Editing Charlie Drake (section)

==Career==
Drake made his first appearance on stage at the age of eight, and after leaving school toured [[working men's club]]s. After serving in the [[Royal Air Force]] during the [[Second World War]], Drake turned professional and made his television début in ''The Centre Show'' in 1953. He then joined his wartime comrade Jack Edwardes to form a [[double act]], named 'Mick and Montmorency'. In 1954 he appeared with [[Bob Monkhouse]] and [[Denis Goodwin]] in their [[BBC One|BBC Television Service]] sketch comedy show, ''Fast and Loose''.

He appeared in the television shows ''Laughter in Store'' (1957), ''[[Drake's Progress]]'' (1957–58), ''[[Charlie Drake (TV series)|Charlie Drake In…]]'' (1958 to 1960) and ''[[The Charlie Drake Show]]'' (1960 to 1961), being remembered for his opening [[catchphrase]] "Hello, my darlings!" The catchphrase came about because he was short, and so his eyes would often be naturally directly level with a lady's bosom. Because of this and because in his television work he preferred appearing with big-busted women, the catchphrase was born.

===Bookcase incident===
In 1961, the later series was brought to an abrupt end, however, by a serious accident which occurred during a live transmission. Drake had arranged for a [[bookcase]] to be set up in such a way that it would fall apart when he was pulled through it during a slapstick sketch.

It was later discovered that an overenthusiastic workman had "mended" the bookcase before the broadcast. The actors working with him, unaware of what had happened, proceeded with the rest of the sketch which required that they pick him up and throw him through an open window. Drake fractured his skull and was unconscious for three days. It would be two years before he returned to the screen.<ref>{{cite news |title=ATV bring in four new series |work=The Stage |page=9|date=3 October 1963 |access-date=5 June 2018 |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19631003/062/0009| via = [[British Newspaper Archive]]|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Comeback===
Drake returned to television in 1963 with ''The Charlie Drake Show'', a compilation of which won an award at the [[Rose d'Or|Montreux Festival]] in 1968. The centrepiece of this was an extended sketch featuring an orchestra performing the 1812 Overture, in which Drake appeared to play all the instruments; as well as conducting and one scene in which he was the player of a triangle waiting for his cue to play a single strike – which he subsequently missed.

Through the series he played a gymnast doing a single arm twist from a high ring while a commentator counted eventually into the thousands and by the end of the series, Drake's arm appeared to be {{convert|20|ft|0|abbr=on}} long. Other shows included ''[[Who Is Sylvia? (TV series)|Who Is Sylvia?]]'' (1967) and ''[[Slapstick and Old Lace]]'' (1971), but it was ''[[The Worker (TV series)|The Worker]]'' (1965 to 1970) that gained most acclaim.

Television fame led to four films, none of them successful{{citation needed|date=February 2018}} — ''[[Sands of the Desert]]'' (1960), ''[[Petticoat Pirates]]'' (1961), ''[[The Cracksman]]'' (1963) and ''[[Mister Ten Per Cent]]'' (1967).

He was the subject of ''[[This Is Your Life (British TV series)|This Is Your Life]]'' on two occasions, in December 1961 when he was surprised by [[Eamonn Andrews]] in a rehearsal room at the [[London Palladium]],{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}} and in November 1995, when [[Michael Aspel]] surprised him at the curtain call of the comedy play ''[[Funny Money (play)|Funny Money]]'' at the [[Playhouse Theatre]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

===''The Worker''===
In ''[[The Worker (TV series)|The Worker]]'' ([[Associated Television|ATV]]/[[ITV (TV network)|ITV]], 1965–70) he played a perpetually unemployed labourer who, in every episode, was dispatched to a new job by the ever-frustrated clerk (firstly Mr Whittaker in series one, played by [[Percy Herbert (actor)|Percy Herbert]], and from series two onwards Mr Pugh, played by [[Henry McGee]]) at the local [[labour exchange]]. All the jobs he embarked upon ended in disaster, sometimes with a burst of classic slapstick, sometimes with a bewildered Drake himself at the centre of incomprehensible actions by the people employing him. Bookending these sequences were the encounters between Drake and the labour exchange clerk. Running jokes included Drake's inability to manage the name of the clerk, with Mr Whittaker rendered as Mr Wicketer and then Mr Pugh variously mispronounced from a childish "Mi'er Poo" to "Peeyooo". Drake sang the theme song himself, using an old music hall number. The series was briefly revived by [[London Weekend Television]] in 1978 as a series of short sketches on ''[[Bruce Forsyth's Big Night]]'', with Drake and McGee reprising their roles.

=== Recording career ===
Drake made a number of records, most of them produced by [[George Martin]] for the [[Parlophone]] label.<ref name="NME Rock 'N' Roll Years">{{cite book
| first= John
| last= Tobler
| year= 1992
| title= NME Rock 'N' Roll Years
| edition= 1st
| publisher= Reed International Books Ltd 
| location= London
| page= 69
| id= CN 5585}}</ref> The first, "Splish Splash", a [[cover version]] of a [[rock and roll]] song originally recorded by [[Bobby Darin]], got into the [[Top 40|Top 10]] of the [[UK Singles Chart]], reaching number 7 in 1958.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">{{cite book
| first= David
| last= Roberts
| year= 2006
| title= British Hit Singles & Albums
| edition= 19th
| publisher= Guinness World Records Limited 
| location= London
| isbn= 1-904994-10-5
| page= 167}}</ref> In 1961, "[[My Boomerang Won't Come Back]]" became a mid-chart UK hit (No. 14) and an edited, more politically correct, version (with one word overdubbed) was a No 21 US hit, a follow-up to "[[Mr. Custer]]" (No. 12 UK charts).

In 1972 Drake recorded a spoof song called 'Puckwudgie' on Columbia records. It referred to a 2-or-3-foot-tall (0.61 or 0.91 m) being from the [[Wampanoag]] folklore. It reached number 47 in the BBC Top 50 in early 1972.

[[Peter Gabriel]], after leaving [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]] in late 1975, produced a single "You Never Know" for Drake (UK Charisma), with [[Sandy Denny]] on backing vocals and [[Phil Collins]] on drums. It was not a [[record chart|chart]] success.

===Later career===
Drake turned to straight acting in the 1980s, winning acclaim for his role as [[Touchstone (As You Like It)|Touchstone]] in [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[As You Like It]]'' (at the [[Ludlow]] Festival), and an award for his part in [[Harold Pinter]]'s ''[[The Caretaker (play)|The Caretaker]]'' at the [[Royal Exchange, Manchester]], along with [[Michael Angelis]]. Drake also starred as Smallweed in the BBC adaptation of ''[[Bleak House (1985 TV serial)|Bleak House]]'' (1985), and ''Filipina Dreamgirls'', a TV film for the BBC. His final appearances on stage were with [[Jim Davidson]] in ''Sinderella'', his adult adaptation of [[Cinderella]], as Baron Hard-on. A live recording of one of the dates on the tour of the pantomime was later adapted, and edited for video, and put out for sale nationwide.