Another long lost but important radio comedy, Pertwee's Progress starring Jon Pertwee ran weekly for 13 weeks on Wednesdays from 6th April till 29th June 1955. 

 

This wasn't Pertwee's first starring radio show, he'd done 14 episodes of Puffney Post Office in 1950, a spin-off for his popular postman character from the Eric Barker series Waterlogged Spa, with his catchphrase "It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you tears 'em up" and prior to finding fame with The Navy Lark you'll often find Pertwee on variety bills of the late 40s and early 50s as Jon "tear 'em up" Pertwee highlighting his radio fame here, as well as being regular support in Jewel & Warriss' radio hit Up The Pole (1947-1952) . 

 

But Pertwee's Progress remains an early starring vehicle for Pertwee built around him as a star and it was decided for this series to do away with the then still common variety comedy practice of big name guest stars and instead just build up a regular team of mostly fresh-faced up-and-coming support players. 

 

Dick Emery was hired to be main comic support as both regular characters and any ad-hoc one-off required voices. This was one of Emery's early regular main support radio roles although he'd made earlier 50s guest and minor supporting appearances, including support in writers Jimmy Grafton and Peter Griffiths' previous series for Peter Sellers, Happy Holidays in 1954, and he also did an occasional stand-in stint for an ill Spike Milligan during Series 3 and once for Harry Secombe in Series 8 of The Goon Show. Initially, Emery's main role in the weekly opening sketch of the show is as cockney Albert, the chauffeur and manservant to Pertwee (although Pertwee only let's Albert bring the car round to the front for Pertwee to then drive himself, with Albert sat in the back in his chauffeur's uniform)! Within the show Albert is the husband of Mrs. Shufflewick the cook and general housemaid. Albert has a tendency to "borrow" anything and everything of Pertwee's that he fancies from his clothes, his watches and especially his alcohol. In the pilot/first episode of Pertwee's Progress the episode ends with a long sketch looking back at Pertwee's (fictitious) war hero exploits as a 2nd Lieutenant in the North Africa campaign and here Dick Emery plays Pertwee's Lance Corporal, Lampwick, which is very interesting that Emery's old geezer and (First} World War veteran character Lampwick always talking about the war in the long-running BBC television sketch comedy The Dick Emery Show (1963-1981) actually pre-dates that TV series by at least 8 years. I'm not sure if Emery used Lampwick pre-Pertwee's Progress too or created him for this show and later brought him back but in either case after Mrs. Shufflewick and her husband Albert leave following the fourth episode the set-up is slightly amended so that for the rest of the run Pertwee's former war colleague Lampwick becomes Pertwee's faithful old retainer in the opening sketches for the rest of the run. 

 

Rex Jameson appeared as his hugely popular drag character Mrs. Shufflewick, which he'd created in 1950 for radio and stage. Here, as stated above, Mrs. Shufflewick is Pertwee's cook and general housemaid with her husband Albert doing all the other jobs. As his usual male self Rex Jameson like all the other players also fills in with any other required background/minor (male) voices including a soldier in the above mentioned war exploits sketch. But without announcement or reasons stated Mrs Shufflewick and Rex Jameson disappear after the fourth episode never to return. I don't know for sure but I suspect Jameson's increasing alcoholism was behind it. He'd already lost a few previous gigs on radio and stage due to his excessive drinking and despite huge popularity and demand at this time he was getting a reputation for being unreliable which reached a point in the early 60s that his rising star all but collapsed and he returned to doing small more intimate (and more outrageous than he ever could be on radio) cabaret performances, more often than not at the drag show famous The Black Cap pub in Camden Town until his early death aged 58 in 1983.

 

With Jameson/Shufflewick gone, so goes husband Albert to be replaced by Lampwick as above. Lampwick takes on some of the habits of the former staff including Mrs. Shufflewick's habit of calling Pertwee Mr. Peewee and Albert's habit of helping himself to his employer's stuff. A new comedy face was also required for support and by Episode 7 a young comedian called Barry Took was brought in for the rest of the run as various supporting characters, also one of his first regular radio jobs as a comedian prior to his focusing on writing. Took had first met future writing partner Marty Feldman in 1954 but their first TV credit was The Army Game in 1957 which led to Bootsie & Snudge on TV and Round The Horne on radio. But at this stage he was still an up-and-coming jobbing comedian. 

 

The female regular support for Pertwee's Progress for the whole run were two up-and-coming stars Mercy Haystead and Fenella Fielding, both getting their big on-going radio series break here. Twenty-five year old film and television actress Mercy Haystead's main role was as Pertwee's girlfriend Miss Haystead although, as with co-star Fenella, also filled in any background/minor supporting female characters required. Mercy's rising film and television career in the late 50s and early 60s was brought to a stop when she retired from acting in 1966 after marrying wealthy publishing magnet and racehorse owner Tony Samuel. In 1955, twenty-eight year old Fenella Fielding was a rising name in stage comedy revue having only been performing since 1952 this was a very early radio break for Fenella. Unlike Mercy's regular girlfriend role Fenella doesn't appear to have any regular main role from the bits of scripts I have, but plays any supporting female characters required. 

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Finally, the last regular support player was twenty-five year old diminutive Scottish singer Kirk Stevens. Kirk was a rising recording artist from Hamilton, often singing songs of Scotland, he was only 5'4" and often billed for television and stage in the 50s as "the little man with the big voice". As well as having a singing spot in each episode he sometimes appears as a fictionalised version of himself, the singer, supposedly discovered by Pertwee during a troop concert in Scotland, with Pertwee arranging a BBC job for him, as a studio sweeper-upper! Like all the other support players Kirk also mucks in with any minor one-off characters and background voices as required. He's usually the butt of 6'2" Pertwee's jokes about his height with Miss Haystead sticking up for the short singer. Stevens had released a few records since 1953 and was a rising name on stage and television in 1955 when given the opportunity to star in this show. But he had to have a throat operation in 1956 strangling his career for six months then in March 1957 his latest (and I believe last) record The Silver Madonna was banned by the BBC on religious grounds so his rising star petered out and in 1960 he upped sticks with his wife and two young daughters and emigrated to America where he did Scottish songs in small clubs in Boston and later New York, never reaching his full potential but the the music scene drastically changed in the early 60s anyway. 

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Outside of Kirk's song spot there was also a weekly musical spot for composer and musician Dennis Wilson (not to be confused with producer Dennis Main Wilson) who introduced the novelty in this show of an all-piano orchestra. Wilson would go on to compose theme tunes and incidental music for many radio and TV sitcoms through the 60s and 70s. But here in Pertwee's Progress the main theme and incidental music was provided by the Augmented BBC Revue Orchestra conducted first by Harry Rabinowitz and later Paul Fenhoulhet. The Announcer for the show was Adrian Waller.

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The scripts for Pertwee's Progress were by Larry Stephens, Jimmy Grafton and Peter Griffiths, with additional input in the pilot from Peter Ling. Jimmy Grafton had contributed to the writing and script editing of the first three series of The Goon Show and Larry Stephens had also contributed to the early run of the Goons, been sacked by the BBC but was then re-hired by Spike again by this time. Peter Griffiths had written the also now lost Peter Sellers radio show Happy Holidays in 1954 with Jimmy Grafton whilst Peter Ling had written for Pertwee after the war for his earlier naval comedy Waterlogged Spa and would go on to create the hugely popular television soaps Compact and Crossroads so the series had a high pedigree. Pertwee's Progress was produced by Dennis Main Wilson, who had also produced the first two series of The Goon Show and the first four radio series of Hancock's Half Hour. Unusually, Main Wilson also appears on mic in the first episode as himself.

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Although the shows are long lost I do have some original script material for this show so can flesh out the format of the series. The first is the trial or pilot episode rehearsed and recorded on Sunday 27th March 1955 for 'possible transmission as first of series on Wednesday 6th April', obviously if the BBC approved the finished recording when heard. As it happens it was approved and went out as the first episode on 6th April. The second script I have is only a partial episode 5 rehearsed and recorded on Sunday 2nd May for broadcast on  the Wednesday 4th May. I only have the title page, pages 1-8 being the opening sketch then page 27, the final announcers page. They are heavily annotated by the series' producer Dennis Main Wilson with notes for the editor about cuts and take choices. The third script is a partial episode 7, again just the opening sketch with a pencilled on title of TV Party, rehearsed and recorded Sunday 15th May for broadcast on Wednesday 18th May.

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The series seemed to take its inspiration from the big radio comedies of the day, mainly elements of Educating Archie, Take It From Here and new kid on the block Hancock's Half Hour, the first series of which had only just finished the month before Pertwee's Progress started and was produced by the same producer, Dennis Main Wilson.

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Pertwee's Progress was a half hour show made up of 3 regular sketches interspersed with musical interludes. The first sketch each week was clearly modelled on the new Hancock's Half Hour, being a look at a fictionalised comically heightened day in the life of Jon Pertwee the comic, right down to the first episode being about the unemployed comic being given a new radio series but this was far from a knock-off of HHH. The two stars' characters are polar opposites. Whereas Hancock played down his real situation, struggling in a dump of a house, Pertwee played up to his real heritage of his French Huguenot ancestry (his surname was an Anglicisation of "Perthuis", the origins of his surname being "de Perthuis de Laillevault", the family being counts descended from Charlemagne). The fictionalised Pertwee here is well off, although through inheritance rather than hard work or major stardom. He lives in a lavish house with live-in servants. He owns a Rolls Royce inherited from his Great Uncle and a Bentley inherited from his Aunt Maud. Despite these luxuries he still claims dole from the Labour Exchange! 

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In the first episode Pertwee receives a letter from BBC producer Dennis Main Wilson offering him his own series; "Dear Pertwee, Against my better judgment, it has been decided to give you a radio series starting on April 6th. We drew lots amongst the Variety producers to see who would be in charge of your show, and I lost". Incidentally, I do believe that the postman delivering the BBC letter is Jon Pertwee reviving his old West Country postman from Waterlogged Spa and Puffney Post Office for old times' sake and audience familiarity. In the script it says POSTMAN instead of name of performer voicing him but the clues are there; he has the same habit of calling everyone "me dear" as the West Country Puffney postman did (the same accent Pertwee later revived for Worzel Gummidge) and Mrs. Shufflewick calls the postman Jonathan, likely another nod to Pertwee. Also, it can't be Dick Emery voicing the postman as his Albert has a cross-talking interaction with the postman. However we don't get th old "tear 'em up" catchphrase. After a musical number the sketch then continues with Pertwee going to Broadcasting House where he interacts with Kirk Stevens for whom Pertwee found employment as a sweeper.

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Each proceeding week opened with the Hancockesque sketch of the comics' supposed home life (although this wasn't a HHH creation, Life With The Lyons had been doing a twee middle-class look at the home life of married comics Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels and their children since 1950). 

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Although Hancock wasn't always completely down-to-earth, he did plenty of pretty unlikely scenarios, Pertwee's take could be even more out there divorced from reality. In the 5th episode Lampwick has rented out Pertwee's house to a scientific bod from the Air Ministry working on an Interplanetary War defence plan against possible invasion by Martians whilst Lampwick works on creating a defence against such an invasion of their home. 

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The other script opening sketch I have is Episode 7, with a penned on title of TV Party. Here Pertwee buys a new television set, well new to him, it's actually an ancient second hand set with a three inch screen! He decides to throw a party and invite friends round to Christen the set watching (Arthur Askey's TV playmate) Sabrina. This episode sees the addition to the cast of twenty seven year old comedian Barry Took, here in the opening sketch he plays a furniture delivery man bringing round extra chairs Pertwee has hired for his friend's to sit and watch television. His interaction with Pertwee is very funny on the page. I've scanned the three opening sketches I have which can be read below.

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After the opening sketch and the musical spot by pianist Dennis Wilson the middle sketch each week is called A Book At Bath Time. Unfortunately I can't reveal much about this segment as my scripts for Episodes 5 & 7 only go up to the announcers introduction for the sketch and my otherwise complete script for the pilot/episode 1 has had pages 12-18 containing this segment removed. In the case of Episode 1 I very much suspect it was because of the ridiculous over-running of the script. The pilot script which went out as first episode is 48 pages long, equivalent to about 45 minutes whereas the episode definitely went out in a thirty minute slot from 19:30 till 20:00 and should be around 27-28 pages. The final sketch runs to 25 pages, nearly the whole half hour slot alone! Much of the opening and closing sketches are crossed out as cut to get it under time constraints but to cut them more to fit would make them all but pointless and lose their sense of story so it's my opinion that for the first episode after cutting the two main sketches as much as possible the only thing for it was to completely remove the middle A Book At Bath Time sketch the first week. Given the writing and script editing experience of Jimmy Grafton and the other writers' experience it's very hard to imagine they would over-write by so much so I further suspect that Grafton and Griffiths were originally writing to a brief for a 45 minute show like their earlier Peter Sellers series Happy Holidays the previous year then for some reason they or more likely the BBC cut Pertwee's Progress to a regular half hour slot after the pilot was written. In any case it sadly means that I don't have any examples of the A Book At Bath Time sketches but in episode 1 it is introduced by announcer Adrian Waller thus; "Many people like to read at the breakfast table, on their way to and from work, in an armchair by the fire, or even in bed. But to relax, concentrate and really get into a story, Jon Pertwee prefers A Book At Bath Time". Then we start with the sound effect of splashing in a bath. So without any other clues I would suggest they may be taking inspiration from the similar segment in Take It From Here that spoofed popular books (although TIFH switched it up also spoofing popular TV, radio, film and stage shows) with Pertwee acting them out in the bath. But I've no details beyond the title of this segment.

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Finally, the last and main long sketch each week is called International Hall of Fame introduced thus; "Each week we bring you the story of an epic venture, a valorous achievement which earned some man a niche in the International Hall of Fame". For the first episode, the only one I have, this turns out to be a yarn of Pertwee's own heroic past presented as if it really happened, taking us from the fictionalised present of Pertwee's life of the first sketch to the fictionalised wartime exploits of Pertwee's past in the last sketch. Here we're presented with a story set in 1941 during the North Africa campaign where army Second Lieutenant Pertwee and his Lance Corporal, Lampwick, are ordered by the Generals to come up with a plan to advance the Allies' position, and 'Mad Jack' Pertwee as he's known comes up with a plan to sneak into a German ammo dump, blow it up and escape back to British lines. Obviously an entirely fictional escapade as in reality during the Second World War, Pertwee was in the Royal Navy. The story plays fast and loose with history for 1941, with anachronistic references to radio show The Archers (started in 1951) and commercial television (which only started the year this was broadcast, 1955) amongst others. Having only the one example of the weekly International Hall of Fame sketch I don't know if further editions stuck to fictional past adventures of Pertwee or at other times looked at real historical figures and/or completely fictional characters much like the last sketch of Educating Archie which saw them either doing an historical romp, a completely made up contemporary story or an outlandish dream sequence or similar. It is interesting to have the complete as written version of this first one as so much of it was ultimately unbroadcast due to length with lots of bits crossed out and rewritten to how it was heard on the air.

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The pilot show was rehearsed and pre-recorded at the BBC's Paris Studios in Lower Regent Street on Sunday 27th March 1955 for "possible transmission" on the Light Programme 10 days later on Wednesday 6th April 1955. Possible transmission, still at that point pending final approval of the finished product, which it got and aired on that date. The subsequent episodes were recorded at the BBC's Camden Palace Theatre in North London on the Sunday before each Wednesday broadcast, so Episode 2 broadcast Wednesday 13th April was pre-recorded on the Sunday 10th April and so on. 

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The series aired on the Light Programne on Wednesday evenings at 19:30-20:00 as follows;...

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1.1 06/04/1955*

1.2 13/04/1955*

1.3 20/04/1955*

1.4 27/04/1955*

1.5 04/05/1955*

1.6 11/05/1955*

1.7 18/05/1955*

1.8 25/05/1955*

1.9 01/06/1955*

1.10 08/06/1955*

1.11 15/06/1955*

1.12 22/06/1955*

1.13 29/06/1955*

 

*Sadly no episodes of Pertwee's Progress are known to survive today in archives or private collections, despite the fact that they were pre-recorded rather than going out live like a lot of radio comedy at that time. But the recordings were obviously subsequently junked or, more likely, the tapes wiped over for re-use. The series never had a repeat, not even a typical Home Service repeat later in the week that a lot of big hit shows usually had so you only ever had thirteen single shot chances to hear these. 

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The series doesn't appear to have generated any critical appraisal in the contemporary press, neither positive nor negative but the BBC can't have been too down on the experience as three years later they greenlit a new radio ensemble comedy series built around Pertwee, The Navy Lark! However, before that came around, in a September 1957 interview with the London Daily News in which Pertwee is bemoaning the sort of comedy he has to do versus the sort of comedy he wants to do, he's quoted as saying of Pertwee's Progress; "The critics nailed me to the wall for that. And I deserved it. It was a grim production". But I can't find any of those negative critical assessments in the available newspaper archives, and having read the scripts I have for them I find it was a very funny show. Often these things are in the performance and read dry on paper they can appear flat but I laughted at a number of bits throughout which were no doubt even funnier performed by these pros so it's a great shame there's nothing left to properly assess it.