The Doctors Who's Who (4 page)

His first real praiseworthy role was in a movie called
Sabotage at Sea
(1942), where he played a villain under heavy make-up and moustache. This was a crucial role in his growth as an actor. Hartnell learned that you didn’t need much make-up to be a sinister character. A normal-looking man with an expressive face could appear just as cruel; something he demonstrated to enormous credit in
Brighton Rock
, five years later.

In 1943, Hartnell was approached by film producer Sir Carol Reed to play an army sergeant (Ned Fletcher) in the film
The Way Ahead
, alongside David Niven and a young John Laurie (later Frazer in
Dad’s Army
). Hartnell’s role was extremely tough and gritty. The film depicts a group of conscripts and how they deal with military life. It opens in 1939 with Chelsea Pensioners stating that if war was declared Britain would be in trouble because ‘young men can’t fight’. As the film was made in 1943, one could label
The Way Ahead
as a propaganda movie, with just enough flag-flying to show young
conscripted men that they were doing the right thing in going to war; but Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov’s script is better than that, with a down-and-dirty edge that far from glorifies war. Hartnell’s gung-ho sergeant, counterbalanced by David Niven’s over-privileged commanding officer, enhances the film further, with subtle interaction showing the divide between classes.

The Way Ahead
is a film that explains much about its time and is one of the highlights of Hartnell’s career. His character is a stern, no-nonsense regular soldier, not a conscript, who has to whip the new boys into shape, anticipating facets of roles to come (including
The Army Game
and
Carry On Sergeant
). Hartnell really made an impression in the film, with his hard, piercing stare and cast-iron personality.

His first scene is in itself a show of strength: heckled by a man at a railway station, he holds back, says nothing, but looks dangerous. As it turns out, the man becomes one of the sergeant’s conscripts; but Hartnell’s character never mentions it or shows any extra animosity towards him, which displays an impressive depth of character (and in complete contrast to a similar situation Clint Eastwood finds himself in during the movie
Heartbreak Ridge
).

The Way Ahead
is an accurate account of how the different walks of life came together in the barrack room during the Second World War; and how they were brought together as a credible unit by their screaming sergeant, something Hartnell does an awful lot of in the film. It showcases Hartnell in his prime: a robust young actor with a resonant voice and much stage presence. He works perfectly with David Niven, especially when Niven questions his discipline of the men, but perhaps that discipline was based on his own experiences 18 months previously during his army service. This strongly suggests that Hartnell was a better actor than a soldier but, in
a way, perhaps the tough army roles allowed him to cope with his wartime experiences; for research purposes, he visited a real-life army sergeant to model his role in the film – surely an uncomfortable experience.

The Way Ahead
was a big success and Hartnell became a popular actor, albeit now typecast as a tough straight man.

In 1947 he appeared in the movie
Escape
, starring Rex Harrison and Peggy Cummins. Hartnell took the main supporting role as hard-nosed police inspector Harris. Cyril Cusack (a man considered by Verity Lambert for the role of Doctor Who) took a part, along with future Doctor Who Patrick Troughton, who had his first-ever movie appearance in a small role as a shepherd called Jim.

Escape
isn’t one of Harrison’s finest roles – or more importantly, William Hartnell’s – and is only noteworthy today because of the inclusion of the first two Doctor Whos and a man offered the part of the Doctor before Hartnell.

It is probably fair to say that it was Hartnell’s unforgettable portrayal of super-cool gangster Dallow against Richard Attenborough’s Pinkie in
Brighton Rock
(1947) that truly typecast him. A powerful role in a popular film does tend to do this, and throughout the 1950s Hartnell resigned himself to playing the hard man or army sergeant, even though he wasn’t a tall or strongly built man.

Dallow was a dangerous character. His stern face, slightly gruff voice and probing eyes made a menacing presence on screen alongside Attenborough’s psychotic character, Pinkie. Both actors turn in commanding performances, but one does get the impression that Hartnell’s character is the boss. His sharp suits and cool exterior, set against the cavalier antics of Pinkie, certainly suggest authority.

Brighton Rock
is a strange film, based on Graham Greene’s
iconic novel of post-war gang fights in Brighton. Centring on the fact that a wife cannot be made to give evidence against her husband in court, it is typical of the quirky one-off movies Britain is famous for and has delivered successfully over the past 70 years.

Despite success in the movies, Hartnell’s love of the theatre continued. In 1950 he starred in
Seagulls over Sorrento
, with John Gregson, Nigel Stock, Bernard Lee and Ronald Shiner. Hartnell was Petty Officer Herbert in this nautical farce. The play tells the story of a group of volunteers in a disused wartime naval fortress, where secret peacetime radar experiments are going on. Although a comedy, yet again Hartnell played the straight, no-nonsense military officer, and audiences began to know what to expect from him when he came on stage.
Theatre World
said of the production, ‘…although the play has many serious moments (for all the men have their own reasons for volunteering), it is undoubtedly for its rich comedy that it has achieved such outstanding success.’

An interesting fact about
Seagulls over Sorrento
is that Hartnell started halfway down the bill, but after a while – and a few changes in personality – he found himself top of the bill. It was a role he stayed with and enjoyed for a quality run, and one that earned him the praise of actor and one time Doctor Who Peter Cushing, who wrote to him and eventually played in the production sometime after Hartnell.

Hartnell longed to do more comedic roles, but the typecasting had taken over completely. In 1951, he took a role as a recruitment sergeant in
The Magic Box
, a movie made to celebrate The Festival of Britain, which showcased many great British character actors. The film was a biopic of the life of dreamer and pioneering inventor William Friese-Greene and included talent such as Joyce Grenfell, Margaret Rutherford,
Joan Hickson, Thora Hird, Sid James, Richard Attenborough and even Laurence Olivier in a cameo role as a policeman.

One little-known fact about
The Magic Box
is that one of London’s most notorious gangsters, Ronnie Kray, made a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance as an extra. Along with a group of East End kids, Kray was selected as an extra, and is clearly seen for a split second. Albeit in his teens at the time, it was something the fame-seeking killer would dine out on throughout his life. He even managed to obtain a still of himself, in profile, from the film, which he placed in one of his autobiographies.

In 1953 the paths of two future Doctor Whos would cross again – in a more obvious way – in the movie
Will Any Gentlemen
…? Starring a bewildered George Cole and an impossibly young Joan Sims, the story centres around a mild-mannered bank clerk who becomes wayward after being hypnotised. Fast-talking Jon Pertwee tries to help out but only adds farce to the already chaotic situation. Then along comes Hartnell as the smart detective, the straight man to Pertwee’s clown, in a film that is both endearing and satisfying for any fan of the Doctor Whos, or for that matter, classic British comedy.

In a way, the hints of slapstick and farce are the rough edges that would be refined in great British comedies from that time onwards. The classics were just around the corner, such as
Two Way Stretch, School for Scoundrels
and
The Ladykillers
. Even George Cole would carve himself a piece of British comedy legend as Flash Harry in the
St Trinian’s
movies. Clearly there were great comedy films before then, such as those featuring Will Hay and his sidekicks, but they were few and far between until the 1950s.

Hartnell did return to more mainstream comedy, albeit as an army sergeant yet again, in the TV comedy series
The Army Game
(1957–58, 1960–61) and the first
Carry On
film,
Carry On Sergeant
(1958); itself a pastiche of
The Army Game
(and with parallels to
The Way Ahead
). He was really creating for himself the niche role of over-serious officer with a bunch of dead-enders to sort out; and the laughs in
Carry On Sergeant
would once more be generated not by him but by the dead-enders. However, the film’s pathos emanates from Hartnell’s character. Late in their training, the platoon realise that their lenient sergeant is leaving the Army with them, his trainees, bottom of the heap. Realising that he’s not a bad man, or as tough on them as he could be, they change their ways and make him the winning platoon sergeant for the first and last time in his career. The end scene is one of recognition and fulfilment, which made the very first
Carry On
a great ‘feel-good’ movie and the sound basis for future
Carry Ons
to build upon, with outstanding performances from Kenneth Connor, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey, who would all become familiar
Carry On
regulars.

Meanwhile, the tough roles continued for Hartnell. In 1957, he appeared as Cartley, the bespectacled, hard-nosed manager of Hawlett Trucking in
Hell Drivers
, another great British movie and one that highlighted excellent young talent, such as future James Bond Sean Connery, Stanley Baker, Gordon Jackson, David McCallum, Herbert Lom, Sid James and Patrick McGoohan in one of his finest roles.

An interesting aside here is the fact that Sean Connery’s career was given a boost by Jacqueline Hill; she married director Alvin Rakoff, but not before recommending Connery for the starring role in the TV drama
Requiem for a Heavyweight
. Hill felt that Connery’s rugged good looks would make the programme popular with female viewers. It was to be Connery’s first starring role, and the production would also
feature Warren Mitchell and Michael Caine (the latter in a smaller cameo role). From there Connery’s career took off.

Hell Drivers
opens with Stanley Baker’s character – Tom – approaching Cartley for a job. Cartley is quick to lay down the law, which Tom, with no other option open to him as an excon, accepts without question.

The Hell Drivers are the fastest road-haulage carriers around, and the faster they go, the more money they make. There is much fighting and competition between them, causing high tensions, but no one of importance cares. These men are outcasts with nothing to lose; they are ostracised by the locals and even by their own families, but for some of them, there is a crumb of pride – there is friendship. When Tom learns of a shady deal between Cartley and his reckless foreman (McGoohan), the plot quickens in pace towards a fatal accident, which leaves Tom crying out for revenge against the money men who have exploited him and his friends.

Hell Drivers
is a passionate film, with quality input from McGoohan and McCallum – with their seldom-heard Scottish accents – but Connery, Baker, James and Lom are all excellent too, as are the female leads: Peggy Cummins, Jill Ireland and Marjorie Rhodes.

Although Hartnell appears only at the beginning and the end of the film, his hard-man presence as the company boss is felt throughout, making
Hell Drivers
a milestone in his career, as well as a classic, gritty and tough British movie. Something of a forgotten gem nowadays, it’s certainly a film that a typical teenage boy would find of interest, with macho themes throughout it.

Amidst the hard stuff, Hartnell did have a couple of comedy roles though. In 1959, he played alongside Peter Sellers in
The Mouse That Roared
, and he worked with Sellers again in the
Boulting Brothers’ comedy
Heavens Above!
(1963), albeit as Major Fowler (back to typecasting?).

In 1963, Hartnell broke the typecasting mould and gave one of his very best screen performances as talent scout ‘Dad’ Johnson in
This Sporting Life
. The movie starred Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts, both of whom were nominated for Oscars (Roberts eventually picking up a BAFTA).

The screenplay was written by David Storey, based on his own novel and, from the moment the eerie Jerry Goldsmith-type opening music starts (composed by Roberto Gerhard), it is clear that this film is very different.

Roberts’s character is a bitter woman who is indifferent to miner Frank Machin and his hard ways. Machin is a talented rugby player, who the kind, gentle and modest ‘Dad’ takes under his wing to get into big-time rugby. He succeeds and, once he accomplishes this, quietly moves on.

This Sporting Life
had some great cameo roles in it, such as those of Arthur Lowe and Leonard Rossiter (Slomer and Phillips, respectively), which enhances the enjoyment by lightening the often depressing storyline. In that respect the film is very much of its day, depicting the tough working classes and their day-to-day plight. It echoes Alan Sillitoe’s
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
and the BBC’s
Cathy Come Home
in its unrelenting kitchen-sink realism.

This Sporting Life
was instrumental in Hartnell becoming Doctor Who. The show’s producer, Verity Lambert, went to see the movie (released in January 1963) and was struck by Hartnell’s interpretation of the part. His gentleness and life experience is a perfect counterbalance to Richard Harris’s unthinking bullishness, something that greatly impressed Lambert.