited to sign a seven-year film contract after impressing, with Jack Hawkins, in The Cruel Sea. Jack's widow Doreen recalled how her husband had hauled non-swimmer Donald from a particularly deep studio 'tank'.

Donald had co-starred in Mogambo with Hollywood legend Clark Gable, and with Anne Baxter in Mix Me a Person. Anne spoke from New York, and many more reminiscences came from Muriel Pavlow and her husband Derek Farr, Patrick Cargill, Joyce Carey, John McCallum, his wife Googie Withers and their daughter Joanna. Tim Piggott-Smith, direct from his success in The Jewel in the Crown, recalled from Paris how Donald had singled him out as a promising talent when judging a school drama competition.

Judi Dench and her husband Michael Williams, Guy Rolfe, Mai Zetterling, Nigel Davenport, Elaine Stritch, Dame Anna Neagle and Sir Peter Hall were also among the guests.

The programme closed with a name no one knew, except Donald. It was ninety-one-year-old Mai, mother of cousin Frank, who had asked Donald to take his place in that amateur production all those years ago, only to be told, 'Don't be so damned silly...'

Series 25 subjects