Terry-Thomas - 1976
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- čas přidán 25. 08. 2024
- Terry-Thomas had just made the film Spanish Fly when we recorded this interview with him in 1976. You can see that even then he was not a well person. In fact it was rather sad to see someone you had known through so many films looking old and frail. We had to arrange for some electric heaters (in addition to the lighting) to help keep him warm. The tea he had in front of him had something added to give it a kick.
Sadly, this is an edited version of the original video, this is due to copyright claims from StudioCanal and Billion Dollar Boy, even though all clips were supplied 100% legally and from the relevant film companies for specific use in this interview when it was recorded in 1976!
The interviewer is Mark Caldwell.
See a promo for the film SPANISH FLY:
• "Spanish Fly" - Releas...
I worked with terry Thomas on 'the magnificient Men...',carried him up the beach when he unloaded his plane from a boat to give the impression he had flown the channel. I was as a french villager who thought he was a hero and carried him off on their shoulders.
This was filmed at Camber Sands, I was a very young man. Took 3 of us to lift him up the dunes. So sad to learn of his long illness and demise. The most honourable devotion and and care he had from his wife is so admirable. My wife of 33 years abandoned me when I became disabled.
Terry was truly a Magnificient Man,
and his Lady a truly Magnificient Woman
RIP
Hear hear. Sorry that you wife was so callous. Hope you're in good health in these days. I watched Spanish Fly yesterday. For the probable low budget, it was well made. The actors do their best with the thin material, but the pacing is good. The models/ actresses that play the models in the movie are up for giving their all. Sad to read that the lead model, Natiuska, has been a resident at a mental institution near Madrid for many years, suffering from schizophrenia
Oh that is really low. My heart goes out to you. Be good to yourself. I wish you peace in everyway my good man.
Great that you've commented on this and wish you the best. You are a little part of film history which must be wonderful.
Wow! What a great story…you were so lucky👍👍
The guy had more charisma and witt in a 20 minute interview, than all of Hollywood in a lifetime. What a class act.
Nigel 900 Absolutely!
So true.....
I like the cut of your jib Sir, respect...!
What an Absolute STAR!!! ❤ Just as Brilliant in real life as he always was when he played such memorable characters to perfection!!! 😹😹😹
I loved Terry Thomas!! He was a wonderful actor, d.
I laughed at him, (and Peter Sellers), until I could hardly breathe. I am 81 years old, and still Terry Thomas is a clear vision in my memories, and I still smile, and/or laugh every time. I am old now, however, I will never forget you Sir, and the wonderful enjoyment you gave to so many, and always gav to me.
TT.......Absolute bloody legend, and I will make sure that if I have children they will see his films. Loved him to bits
Me too chaps...
Me too.
@starchildstrider Make sure they get to see Tom Thumb. Absolutely hilarious 😂
Good show 👍
Terry Thomas was instrumental in getting me to watch a lot of English movies whether they be action, comedy or drama! He was a class act!
What a gent! He is really carrying the interviewer despite the encroaching horror of Parkinson.
Love this incredible actor. Terry Thomas was just brilliant in every movie.
A wonderful legendary British actor. You can see the development of Parkinsons in this interview and it's tragic how his life ended. He deserved better.
An absolute delight to watch! TT was plainly some way down the road with Parkinsons here (it was diagnosed in 1971), but still manages to be very funny, witty, quick witted
mentally agile and utterly delightful. God love him; he was a wonderfully funny comic actor who brought so much laughter to so many, and by so many accounts was a thoroughly nice fellow.
toff358 Here Here.
toff358 His end was most tragic, heartbreaking. Worst of all, you can see it here on CZcams. So v. sad.
Terry Thomas was one of those actors who everyone seemed to love.........he played English cads so well, and who can forget his famous phrases, such as "you an absolute shower", or "hard cheese"..............:)
scrmepal He was grand in MAKE MINE MINK.
Generous of spirit and a warm temperament made Terry wonderful company.
God bless you Terry - missed terribly
"You're an absolute shower" a wonderful comedian, so sad to see him at the end he deserved better.
Interesting insight that he viewed many of his characters as middle class desperately trying to be upper class. Lovely man and a comedy legend.
Just popped up on my you tube - I remember this day down in Battersea - the studio was bloody cold (and so was TT) which is why we gave him a cup of tea!
Hi Rob!!!! Yes indeed it was really cold and if you might recall we put an electric heater off to one side. It can be seen in still photos taken at the time. But that tea had something added into it by T-T!! Good memories eh?
" Absolute shaaah!" Gap in the teeth, cigarette holder, utter legend!
What a bloody good fellow he was, an Era of British class long gone
Growing up as a kid in the 50’s our lives were awash in a sea of great comedians and he was one of the best. Great times sorely missed…..
dear terry Thomas gave us such laughter a brilliant actor sadly missed 😢
I wish he knew just how long lived his legacy will be, and how revered after all these years.
What a fantastic Englishman, just looking at all the comments 😁 you can see how much we all loved and identifyed with him.
Got the onset of the allfull slow robbing disease 😢🆘🇬🇧
Seeing this , reminds me how much he's missed still🙏💯🎬
Sleep well ol'chap🙏✌️🤩😍🕊️🕊️
What an absolute legend - one of the absolute greats. Allegedly a really genuine and nice man as well - treated poorly by his family when he fell ill - shame on them
When I met him for this 1976 recording, he was indeed a real gent !
Is that so? I just finished his biography, apparently his wife looked after him until she had a nervous breakdown and his sons tried to make money to pay for his treatment. I hadn't heard that he had been treated badly by them. Sorry to hear it if so.
@@Sir_Gerald_Nosehairs. czcams.com/video/gK-grftnOpU/video.html
sad to say it is/was true
@@ColinGrimshaw How wonderful thank you for posting this and replying
Terry Thomas...wonderful as always and responding with good will and patience. The interviewer...perfectly awful. Knows very well that an actor is not going to want to talk about being "type cast" and performing the same role repeatedly, and yet he pushes through with one question after another about "type casting". He's an absolute creep. Lacks the talent for bringing out the best from the person being interviewed, and so resorts to trying to corner an actor into defending his entire career. However, this is the truth which emerges: we all remember Terry Thomas, as a versatile and highly enjoyable performer. Who remembers this interviewer? His close relatives...maybe.
Well said👏👏👏
Basil Brush was the puppet, identical twin of the great Terry Thomas. Both loved and adored by the British public.
BOOM BOOM
Thomas's greatest skill was to play broadly similar caddish characters, but with superbly observed subtle differences. A true craftsman.
He is the quintessential RAF Spitfire pilot....white scarf and stiff upper lip. I've just ordered "Those Magnificent Men...." An extraordinary persona...but in reality he was just a common Londoner...the accent was contrived. TT has entered the British Psyche and remains the quintessential English gentleman and also cad. So funny, and always entirely watchable.
Terry-Thomas played a cad but his loyal wife nursed him during his last day.,
It was criminal how he died in complete poverty. Spent his fortune on treatment that didn't work. His wife was with him when he was top of the world, and when he was in total despair. They don't make them like that anymore.
The interviewer was okay, he let T-T do his stuff without interjecting any of the cod psychology so rampant now, and had actually seen the films, which again is a novelty. As is the fact he got more than 5 minutes to tell his story. Terrible way to go, but Terry-Thomas comes across as a genuinely nice and extremely funny chap.
Absolute legend and a true gentleman we will never see his like sadly again 🙂
Thanks for making this available to us. 69 now & grew up watching Terry Thomas. The geezer was & still is a one - off World Class source of entertainment. R.I.P. Terry Thomas. From me & my late wife Maureen.
Terry Thomas was a legend. I’m a fan of many of his films, but I thought he was especially delightful in Make Mine Mink.
A Legend ! gord bless ya !
RIP. A legend of the screen.
A wonderful guy who had such a dreadful demise. Thankfully he had a loving devoted wife.
Thank you so much for uploading this. What a wonderful man.
My pleasure!
T T the epitome of a 40’s-50’s cad,blunder,and an absolute rotter,fond memories and a wonderful accent from that time
I absolutely love T T, totally unique man. He played many great characters. I Iove every film he was in. Thank you for all the laughs Terry. 👍😂😂😂🇬🇧
WOW WOW WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
What a wonderful actor & a great person.
From a mad keen 76yo Aussie fan.
"You really are a shower ... An absolute shower !"
Terry Thomas has quite the elderly Englishman sort of a John Cleese vibe I get from him which I like and it’s showing how he is totally different talking in an interview and he changes his personality from acting to being himself and yet he always has comedy with him and he’s like John Cleese as basil fawlty in a comical way too.
And he also has played old cads and horrible old baggy characters but in real life I love how he isn’t like that all and how he changed his acting to being himself really easily too.
And he’s so entertaining too.
I love Terry-Thomas can watch and listen to this great man for hours 😊
Interview Heaven Thanks again for sharing this gem
Now Terry was a great character and a wonderful actor every film he nearly always stole the scene ...in it's a mad mad etc film he was really on top form and he was surrounded by lots of great actors comedians but he shone through in every scene ..I doubt if we will ever see the likes of him ever again....in my eyes he was number one ..brilliant and what a class act
He dominates that film,no mean feat.
@@dps8435 ...the car scenes with Milton Berle and Ethel Merman...are high art.Mr Berle trying not to laugh at Mr Thomas.That’s What makes life worth living.😂😂😂
Wonderful wonderful actor
The interviewer Mark Caldwell is one of the best and brightest I've ever seen.
I'll tell him that !
Pure comedic Genius.
Terry-Thomas was incredible. Loved him in everything he did. Too Many Crooks a particular favourite.
He just captivates you,so effortless,would love to have met him,I bet he had some great stories,a life well lived.
Well hello.....
Beautiful man... erudite and hilarious... charismatic.... played the most magnificent bastards ...fantastic man salute
He was great. Can’t think of anyone like him now.
I love Terry Thomas voice, I wish he was still with us.
Thomas is a delight as always, but the interviewer tends to rush from question to question without letting the audience absorb and enjoy Terry’s answers. How I miss dear old T-T.
I certainly agree! I think that young interview was far too pushy and impatient when dealing with a gentleman of this quality.
Great actor! I'm so sorry to hear of his health problems
Such a wonderful man, loved him xx
the early symptoms are all there, but his trying to put a brave face on it. not surprised he looks old, he is about 66 here.
He was diagnosed 5 years before this, so of course the symptoms were there. You could even see them in a 1973 interview here on youtube. There is also a 1982 interview, where there's a sharp decline and the final one from 1989 where he's completely frozen and catatonic. Very sad.
True TT is no spring chicken and - the very sad disease aside - he's earned the right to look elderly! He's still very sharp witted and funny, a highly intelligent and charismatic man. How awful for him that he knew he had a disease that was in time going to diminish his physical and mental powers. An unutterably cruel blow for one so gifted.
What a guy truly magnificent as an actor and a beautiful man
He’s looking well here. He became terribly ill with Parkinson’s. A true “one off!” Lovely man.
Absolute shower Terry last interview when parkinsons had really got him was so sad the true English gent god bless KOR F
Nice to see Terry being a sport 👍
Cracking actor, wish he did more like Tom thumbs villainous scoundrel, it's gold 👌
That was incredible - what a gentleman he was! So funny, generous and eloquent all at the same time. Ran hilarious circles around that silly interviewer. I was a fan ever since I was a kid and saw him in old movies but didn’t really know who he was. You appreciate the nuances of pure talent more when you are older and more experienced yourself. I was sad when I found out him and his wife lived in poverty at the end of his life while he battled Parkinson’s disease, but was glad to also find out people rallied to raise money for him to receive proper care. I would have donated if I had known.
Thank you very much for saying this. I feel very touched by your appreciation of T-T, and I liked his work a lot, from my 1950s' boyhood onwards!
Never heard anyone say a bad word about him ....
apsirlutley a gentleman
The great Terry-Thomas, still as sharp as a tack here despite his failing health - he's running rings around that work-experience interviewer! Was this regional TV? A bit sad to see this actually, T-T was a legend, worthy of a skilled interviewer on the level of Michael Parkinson.
STOIC = Student Television Of Imperial College (London)
+glamdolly20 It was shown throughout London via the ILEA cable television network, which linked all schools and colleges in the London area.
So many nuances,a master of his craft with innuendo.
@@mbvideoselection I remember watching it in some common room at Imperial. The cold and the Parkinsons was much discussed. Great man.
Loved TT, ex R.A.F - still sporting the WWII issue mustache...
An old chum lived three doors away from the man in Queens Gate Place Mews, just round the back of the Natural History Museum.
He had a perfect 'bachelors flat' to which he'd bring the young fillies back....!
Absolute rotters...
Marvelous man, his words still fresh in my head. I wonder if any recordings exist of Terry doing piccadilly hayride or any radio / stage performances of his that we can somehow listen to ?
I love Terry-Thomas.❤
School for Scoundrels, awesome film.
What gentleman never put any one down. Full of culture.to share. And gentle man as well who intriviewed
Absolute genius.
The interviewer is so bloody serious. No sense of humour at all which makes TT’s life so difficult as he’s being frivolous and witty against a black hole.
But it makes for a GREAT opportunity... the perfect unintentional straight man.
Superbo...you might say.
Modest gentleman who could teach famous American comedians a thing or two about 'trying to be funny'. The more famous of them always do so, which makes them a bore rather than funny. Great to see how the interviewer can't stop laughing at what Mr T-Thomas says.
He did play similar roles, but he was superb at being a cad, swindler and con man. I hate to think the poor man died in such dreadful circumstances as he did, but his wife never gave up on him. Bless them bith. RIP Terry-Thomas, they don't make them like you any more.
Wonderful actor. Very sadly to you can see in this interview that Parkinson's has already taken hold. 4 -years after this interview the great man was unable to work.
A true Gent...... real class.....!
God bless his soul , done so much good for so many peopl❤
His book is a great read.
You can tell how much the illness had taken hold since shooting Spanish Fly and partaking in this interview.
That said, Terry was still hugely entertaining, dry and a bit surreal.
Most actors are chosen for a part based on their own character cos it makes the role believable, isn't that the idea ?
Actually i think he looks good considering.
His hands are not shaking and his voice is firm and he has vivid recall of the past.
Seeing him on the Thames program sitting slumped in a chair, with a blanket over his lap was very shocking and upsetting.
There is a transitional video on youtube from 1982, where he had declined a lot since this 1976 interview, but he even that's a stark contrast from the 1989 interview you're referring to where he's pretty much completely frozen/catatonic. Remember, he was diagnosed in 1971.
I watched that clip recently and it left me deflated,not how I want to remember him,such a hideous disease.
I first noticed Terry-Thomas in horror films as a small child before progressing to Monte Carlo or Bust then his classic early films like Too Many Crooks, I’m Alright Jack etc etc. I rewatched It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world recently and still great.
Terry-Thomas was the perfect irate boss in " I'm Alll Right, Jack" .
( Very funny film , Peter Sellers & co., reflecting the inverted snobbery of union - based power !).
Who can forget the wonderful way he used to say,
"Absolute SHOWER !"
😊💕🇬🇧⭐🇺🇲💕😊
Love the fact Terry lives in Ibiza
He DID, before he became too ill and returned to the UK, he later died of course.
Class act , liked a libation to wet his whiskers. 😂
There should be a biopic made of Thomas and his struggles with Parkinson's in later life. It would also help to illustrate the point that anyone can fall into poverty as he did and just how vicious the attacks on the welfare state became during the 80s (the effects of which can still be felt today).
Love Terry xxx
You can tell he wasn't well. What a sad and tragic decline.
Brilliant
Grande attore. Ha portato una pesante croce con la malattia.R.I.P.
The best of his generation.
Terry Thomas Hore-Stevens
+dashercronin To correct you it's Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens
He kind of reminds me of Peter Bowles too like the classical English actor style.
I'm sure Mark Caldwell's a lovely chap, but his interview technique here was poorer than most on your excellent channel. TT, great value as ever...
TT - class act.
The phrase "absolute shower " was, I remember correctly was what Terry-Thomas heard an officer say through an open window during his military days. He changed his accent to be the same as the officer too.
"Hallo . . . are you terribly well?. . . . . . you are?. . . . . . . . Good Show!"
Stupid asking him like he's anything like the characters he plays on screen, it's a bit like asking if the sky is blue, Terry was like sid James, they didn't really act, they just played themselves
Galaxy Tab So the answer was actually yes then!
😄
That is not entirely true as Sid James was an African and was acting the part of the Cockney Spiv bit.That made him as good as any actor could be.Terry Thomas,well need i say anymore.Two greats that you have mentioned Galaxy my old Tipper.
TT was pretty lower middle class played the toff pretty well. He was born in a fairly poor area of Finchley. They both played a character that was a great invention but didn't really have much to do with who they were.TT was a pretty smart guy and was nice, not the snide charmer he portrayed and depending on who you believe Sid James was a quite fairly shy man who loved his wife and his kids and whose only real vice was horse racing. He was far from 'crooked old Sid' from Hancock.
I say, good show!
Those intro sketches were like Pennywise had a film show..😂