Spotlight on George Formby's Get Cracking 3

George v Ronald

‘Get Cracking’ was released in May 1943 – that same month George Formby turned 39 years of age.  His film career was drawing to a close, only 4 more would follow, with ‘Civvy Street’ being his final release three years later. At this point in time, his work in entertaining the troops for ENSA was as well-known as his on-screen entertainments. Perhaps you could say that ‘Get Cracking’ was an extension of this, as he entertained the Home Guard by having a laugh with them at their under-equipped exploits. But after the war ended, George’s career in film stalled. Instead, he had to capitalise on his touring success and he took his act to Africa and Australia. His next big thing in his home country would be his appearance on the West End stage in the play ‘Zip Goes a Million’ in 1951.

There are two good reasons why George’s film career came to a close. Firstly, he had typecast himself as the innocent Lancashire lad, who got himself into daft scrapes but always got the girl. By the time he turned 40, this was getting a bit tired, perhaps also slightly weird.  As he started to look his age, the unworldly-wise act didn’t wash quite so well. His love interest in ‘Get Cracking’ is Dinah Sheridan, who turned 23 in 1943, making George very nearly old enough to be her father.

But also, the war had changed audiences. Compare George’s continuing happy-go-lucky output with the films that Powell and Pressburger were turning out as the war drew to a close. Ours was a nation that was now bereaved, thoughtful and ready for change. George represented pre-war days of seaside trips, motorbike racing and cheeky innocence and perhaps everyone was now just a bit tired of all that.

It is interesting to compare the post war careers of George with his ‘Get Cracking’ nemesis Ronald Shiner. Shiner had been in several of George’s previous films and from memory I seem to think that he usually portrayed the petty villain in some way. I personally always see Shiner as being a wrong-un, which is probably unfair to the actor behind the roles, who may well have been the salt of the earth.  But where George faded, Ronald prospered. He went on to work with the likes of Arthur Askey and Margaret Rutherford and in 1952 he was voted the most popular male film star. After working with George one last time in ‘Civvy Street’ he went on to appear in more than 20 other films. The more cynical kind of character that he was good at – the spiv, the petty crook, the streetwise chum – were in demand.  The film world at least had tipped in favour of Ronald’s type.

Ronald retired in the early 60s to run a pub before his death in 1966 while George’s life ended with some acrimony and scandal. Funny how the roles seem reversed at the end.

Stuff one of my books up your jumper while you suck on your Blackpool rock

Spotlight on George Formby's Get Cracking 2

Geography with George

The action in ‘Get Cracking’ takes place around the villages of Major Wallop and Minor Wallop. The idea for these names of course comes from the actual Wallop villages in Hampshire (Over Wallop, Middle Wallop and Nether Wallop, south west of Andover).  Such is the delightful nonsense of the name Wallop that Will Hay also put it to use – the action in ‘Where’s That Fire’ takes place in Bishop’s Wallop. A name I am so fond of that I stole it for my novella ‘Temporary Accommodation’.  Has anyone named a craft beer Bishop’s Wallop yet? If not, they ought to.

Will Hay films are a great source of made up place names. I also love the setting for his ‘Ask a Policeman’ – Turnbotham Round.  If you are reading this blog post in another part of the world, you might need to be told that Turnbotham is pronounced “Turnbottom” before you get the humour. That’s another thing that we are good at in this country – place names that are not pronounced how they are spelled.  One of George’s co-stars in ‘Get Cracking’, Edward Rigby, also features in a film called ‘Don’t Take it to Heart’ (1944).  In this chucklefest of a film, we are introduced to the fictional village of Chaunduyt, but we soon learn that it is pronounced “Condit”.   It’s a great send up of those pockets of rural Britain where there hasn’t been an injection of fresh bloodstock for far too long.

Rigby and Formby

There are hours of fun to be gleaned from English placenames. People are always compiling lists of double-entendre geography and the area around the real Wallop villages (Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire) is particularly blessed. What with names that have the River Piddle as their source and places that sound like a retired Victorian Colonel with a big moustache and ruddy cheeks (Glanvilles Wooton, Compton Chamberlayne, Brown Candover).  We have our rich and chequered history of language and settlers to thank for this and of course our early film industry was going to mine this comedic seam.

As for places that sound different to how they are spelled – every county has places like this. The town where I live is almost always pronounced wrong if we ever get a mention on national television (usually thanks to our famous MP). Bolsover is pronounced “Bolzovva” by residents, but southern TV types usually give it a soft s and a full English pronunciation of the “over” bit. This is how they know when strangers are in town and know when to light the torches and sharpen the pitchforks. I tease, I am from the big city…although me and my children marvel sometimes at how we are the only family here not related to everyone else.  In ‘Don’t Take it to Heart’, Chaunduyt is portrayed as a place stuck in the past, where strangers are frowned upon as foreigners or socialists – perhaps place pronunciation is a quick method of identification of friend or foe, dating back to when these things really were important.

Click here to download my own Bishop's Wallop story - Temporary Accommodation

Spotlight on George Formby's Get Cracking 1

A Peach of a Playwright

I’m going to start my Spotlight on George Formby’s “Get Cracking” by looking at one of the screenwriters. The 1943 Home Guard themed film was based on a play originally written by L du Garde Peach – famous for writing the Ladybird Adventure from History books.  Peach also contributed to the screenplay along with Edward Dryhurst and Michael Vaughan. So, you could say that Peach has a significant role at the root of this film. How close the film runs to the original play (called “According to Plan”) I’m not sure, as I have not seen a copy of the script. However, Peach recorded in his book “25 Years of Play Producing” that he thought that his original play was unrecognisable on the screen and that he was glad of this fact.

Although he is now only remembered for his Ladybird books, this is just one small part of the career of my fellow Sheffield-born Lawrence du Garde Peach. After studying English at universities in Manchester and Germany, he was then caught up in World War One. Presumably due to his fluency in the German language, he was given a role in intelligence after a spell in the Manchester regiment.  He survived the conflict and began contributing articles to Punch magazine while lecturing in English at Exeter University. His articles in Punch were popular and this led to him being offered work on the radio. He was an acknowledged pioneer of plays for the radio and by 1937 over 100 of his works had been heard in parlours throughout the land.  During this period he also established the ‘Little Theatre’ in Great Hucklow, near Buxton in Derbyshire. This was where he settled when he was able to earn his living purely through writing – he knew it from spending childhood summers there at a religious holiday home with his father, who was a minister. The Great Hucklow players achieved some fame between the wars and attracted audiences from far afield.

His radio play success had led to several screenwriting roles in the 1930s; and then when World War Two arrived, L du G became a Major in the Home Guard. This role, it seems, was a mine of inspiration for his wartime work.  And so we arrive at “Get Cracking”. This was his final credit in films, but by no means the end of his writing career. Much of his radio career involved writing small plays for Children’s Hour on historical subjects, which in the 1950s led to his Ladybird Adventures From History.

I have now produced a small book about L du Garde Peach - click here to purchase. Kindle download also available.