This Is Your Life: Richard Hearne

Richard HEARNE (1908-1979)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Richard Hearne, actor, comedian and writer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews backstage at the BBC Television Theatre, having been called out of a script meeting for what he believed was an emergency.

Richard, who was born into a theatrical family in Norwich, made his professional debut in a circus at the age of seven. He later toured in music halls with an acrobatic act, full of visual humour, while playing the odd supporting role in plays and pantomimes. In the 1930s, he appeared in the West End as a member of Leslie Henson's repertory company based at the Gaiety Theatre.

His character of Mr Pastry - a silly old man with a walrus moustache dressed in a trademark bowler hat - was created in 1945 from a stage show he appeared in called Big Boy. Richard found fame with Mr Pastry, becoming the first performer to be known as a "television star" and the first to have his own television series.

"It's a rotten... they're a rotten lot!"

programme details...

Edition No: 107
Subject No: 107
Broadcast live: Mon 26 Oct 1959
Broadcast time: 7.30-8.05pm
Venue: BBC Television Theatre
Series: 5
Edition: 9

on the guest list...

Gene Ginnett
Babs Zola
Philip Garrood
Sidney Higgins
Ella Retford
Jack Hill
Stanley French
Benita Lydal
Yvonne - wife
Sarah - daughter
Cetra - daughter
Betty Heritage
Sally Chipperfield
John Chipperfield
Fay Compton
Maureen Allen

production team...

Researcher: Nickola Sterne
Writer: Nickola Sterne
Director: unknown
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

It's a Funny Old Life

it's all about the comedy

This Is Your Life

Radio Times marks the 200th edition

Photographs and screenshots of Richard Hearne This Is Your Life

The Guardian 27 October 1959

"Mr Pastry" and "Panorama"

By our Television Critic

The British television public must have the liking for routine that the listening public has always shown.

Once a pattern has been established, the BBC can keep on keeping it up for years.

One can well imagine, for instance, that in ten years time we shall still be watching This Is Your Life and Panorama on a Monday evening.

This Is Your Life still disturbs me because of the embarrassment sometimes so evident in the subject brought on to the stage by trickery of one kind or another: also by its wallowing in sentiment and flattery.

Actors and actresses and show business people in general can put a better face on it than others, since they are accustomed to the limelight, and some people clearly enjoy the whole business. But even when they are used to an audience, they can appear distressed, and Richard Hearne (Mr Pastry) last night was not always happy.

He appeared genuinely annoyed and disturbed at being brought there by a stratagem, and not unnaturally dismayed at the use made of his work for spastics and polio-stricken children to make a public entertainment. Not all of the people brought in to greet him were word perfect or easy in their appointed parts, and there were some sticky moments in a programme redeemed by his own charm and shyness.

Series 5 subjects