With his sly little moustache, broad gap-toothed
grin, garish waistcoats and ostentatious cigarette
holder, Terry-Thomas was known as an absolute bounder,
both onscreen and off. Graham McCann's hugely
entertaining biography celebrates the life and career of
a very English rascal. Born in 1911 into an ordinary
suburban family, Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens set about
transforming himself at a very early age into a dandy
and a gadabout. But he did not put the finishing touches
to his persona until the mid-1950s with his
groundbreaking TV comedy series How Do You View?, a
forerunner of The Goon Show and Monty Python.
Terry-Thomas went on to carve out a long and lucrative
career in America, appearing on TV alongside Judy
Garland, Bing Crosby and Lucille Ball, and in Hollywood
movies with Jack Lemmon, Rock Hudson and Doris Day. He
became every American's idea of a mischievous English
gent. After a long battle with Parkinson's disease, he
died in 1990 in comparative obscurity, but his influence
lives on. Basil Brush was a polyester tribute to
Terry-Thomas, and comedians including Vic Reeves and
Paul Whitehouse hail T-T as a role model.'Dandyism is
the product of a bored society,' D'Aurevilly observed.
Terry-Thomas cocked a snook at the dull sobriety of
post-war Britain with his sly humour. As he would say
himself: 'Good show!' |
|