Margaretta Mary Winifred Scott was an English stage, screen and television actress whose career spanned over seventy years. She is best remembered for playing the eccentric widow Mrs. Pumphrey in the BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small (1978–1990).
William Gordon Harker was an English stage and film actor.
Ralph Clifford Lynn 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.
Fighting Stock is a 1935 British comedy film directed by and starring Tom Walls. It also features Robertson Hare, Lesley Wareing and Herbert Lomas. its plot involves a Brigadier who retires to a country cottage for some quiet fishing, but it soon overtaken by madcap events. The screenplay is by Ben Travers based on his earlier stage play of the same name, and the cast included cast members from Travers's Aldwych Farces.
Foreign Affaires is a 1935 British comedy film directed by and starring Tom Walls. It also features Ralph Lynn, Robertson Hare, Norma Varden and Cecil Parker. The screenplay is by Ben Travers, and the cast included cast members from the Walls and Travers Aldwych Farces.
Just My Luck is a 1933 British comedy film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Ralph Lynn, Winifred Shotter, Davy Burnaby and Robertson Hare. The screenplay was written by Ben Travers based on a 1932 Aldwych farce by H.F. Maltby, Fifty-Fifty, adapted from the French play Azaïs by Louis Verneuil and Georges Berr.
Pot Luck is a 1936 British comedy film directed by and starring Tom Walls. The screenplay is by Ben Travers based loosely on his 1930 stage play A Night Like This. It also featured Ralph Lynn, Robertson Hare, Diana Churchill and Martita Hunt. The cast included members of the regular Aldwych Farce company.
Tons of Money is a 1930 British comedy film directed by Tom Walls and starring Ralph Lynn, Yvonne Arnaud, Mary Brough, Robertson Hare and Gordon James, the same artistes responsible for the Aldwych farces. It was a remake of the 1924 film Tons of Money which had been based on the 1922 play Tons of Money by Will Evans and Arthur Valentine. It was made at British and Dominion's Elstree Studios with sets designed by the art director Lawrence P. Williams.
Gordon James was an English actor who became known as the "heavy" in the Aldwych farces, between 1923 and 1933. He also appeared in some twenty films between 1929 and 1942.
Friday the Thirteenth is a 1933 British drama film directed by Victor Saville and starring Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale and Muriel Aked.
A Cup of Kindness is a 1934 British comedy film directed by and starring Tom Walls. It also featured Ralph Lynn, Robertson Hare, Dorothy Hyson and Claude Hulbert. It was based on a 1929 play by Ben Travers of the same name, one of the Aldwych farces, and had four of the same cast members. Graham Moffatt, later of Will Hay fame, made his debut appearance as a choir boy in this film.
Plunder is a 1931 British comedy film directed by and starring Tom Walls. It also features Ralph Lynn, Winifred Shotter and Robertson Hare. It was based on the original stage farce of the same title, and was the second in a series of film adaptations of Aldwych farces by Ben Travers, adapted in this case by W. P. Lipscomb, and was a major critical and commercial success helping to cement Walls's position as one of the leading stars of British cinema.
Banana Ridge is a 1942 British comedy film directed by Walter C. Mycroft and starring Robertson Hare, Alfred Drayton and Isabel Jeans. The film is based on a 1938 stage play of the same name by Ben Travers. It was made at Welwyn Studios. Michael Denison accompanied his wife Dulcie Gray for her screen test for the film, which led some years later to his casting in his breakthrough role in My Brother Jonathan. The film was a success at the box office. Hare and Drayton appeared together in another comedy Women Aren't Angels the following year.
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, combined with clever word-play. The plays were presented by the actor-manager Tom Walls and starred Walls and Ralph Lynn, supported by a regular company that included Robertson Hare, Mary Brough, Winifred Shotter, Ethel Coleridge, and Gordon James.
Thark is a 1932 British film farce, directed by Tom Walls, with a script by Ben Travers. In addition to Walls, the film stars Ralph Lynn and Robertson Hare. The film is a screen adaptation of the original 1927 Aldwych farce play Thark. It was made at British and Dominion's Elstree Studios.
A Night Like This is a 1932 comedy film directed by Tom Walls and starring Walls, Ralph Lynn and Winifred Shotter. Ben Travers wrote the screenplay, adapting his own play, the original 1930 Aldwych farce of the same title.
Dirty Work is a farce by Ben Travers. It was one of the series of twelve Aldwych farces that ran in uninterrupted succession at the Aldwych Theatre in London from 1923 to 1933. The play depicts the maladroit but ultimately successful efforts of a shop-walker to outwit a gang of jewel thieves.
For Valour is a 1937 British comedy film directed by Tom Walls and starring Walls, Ralph Lynn and Veronica Rose. It was made at Shepperton Studios, with sets designed by Oscar Werndorff. Unlike previous films starring Walls and Lynn, it was based on an original screenplay rather than one of the Aldwych Farces. Both Walls and Lynn played dual roles of two Boer War veterans and their son and grandson respectively. It was the last time the two actors, who had been one of the most popular film comedy teams of the decade, appeared together on screen.
Stormy Weather is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Tom Walls and starring Walls, Ralph Lynn and Robertson Hare.
Vernon Sylvaine (1896–1957) was a British playwright and screenwriter. He is known for writing several popular stage farces. He began working in film in 1937 when his stage hit Aren't Men Beasts! was turned into a film of the same title starring Robertson Hare and Alfred Drayton. Hare and Drayton starred in two further adaptations of his plays A Spot of Bother (1938) and Women Aren't Angels (1943). He adapted his own play for the 1943 comedy-thriller Warn That Man starring Gordon Harker, Basil Radford and Judy Kelly. His 1948 play One Wild Oat was turned into a 1951 film of the same title.
