Although best known for playing Doctor Who companion Jamie McCrimmon in the late 1960s, and Emmerdale's A Joe Sugden from 1972-94, Frazer Hines has been entertaining audiences since the early 50s.
"We were living in Harrogate and I used to go to the Marjorie Newbury School of Dancing" recalls the Horsforthborn actor. "I was seven years old and I had to do an impression of Maurice Chevalier singing Louise. We weren't a rich family, so my mother got this potato sacking, made a suit and dyed it white. I can't stand anything itchy on my knees, I could never have been in the army, so when I got to the tap dance, my legs were a little stiff.
"The local newspaper said: 'Seven-year-old stops show. He even had the Maurice Chevalier Walk?
"Somebody at Corona Stage School, how they saw it, I don't know, rang my mother and said: 'We'd like Frazer to join us? My mother said: 'He's too young, we'll wait until he's 10? And when I was 10 years old, my mother rang Corona, spoke to the principal Rona Knight, a lovely lady, and I went to Corona.
"I always say that it was a very good year to be there, because there was Richard O'Sullivan, Dennis Waterman, Susan George, Jeremy Bulloch and Francesca Annis.
"Corona was good because you got the three Rs in the morning, and then in the afternoon, whatever house you were in you got play reading, ballet and tap, we learnt everything. The teachers were all excellent, although all of us boys hated ballet"
Shortly after joining Corona, Frazer appeared in his first film, as an extra in the crowd in John & Julie, a comedy set in the week leading up to the Queen's coronation, which was recently shown on Talking Pictures TV as part of the channel's platinum jubilee celebrations.
"I was the 480th citizen," he jokes, "in fact, I recorded it to freeze-frame to try and spot my school cap."
Bu hikaye Best of British dergisinin August 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Best of British dergisinin August 2022 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
THE FEW ON SCREEN
Steven Taylor looks at the Battle of Britain across film and TV
Table Service
Rachel Toy looks at the history of Ridgway Homemaker tableware
Hever Forever
Claire Saul studies the newly refurbished Boleyn Apartment at Hever Castle & Gardens - a castle fit for a queen
Shining a Light
Tony O’Neil tunes into the history of the last manned lightvessel
The Man With the Goldeneye
Film stills photographer Keith Hamshere describes how he came to enter the world of James Bond
THE ORIGINAL GOLDEN BALLS
lan Wheeler looks back on 70 years of Tiger comic and Roy of the Rovers, and chats to the man who edited and oversaw both titles
To Play the Queen
Chris Hallam looks back on the life of one of the UK’s best known lookalikes
POOLING RESOURCES
Martin Handley looks at what life was like after the Vernons Girls
POSTCARD FROM= SUSSEX
Bob Barton indulges in pleasure piers and fairground delights, as well as fulfilling a long-held ambition to visit the home of Rudyard Kipling
Oh, Miss Jones
Chris Hallam looks back at the origins and legacy of Rising Damp, ITV's most successful sitcom