Fred Barnes

Fred Barnes born 21 May 1885 (d. 1938)

Fred Barnes was an English music hall artist.

He experienced extremes of success and failure, and as a young gay man escaped to London from his father and his father's lifestyle.

Barnes was born in a bedroom above his father's butcher's shop at number 219 Great Lister Street, Saltley, Birmingham, England.

Aged ten, after seeing Vesta Tilley, first visiting her sister who lived close to the shop, and later playing the lead in Dick Whittington at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Fred became interested in the stage. His first notable performance was playing the Duke of Solihull in Cinderella at the Alexandra Theatre, in 1906. It was while starring in the pantomime that Fred acquired his first agent and attracted the attention of another Birmingham-born music hall artist, George Lashwood, who, in Fred's own words, 'took me in hand... [placed] at my disposal, free and unasked, the lessons of his long and brilliant career'. It was following Cinderella's fourteen week run that Fred first performed in London, persuaded by fellow cast members, the Eight Lancashire Lads, to travel with them. Upon his arrival, Fred found himself playing the hated first slot on the bills. However, this was to change when he decided to try out a new song that he'd written, The Black Sheep of the Family, at the Hackney Empire in 1907. It was a huge success and was to remain Fred's most popular song.

As Fred says in his account of his life ('How success ruined me'), his name was 'made in a single night'. With this impressive start to his career he spent the next few years establishing himself. By 1911 he was top of the bill on all of the major circuits and principle boy in a number of pantomimes.

In 1913 his father committed suicide. Two weeks later, Barnes performed at the Birmingham Hippodrome, 'a place full of memories of my father. To this day I don't know how I got through that week'. The Birmingham Gazette of August 30 commented, 'Fred Barnes has this week proved the hollowness of the old saying that an artiste is never appreciated in his own town. He has gone a long way towards packing the house at every performance at the Hippodrome'. Following his father's death Fred's career continued to improve.

In an Era interview from 1914 he stated that he had no vacant dates for the next three years and held contacts for the next ten. It was when his personal problems, namely spending and drinking too much, began. He attributed these to dealing with both the death of his father and his new found success and popularity. The large sums of money he was earning and which he inherited led him to begin spending extravagantly - a habit he found hard to break when he was no longer earning any money. But it was drinking which was to ruin Fred's career. He missed performances, went on stage incapable of singing or dancing and generally put less and less care into his performances. This led to his being moved down the bills until he was finally back at first turn. Managers grew wary of him and soon his outstanding contracts were paid off and he was without work altogether.

During the twenties Fred was arrested (and later sentenced to one month in jail) for driving while drunk, in a dangerous manner and without a licence. Following the arrest, Fred, deemed a 'menace to His Majesty's fighting forces' (almost certainly because of the topless sailor who had been travelling with him at the time of the accident), was banned from attending the Royal Tournament, an annual military tattoo; he returned each year and each year successfully evaded discovery.

He was also open about his sexuality, and was one of the well-known 'twanks' of his period, unsurprisingly since he was known to pick up sailors and guardsmen in his Rolls-Royce.

It is for these reasons rather than his musical achievements (he only made ten recordings during his career), that only two biographies exist.

By the mid 30s Fred was suffering from tuberculosis. His failing health led him and his lover and manager John Senior to move to Southend-on-Sea. By this time any work consisted of playing the piano in pubs while John collected tips. Luckily for Fred and John a past manager, Charles Ashmead Watson, paid their rent, lighting and clothing costs, as well as giving them a weekly allowance of 30 shillings. Fred had made a number of attempts to return to the stage, most of which were unsuccessful; a final job in the summer of 1938, playing his songs in the lounge of a local hotel restored some of his confidence in his own ability. But by that winter he could no longer live with the pain he constantly suffered. Two and a half years after he was told he had only three months to live, Fred Barnes committed suicide.

When the Jury at the inquest into Fred's death commented that Watson had been 'wonderful' to Fred, he replied 'He was a great man'. He was not the only person who thought so. Naomi Jacob said 'he had one of the kindest hearts in the world. Moreover he was a fine artist and no mean dancer'. An Era interviewer in 1911 commented on his 'singularly pleasing popularity'. Fred's funeral on the second of July 1938, was attended by hundreds, the St Saviour's Churchyard and nearby streets crowded with mourners.

He was free with facts in interviews and in his own account of his life; his numerous publicity stunts which included announcements of his 'near-death' in a fire and a fake marriage. His appearance, he was known to walk around London at the height of his success with a marmoset perched on his shoulder (later, playing the pubs in Southend-on-Sea, he made do with a chicken).

Footlight Notes - profile of Fred Barnes with photographs

Barnes' life is featured in Three Queer Lives by Paul Bailey.

Jack Tripp

Jack Tripp born 4 February 1922 (d. 2005)

Jack Tripp was a British comic actor best known for his many performances as a pantomime dame.

In his youth he began tap dancing in talent competitions. He was billed in local pubs as Plymouth's Fred Astaire. He also appeared in several small shows.

During World War II he served in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. During this time he joined the Central Pool of Artists, known as the Stars in Battledress. He organised shows with other performers such as Charlie Chester and Bryan Forbes. Jack Tripp also toured the Middle East and appeared in Cairo and Khartoum.

After the war Jack Tripp went into revue and variety and also performed as an eccentric dancer. For several seasons he appeared in the Fol de Rols summer seaside shows.

In the 1950s he performed as Douglas Byng's son in Howard & Wyndham pantomime productions and learned many of the classic dame routines. By the 1960s Jack Tripp was topping the bills as pantomime dame.

For many years he lived with his partner, the singer and dancer, Allen Christie. They often appeared together in Jack Tripp's own summer show, Take a Tripp, which he took to resorts throughout the UK during the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1982 he appeared in the ITV documentary The Pantomime Dame and talked about his art along with Arthur Askey, Douglas Byng, and Terry Scott.

During the 1990s Jack Tripp often performed in pantomimes with Roy Hudd and they broke box office records in Plymouth and Croydon.

Jack Tripp retired in 2000 but was often a guest at showbusiness functions.

Jack Tripp was awarded an MBE for services to pantomime.

On 10th July, 2005 he was taken ill at his home in Hove. He was taken by ambulance to Brighton General Hospital where he died.

John Inman

John Inman born 28 June 1935 (d. 2007)

Frederick John Inman was an English actor who was best known for his role as Mr Humphries in the British sitcom Are You Being Served? in the 1970s and 1980s. Inman was also well known in the United Kingdom as a pantomime dame.

Inman was born in 1935 in Preston, Lancashire, and was a cousin of actress Josephine Tewson. At the age of 12, Inman moved with his parents to Blackpool where his mother ran a boarding house, while his father owned a hairdressing business. As a child, he enjoyed dressmaking. Inman always wanted to be an actor, and his parents paid for him to have elocution lessons at the local church hall. At the age of 13 he made his stage debut in the Pavilion on Blackpool's South Pier, in a melodrama entitled Freda. Aged 15, he took a job at the pier, making tea, clearing up, and playing parts in plays.

After leaving school, Inman worked for two years at Fox's, a gentlemen's outfitters in Blackpool, specialising in window dressing. Aged 17, he moved to London to join Austin Reed in Regent Street. Four years later, he left Austin Reed to become a scenic artist with Kenneth Kendall's touring company at a theatre in Crewe, so that he could earn his Equity Card. Inman made his West End debut in the 1960s when he appeared in Ann Veronica at the Cambridge Theatre. He also played in Salad Days at the Windmill Theatre in 1975, and as Lord Fancourt Babberley in Charley's Aunt at the Adelphi Theatre in 1979. He also played in many summer shows, and established himself as a dame in pantomime, appearing regularly as one of the two ugly sisters alongside comedian and former partner Barry Howard.

Inman made his television debut in the sitcom Two In Clover in 1970. In 1972, he was asked by David Croft to play a part in a Comedy Playhouse pilot called Are You Being Served?. This was a sitcom set in a department store, written by scriptwriters David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, and based on the latter's experiences working at Simpson's in Piccadilly Circus. Playing a minor role with only a few lines, he was soon asked to 'camp it up', despite initial reluctance from the BBC to include such a camp character. The pilot was broadcast in September 1972. The broadcast was followed by the five episodes of the first series in early 1973. The first series showing opposite Coronation Street on ITV attracted little attention, but repeats later that year were very successful.

Inman played the camp Mr Wilberforce Claybourne Humphries and his earlier career in the clothes retail business was good preparation for this role in a menswear department. Inman developed a characteristic limp-wristed mincing walk, and a high-pitched catch phrase, 'I'm free!', which soon entered popular culture. Although the catch phrase and the character were popular, Inman came under attack by some gay rights groups for what they perceived to be his stereotypical portrayal of a homosexual. However, both Inman and David Croft stated that the character was 'just a mother's boy' and his sexual orientation was never explicitly stated. Yeah, right.

Are You Being Served? ran for ten series until it finished in 1985. At its height, in the late 1970s, it regularly attracted British audiences of up to 20 million viewers. Inman's portrayal of Mr Humphries won him the BBC TV Personality of the Year in 1976 and he was voted the funniest man on television by TV Times readers. From 1980 to 1981, Inman also played Mr Humphries in the Australian version of Are You Being Served?, set in a store named Bone Brothers to avoid problems with a real business named Grace Brothers. The series also became popular in the United States, where Inman became a gay cultural icon.

During the 69-episode, 13-year run of Are You Being Served?, Inman also appeared in the 1977 film of the series, in which the characters visited the fictional Spanish holiday resort of 'Costa Plonka'; in Odd Man Out, his own sitcom in 1977, playing the owner of a fish-and-chip shop who inherits half of a rock factory; and Take a Letter, Mr Jones, a 1981 sitcom where Inman played a male secretary. Inman also toured with his own shows, and he released several records, including Are You Being Served, Sir?, which reached number 39 in the UK singles charts. This came from an LP of the same name, and was followed by two further albums: I'm Free in 1977 and With a Bit of Brass in 1978.

He made a cameo appearance in the film The Tall Guy in 1989, and was one of five of the Are You Being Served? cast to be reunited in character for the sitcom Grace & Favour, which ran for twelve episodes from 1992 and 1993. In 1999, he appeared in a French & Saunders Christmas special.

After the end of Are You Being Served?, Inman became one of the nation's best known pantomime dames and appeared in over 40 pantomime productions across the country. In 2004, Inman made additional television appearances in Doctors and Revolver.

He lived in a mews house in Little Venice for 30 years. On 23 December 2005, Inman entered in a civil partnership at Westminster Register Office with his partner of 35 years, Ron Lynch.

Inman suffered from poor health in his later years. He was hospitalised with bronchitis in 1993, and collapsed on the stage in 1995. He was admitted to Paddington's St Mary's Hospital in 2001 after suffering breathing difficulties and spent three days in intensive care.

In December 2004, Inman was forced to cancel an appearance in a pantomime as he was suffering from a hepatitis A infection, which he had contracted from contaminated food. Following this, he never worked again and he suffered complications from the infection for the rest of his life. Inman died early in the morning of 8 March 2007, aged 71, in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium after a funeral on the 23 March 2007.

Christopher Biggins

Christopher Biggins born 16 December 1948

Christopher Biggins is an English television and pantomime actor and the fifth male winner of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! 2007.

Biggins is most famous for being a comedy actor, appearing as the regular character Lukewarm in the popular sit-com Porridge starring Ronnie Barker. Other comedy shows he appeared in include Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (1973) and Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973 & 1978).

He played Nero in the acclaimed BBC dramatisation of I, Claudius by Robert Graves, having been selected for the role partly on the strength of a television commercial in which he had played a Roman emperor presiding over the games. He also appeared in the BBC's famed adaptation of Poldark.

On children's television he had a regular role in the children's television programme Rentaghost (1978-1983) as supermarket manager Adam Painting and in Southern Television's Brendon Chase, produced in 1980.

Biggins appeared in the Big Finish Productions audio drama The One Doctor, based on the television series Doctor Who. His film roles include The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). His theatre roles have included the stage adaptation of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

He was co-host on Surprise, Surprise and hosted children's quiz On Safari (TV) in the 1980s.

In 2003, he appeared as himself in two episodes of the fifth series of cult ITV1 prison drama, Bad Girls. The plotline saw Biggins being held hostage by the inmates during their protest at HMP Larkhall going private. However, Biggins ended up supporting their protest and joining in.

These days Biggins often appears on television as an expert on pantomime, and plays the dame most seasons. He has also become something of a cultural reference point for anyone wanting to refer to z-list celebrities, mainly amongst the young and right-on comedy circuit, although his career is surpringly distinguished.

Biggins always plays Cupid on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.

Biggins took part in the 2007 season of ITV hit show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! and was voted the eventual winner.

Biggins formed a civil partnership with his partner Neil Twimaps, who works for British Airways, on December 30, 2006 at Hackney Register Office. The couple live in the fashionable Lauriston Village, by Victoria Park, East London.