
Acting
Robertson Hare
Born — Died
1891-12-16 — 1979-01-25
Place of birth
Islington, London, England
Known for
Acting
Credits
45 titles
John Robertson Hare, OBE (17 December 1891 – 25 January 1979) was an English actor, who came to fame in the Aldwych farces. He is remembered by modern audiences for his performances as the Archdeacon in the popular BBC sitcom, All Gas and Gaiters. Short in stature and of unheroic appearance, Hare made his stage career in character roles. From his early days as an actor he was cast as older men. One of his favourite parts, which he played in the provinces before achieving West End success, was "Grumpy", a retired lawyer, in which he toured before the First World War. After war service in the army, Hare got his big break. He was cast in a long-running farce with Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls. His…
Known for
NRA BBC television series of forty-five-minute excerpts from stage plays running in London.
Theatre Night
1957
10.0Series based on the short French farces written by Georges Feydeau, Eugène Labiche, Marc Michel and Sacha Guitry. All of them include mistaken identities and impeccable timing.
Ooh La La!
1968
5.3After discovering the body of a murdered female agent in their trendy Soho, London nightclub, groovy owners Charles Salt and Christopher Pepper partake in a fumbling investigation and uncover an evil plot to overthrow the government. Can our cool, yet inept duo stop the bad guys in time?
Salt & Pepper
1968
6.2All Gas and Gaiters is a British television ecclesiastical sitcom which aired on BBC1 from 1966 to 1971. It was written by Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps, a husband-and-wife team who used the pseudonym of "John Wraith" when writing the pilot. At St Oggs Cathedral is a carefree bishop, an old tippling archdeacon, and an accident-prone chaplain, who all wish to live a quiet bachelor life, but this is continually threatened by the dean, who tries to bring by-the-book rule to the cathedral.
All Gas and Gaiters
1967
6.3Good natured comic caper charting the misadventures of a hapless bunch of Brighton based petty crooks dogged with disaster at every turn.
The Night We Got the Bird
1960
4.7A young girl finds herself possessed by the spirit of a mischievous demon.
Things Happen at Night
1948
Film credits
1960s · 7 titles
5.3After discovering the body of a murdered female agent in their trendy Soho, London nightclub, groovy owners Charles Salt and Christopher Pepper partake in a fumbling investigation and uncover an evil plot to overthrow the government. Can our cool, yet inept duo stop the bad guys in time?
Salt & Pepper
1968
6.3Good natured comic caper charting the misadventures of a hapless bunch of Brighton based petty crooks dogged with disaster at every turn.
The Night We Got the Bird
1960
6.1Nicky and his friends find that their youth club is in danger of being flattened to make way for a new office block unless they can come up with £1500 to pay the new owner, the ruthless property tycoon Hamilton Black. To help raise the cash, Nicky records a song and his friends broadcast it via a pirate radio station, touting him as "The Mystery Singer" - the plan works and interest in their up and coming show is heightened by this new but unknown heart-throb. But Nicky has an even bigger secret and one that he cannot share, even with his girlfriend Toni... Hamilton Black is his father.
The Young Ones
1961
6.1A former burglar trying to go straight joins a rehabilitation scheme using much the same methods as AA. Through the process, he takes work as a department store Santa, where the endless parade of goods and money, not to mention the pretty young shop hands have him like a moth to a flame in no time flat.
Crooks Anonymous
1962
6.0Monsieur Feydeau has writer's block and he needs a new play, so he takes an opportunity to observe his upper class neighbors of 1900 Paris. There is Monsieur Boniface with hard domineering wife Angelique; also, Monsieur Cotte with beautiful but neglected wife Marcelle. Henri Cotte traces architectural anomalies (mostly "ghost" sounds in the drain pipes) and plans a night at the Hotel Paradiso, which happens to be the chosen romantic rendezvous spot of Marcelle and Monsieur Boniface. One wife, two husbands, a nephew, and the perky Boniface maid, all at this 'by the hour' hotel and consummation of the affair is, to say the least, severely compromised (not the least by a police raid). All of this is under Feydeau's eye, and his play is the 'success fou' of the next season.
Hotel Paradiso
1966
5.8A reporter learns that his brother, a student, has committed suicide. Unconvinced, he begins his own investigation when the police dismiss his suspicions. Could a killer be on the loose in Cambridge?
Out of the Shadow
1961
6.9Convict Russell is bequeathed a set of seven keys by a fellow prisoner. After discovering that the deceased embezzled an unrecovered £20,000, Russell sets out to find the cash after finishing his sentence. However, he must first solve the mystery of which locks the keys fit, and run the gauntlet of the police and gangsters who are after him and the money.
Seven Keys
1961
1950s · 5 titles
10.0No synopsis available yet.
My Wife's Family
1956
6.2Three London gentlemen take a vacation rowing down the Thames, encountering various mishaps and misadventures along the way.
Three Men in a Boat
1956
6.5Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once young and handsome William Green. He changed his name to include his first wife's for the photographic portrait work he excelled at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved.
The Magic Box
1952
5.3Rich Sadie Patch is marooned on a desert island after an emergency on her cruise-ship. With her are Irish stoker Pat, prickly young Jimmy Carrol, and bald and bookish Professor Gibble. All fancy their chances.
Our Girl Friday
1953
5.2A lawyer's plan to break up his daughter's budding romance backfires when the boyfriend's father becomes involved.
One Wild Oat
1951
1940s · 5 titles
4.7A young girl finds herself possessed by the spirit of a mischievous demon.
Things Happen at Night
1948
NRA wartime short encouraging workers to join free, government-organised engineering training schemes.
Yesterday Is Over Your Shoulder
1940
Alfred Bandle and Wilmer Popday are partners in business and, somewhat timorously on Popday's part, in pleasure. When their wives join the A.T.S., the men are left unattended and dangerously bored. The trouble starts when Bandle is late for an end-of-leave party after giving a girlfriend a lift; Popday promises the wives he ll restrain his wayward friend when they return to duty, but Bandle evidently thinks otherwise.
Women Aren't Angels
1943
8.1George Gribble is tea-boy at Tangleton town council, he gets ravelled up in the councillors money-grubbing machinations concerning compiling and then cooking the results of a government sponsored housing survey.
He Snoops to Conquer
1944
6.2When Susie Long appears, together with her 20 year old son, Pink and Pound are thrown into confusion that one of them could be his father.
Banana Ridge
1942
1930s · 24 titles
7.0Two businessmen have the shock of their lives when a woman appears out of their past bearing a 23 year old son - and one of them may be the father!
Aren't Men Beasts!
1937
4.7American racketeer Jimmie Dean travels to England, where he assumes the identity of a Canadian whom he has been falsely accused of murdering. Jimmie is then forced to join the British army in the dead man's place. He falls in love with the Canadian's childhood playmate, Sally Briggs, and becomes a hero after saving an isolated English colony in China.
O.H.M.S.
1937
6.4It is pouring with rain at one minute to midnight on Friday the thirteenth, and the driver of a London bus is peering through his blurred windscreen as his vehicle sails down an empty road. Suddenly, lightning strikes, and a vast crane above topples into the path of the oncoming bus... Then Big Ben begins to wind backwards. Time recedes. And we discover the lives of all the passengers and the events that brought them to that late-night bus journey, from the con-man with a hundred-pound cheque to the businessman's distraught and elderly wife. Time flows on, inevitably, to the crash -- and past it, as some live and some die.
Friday the Thirteenth
1933
6.2A crowded inn means that a man and a woman must share the same room for a night. One problem is that they are both married - to other people. The other problem is that they used to be engaged to each other.
A Cuckoo in the Nest
1933
7.0Staff in a jewellery store hatch a plan to catch a thief.
Dirty Work
1934
9.0American (Churchill) in London dislikes England until his daughter (Lehmann) falls for the son (Granger) of the Lord (Drayton) with whom he wants to conclude a business deal.
So This Is London
1939
10.0A tale of two feuding families whose offspring cause uproar when they announce their marital plans.
A Cup of Kindness
1934
An ageing aristocrat schemes to secure his dwindling finances by any means – fair or foul!
Foreign Affaires
1935
"It's a Boy" stars Horton as Dudley Leake, who is betrothed to Mary Bogle (the very pretty Wendy Barrie). Shortly before the wedding, Dudley blurts a confession to his friend and best man, Jim Skippett: 20 years ago, Dudley had a brief affair with a certain Miss Piper, but he's never heard from her since then. Next day, who should suddenly appear? A youth about 19 or 20 years old, claiming to be named Joe Piper. Is he Horton's son, or is Skippett playing a practical joke?
It's a Boy
1934
8.0A husband tries to hide a runaway girl from his wife and mother-on-law.
Rookery Nook
1930
7.0Going under cover, P.C. Mahoney passes for a gentleman to get into the notorious Moonstone Club. There he meets Clifford Tope, a ne'er do well who is love with cabaret star Cora Mellish. She in turn has run up steep gambling debts and has paid off the Club's blackmailing owner with a stolen necklace. As things heat up Cora seeks help from the easy-going Tope.
A Night Like This
1932
6.0Member of a village Purity League branch find things much livelier on a trip to London.
Oh, Daddy!
1935
6.1Produced by the highly acclaimed Michael Balcon, the story revolves around Robert, the son of the owner of a musical instrument factory. He is in love with Vera, one of the factory workers, who is unaware of his position. So when she jokes one day that she would love a Rolls-Royce, Robert makes sure that she gets one. Then he decides to raise her salary out of all proportion to hint at who he is...
Car of Dreams
1935
7.0Sir Duncan Craggs retires from the Colonial Service and returns to London with his new French wife. The couple are devoted to each other, but continually flirt with other people. Sir Duncan is appointed to the board of clothing retail chain. On his tour of inspection, he encounters a successful store run by the efficient Mr. Bullock. By contrast, a neighbouring shop is filled with unhelpful staff overseen by an incompetent and lazy manager, Raymond Penny, who is more interested in horseracing than running his shop. Craggs is unimpressed by Penny and summons him to a meeting in London. Both Bullock and his domineering wife travel up to London as well, fearing that Penny will tell Craggs malicious stories about them.
Stormy Weather
1935
10.0A group of guests come to stay with the Stoatt family in the seaside town of Eden Bay for Christmas. They soon become involved with an impoverished concert performer whose innocent presence in the house leads to a series of misunderstandings.
Turkey Time
1933
7.0A debt-ridden inventor has to pretend to be his cousin to avoid his creditors.
Tons of Money
1930
Skulduggery is on the menu after a bishop hands over a cathedral’s rebuilding fund to a shady businessman. The bishop’s secretary is entrusted with overseeing the investment, but is soon out of his depth as the money is swept up in a brandy and silk underwear smuggling racket.
A Spot of Bother
1938
In this he's on the dole, hungry and ready to do any job but quickly light-heartedly scams his way into society and a highly regarded position at a bank next to the beleaguered Robertson Hare. Here he invents a fraudulent business plan (Merrivale - you remember it surely?), the manager and chairman and another finance company are suck(er)ed in and it all snowballs from there. With of course a love interest as a dynamo.
Jack of All Trades
1936
7.0A retired Scotland Yard detective, Patrick Fitzpatrick (Tom Walls) comes back to take one final case, tracking down a missing vase which has been stolen by a gang of thieves specialising in taking art treasures. His investigation takes him to the home of the innocent Mr Pye (Robertson Hare), whose house has been used by the crooks to hide their proceeds.
Pot Luck
1936
'Broke duke and millionairess try month of trial marriage.' (British Film Catalogue)
On Approval
1930
10.0Mrs Todd is aggrieved at finding that the country house she has bought is evidently haunted. Sir Hector Benbow and his nephew, on behalf of the previous owner, set out to demonstrate that there is no ghost.
Thark
1932
10.0No synopsis available yet.
Just My Luck
1933
The Aldwych Theater farceurs are at it again in Fighting Stock. The punning title refers to a well-stocked rural fishing stream, which sparks a battle royale between two rival groups of fishermen. Brigadier-General Sir Donald Rowley (Tom Walls) gets involved in the fray when he rents a country cottage with his nephew Sydney (Ralph Lynn). While the nephew pitches woo at the local maidens, General Rowley adopts military tactics to reclaim the stream from village squire Duck (J. Robertson Hare).
Fighting Stock
1935
8.0A comedy film directed by and starring Tom Walls.
Plunder
1930
Series credits
NRA BBC television series of forty-five-minute excerpts from stage plays running in London.
Theatre Night
1957
10.0Series based on the short French farces written by Georges Feydeau, Eugène Labiche, Marc Michel and Sacha Guitry. All of them include mistaken identities and impeccable timing.
Ooh La La!
1968
6.2All Gas and Gaiters is a British television ecclesiastical sitcom which aired on BBC1 from 1966 to 1971. It was written by Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps, a husband-and-wife team who used the pseudonym of "John Wraith" when writing the pilot. At St Oggs Cathedral is a carefree bishop, an old tippling archdeacon, and an accident-prone chaplain, who all wish to live a quiet bachelor life, but this is continually threatened by the dean, who tries to bring by-the-book rule to the cathedral.
All Gas and Gaiters
1967
