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Would you like to pay a tribute to Leonard?
Send
us your stories and memories.
And photographs, if you have any.
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Horseytalk.net Special Interview
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“Leonard White and I worked in Toronto, Canada
for several years, both in theatre and in TV at the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation with Sydney Newman. Later, back
in the UK, Leonard White produced The Avengers, the first
40 episodes. He gave me my first job in that series and
I was part of The Avengers for eleven years after that!
I also worked with him in Armchair Theatre"
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“If ever Leonard White wanted me to appear in
an Armchair Theatre production I didn’t need to
read the script – I just said, Yes. He encouraged
me to be versatile, to try many different roles. The
first, Fay Weldon’s Poor Cherry – Ernie Gebler’s
Call Me Daddy ( for which we won the EMMY Award) – Robert
Holles’ The Wind in the Tall Paper Chimney
are just a few of the many plays I worked on with Len.
His encouragement for writers is yet another reason why
I am so grateful to him.”
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“Leonard is a friend of yours. It’s simple
for you to write a page about his colourful career.” Peter
Biddlecombe told me on the ‘phone.
“Simple?” I replied rather surprised.
“Yes. Could you do it by the end of this week?
I’d be most grateful.” And that was it.
I slowly put my ‘phone down and had a giggle.
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Peter had no idea the mammoth task he had loaded on
my shoulders.
It was like asking to write a complete history of Mont
Blanc on one page or cross the Atlantic in a rowing boat.
Here I would like to borrow an old saying. Behind every
successful man stands a woman.
This could be said of Leonard White. For some fifty years
he stood behind the most successful Television dramas.
As an actor he appeared in numerous films. Also in London
West End theatres, New York and Toronto.
His credits are limitless.
As an actor I have never worked with Leonard or took
part in any of his television or stage productions.
I met him a few years ago at BAFTA Club in Piccadilly
and he and his wife Margaret have been friends of mine
ever since.
Showbiz is like the changing colour of an octopus. The
appearance is deceiving: maybe because of insecurity
of the acting profession. I have had only a few real
friends in ‘showbiz’. I can count them easily
on one hand. Leonard White is one of them. He’s
more to me than a friend. He’s my mentor. He is
always there to give me advice and guidance especially
in my sprouting profession as a writer in my adopted
language. Not that I can say the same of some other friends
of mine. The late George Sanders for example. I knew
him well for a couple of years before he committed suicide.
At the time film companies were still anxious to have
his name lit up in lights in front of cinemas. Offers
floated in. The scripts he received he immediately removed
the relevant pages of his character and the rest was
destroyed. The reason for it was that I might read it
and discover there was a suitable part for me. The only
other true friend I had was Prince Esterhazy in Rome.
I’m very fortunate to have Leonard as a friend. Leonard
White is a legend.
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Leonard
White
- The unknown genius of British television drama. Look
him up in any reference book or even on the web. He hardly
gets a mention. Apart, of course, from his own book, Armchair
Theatre, The Lost Years.
- A living legend. Actor, director and producer. Arguably,
he made more television& dramas than anyone in history.
He should &be in the Guinness Book of Records. But
he isn’t.
- To most people of a certain age, he is the
man who put Honor Blackman in a tight-fitting black leather
suit for her role as Cathy Gale in the classic television
series, The Avengers.
And, he says, he owes
it all to horses.
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His father was a bookmaker and racehorse owner .
At four-years-old, he sat on his first racehorse.
“I screamed blue murder. My father immediately knew I was
not going to be a jockey,” he says.
At seven, he started going to the races with his father. Brighton.
Plumpton. Lewes. He still has a film he took of the last day’s
racing at Lewes before it closed. He even used to go to the race
course that used to be at Gatwick.
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“I used to help my father in the business. I used
to take telephone bets. I used to collect ready-money betting
slips for him. Those were the days, of course, before ready-money
betting became legal,” he says. At 14, Leonard bet
six-pence on a horse ridden by Freddie Fox in the Epsom “Oaks” at
33 – 1. It came in first.
“Horse-racing was my earliest environment,” he
says today, “although, I must admit, it didn’t
last long. But, come to think of it, I now wish we had got
Honor Blackman riding a horse in The Avengers. That would
have been good. Especially wearing
that black leather suit.”
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Leonard White – Many people say he was the White
in black and white television – was born in Brighton Road,
Newhaven, East Sussex. His father’s bookmaking business
was based in Bridge Street. His mother ran a wholesale newsagents
business.
“I was four-years old when I started my schooling at
the Newhaven Convent. It was run by French nuns. At seven I had
to leave and I went to the local Council School for Boys. There
I had this fantastic headmaster. He was an inspiration.
Most boys would leave at 14. I thought I was going to as well.
But the headmaster set up, what was unbelievable at the time,
a pre-6th form class in which he introduced a Company of all
boy Shakespeare Players.
“I didn’t want anything to do with it. The thought
of acting, of going on stage scared me stiff. I even got my mother
to write a note to the headmaster telling him that I did not
want to do it and asking that I be excused. He threw that note
into his waste paper basket and took no notice of it. He insisted
I do it. The worst thing of all was that for my first part I
was cast to play Lady Macbeth in the sleep-walking scene.
“The funny thing was that after doing
it – been made to do it – I did’t want to do
anything else but be an actor.”
Leonard left school at 16. His mother got him a job as a Customs-Entry
clerk with a French transport company based at the Port in Newhaven
. It specialised in transporting French fashion garments from
Paris to London.
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“My mother was afraid that I might end up getting
trapped working in the Bookie biz with my father ,” he
says.
“By now, however, my old headmaster had - With his
own money - bought an old Chapel in South Road, Newhaven,
which he re-named Shakespeare Hall. There he staged his productions
and established a Boys’ Club.
“I played Brutus (Julius Caesar). I played Antonio
and Portia (The Merchant of Venice) . I was still doing my
clerking job. For that I was getting up at 3.15 am to be
ready for the arrival of the Mail boat from Dieppe. Quickly
to work on all the H.M.Customs documentation. Anything -
Notably French fashion garments - that left Paris the night
before, were to be in Regent Street by the time that shops
opened next morning. I don’t think anyone could do
it faster today than we did then.”
Inspired by his old headmaster, Leonard was determined to
seek a career on the stage.
“I was 16-years-old. I saw an advert in The Stage
newspaper for a “Film Test” in Soho, the heart
of filmland. I was determined to take the test. My father
was dubious. He insisted on going with me. He was right.
The whole thing was a fraud.
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Inspired by his old headmaster, Leonard was determined to seek
a career on the stage.
“I was 16-years-old. I saw an advert in The Stage newspaper
for a “Film Test” in Soho, the heart of filmland.
I was determined to take the test. My father was dubious. He
insisted on going with me. He was right. The whole thing was
a fraud.
“ Undaunted, the next thing I heard about was the famous
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. They were awarding the Leverholme
Scholarship - the only Acting scholarship that was free for one
boy and one girl. I went for an audition. I was elated to be
recalled. I got to the last six finalists. I didn’t win
it. But I was offered a place for a fee. My parents didn’t
want to provide the money.
“Soon, I moved to London to be in true Theatreland. I
got a job in a shipping company in the City of London and saw
lots of top plays and players. I was looking for any opportunity
to train for the stage. Very fortunately I was able to join the Tavistock
Repertory Company at their little theatre in Bloomsbury.
It was a semi-professional group with a splendid reputation .
I went on as an extra for a particular production. But immediately
got my first speaking role on a London stage. It was an excellent
Off. Now I was in the race. I stayed several years and got to
play leads in many productions.”
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Then came the Second World War.
“I was in the Army – the PBI (the Poor Bloody
Infantry) for almost seven years. Starting at Brock Barracks
in Reading, the Royal Berkshire Regiment , I was early selected
to be an instructor in Signals. I tried to transfer to the
RAF when they badly needed recruits. I was mad on flying.
But the army wouldn’t let me go. Which probably saved
my life. Much later I found myself at the 160 OCTU, based
in Alton Towers, very unlike the funfair it became, training
Signals Officer cadets. Even later, I heard& that the
War Office was running a peculiar unit called The
Army Bureau of Current Affairs Play Unit. Some big names
in Theatre were involved. I applied for a transfer. I didn’t
get in the first Unit. They didn’t take A1s. But after
VE Day I did join them.
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“It was a remarkable team doing “Living Newspaper” type
plays created from within the group. Mildly propaganda with
political themes.
“Then I was demobbed. In no time at all I heard that
a director I had worked with at the Tavistock Little Theatre
was then the Manager of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre& at
Stratford-upon-Avon. After calling him, within a few days
I was rehearsing for the 1946 season in the production of
the Birthday Play – Cymbeline. A great break, joining
such a fine Company. “
From there, Leonard’s acting career soared higher
and higher. He played in most of the theatres throughout
the country. He starred in the West End. He acted alongside
all the now-legendary theatrical giants.
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Looking back today, he believes the pinnacle of his acting career
came when he played one of four soldiers in Christopher Fry’s
famous play, A Sleep of Prisoners, which was set in a bombed
out church during the last days of World War Two.
“After two-years or more with that play, it was a difficult
act to follow. I started to think of directing. My first chance
came from Peter Hall at the Oxford Playhouse. He took me on as
an actor but promised me that I could direct one play during
the season. Then suddenly he was appointed to run the Arts Theatre
in London and I was appointed director of the Oxford Playhouse
in his place.
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“Before this television had begun. I was directing
in theatre but getting acting roles in television. I was
thinking that I would like to direct in TV. Fate took an
important turn.
“I got an offer to direct and play my original role
in the Canadian premiere of Christopher Fry’s A Sleep
of Prisoners. So I went to Toronto. Patrick McNee was there
and I cast him in this new production. It was just as well
that I did because that led to him being in The Avengers
later. Also that Canadian adventure gave me the opportunity
to take part in the first television training course run
by CBC TV.”
And from that Leonard White was able to build his important
career.
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So if today Leonard White was producing and directing a
television series based on horse racing who would he
cast as:-
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Racehorse owner |
Brian Cox |
Racehorse trainer |
Martin Clunes |
Trainer’s wife |
Moira Redmond |
Head Groom |
Jason Durr |
Stable girl |
Kelly Reilly |
Bookmaker |
Julie Graham |
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“But that’s only dreaming, of course, and I
will likely have another dream tonight!” he says.
In fact, come to think of it, if Leonard White had to cast
somebody to play him in a film of his amazing life-story
who would he choose?
“Nobody,” he says rollicking with laughter as
he sat in his home in Newhaven over-looking the harbour. “No
actor would want to play me. As you indicated at the start,
I’m not a runner in that race. Certainly not in the
betting.”
Pity, though, about Honor
Blackman and the horse.
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