Ian Handford: Do you remember this performer at the Princess Theatre?

Having appeared in the late '50s in the musical farce The Schoolmistress as Admiral Rankin, Fred was later cast as Lord Gorgeous in the Christmas Pantomime entitled Goody Two Shoes at the London Palladium.

But it was to be his portrayal of Admiral Rankin which brought him huge accolades; descriptions like "excellent" and "star” for the first time were written by journalists or his usual critics.

Having achieved such good reviews, the BBC rewarded Fred with his own radio show and, more importantly, let him use his own scripts through his company, Emney Enterprises Ltd. Receiving that reward early in his career meant that he soon became known for roles in straight comedy, along with the added bonus of using his own written material. In time this led to even more success when new viewers saw him on their new media – the television at home.

Now his so-called sitcom series were being watched by an elite audience—namely, the upper middle class—those wealthy enough to afford a home television. Yet, within a few years, the TV had become a "must-have" item in every household, and Fred’s strangely gruff humour, along with his ever-present Churchillian cigar, smart attire, and trademark shiny black top hat, led many to view him as a kind of Winston Churchill lookalike. To most of the television-viewing public, he had become the new "funny fat man" of the age.

For the man-in-the-street, Fred was the man who always used a large monocle and smoked a cigar, a character of comedy that most of us enjoyed and recognised instantly – some in awe, others merely noting a huge fat man. Fred certainly loved his cigars, and they were never just another prop in the act. Now he was recognisable, and when appearing with Richard Hearne alone on the small screen, they used his scripts. The new material for those early sketches was unique and highly successful and in time ensured the Hearne and Emney show had a new audience.

Largely unknown at the time, Fred had worked at Chipperfield Circus as a ringmaster in 1938, the era when he was already wanting to expand his horizons and career prospects. In the late 50s, it was his uniqueness in his own comedy sketches that, when acted out on stage, finally set the scene of success in variety and pantomime. As time went by, he would still be referred to as that “posh fat bloke”, which today would not be allowed, the words being a legal minefield and inappropriate. Yet in reality Fred could emulate anyone within this wide skill set, in spite of having a huge growing girth.

It was, of course, Fred’s extraordinary versatility that led him to co-author the play Happy as a King in 1953, with roles reportedly written to showcase his talents. In truth, he was keen to reinvent himself once again—determined to prove he could act and be a “stand-up comedian” in every sense. It’s believed that Fred’s comedy series began as a one-off run of single-night shows for the BBC in June 1954. However, demand soon grew, leading to a second and eventually a third and final series. In total, Fred wrote 22 comedy episodes before the show ended its run.

It is difficult to know how many times Fred played in theatres of Devon, but certainly his earliest connection to Torbay came when the Bernard Delfont theatrical agency staged a production of the Mother Goose pantomime, which ran a whole week at our Princess Theatre in Torquay, starting with a matinee on Boxing Day, December 26, 1964. It continued to offer two shows every day for a week. Gwen Overton played Jill, while Fred played "The Squire", and Bryan Burdon was "Mother Goose". (To be finalised in part three next week.