The South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA) is the regional film archive for the South West of England. Established in 1993, SWFTA's core collection comprises of the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and TSW (Television South West). The archive also cares for a significant number of donated film collections, both amateur and professional, dating back to the early 1900s.
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Terry-Thomas returns to the stage
Terry-Thomas talks effusively in this interview about his return to the stage.
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Overview
Everyone's gentleman cad of choice, Terry-Thomas returns to cabaret at the Princess Theatre in Torquay after 14 years away. As a comedian and actor he often played the upper class antagonist in British comedy films such as Private's Progress (1956) and its more successful sequel I'm All Right Jack (1959) in a film career that spanned 47 years. In 1946 playing the Piccadilly Hayride Revue his comic ability was recognised and he earned a place in the Royal Variety Performance.
Thomas features in Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (1957) as Captain Romney Carlton-Ricketts and reprieves the military upper class role in the 1960s appearing in American films It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World as Lt. Col. J. Algernon Hawthorne and plays Jack Lemmon's loyal valet in How to Murder Your Wife (1965). In 1962 he stars in Frank Tashlin and Budd Grossman's American comedy Bachelor Flat with a dachshund. The sausage dog-shape was used satirically to illustrate CinemaScope because shooting widescreen on standard 35mm film has the effect of elongation. He plays an RAF flight commander opposite Luis de Funes and Bouvril in one of the most successful French films of all time, La Grande Vadrouille (1966).
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