
Acting
Charlie Drake
Born 1925-06-19 · South East London - England - UK
Charlie Drake, was an English comedian, actor, writer and singer best known for his catchphrase "Hello. My darlings!". With his small stature (5 ft 1 in or 155 cm tall), curly red hair and liking for slapstick, he was a popular comedian with children in his early years, performing with Jack Edwardes in the double act Mick and Montmorency on children's TV. He subsequently made the break into primetime TV and critical and commercial acclaim with his solo show Drake's Progress (1955-1957). He was best known for his series The Worker (1965–70) in which he played a perpetually unemployed labourer who, in every episode, was dispatched to a new job by the ever-frustrated clerk at the local labour exchange. In the sixties, Drake made the transition to cinema, making several comedy films. By the 1980s, Drake reinvented himself as a straight actor, including a memorable performance as Smallweed in the 1985 BBC adaptation of Bleak House and playing Nagg in Samuel Beckett's Endgame in 1989. He suffered a series of strokes in 1995 and retired, passing away in 2006 at the age of 81.
Acting credits
7.6A bawdy pantomime filmed during the sellout 1995 nationwide tour.
Sinderella Live
1995
An adventure story for children involving a professor's efforts to discover an antidote to some 'shrinking' pills, and the attempted theft of his formula by two crooks
Pursued
1974
7.0A team of inept undertakers attempt to get a coffin to a funeral on time. An undertaker is in charge of moving a coffin from a home to the church. The home is on the 26th floor of a skyscraper; the stairs are narrow; the lift is small and prone to stop working. Chaos ensues.
Mr. H Is Late
1988
NRIn the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses The Prince and Princess of Wales. From the stage of the Victoria Palace Theatre stars from the world of entertainment bring you comedy and music.
Royal Variety Performance 1984
1984
5.6In this British comedy set in Saudi Arabia, a gentle British travel-agency clerk decides that it would be a smashing idea to open up a desert resort in Arabia. He heads to the desert and immediately finds himself on the bad side of a local sheik as the fellow tries to build his resort atop oil-rich land. A war erupts between rival desert bands as they vie for the rights to the oil, but it is the travel agent who wins out in the end
Sands of the Desert
1960
6.6Ernest Wright's peerless prowess as a locksmith comes to the attention of a tough big-time crook, who feels that the little man would be a valuable asset to his crime kingdom. In order to inveigle him into a series of jobs, he sets up a beautiful hostess as a trap, into which the hapless Ernest inevitably falls..!
The Cracksman
1963
7.4Classic short British comedy, full of stars, about two workmen delivering planks to a building site. This is done with music and a sort of "wordless dialogue" which consists of a few mumbled sounds to convey the appropriate emotion. TV remake of the 1967 short.
The Plank
1979
NRDocumentary profile of actor and comedian Charlie Drake. Drake had much to overcome - marital, financial and career troubles dogged him -but after reinventing himself as a straight actor, he won acclaim for his roles. At his home in south London, he recalls his highs and lows.
Charlie Drake: Drake's Progress
2001
What initially looked like a young woman's suicide, turns into a murder investigation and Supt. Blake has two suspects - the victim's husband and his own daughter.
The Golden Link
1954
5.6Percy Pointer's passion in life is the theatre, and all his spare time is devoted to the play he is writing. When it's finished it arrives on the desk of a London impresario, when he wants to stage a flop.
Mister Ten Per Cent
1967
7.3Several men from Wales travel to the Philippines on an arranged tour to meet Filipina women for romance and possible marriage. None of the women are the ideal Asiatic beauties the men imagined, but by the end of the tour, most of the Englishmen return with a new bride.
Filipina Dreamgirls
1991
6.6Stoker Charlie (the diminutive Drake) helps 150 Wrens under Superintendent Maxine Audley, who've hijacked a frigate, HMS 'Huntress', to prove they're the equal of their male counterparts.
Petticoat Pirates
1961
8.0During a game of golf between a police inspector and a vicar the inspector cheats by having a constable move his ball into favourable positions and the vicar's into hazardous ones. when the vicar discovers this he prays for divine intervention which turns the tables.
Rhubarb Rhubarb
1980
A behind the scenes look at the "Mucky" Panto, Sinderella Comes Again, with interviews from the cast and audience this video is a must see for anyone who has seen the show and wondered, just what goes on backstage?
Sinderella Comes Again - Backstage
2004
9.0A performance of Samuel Beckett's 'Endgame', a play in which nothing happens, once - unlike Beckett's first play 'Waiting for Godot' in which nothing happens twice. It is not a play about chess, in any explicit sense, but it does feature a lovable if curmudgeonly old man in a dustbin. Generally accepted to be Beckett's bleakest play - indeed after it's 1957 English debut at the Royal Court, the TLS's Olivier Todd quipped that it made Waiting for Godot look like "a cheerful operetta". However, Beckett himself described it as "the favourite of my plays." Although the programme was not broadcast until 1991 it was recorded in 1989 prior to Beckett's death and had his blessing. This production is particularly notable as it is first full-length television performance of the play.
Endgame
1989
10.0Compilation of classic British comedy moments
To See Such Fun
1977
An adventure story for children involving a professor's efforts to discover an a ntidote to some 'shrinking' pills, and the attempted theft of his formula by two crooks
Magic Powder
1974
An adventure story for children involving a professor's efforts to discover an antidote to some 'shrinking' pills, and the attempted theft of his formula by two crooks
Monster
1974
6.5Professor Popper develops a shrinking formula which he and a group of school kids take by accident, ending up trapped in his laboratory. But that's not the only problem that faces the professor and his friends.
Professor Popper's Problems
1974
An adventure story for children involving a professor's efforts to discover an antidote to some 'shrinking' pills, and the attempted theft of his formula by two crooks
Into the Unknown
1974
An adventure story for children involving a professor's efforts to discover an antidote to some 'shrinking' pills, and the attempted theft of his formula by two crooks
Follow That Skate
1974
An adventure story for children involving a professor's efforts to discover an antidote to some 'shrinking' pills, and the attempted theft of his formula by two crooks
Descent to Danger
1974