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Jimmy Jewel

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For those of a similar name, see Jimmy Jewell (disambiguation).

Jimmy Jewel
Born
James Arthur Thomas Jewel Marsh

(1909-12-04)4 December 1909
Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died3 December 1995(1995-12-03) (aged 85)
London, England
Other namesMaurice Marsh
Occupation(s)Comedy actor
Music hall artist
Spouse
Belle Bluett
​
​
(m. 1939; died 1985)​
Children2

James Arthur Thomas Jewel Marsh (4 December 1909 – 3 December 1995),[1][2] known professionally as Jimmy Jewel, was an English comedian and actor whose long career in stage, radio, television and film productions, included a 32-year partnership with his cousin Ben Warriss.[3]

Career

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The son of a comedian and actor who also used the stage name Jimmy Jewel, the younger performer made his stage debut, aged four, in Robinson Crusoe in Barnsley, then worked with his father from the age of ten and subsequently became stage manager for the family's touring music hall show.

When young Jimmy started his own act, his father initially refused to let him use the stage name 'Jimmy Jewel', so he performed as Maurice Marsh; the name was chosen because he was often seen doing Maurice Chevalier impressions. He made his first London stage appearance at the Bedford Music Hall, Camden Town in 1925.

Jewel and Warriss

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Jewel and Ben Warriss were first cousins and were brought up in the same household, even being born in the same bed (a few months apart). Jewel worked as a solo act until 1934, then formed an enduring double act with Warriss, initially at the Palace Theatre, Newcastle.[1][4] They toured Australia and America, as well as appearing in the 1946 Royal Variety Performance and five pantomimes for Howard & Wyndham Ltd at the Opera House, Blackpool, Lancashire.

They had a major success with the BBC radio series Up the Pole, which began in October 1947[4] and cast them as proprietors of an Arctic trading post. Each episode included a musical interlude, sometimes provided by Julie Andrews, then a child performer.[5] Only one episode is known to survive.

The two men were also top of the bill in two London Palladium shows, Gangway (1942) and High Time (1946), and made regular television appearances in the 1950s and 1960s. The duo had the lead roles in the short-lived 1962 comedy series It's a Living.

Post-1966

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After splitting from Warriss in 1966, and having done a stint working as a joiner and bricklayer, Jewel appeared in a Comedy Playhouse and two ITV Playhouse productions. He also played a murderous quick-change vaudeville artist in a 1968 episode of The Avengers.[6] He then starred in the sitcom Nearest and Dearest with Hylda Baker, playing bickering brother-and-sister pickle factory owners Eli and Nellie Pledge. The show ran from 1968 to 1973, with a stage version appearing in 1970[7] and a film in 1972.[8] As their characters hurled insults at each other on screen, the insults would continue off screen as well, as the two performers disliked each other intensely.[9]

While Nearest and Dearest was running, Jewel had a regular role in the short-lived 1969 sitcom Thicker than Water and made an appearance in the 1970 film The Man who Had Power Over Women.[10] He then starred in the comedy series Spring and Autumn (1972–76) as retired railway worker Tommy Butler.[11] He also developed a distinguished stage career,[12] initially by playing the jaded tutor, Eddie Waters, in the controversial Trevor Griffiths play Comedians (1975–77).[13] In addition, he starred in The Sunshine Boys (West End 1975; Bromley 1981),[14] as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman (Nottingham 1977),[15] Alfred Doolittle in Pygmalion (Bromley 1980),[16] and in You Can't Take It with You at the Royal National Theatre (1983).[17]

In the early 1980s, he made appearances in the children's series Worzel Gummidge (1980) and two episodes of Play For Today. He then starred in Funny Man, a 1981 series about a family music hall act, based by writer Adele Rose on that of Jewel's own father. In 1984, he played the part of a devoted green keeper in the Channel 4 comedy drama Arthur's Hallowed Ground (1984), then in 1986 he had a regular role in the BBC crime drama Hideaway.[18]

In the 1990s, then in his eighties, Jewel continued to make appearances in film and television. He appeared as Cannonball Lee, the boxing-loving grandfather of the Kray twins in the 1990 film The Krays, and as Michael Palin's father in American Friends (1991).[19] On television he appeared in the 1990 ITV play Missing Persons (which was the pilot for the later BBC series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates), and also appeared in episodes of One Foot in the Grave (1990) and Casualty (1991). His final screen appearance was in a 1993 episode of Lovejoy.[20]

Comic Heritage plaque, Teddington

Jewel was married to Belle Bluett, with whom he had a son and an adopted daughter. In 1985 he won a Variety Club of Great Britain Special Award. Jewel died on 3 December 1995.

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1943 Rhythm Serenade Jimmy Martin
1949 What a Carry On! Jimmy B. Jervis
1950 Let's Have a Murder Jimmy Jewsbury
1970 The Man Who Had Power Over Women Mr. Pringle
1972 Nearest and Dearest Eli Pledge
1984 Arthur's Hallowed Ground Arthur
1986 Rocinante Projectionist
1990 The Krays Cannonball Lee
1991 American Friends Ashby Senior

References

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  1. ^ a b Gifford, Dennis Obituary: Jimmy Jewel The Independent, 5 December 1995. Note: This obituary wrongly gives the year of birth as 1912, which is contradicted by the Ben Warriss obituary. Retrieved 23 May 2013
  2. ^ The birth of James Arthur T. J. Marsh was registered at Sheffield in the first quarter of 2010. (Information at FreeBMD, retrieved 23 May 2013)
  3. ^ Denis Gifford. "Obituary: Ben Warriss". The Independent. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  4. ^ a b Gifford, Dennis: Obituary: Ben Warriss The Independent, 18 January 1993. Retrieved 23 May 2013
  5. ^ "BBC Radio 4 Extra - Up the Pole". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  6. ^ "The Avengers Forever: Jimmy Jewel". Theavengers.tv. 1 January 2002. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  7. ^ 'Summer Shows: Blackpool', The Stage, 13 August 1970, p.17
  8. ^ British Comedy Guide. "Nearest And Dearest - ITV Sitcom - British Comedy Guide". Comedy.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  9. ^ Fiddy, Dick (2003–14). "Baker, Hylda (1905–1986)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  10. ^ "The Man Who Had Power over Women (1970)". BFI. Archived from the original on 16 March 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  11. ^ "Spring and Autumn[23/10/72] (1972)". BFI. Archived from the original on 16 March 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  12. ^ "Jimmy Jewel | Theatricalia".
  13. ^ Bill Haggerty, 'Theatre', Daily Mirror, 25 September 1975, p.16
  14. ^ Arthur Thirkell, 'The non-stop talk show', Daily Mirror, 8 May 1975, p.18
  15. ^ 'Jewel of a part for Jimmy', Derby Evening Telegraph, 15 April 1977, p.5
  16. ^ 'Production News', The Stage, 9 October 1980, p.2
  17. ^ 'Theatre Week', The Stage, 4 August 1983, p.10
  18. ^ "Jimmy Jewel". BFI. Archived from the original on 16 March 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  19. ^ "Jimmy Jewel | Movies and Filmography". AllMovie. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  20. ^ "Swings and Roundabouts (1993)". BFI. Archived from the original on 16 March 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
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