Smasher!: The Life of Sid James

by Robert Ross

Everyone thinks they know Sid James – the Carry On star and womaniser, who drank himself to death after the end of his affair with Barbara Windsor – but despite hundreds of scandalous newspaper exposés the real story of this complex actor has never been told.

Now, this fascinating biography lays bare the life of British entertainment’s most lovable rogue. Featuring never-before-published correspondence with Sid’s friends, family and colleagues, and exclusive tales from his inner circle, Robert Ross shows how a Jewish boy from South Africa grew up to become the archetypal wise-cracking cockney, and explores the many facets of a man who was variously a war hero, serial seducer, inveterate gambler and comic icon.

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2012

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Robert Ross wears many different hats: consultant, researcher, writer and audio commentary moderator, working for television and radio.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read which shows the breadth of work of Sidney James from early dramatic performance to his later runs in comedy fair and of course the carry on movies.
There's little doubt that the author is a fan as at times the book can be gushing in regard reminiscences of Sid whereas Kenneth Williams diaries (which in fairness where maybe never really meant for publication) presented a less loveable character.
in fact there's not a bad word to be said about Sid here and although that's great as I didn't really want to read a book that berated him from start to finish I do feel we only get one side of the story in this book....no one is all good.
Still all told this was informative and fun.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light, affectionate read about the man who made playing Jack the Lad into an art form.

James was born in South Africa (the Cockney accent was acquired) and once worked as a hairdresser. He seems to have genuinely preferred playing smaller parts, and disliked star billing - too much like time away from the pub and the racetrack.

Kyak kyak kyak.

[Stuart Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many are familiar with the old adage that you shouldn't judge a book by the cover. This tome is proof that you shouldn't judge it by the title either. Smasher! suggests a real knockout effort, a feast of fun and frolics.

Unfortunately what you actually get is a rambling and poorly edited biography. For some reason the author jumps from place to place chronologically, for example in the middle of the book he chooses to recall scenes from James' early life, a curious decision as the book does not seem to gain anything from this approach. It is also suprising that Ross took James' anecdotes of his many different jobs at face value - the diamond trade one was particularly hard to believe and there is no corroboration from other sources provided.

On the positive side it was fairly well researched and you get a lot of quotes from people who knew the subject which leave you with a good idea as to what he was actually like. It seemed a little one sided however to only quote positive views. Kenneth Williams hated Sid James for example, and whilst this could be considered to reveal more about Williams than James it leaves the book as somewhat 2-dimensional by ignoring this in the text.

To sum up, an adequate effort, but overly repetitive and not particularly well organised.

[Tom Cöle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't waste your time. Crikey me, you can practically hear the scissors and smell the Pritt Stick while leafing through this hack-job cut 'n' paste waste of space.

All this "biography" really is is a meandering canter through Sid James's film and TV credits accompanied by quotes ripped out of the tabloids and listings magazines of the '50s, '60s and '70s. It's like reading an extended series of Wikipedia plot synopses. And it's so unerringly one-sided. Whenever there's a whiff of scandal, the author shoves in a sympathetic quote to reassure us that Sid really was a "diamond geezer" and everything was hunky-dory. Gambling addiction? Depression? Infidelity? Nah! Far beyond the scope of this author's ambitions.

The author also has this utterly puke-inducing habit of padding out every chapter with monotonous asides to the reader. This sort of thing - "of course Sid loved the birds and had a bit of a flutter - but that was just Sid being Sid!" (You'll also loathe this book if you don't like exclamation marks.)

You will get nothing from this - no psychological insight, no new information, not even an attempt to demonstrate any original biographical research. You would do as well opening IMDB and wading through Sid's credits there.

I finished this book last night while taking the tube home. I tried to give it away to the man behind the counter in my local Subway. He didn't want it. I bumped into my landlord while coming into my flat. Offered him the book. Same reaction. If I were Sid James and relating those little anecdotes, it'd be about here I'd do my dirty laugh.