|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 27, 2014 11:29:02 GMT 12
Yes. He didn't want to catch mastiffs.  |
|
|
|
Post by mingwalton on Sept 23, 2014 1:32:05 GMT 12
Arnold's appearance on This is Your Life....1976
DEAD LINK REMOVED
|
|
Grace
U-Boat Captain
"My office is alive with pigeons!"
Posts: 69 
Karma:
Exalt | Smite
|
Post by Grace on Jan 10, 2015 9:43:02 GMT 12
what a gem! this has really made me smile.
|
|
|
|
Post by mingwalton on Jan 10, 2015 11:03:27 GMT 12
Yes, I enjoyed watching it too Grace. It's nice to see Arnold's life remembered there. Think Bill Pertwee's appearance is on his relevant thread also....
|
|
Grace
U-Boat Captain
"My office is alive with pigeons!"
Posts: 69
Karma:
Exalt | Smite
|
Post by Grace on Jan 12, 2015 9:35:45 GMT 12
ah i shall watch that next
|
|
|
|
Post by mingwalton on Jan 13, 2015 2:17:31 GMT 12
Comes up straight away on Youtube.....bill pertwee this is your life  |
|
jonnyb
Private
"See Mr Mainwaring, I'm not such a stupid boy after all."
Posts: 80 
Karma:
Exalt | Smite
|
Post by jonnyb on Aug 13, 2015 5:45:23 GMT 12
stephen68 I have noticed in a couple of episodes, notably The Desperate Drive Of Corporal Jones, The Godiva Affair and Wake Up Walmington that Godfrey when on the phone holds the phone well away from his ear, it actually looks as if the receiver is resting on Arnold's/Godfrey's cheek bone. Yes, but Charles Godfrey isn't very good at machines, remember.
|
|
|
|
Post by Andy Howells on Oct 11, 2015 9:10:33 GMT 12
 I was in a local book recycle shop today and noticed they had a lot of old script books for plays at the back of the shop, I don't know why, but it suddenly popped in my head do they have any by Arnold Ridley? I was pleasantly surprised and found these three! Has anyone else come across any of Arnold's other scripts on their travels? I now have six including The Ghost Train. I'm not sure how many of his plays are still performed around the world - I know The Ghost train still is, but are any of the others? |
|
|
|
Post by Andy Howells on Oct 11, 2015 9:14:26 GMT 12
|
|
|
|
Post by Andy Howells on Dec 27, 2015 1:48:26 GMT 12
|
|
|
|
Post by burnbank on Feb 6, 2016 3:07:55 GMT 12
Article on the BBC web page today.
Arnold Ridley
By Bethan Bell
BBC News
5 February 2016
From the section England
Arnold Ridley as a soldier and as an actor
Image caption
Arnold Ridley joined the Army in 1915 and went on to experience the horrors of trench warfare
As the film version of Dad's Army is released at cinemas across the country, BBC News looks at the life of Arnold Ridley, the only actor in the original television series to serve in both World War One and Two.
Unlike the character he played, the gentle medic Private Charles Godfrey, who was a conscientious objector in World War One, Ridley experienced hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches and was seriously injured by a German wielding a bayonet.
On Desert Island Discs in 1973, the playwright and actor described his first stint in the Army as "those dismal days" but added: "You know, memory is a strange thing. After a lapse of time, even the most miserable set of circumstances, roses seem to grow round them a little bit."
Roses, though, did not grow around his memories of World War Two, and while he could talk about his service in the first war, the "mental suffering" he experienced meant he would not speak of his time in the second.
He said: "To recount events, I would have to relive them. I am too afraid."
Michael Gambon and Arnold Ridley
Image caption
Michael Gambon plays Private Godfrey in the film version of Dad's Army, the role originally portrayed by Arnold Ridley
Born in Bath in 1896 and educated at Bristol University, Ridley made his acting debut in a production of Prunella at Bristol's Theatre Royal in 1913. But his stage career was put on hold with the advent of the Great War.
He had originally volunteered in 1914 at the age of 18, but was turned down as he had a broken toe sustained while playing rugby.
But the following year he was accepted by the Somerset Light Infantry and was stationed in Plymouth.
Arnold Ridley and Daisy RidleyImage copyright BBC/Reuters
Image caption
Arnold Ridley is the great-uncle of Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley, although he died eight years before she was born
Years later, in an interview with the BBC, he admitted to being horribly homesick, having to cope with a "sadistic" regimental sergeant major and facing the prospect he might never survive the horrors of trench warfare.
He said: "I thought I was doing my duty for my country. I didn't know I was going to be treated like a convict. Did it make better soldiers of the callow youths we were then? I doubt it."
Jump media player
Media player help
Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
Media captionThe cast of Dad's Army talk to Tim Masters
Private Ridley arrived in Arras in March 1916. He had removed his marksman's badge because he did not want to be made a sniper. He later commented: "I didn't go to France to murder people."
Within days of arriving he was hit in the back by shrapnel and shot through the thigh.
He had recovered by July 1916, and returned to the Western Front in time to take part in the Battle of the Somme.
Arnold Ridley as Pte Godfrey
Image caption
Godfrey had been a conscientious objector in World War One, unlike the actor who played the character
The 20-year-old Ridley went into no man's land on 18 August. Fifteen of the men in his group were killed or seriously injured soon after leaving the trenches, when a preliminary barrage was dropped on them instead of the German machine-gun posts.
During the attempt to reach Delville Wood, Ridley's battalion suffered nearly 50% casualties. He later pointed out: "It wasn't a question of 'if I get killed', it was merely a question of 'when I get killed'.
"The trenches were full of water and I can remember getting out of the trench and lying on the parapet with the bullets flying around, because sleep was such a necessity and death only meant sleep."
Dad's Army cast
Image caption
Private Godfrey was a gentle retired shop assistant who was the medic for Walmington-on-Sea's Home Front platoon
Arnold Ridley as Pte Godfrey
Image caption
Arnold Ridley's portrayal of Pte Godfrey was a far cry from his own wartime experiences
Although a German bayonet was thrust into his left hand, cutting the tendons to his fingers, he survived. Ridley said "It's not altogether a right thought for a young man to hope he's been maimed for life - but I did. I thought 'well, if I've lost my hand I shall live. They can't send me out there again'."
After recovering in England, he faced the British Army Travelling Medical Board. A doctor suggested his hand injury was self-inflicted.
Ridley said he replied: "Yes, sir. My battalion is famous for self-inflicted wounds and just to make sure I cracked my skull with a rifle butt as well and ran a bayonet into my groin."
He was discharged from the British army on 27 August 1917.
Later that year he was given a white feather (a symbol of cowardice) by a woman in the street. He took it without comment.
When he was asked why a returning soldier would be treated in such a way, he answered: "I wasn't wearing my soldier's discharge badge. I didn't want to advertise the fact that I was a wounded soldier and I used to carry it in my pocket."
Dad's Army cast
Image caption
Ridley would speak of his time in the trenches of World War One, but not of his experiences of World War Two
It can be seen as a foreshadow of the episode Dad's Army in which Godfrey is revealed to have been a conscientious objector in World War One.
The gentle medic has to face the wrath of the blustering and unsympathetic Captain Mainwaring - who derided him as a "conchie" - but it is later revealed that Godfrey had been a stretcher-bearer in the trenches, saved lives in the Somme and been awarded the Military Medal for exceptional bravery.
The time between the wars was an opportunity for Ridley to resume his career. In 1919 he joined the Repertory Theatre in Birmingham, appearing in more than 40 productions, and in 1923 he wrote the mystery thriller The Ghost Train, the most successful of his plays.
But they were not always good times - his wartime experiences led him to have nightmares. He said: "I would wake up drenched in sweat, sometimes I was afraid I would black out when I was on stage."
The outbreak of World War Two saw him join the British Expeditionary Force as an intelligence officer.
Dad's Army cast
Image caption
Ridley joined the Home Guard in real life after being invalided out of World War Two
Ridley, now a major, was sent to France in 1939. He later admitted: "Within hours of setting foot on the quay at Cherbourg in September 1939, I was suffering from acute shell shock again. It is quite possible that outwardly I showed little, if any, of it.
"It took the form of mental suffering that at best could be described as an inverted nightmare."
Ridley was evacuated from Dunkirk in May 1940 and, aged 44, was demobilised from the Army. He joined the Local Defence Volunteers - the organisation that later became the Home Guard - before touring bases entertaining the troops.
He appeared in numerous shows through the 1950s and 60s, including The Archers and Crossroads, until he was cast, aged 72, in Dad's Army in 1968. He played the role of Godfrey until the series finished in 1977.
Ridley married three times and had one child, Nicolas. He is also the great-uncle of Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley, although he died aged 88 in 1984 - eight years before she was born.
He was awarded the OBE in 1982 - but for services to drama, not his heroic exploits in two world wars.
|
|
|
|
Post by Col on Aug 6, 2016 4:53:19 GMT 12
A screen shot of Arnold in the Persuaders - just in case the video footage disappears at some point.  DEAD LINK REMOVED |
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 19, 2016 23:54:09 GMT 12
Arnold Ridley Desert Island Discs Roy Plomley's castaway is actor and playwright Arnold Ridley. Favourite track: Tannhäuser (Overture) by Richard Wagner Book: Bradshaw's Railway Timetable Luxury: Wine-making kit www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009n8fn#play |
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 20, 2016 23:56:55 GMT 12
 "Actor Arnold Ridley, well known for playing Private Godfrey in the television show 'Dad's Army', sitting in an armchair next to a young model as he samples a new range of fireside chairs designed for the elderly and disabled, September 23rd 1976." Looks like Arnold is trying his best not to look! |
|
|
|
Post by Andy Howells on Aug 23, 2016 18:38:47 GMT 12
LOL reminds me of a similar photo of Thora Hird posing on a stairlift with a Chippendale
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 23, 2016 18:41:48 GMT 12
|
|
|
|
Post by Andy Howells on Aug 31, 2018 11:53:34 GMT 12
The film adaptation of Arnold's play, The Ghost Train starring Arthur Askey played on Talking Pictures TV tonight. It gets a repeat on September 9. Sun-9-Sept at 1:10pm THE GHOST TRAIN (1941) comedy horror Starring Arthur Askey Richard Murdoch Kathleen Harrison Herbert Lomas Peter Murray Hill Raymond Huntley Carole Lynne Morland Graham After his hat flies out the window of a speeding train, passenger and music-hall performer Tommy Gander yanks the emergency brake, causing the train to stop and making the train late. The passengers are now stuck, unable to get a connecting train for hours. The stationmaster, Saul Hodgkin, wants them gone for mysterious reasons, so he tells them a scary story about a ghost train that passes through every night, hoping that will do the trick… Arguably Arthur Askey’s best film, The Ghost Train started life as a play penned by Arnold Ridley. Ridley, who these days is perhaps best known for his role as Private Godfrey in the series Dad’s Army, enjoyed a long and varied career as a writer, actor and director. www.facebook.com/TalkingPicturesTV |
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 31, 2018 15:20:45 GMT 12
It's a very entertaining movie.
|
|
|
|
Post by Andy Howells on Aug 31, 2018 20:02:07 GMT 12
I note some of the video links on this thread have died so I'm adding a new one for Arnold's This Is Your Life from 1976 Arnold's This Is Your Life has been documented for the Big Red Book website with an extract from Nicholas Ridley's book: www.bigredbook.info/arnold_ridley.html |
|
|
|
Post by Alan Hayes on Jan 8, 2019 11:39:05 GMT 12
Arnold Ridley Desert Island Discs Roy Plomley's castaway is actor and playwright Arnold Ridley. Favourite track: Tannhäuser (Overture) by Richard Wagner Book: Bradshaw's Railway Timetable Luxury: Wine-making kit www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009n8fn#playAlso available from the BBC to stream and/or download for free.
Well worth a listen!  |
|
