In 1955 Carmichael was noticed by the film producers John and Roy Boulting, who cast him in five of their films as one of the major players. The first was the 1956 film Private's Progress, a satire on the British Army; he received critical and popular praise for the role, including from the American market. In many of his roles he played a likeable, often accident-prone, innocent. In the mid-1960s he played Bertie Wooster in adaptations of the works of P. G. Wodehouse in The World of Wooster for BBC Television, for which he received mostly positive reviews, including from Wodehouse. In the early 1970s he played another upper-class literary character, Lord Peter Wimsey, the amateur but talented investigator created by Dorothy L. Sayers.
Much of Carmichael's success came through a disciplined approach to training and rehearsing for a role. He learned much about the craft and technique of humour while appearing with the comic actor Leo Franklyn. Although Carmichael tired of being typecast as the affable but bumbling upper-class Englishman, his craft ensured that while audiences laughed at his antics, he retained their affection; Dennis Barker, in Carmichael's obituary in The Guardian, wrote that he "could play fool parts in a way that did not cut the characters completely off from human sympathy: a certain dignity was always maintained".[1]
Ian Gillett Carmichael was born on 18 June 1920 in Kingston upon Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He was the eldest child of Kate (née Gillett) and her husband Arthur Denholm Carmichael, an optician on the premises of his family's firm of jewellers.[2][3] Carmichael had two younger sisters, the twins Mary and Margaret, who were born in December 1923.[4] Robert Fairclough, his biographer, describes Carmichael's upbringing as a "privileged, pampered existence"; his parents employed maids and a cook.[5] His infant education included one term at the local Froebel House School when he was four, but this was curtailed after his parents were shocked at the "alarmingly foul language he began bringing home", according to Alex Jennings, Carmichael's biographer in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.[3][6]
In 1928 Carmichael was sent to Scarborough College, a prep school in North Yorkshire, which he attended between the ages of seven and thirteen.[7] He did not like the spartan and authoritarian regime at the school. He described the discipline as "Dickensian", with corporal punishment used for even minor infringements of the rules; ablutions in the morning and evening were conducted with cold water—which often had a film of ice on the top during winter.[8]
In 1933 Carmichael left Scarborough College and entered Bromsgrove School, a public school in Worcestershire.[3][lower-alpha 1] He soon concluded that "the new curriculum was not arduous",[10] which gave him the opportunity for focus on matters that were of more interest for him: acting, popular music and cricket.[3][11] In the late 1930s Carmichael decided to go to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London. His parents would have preferred he went into the family jewellery business, but accepted their son's decision and supported him financially when he left Yorkshire for London in January 1939.[12][13]
Carmichael enjoyed his time at RADA, including the fact that women outnumbered men on his course, which he described as "heady stuff" after his boys-only boarding school.[14] He remembered the time at RADA in the late 1930s fondly in his autobiography, describing it as:
A period of unconfined joy, occasioned by my finally shaking off the shackles of school discipline and being able to mix daily with young men and young women who shared my interests and enthusiasms. This joy was, nevertheless, being tempered by the worsening European situation. The fear that now, just as I was standing on the threshold of a future that I had dreamed about for years, the whole thing might be snuffed out like a candle was too unbearable to contemplate.[15]
During his second term Carmichael had his first professional acting role: as a robot in Karel Čapek's R.U.R. at the People's Palace theatre, in Mile End, East London.[16] He recalled the experience as "a dull play performed in a cold and uninspiring theatre and my particular contribution required absolutely no acting talent whatsoever".[17] He then appeared as Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream at RADA's Vanbrugh Theatre. The opening night was 1 September 1939, the day Hitler invaded Poland. After the play's second performance its run was ended, as RADA shut down in anticipation that war was about to be declared; the following day the UK joined the war. Carmichael returned to his familial home and completed the forms to join the Officer Cadet Reserve, hoping to be commissioned as an officer. He helped gather the harvest in a nearby farm until 2 October, when he was attested into the army; he was told he would have to wait until he was twenty—on 18 June 1940—before he started training.[18]
At the end of training manoeuvres in November 1941, near Whitby, North Yorkshire, Carmichael was struggling to close the hatch of his Valentine tank when it slammed down, cutting off the top of a finger on his left hand. The surgery was botched and caused him pain for several months; he had a second operation several months later.[23] He described it as "dashed unfortunate"[24] and "my one and only war-wound, albeit a self-inflicted one".[23]
In between training for the liberation of France Carmichael began producing revues and productions as part of his brigade's entertainment. On 16 June 1944, ten days after D-Day, Carmichael and his armoured reconnaissance troop landed in France. He fought through to Germany with the regiment and by the time of Victory in Europe Day in May 1945, he had been promoted to captain and mentioned in despatches.[25][26]
Frankie Howerd, whom Carmichael auditioned and thought "very gauche... too undisciplined and not very funny either".
Carmichael's regiment was part of 30 Corps and an initial post-war challenge in Germany was the welfare of the occupying forces. The corps' commanding officer was Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks, who ordered a repertory company to be formed for entertainment. When Carmichael auditioned he recognised the major in charge of the unit as Richard Stone, an actor who had been a contemporary at RADA; Carmichael was taken into the company and assisted Stone with auditioning other members.[28][27] One of the comedians who auditioned was Frankie Howerd, whom Carmichael thought "very gauche... too undisciplined and not very funny either. Very much the amateur".[29] Stone disagreed and signed the comic up to perform in a Royal Army Service Corps concert party.[30] The corps' company was also joined by actors from Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA); Carmichael did not often appear on stage with them, but worked as the producer of twenty shows. In April 1946 Stone was promoted and was transferred to the UK; Carmichael was promoted to major and took control of the theatrical company. His leadership of the company was short-lived, as he was demobilised that July.[31][24]
Early post-war career, 1946–1955
In July 1946 Carmichael signed with Stone, who had also been demobilised and had set up as a theatrical agent. Carmichael obtained his first post-war role in the revue Between Ourselves in mid-1946 before he appeared in two small roles in the comedy She Wanted a Cream Front Door— a hotel receptionist and a BBC reporter. The production went on a twelve-week tour round Britain from October 1946, and then ran at the Apollo Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, London, for four months.[32]
Between 1947 and 1951 Carmichael appeared on stage in both plays and revues —the latter often at the Players' Theatre in Villiers Street, Charing Cross. He made his debut appearance on BBC television in 1947 in New Faces, a revue that also included Zoe Gail, Bill Fraser and Charles Hawtrey.[33] From 1948 he also began appearing in films, including Bond Street (1948), Trottie True and Dear Mr. Prohack (both 1949); these early roles were minor parts and he was uncredited.[34] He spent much of 1949 in a thirty-week tour of Britain with the operetta The Lilac Domino.[35] According to Jennings, Carmichael's "first conspicuous success" was The Lyric Revue in 1951; the production transferred to The Globe (now the Gielgud Theatre) as The Globe Revue in 1952.[3] He received a positive review in the industry publication The Stage, which reported that he "hits the bull's-eye" for his comic performance in one sketch, "Bank Holiday", which involved him undressing on the beach under a mackintosh.[36]
Carmichael spent the next three years appearing in stage revues and small roles in films.[3] Although he enjoyed working in revues, he was concerned about being stuck in a career rut. In a 1954 interview in The Stage, he said "I'm afraid that managers and directors may think of me only as a revue artist, and much as I enjoy acting in sketches I feel there must be a limit to the number of characters one is able to create. What I would like now is to be offered a part in light comedy or a farce".[37] Between November 1954 and May 1955 he appeared as David Prentice in the stage production of Simon and Laura alongside Roland Culver and Coral Browne at the Strand Theatre, London. The following year a film version was directed by Muriel Box; she asked Carmichael to repeat his role, while Browne and Culver's roles were taken by Kay Kendall and Peter Finch.[3] The reviewer for The Times thought Carmichael "comes near to stealing the film from both of them".[38] In 1955 Carmichael also appeared in The Colditz Story. He played Robin Cartwright, an officer in the Guards, and spent much of his screen time appearing with Richard Wattis; the two men provided an element of comic relief in the film, with what Fairclough describes as a "Flanagan and Allen tribute act".[39]The Colditz Story was Carmichael's ninth film role and he had, Fairclough notes, risen to sixth in the credits behind John Mills and Eric Portman.[40]
In 1955 Carmichael was contacted by the filmmaker twins the Boulting brothers. They wanted him to appear in two film versions of novels—Private's Progress by Alan Hackney and Brothers in Law by Henry Cecil—with an option for five films in all;[41][42] the final contract was for a total of six films.[43] The Boultings' first work with Carmichael was the 1956 film Private's Progress, a satire on the British Army.[44][lower-alpha 2] The film opened in February 1956 and starred Carmichael, Richard Attenborough, Dennis Price and Terry-Thomas.[47] The film historian Alan Boulton observed "Reviews were decidedly mixed and the critical response did not match the popular enthusiasm for the film";[43] it was either the second or third most popular film at the British box office that year.[48][49] Carmichael received praise for his role, however, including from The Manchester Guardian, which thought he "fulfils his promise as a comedian";[50] the reviewer for The Times thought Carmichael acted "with an unfailing tact and sympathy—he even manages to make a drunken scene seem rich in comedy".[51] The film introduced American audiences to Carmichael, and his screen presence in the US was warmly received by reviewers. The reviewer Margaret Hinxman, writing in Picturegoer, considered that after Private's Progress Carmichael had become "one of Britain's choicest screen exports".[52]
From June to September 1956 Carmichael was involved in the filming of Brothers in Law, which was directed by Roy Boulting; others in the cast included Attenborough and Terry-Thomas.[53] When the film was released in March 1957 Carmichael received positive reviews,[54] including from Philip Oakes, the reviewer from The Evening Standard, who concluded that Carmichael "confirms his placing in my form book as our best light comedian".[55] The reviewer for The Manchester Guardian thought Carmichael was "irrepressibly funny in his well-bred, well-intentioned, bewildered ineptitude".[56]
In September 1957 Carmichael appeared in a third Boulting brothers film, Lucky Jim in which he appeared alongside Terry-Thomas and Hugh Griffith in an adaptation of a 1954 novel by Kingsley Amis.[57] Fairclough notes that while the film was not well received by the critics, Carmichael's performance received great praise.[58]The Manchester Guardian considered that Carmichael, "although in many ways excellent, has fewer chances than in Brothers-in-Law to delight us with those studies in agonised embarrassment in which he excels",[59] while The Daily Telegraph reviewer considered "[Carmichael's] Jim, complete with North-Country accent and the ability to pull comic faces, might so easily have been the author's creation brought to life off the page."[60]
Carmichael once again appeared as Stanley Windrush, the character he portrayed in Private's Progress, in his fifth film with the Boultings, I'm All Right Jack, which was released in August 1959. Several other actors from Private's Progress also reprised their roles: Price (as Bertram Tracepurcel); Attenborough (as Sidney De Vere Cox) and Terry-Thomas (as Major Hitchcock). A new character was introduced in the film, Peter Sellers as the trade unionshop steward Fred Kite.[66][67] The film was the highest-grossing at the British box office in 1960 and earned Sellers the award for Best British Actor at the 13th British Academy Film Awards.[68][69] Although Sellers received most of the plaudits for the film, Carmichael was given good reviews for his role, with The Illustrated London News saying he was "in excellent fooling" and "delicious both at work and at play".[70][71] In 1960 Carmichael appeared in School for Scoundrels, based on Stephen Potter's "gamesmanship" series of books.[72][lower-alpha 4] Appearing alongside him were Terry-Thomas, Alastair Sim and Janette Scott. The reviews for the film were not positive, but the actors were praised for their work in it.[73]
The release of School for Scoundrels was Carmichael's tenth film in five years. Fairclough observes that during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Carmichael began to get a reputation among his colleagues as being difficult to work with. Eric Maschwitz, the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment for Television, recorded in an internal memo that Carmichael had given "great difficulty" during negotiations, and concluded that "his head seems to have been a little turned by his success".[74] Some actors had to point out to him that he was "doing a Carmichael" whenever he tried to improve his billing, or upstage his fellow actors, including Derek Nimmo in 1962, during the filming of The Amorous Prawn.[75] Despite the criticism, Carmichael described the period as "I think the happiest five or six years of my whole career".[76]
In December 1961 Carmichael was appearing in the comedy mystery play The Gazebo every evening and filming Double Bunk during the day. The mental and physical toll on him was too much, and he collapsed in the middle of a performance. The show's producer, Harold Fielding, instructed Carmichael to take at least two week's holiday to rest, and he paid for Carmichael and his wife to have a holiday in Switzerland. He returned to the show on 23 December, but he lost his voice during the Boxing Day show and could only complete Act 1. He returned to the show after a few days, but left permanently on 28 January 1962 on his doctor's orders.[42][77]
In August 1964 the BBC approached Carmichael to discuss the possibility of his taking the role of Bertie Wooster—described by Fairclough as "the misadventuring, 1920s upper-class loafer"—for adaptations of the works of P. G. Wodehouse. He turned it down, as he had agreed to appear on Broadway, taking the lead in a production of the farceBoeing-Boeing.[82] He appeared at the Cort Theatre in February 1965, but the run ended after 23 performances, as the farce was not to the taste of New York audiences. Carmichael was delighted by the early close, as he hated his time in the US and said "I found New York a disturbing, violent city and I disliked it instantly". As soon as he heard the production was to close, he sent a telegram to the BBC to note his availability to play Wooster.[83][84] Carmichael negotiated a fee of 500 guineas (£525) per half-hour episode, and assisted in finding the right person for Jeeves, eventually selecting Dennis Price.[85][lower-alpha 5]
The first series of The World of Wooster received the Guild of Television Producers and Directors award for best comedy series production of 1965,[87] and the programme ran for three series, broadcast between May 1965 and November 1967, comprising twenty episodes in total.[88] Reviews for Carmichael were positive,[89] with a reviewer in The Times declaring "The World of Wooster is also a triumph of casting, for Ian Carmichael and Dennis Price are perfect impersonators of two characters who are by no means lay-figures... They are a priceless pair."[90] A different reviewer pointed out one drawback of the 44-year-old Carmichael's performance: "If we have thought of Bertie Wooster as eternally 22, not far in time from enjoyably wasted university days, Mr. Ian Carmichael opposes our view with a Bertie who is older but hopefully fixed in an inescapable mental youth."[91] The best review, as far as Carmichael and the producer Michael Mills were concerned, was from Wodehouse, who sent a telegram to the BBC:
To the producer and cast of the Jeeves sketches.
Thank you all for the perfectly wonderful performances. I am simply delighted with it. Bertie and Jeeves are just as I have always imagined them, and every part is played just right. Bless you!
Wodehouse later reconsidered his opinion and thought Carmichael overacted in the role.[92] Only one of the episodes remains: the others were wiped to reuse the expensive videotape.[93]
In September 1970 Carmichael was the lead role in Bachelor Father, a sitcom loosely based on the true story of a single man who fostered twelve children. There were two series—one in 1970, one the following year—and a total of 22 episodes; he negotiated a salary of £1,500 per episode, making him the best-paid actor at the BBC.[94][lower-alpha 6] The media historian Mark Lewisohn thought that the programme, "although ostensibly a middle-of-the-road family sitcom of no great ambition, came over as a polished and professional piece of work that pleased audiences over two extended series".[95]
Carmichael was one of the driving forces behind the BBC's decision to adapt Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey stories for television. He first had the idea of appearing as Wimsey in 1966, but various factors—including financing, Carmichael's association with Bertie Wooster in the public's eye and difficulty obtaining the rights—delayed the project. By January 1971, however, they were able to start filming the first programme, Clouds of Witness, which was broadcast in 1972 in five parts. This was followed by The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors and The Five Red Herrings between February 1973 and August 1975.[96][97] Richard Last, writing in The Daily Telegraph thought Carmichael was "an inspired piece of casting.... he has exactly the right outward touch of aristocratic frivolity but more than the ability to suggest the steel underneath".[98]Clive James, reviewing for The Observer, described Carmichael as "an extremely clever actor", and thought he was "turning in one of those thespian efforts which seem easy at the time but which in retrospect are found to have been the ideal embodiment of the written character".[99] Carmichael went on to play Wimsey on BBC Radio 4, recording nine adaptations with Peter Jones as Mervyn Bunter, Wimsey's valet.[100]
In 1979 Carmichael published his autobiography Will the Real Ian Carmichael..., which marked what Fairclough calls his "semi-retirement" in Yorkshire.[104] He continued to work periodically, including providing the voice for Rat in the 1983 film The Wind in the Willows[105] and as the narrator for the television series of the same name between 1984 and 1990.[106][107] He revisited the works of Wodehouse in the late 1980s and early 1990s, providing the voice of Galahad Threepwood for two radio productions, Pigs Have Wings and Galahad at Blandings.[108][109]
In 1992 and 1993 he played Sir James Menzies in two series of Strathblair, a BBC family drama set in 1950 broadcast on Sunday evenings.[110] He undertook his last stage role in June 1995, playing Sir Peter Teazle in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal at the Chichester Festival Theatre.[111] From 2003 he took his final role: that of T. J. Middleditch in the ITV hospital drama series The Royal.[112] He continued filming with The Royal until 2009.[113]
Personal life
In late March 1941, when Carmichael's regiment was posted to Whitby he met "Pym"—Jean Pyman Maclean—who he described as "blonde, just eighteen, five feet six, sensationally pretty and a beautiful dancer"; he thought her personality was "warm... genuine. There was an innocence about her, an unsophistication that disarmed even the most worldly".[114] The couple became engaged in May 1942 and married on 6 October 1943;[115] they had two daughters, Lee (born in 1946) and Sally (born in 1949).[3] Pym died of cancer in 1983.[116]
In 1984 Carmichael recorded a series of short stories for the BBC; the programmes were produced by Kate Fenton. They began a relationship and she left the BBC in 1985 and moved in with him in the Esk Valley, near Whitby. They were married in July 1992.[3][117][118] Carmichael enjoyed playing and watching cricket, and listed it as one of this interests in Who's Who.[119] He was a member of the Lord's Taverners cricket charity from 1956 until October 1976,[120] and would relax on film sets playing a casual game with other members of the cast and crew, a practice he was introduced to by the Boulting brothers.[121] He was also a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club.[122]
In 2003 Carmichael was appointed OBE for services to drama.[123] He died on 5 February 2010 of a pulmonary embolism.[3]
Screen persona and technique
Carmichael learned much of his technique from the thirty-week tour of The Lilac Domino he undertook in the late 1940s, where he appeared opposite the comic actor Leo Franklyn.[122][124] Carmichael acknowledged the credit for his development as a light comic actor went "in its entirety to the training, coaxing and encouragement of... Franklyn",[124] who "showed me how to time my laughs and how to play an audience".[35] Carmichael's experience in revue helped when he worked in a dramatic play; his experience in getting a character across to an audience quickly in a short sketch showed him that "it is very important to establish a comedy character as soon as possible. Your whole performance may depend on this being done".[62]
Carmichael polished his performances through extensive rehearsals and training.[125] The screenwriterPaul Dehn acknowledges the effort and discipline needed by Carmichael to achieve a polished feel to his act, describing how Carmichael would "slave for hours to perfect one stumble on a stairway and, having got it,... [would] make it seem effortless thereafter".[126] Jennings considers much of Carmichael's seemingly effortless light touch "was built on a hugely disciplined and virtuosic technique".[3] Carmichael's choice of comedy was character-, rather than situation-based and when the film or play generated its atmosphere from normal, recognisable aspects of life.[62] He selected his work projects carefully and became involved in the development and production side as closely as possible, or initiated the project himself.[95]
The image he portrayed in many of his works was summarised by one obituarist as "the affable, archetypal silly ass Englishman" with a "wide-eyed boyish grin, bemused courtesy and hapless, trusting manner".[122] He became somewhat typecast with the character, but audiences liked him in the role, and "he polished this persona with great care", according to his obituarist in The Daily Telegraph, even though he tired of playing the role so often.[127][122] One of the attractions for the public was that he played his parts to get the audience's sympathy for the character, but with a measure of dignity that viewers could relate to.[24][1] During Carmichael's semi-retirement, the Boulting brothers told him that they had not shown the range of his talents, and that "perhaps they should not virtually have confined him to the playing of twerps".[1] When he took the role of Wimsey—the intelligent, cultured and effective investigator—the critic Nancy Banks-Smith wrote that "it was high time that Ian Carmichael was given the opportunity to look intelligent".[128]
Notes and references
Notes
↑ A public school in the UK is a fee-paying institution, associated with the ruling class and upper echelons of banking, business and industry.[9]
↑ Over the course of the late 1950s and early 1960s the Boultings made films that took "sharp, but generally good-tempered swipes at such social bastions" in Britain. These included Private's Progress (1956; the army), Brothers in Law (1957; the legal profession), Lucky Jim (1957; academia), I'm All Right Jack (1959; trade unions and management), Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959; the Foreign Office) and Heavens Above! (1963; the Church of England).[44][45] Carmichael appeared in all but Carlton Browne.[46]
↑ The books are Gamesmanship (1947), Lifemanship (1950), Oneupmanship (1952) and Supermanship (1958).[72]
↑ According to calculations based on the Consumer Price Index measure of inflation, 500 guineas in 1965 is approximately £12,840 in 2023, according to calculations based on Consumer Price Index measure of inflation.[86]
↑ According to calculations based on the Consumer Price Index measure of inflation, £1,500 in 1970 is approximately £29,310 in 2023, according to calculations based on Consumer Price Index measure of inflation.[86]
John Edward Boulting and Roy Alfred Clarence Boulting, known collectively as the Boulting brothers, were English filmmakers and identical twins who became known for their series of satirical comedies in the 1950s and 1960s. They produced many of their films through their own production company, Charter Film Productions, which they founded in 1937.
Jeeves is a fictional character in a series of comedic short stories and novels by English author P. G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is the highly competent valet of a wealthy and idle young Londoner named Bertie Wooster. First appearing in print in 1915, Jeeves continued to feature in Wodehouse's work until his last completed novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, a span of 60 years.
Bertram Wilberforce Wooster is a fictional character in the comedic Jeeves stories created by British author P. G. Wodehouse. An amiable English gentleman and one of the "idle rich", Bertie appears alongside his valet, Jeeves, whose intelligence manages to save Bertie or one of his friends from numerous awkward situations. Bertie Wooster and Jeeves have been described as "one of the great comic double-acts of all time".
James Hugh Calum Laurie is an English actor, comedian, musician and writer. He first gained recognition for his work as one half of the English comedy double act Fry and Laurie with Stephen Fry.
John Le Mesurier was an English actor. He is probably best remembered for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC television situation comedy Dad's Army (1968–1977). A self-confessed "jobbing actor", Le Mesurier appeared in more than 120 films across a range of genres, normally in smaller supporting parts.
Dennistoun Franklyn John Rose Price was an English actor. He played Louis Mazzini in the Ealing Studios film Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and the omnicompetent valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G. Wodehouse's stories.
Jeeves and Wooster is a British comedy-drama television series adapted by Clive Exton from P. G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves" stories. It aired on the ITV network from 22 April 1990 to 20 June 1993, with the last series nominated for a British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series. Set in the UK and the US in an unspecified period between the late 1920s and the 1930s, the series starred Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster, an affable young gentleman and member of the idle rich, and Stephen Fry as Jeeves, his highly intelligent and competent valet. Bertie and his friends, who are mainly members of the Drones Club, are extricated from all manner of societal misadventures by the indispensable Jeeves.
Terry-Thomas was an English character actor and comedian who became internationally known through his films during the 1950s and 1960s. He often portrayed disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads, toffs and bounders, using his distinctive voice; his costume and props tended to include a monocle, waistcoat and cigarette holder. His striking dress sense was set off by a 1⁄3-inch (8.5 mm) gap between his two upper front teeth.
Charlotte Mitchell was an English actress and poet.
Dilys Laye was an English actress and singer, best known for her comedy roles, in which she was seen in the West End and on Broadway for more than fifty years, beginning in 1951. Although primarily a stage performer, she broadcast frequently on radio and television, and appeared in films.
Stephen James Mangan is an English actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He has played Guy Secretan in Green Wing, Dan Moody in I'm Alan Partridge, Seán Lincoln in Episodes, Bigwig in Watership Down, Postman Pat in Postman Pat: The Movie, Richard Pitt in Hang Ups, Andrew in Bliss (2018), and Nathan Stern in The Split (2018–2022).
George Grossmith Jr. was an English actor, theatre producer and manager, director, playwright and songwriter, best remembered for his work in and with Edwardian musical comedies. Grossmith was also an important innovator in bringing "cabaret" and "revues" to the London stage. Born in London, he took his first role on the musical stage at the age of 18 in Haste to the Wedding (1892), a West End collaboration between his famous songwriter and actor father and W. S. Gilbert.
Claude Cattermole "Catsmeat" Potter-Pirbright is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves and Drones Club stories of English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being a longtime school friend of Jeeves's master Bertie Wooster and a member of the Drones Club. A West End actor known as "Claude Cattermole" on stage, he is known to his friends by the nickname "Catsmeat".
Jonathan Hugh Gascoyne-Cecil, known as Jonathan Cecil, was an English actor.
The World of Wooster is a comedy television series, based on the Jeeves stories by author P. G. Wodehouse. The television series starred Ian Carmichael as English gentleman Bertie Wooster and Dennis Price as Bertie's valet Jeeves.
Brothers in Law is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Richard Attenborough, Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas and Jill Adams. The film is one of the Boulting brothers successful series of institutional satires that begun with Private's Progress in 1956. It is an adaptation of the 1955 novel Brothers in Law by Henry Cecil, a comedy set in the legal profession.
Lucky Jim is a 1957 British comedy film directed by John Boulting and starring Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas and Hugh Griffith. It is an adaptation of the 1954 novel Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis.
The English actor and comedian Ian Carmichael OBE (1920–2010) performed in many mediums of light entertainment, including theatre, radio, television and film. His career spanned from 1939 until his death in 2010. According to Brian McFarlane, writing for The Encyclopedia of British Film, Carmichael "epitomises the good-natured, undemanding pleasures of '50s British cinema".
Lord Peter Wimsey is a series of full cast BBC Radio drama adaptations of Dorothy L. Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey detective novels broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1973 and 1983, with a further adaptation of Gaudy Night mounted for BBC Audiobooks in 2005 to complete the full sequence of Sayers' novels, all starring Ian Carmichael in the title role.
Lord Peter Wimsey is a series of television serial adaptations of five Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy L. Sayers, starring Ian Carmichael as Wimsey. They were broadcast on BBC1 between 1972 and 1975, beginning with Clouds of Witness in April 1972.
Burton, Alan (2012). "From Adolescence into Maturity: the Film Comedy of the Boulting Brothers". In Hunter, I. Q.; Porter, Laraine (eds.). British Comedy Cinema. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge. pp.77–88. ISBN978-0-4156-6665-7.
Carmichael, Ian (1979). Will the Real Ian Carmichael... London: Macmillan. ISBN978-0-333-25476-9.
Dehn, Paul (1 March 1957). "Papa Gielgud Shows How". News Chronicle. p.6.
Dent, Alan (5 September 1959). "Half-Asleep and Wide-Awake". The Illustrated London News. p.50.
Fiddick, Peter (24 December 1983). "Bright lights at Toad Hall". The Guardian. p.2.
"The Globe". The Stage. 17 July 1952. p.9.
"Ian Carmichael: Actor". The Times. 8 February 2010. Retrieved 14 November 2023.(subscription required)
"Ian Carmichael; Unassuming Star of 1950s Light Comedies who Found Fresh Fame on Television as Wooster and Wimsey". The Daily Telegraph. 8 February 2010. p.31.
James, Clive (4 February 1973). "Redeeming Appearances". The Observer. p.34.
Last, Richard (6 April 1972). "Sayers Wimsey Thriller Triumphs". The Daily Telegraph. p.12.
"'Lucky Jim' as a British Comedy". The Manchester Guardian. 20 August 1957. p.5.
Marriott, R. B. (27 December 1957). "Ian Carmichael Only Wants to Play Comedy". The Stage. p.8.
"New Films in London". The Manchester Guardian. 18 February 1956. p.5.
"New Lease of Life for the Short Story". The Times. 15 January 1966. p.5.
Oakes, Philip (28 February 1957). "Laughter in Question". Evening Standard. p.8.
"Satire Gone in 'Lucky Jim'". The Daily Telegraph. 19 August 1957. p.8.
Strachan, Alan (8 February 2010). "Ian Carmichael; Actor who Played Likeable Toffs in Golden Age of British Comedy". The Independent. p.34.
"Television's Ideal Married Couple Date". The Times. 24 November 1955. p.14.
"The Army as a Film Joke". The Times. 20 February 1956. p.7.
Weber, Bruce (10 February 2010). "Ian Carmichael, 89, Comic British Actor". The New York Times. p.B17.
Websites
"Best Comedy Series in 1965". BAFTA Awards. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
"Biography". Kate Fenton. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
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