Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-Thomas

by Graham McCann

With his sly little moustache, broad gap-toothed grin, garish waistcoats and ostentatious cigarette holder, Terry-Thomas was known as an absolute bounder, both onscreen and off. Graham McCann's hugely entertaining biography celebrates the life and career of a very English rascal. Born in 1911 into an ordinary suburban family, Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens set about transforming himself at a very early age into a dandy and a gadabout. But he did not put the finishing touches to his persona until the mid-1950s with his groundbreaking TV comedy series How Do You View?, a forerunner of The Goon Show and Monty Python. Terry-Thomas went on to carve out a long and lucrative career in America, appearing on TV alongside Judy Garland, Bing Crosby and Lucille Ball, and in Hollywood movies with Jack Lemmon, Rock Hudson and Doris Day. He became every American's idea of a mischievous English gent. After a long battle with Parkinson's disease, he died in 1990 in comparative obscurity, but his influence lives on. Basil Brush was a polyester tribute to Terry-Thomas, and comedians including Vic Reeves and Paul Whitehouse hail T-T as a role model. 'Dandyism is the product of a bored society, ' D'Aurevilly observed. Terry-Thomas cocked a snook at the dull sobriety of post-war Britain with his sly humour. As he would say 'Good show!'

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

399 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Sean Peters (A Good Thriller) · Rating 4 out of 5]

To me Terry Thomas was a British Institute, a great part of Cinema history as the real Cad, Bounder, posh English Gentleman who acted in some great classic British Comedies and added some great British humour to some American films.

Graham McCann has given in this book a deep, well researched, detailed, honest story of a hardworking person , who from a young age knew what he wanted, to be A British Icon.

This biography is a sensitive and at times deeply moving account of a man who, by sheer hard work, invents his own larger-than-life persona, and produced a body of work that will more than stand the test of time and laughter for many a year.

The strongest part of the book to me is the later years of his life from 1969 onwards, his learning of suffering Parkinson's Disease, this must have been so difficult to a man who loved working, enjoying making people laugh, appearing live on television, sadly his body slowly giving up on him as he fought so hard to keep working and enjoy life to the full, which he so much enjoyed, especially when he was with his family, parties, water- skiing, playing tennis.

To see the man the last few years of his life is heartbreaking. A great book

Great information at the end as well.

I also have by the same author Cary Grant, which has just climbed up my to read list now!

[Alex Sarll]

Perhaps recognising that, while Terry-Thomas was one of the great screen Englishmen, he doesn't have much of a personality cult these days, this is very much the 'don't bore us, get to the chorus' school of biography. Our protagonist has made his first screen appearances well before the first chapter ends on page 29 (though we still feel we've seen sufficient of his brief and perfunctory attempts at other trades, all of which he seems, quite correctly, to have treated as opportunities to see how much he could get away with). Then he's in the military for all of two pages before Stars in Battledress provides an easy way out of any actual soldiering (and another fillip to his career), and makes a big splash in variety before How Do You View? pretty much invents TV comedy (including spoofing other shows and breaking the fourth wall). At which point McCann slows down, quite legitimately, because it's his contention that T-T was one of the first to realise that the new medium really was new, not a small film or a filmed theatre. It's not terrain I know well myself, but given McCann has written so widely on British TV comedy I incline to trust him in his assertions that Terry-Thomas was not only responsible for the first dedicated comedy show on UK TV, but used it to break the fourth wall and generally play silly buggers in ways that would still be hailed as madly innovative when everyone from Gurney Slade to Monty Python and beyond did much the same years or decades later. True, the partiality of emphasis isn't always in line with my own tastes - you'll get a couple of pages on one small cameo role McCann thinks significant, then the fascinating Danger: Diabolik relegated to a mere entry in a list of foreign work, for instance - but better by far this sort of approach than the kind of biographer who ploughs doggedly through, devoting X pages to each year or project regardless of interest therein. Not that he's skimped on the spadework, mind - there are 100+ pages of notes, filmography &c at the back. Some of the life is very much what you'd expect from the work; Terry-Thomas getting into various amorous (mis)adventures largely regardless of whether he's married at the time; having his jewelled cigarette holder stolen by an oik (who turns out to be the young Jimmy Tarbuck); being peripherally connected to the Jeremy Thorpe affair, yet somehow sliding out of ever being mentioned regarding it at the time. The imperial phase comes once he's built his beloved villa in Ibiza (based on a model in bread. Obviously) and is palling around with Nico, Terence Stamp, Olivier, Jon Pertwee, and Diana Rigg - the last of whom had an obliging tendency to wander around naked, to which Terry-Thomas felt absolutely no need to object. But in other matters, he turns out to be more conventional in his morality than the screen persona suggests. Sometimes this is good - despite his characters generally having an eye to the main chance, in person he opposed the "blighters" dodging tax. Sometimes less so, as when he sued Private Eye over a fairly innocuous dig at himself. His fastidiousness - changing his specially made underpants thrice daily, among other things - reminded me of another self-made stereotype of similar vintage, Kenneth Williams. But T-T certainly had the sense not to let it get in the way of shagging and general fun in anything like the same fashion. Alas, while biographies almost by definition end badly, it's precisely this attention to detail that makes T-T's end so especially ghastly - Parkinson's seems a particularly vindictive fate for someone so poised, and before long he's lost the villa and is trapped in a hideous woolen hat, a poky Barnes flat and a body gradually but surely snuffing out everything that made him him. I'm almost tempted to suggest skipping the final chapter, just like I always stop Butch Cassidy when things are still going well. Better to remember Terry-Thomas in his outrageous prime, "Ding dong!" and "Hell-o!"-ing all over the shop, the man who once told his second cousin Richard Briers "without any obvious sign of irony, to 'lose all of those rather frightful/i> vocal mannerisms'."

[Scott Arlow · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can honestly say that if I'd picked this up in a real bookshop, Id've flicked through the pages and put it back. The story itself is 190 pages, the last 130 pages are a list of every single appearance of T-T in theatre, radio, TV and movie. And I mean EVERY appearance. At one point, there's a half page dedicated to namechecking party guests
I found the writing style very bland. And for such a flamboyant character, I expected some anecdotes and insights.

[A W Main · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very illuminating biography.

My knowledge of Terry-Thomas barely scratched of the surface of his life. I was completely unaware of just how pioneering he was in so many ways.
I'm very glad I randomly took a chance on reading it.

It is however a rather short book with nearly half of it devoted to an exhaustive list of his theatre, television and film work.

[F.R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a whistle-stop tour of Terry-Thomas's life (we get through 78 years in less than 200 pages) and as such I'm not sure we really get to know the man. Yes, there are funny anecdotes and good stories and moments of drama, but the person who emerges just seems to be the character that T-T played constantly on screen.

It's one of the points made by the book that he was just like that off screen, but still there must have been moments where the mask slipped.

My criticism isn't directed at the author, it's just that sometimes there are ideas for biographies of famous people that sound great, but in the end, there's just not much that can be really written about them.

It's worth a quick dash through if you have an interest in Terry-Thomas, but I don't think it's one that's going to linger long in the mind.

[Mike Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this on the strength of having really enjoyed McCann's biography of John Le Mesurier.

A sad story, really. Terry-Thomas has long been a favourite of mine: he's up there with Alastair Sim, Tony Hancock, Arthur Lowe, but I have never taken the time to find out anything about him. This is a pretty comprehensive life story and it does him proud in terms of what he was like as a person and also what he wanted to achieve in his career. He was, apparently, just as funny off stage as on and seems to have been a decent chap: not so much a bounder really.

Ultimately Parkinson's disease took him although there's a nice quote from Richard Briers (his cousin) towards the end of the book: he went to see him in his nursing home at the stage where T-T was almost unable to react or even speak and he asked him if he'd like a glass of champagne. There was a very, very long silence and Briers thought there would be no response, but eventually he said "make it a crate". So he was still in there, the illness had just pushed him way, way back out of reach which seems to be the common experience.

A sad end, though, for someone so active, loud and dynamic.

[C Beard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fine narrative of one of the greatest of British comedy actors, from his early days in Finchley through fledgling television and a distinguished film career to an ultimately tragically appalling end.

[Sue Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting well written biography.

[Peter Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book after reading about his very sad illness and it was a joy to read about his life in TV and films, I hadn't realised his influence at the start of British TV and his comedic legacy.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good "reference text" on the life of Terry-Thomas, but it is somewhat lifeless as a book. Five minutes on YouTube will give you a much better flavour of the man as a performer and a raconteur. After all, he certainly enjoyed life and, as he says, "people expect a book about a comedian to be funny". This is an entertaining book but I wouldn't describe it as funny.

However, I learned a fair amount. I hadn't realised quite how big a star T-T was. I was familiar with his roles in things like "Those Magnificent Men..." and "How To Murder Your Wife" but I'd not been aware of how big a star of radio and television he had been before he got into Hollywood. It is also interesting to consider how different Hollywood is these days; he was a big star while still being a "character actor". Today all big stars fight tooth and nail against typecasting and character actors are seen merely as "also rans". But then he was really jolly good at what he did.

As other reviewers say, the book is a bit of a swizz (although mine came from the library). Two thirds of the way through you suddenly reach an exhaustive list of every show, film, radio programme, etc that T-T was in. Including complete cast lists. Then a ludicrously detailed list of references (though if you can be bothered this does contain a few amusing anecdotes). Effectively this pads out a 200 page text into what looks like a regular sized book. Given that T-T's career lasted over 50 years I'd have hoped for more entertainment and depth.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I read it. I enjoyed learning more about one of Britain's funniest ever actors probably more than I did the book itself, which was occasionally a little too 'surface' - probably because McCann has to rely so much on third party anecdotes. But T-T was and remains a true character and a genius, and was, as it turns out, a genuine innovator in the early days of British TV. His life appears to have been both joyous and poignant (especially his last years), and you certainly get that sense of a well-loved scoundrel which leaves you searching for his movies as soon as the book is done.

[Paul Pensom · Rating 3 out of 5]

A highly enjoyable read. TT really was a quite astonishing character: the literal definition of a 'self-made man', who created the persona an upper class dandy, and inhabited it, off-stage and on, for the rest of his life.

[Dennis Burchett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was somewhat disappointing. Whilst it gave some facts about T-T, it never really seemed to get into the man. It spent quite a bit of time on his sad ending, and the last half of the book just contained reference notes,a bibliography, an index and a listing of all his performances.

[Pete Hardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a hagiography than a biography. While interesting I don't find myself much better informed over his life, as there is plenty of page fillers, mainly of scripts, which out of context don't really add to the book. Still, for those interested in T-T it is a reasonable opening gambit.

[Alistair · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this and the way Thomas fell on hard times was truly sad.
Would have given this book more stars if it had more pages.