The Whitehall farces were a series of five long-running comic stage plays at the

Whitehall Theatre Trafalgar Theatre is a new West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. It is set to open in spring 2021 following a major multi-million pound restoration project aiming to reinstate it back to its ...

in London, presented by the

actor-manager An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the business, sometimes taking over a theatre to perform select plays in which they usually star. It is a method of theatrical production used co ...

Brian Rix Brian Norman Roger Rix, Baron Rix, (27 January 1924 – 20 August 2016) was an English actor-manager, who produced a record-breaking sequence of long-running farces on the London stage, including ''Dry Rot'', '' Simple Spymen'' and ''One for ...

, in the 1950s and 1960s. They were in the

low comedy Low comedy, also known as lowbrow humor, in association to comedy, is a dramatic or literary form of popular entertainment without any primary purpose other than to create laughter through boasting, boisterous jokes, drunkenness, scolding, figh ...

tradition of British

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...

, following the

Aldwych farce The Aldwych farces were a series of twelve stage farces presented at the Aldwych Theatre, London, nearly continuously from 1923 to 1933. All but three of them were written by Ben Travers. They incorporate and develop British low comedy styles, ...

s, which played at the

Aldwych Theatre The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Aldwych in the City of Westminster, central London. It was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200 on three levels. History Origins The theatre was constructed in th ...

between 1924 and 1933.

History

The farces; critical reception

The five farces were as follows: Rix built a company of regular players who appeared in some or all of these shows. They included

Leo Franklyn Leo Franklyn (7 April 1897 – 17 September 1975) was an English actor. Much of his early career was in Edwardian musical comedy; in his later career he was chiefly associated with farce. In the years between the First and Second World Wars, ...

, Larry Noble, Dennis Ramsden and

Derek Royle Derek Royle (7 September 1928 – 23 January 1990) was a British actor born in London, England. He graduated from RADA in 1950. His face was probably better known than his name to British viewers, but he acted in films and TV from the early 196 ...

, and members of Rix's family: his wife,

Elspet Gray Elspet Jean Gray, Baroness Rix (née Gray; 12 April 1929 – 18 February 2013) was a Scottish actress, who first became known for her partnership with her husband, Brian Rix, and later was cast in many television roles in the 1970s and 1980s. S ...

, his sister,

Sheila Mercier Sheila Betty Mercier ('' née'' Rix; 1 January 1919 – 4 December 2019) was an English actress, of stage and television, best known for playing Annie Sugden in the soap opera ''Emmerdale'' for over 20 years, from the programme's first episode i ...

and his brother-in-law, Peter Mercier. Others who appeared in one or more of the Whitehall farces include

Terry Scott Owen John "Terry" Scott (4 May 1927 – 26 July 1994) was an English actor and comedian who appeared in seven of the ''Carry On films''. He is also best known for appearing in the BBC1 sitcom ''Terry and June'' with June Whitfield. Early lif ...

and

Andrew Sachs Andreas Siegfried Sachs (7 April 1930 – 23 November 2016), known professionally as Andrew Sachs, was a German-born British actor and writer. He made his name on British television and found his greatest fame for his portrayal of the comical Sp ...

. Rix starred in all five plays, in a range of roles: a "gormless recruit" to the army in ''Reluctant Heroes''; a timidly crooked bookie's runner in ''Dry Rot''; a street musician recruited as a secret agent in ''Simple Spymen''; four identical brothers in ''One For the Pot''; and a harassed civil servant in ''Chase Me, Comrade''. From ''Dry Rot'' onwards, Rix and his authors developed a double act for the Rix characters and those played by Leo Franklyn, in which the two performers played off one another rather as

Ralph Lynn Ralph Clifford Lynn (8 March 1882 – 8 August 1962) was an English actor who had a 60-year career, and is best remembered for playing comedy parts in the Aldwych farces first on stage and then in film. Lynn became an actor at the age of 18 ...

and

Tom Walls Thomas Kirby Walls (18 February 1883 – 27 November 1949) was an English stage and film actor, producer and director, best known for presenting and co-starring in the Aldwych farces in the 1920s and for starring in and directing the film adapt ...

had done in the Aldwych farces of the previous generation. Although the five plays constituting the Whitehall farces had long runs and the theatres usually had full houses, the majority of London critics were dismissive of them. Writing in the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' in 1980,

Michael Coveney Michael Coveney (born 24 July 1948) is a British theatre critic. Education and career Coveney was born in London and educated at St Ignatius’ College, Stamford Hill, and Worcester College, Oxford. After graduation, he worked as a script re ...

commented: "A tradition of critical snobbery has grown up around these plays, partly because they were so blatantly popular but chiefly because of our conviction that farce, unless written by a Frenchman, is an inferior theatrical species. Once the National Theatre has done its duty by

Priestley Priestley may refer to: Places * Priestley, West Virginia, US, an unincorporated community * Priestley Glacier, a major valley glacier in Antarctica * Priestley (lunar crater), on the far side of the Moon * Priestley (Martian crater) * 5577 P ...

and Rattigan and others teetering on the brink of theatrical respectability I suggest they employ Mr. Rix … to investigate the ignored riches of English farce between Travers and Ayckbourn." Some London critics of the 1950s and 1960s did not disregard them, including

Harold Hobson Sir Harold Hobson CBE, (4 August 1904 – 12 March 1992) was an English drama critic and author. Early life and education Hobson was born in Thorpe Hesley near Rotherham then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He attended Sheffield Gramm ...

, Ronald Bryden, J. W. Lambert and

Alan Dent Alan Holmes Dent (7 January 1905 – 19 December 1978) was a Scottish journalist, editor and writer. Early life Alan Dent was born in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland, of English parents. He lost his mother when he was two years old. He was edu ...

Television broadcasts; later productions

In addition to the five long-running farces, Rix presented a series of more than eighty one-off televised comedies, some of them farces, for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

History

The farces; critical reception

Television broadcasts; later productions

Notes

References