Television Career
Youens's television breakthrough came in 1956 when, as a continuity announcer for Granada Television, which had just been launched, he became popular for his velvet-voiced tones — a marked contrast to the character for which he would become famous. Youens also took minor roles in a number of ITV series at the time, although he declined the chance to audition for Coronation Street when it launched in 1960, preferring the security of his announcer's role, before eventually passing an audition in 1964. He uttered the words "A pint of mild and 20 fags, missus" in June that year and a small screen legend was born. His role resulted in considerable celebrity, and he was often engaged to open fetes and stores (such as the re-opened FW Woolworth in South Shields in 1970.)
When asked what he thought when a national British newspaper had dubbed his character "the uncrowned king of the non-working classes", he replied: "Stan is my creation and I am proud of him." Youens was delighted to meet Sir John Betjeman, then the Poet Laureate, who had for many years expressed a desire to meet "Hilda and her ghastly husband". Meet they did, and Youens often commented that Betjeman, bounding around the studios meeting everyone "like a schoolboy" was a fond memory. Laurence Olivier also expressed a wish to appear in the programme. This was scheduled in a January 1978 episode in which Olivier was to play an unpublicised part as a tramp. Olivier's itinerary precluded that, and, in the bar at Granada TV, Youens told him "I'm so sorry I couldn't appear opposite you", to which Olivier replied: "Not as sorry as I am."
Read more about this topic: Bernard Youens
Famous quotes containing the words television and/or career:
“We cannot spare our children the influence of harmful values by turning off the television any more than we can keep them home forever or revamp the world before they get there. Merely keeping them in the dark is no protection and, in fact, can make them vulnerable and immature.”
—Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)