Charles Hawtrey (actor Born 1914) - Biographies and Cultural References

Biographies and Cultural References

• The biography, Charles Hawtrey 1914-1988: The Man Who Was Private Widdle, by Roger Lewis, was published in 2002.
• Another biography, Whatshisname: The Life and Death of Charles Hawtrey, by the broadcaster Wes Butters, was published in 2010. Butters also produced and presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary on Hawtrey, which was broadcast on 27 April 2010.
• Hawtrey was mentioned by John Lennon in the 1970 Beatles film Let It Be, in which he ad-libs the non sequitur "'I Dig a Pygmy', by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids! Phase One, in which Doris gets her oats!" The producer Phil Spector used this quote at the beginning of the accompanying album, leading into the song "Two of Us".
• A cocktail called 'Hanky Panky' (made from Beefeater, Fernet Branca and red vermouth) was created for Hawtrey by a bartender in the Savoy Hotel, London in the 1930s.
• Hawtrey features in "The Thin Man," the title poem from the 1988 collection by Manchester poet and writer Robert Cochrane. When Cochrane collaborated as the lyricist on English singer-songwriter John Howard's 2005 album The Dangerous Hours, the poem became the basis for the song, "What A Carry On," which begins: "The man in our compartment looks like Charles Hawtrey / From baggy suit and round horn rims / He views the underside of England / In a life of almosts and not quites."
• Hawtrey was portrayed by Hugh Walters in the television film Cor, Blimey! (2000). (The film was based on a stage play, Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick (1998), which actually did not include Hawtrey as a character.)
• In the pilot episode of the (now abandoned) Carryoons animated series (2001), the voice of Charles Hawtrey was provided by actor Clive Greenwood. More recently, Greenwood portrayed Hawtrey in the stage play Goodbye: The Afterlife of Cook & Moore (2009).
• David Seabrook's 2003 book All the Devils Are Here (Granta Books), exploring murders and unsolved/unresolved mysteries in Kent and the Isle of Thanet, closes with a poignant yet disturbing anecdote about Hawtrey.
• Hawtrey was played by David Charles in the 2006 BBC Four television play Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!
• In November 2009, Amanda Lawrence wrote and starred in a show, called Jiggery Pokery, about the life of Hawtrey. The show, specially commissioned by the Homotopia festival in Liverpool, opened in London on 2 December 2009 at the Battersea Arts Centre.