High Spirits

Joan Sims

Editions

Review

I really didn’t intend to read this memoir, but two of our customers – with wildly different tastes in reading – recommended it to me very strongly, and I was intrigued.

The actress Joan Sims is best known in Britain for her many appearances in the ‘Carry On’ films.  The daughter of an Essex stationmaster, she was determined to be an actress, and was accepted by RADA – and supported by the Essex Education Committee! – from which she graduated in the spring of 1950.

As for many young actors and actresses of that time, the next step was rep – weeks and months spent in digs in far-flung places around Britain, playing a variety of parts and coping with a variety of landladies…  For me, the anecdotes about life in rep are almost the best part of the book: vividly recounted, they capture an age which has long since gone (theatre in the provinces now often being something infinitely more dreary: either tours of West End ‘celebrity’ vehicles - spot the celebrity - or unspeakably bad political writing celebrating the authors’ moral superiority).  Miss Sims began to appear in films, and also in revue, and gradually began to make her name as a comedienne.  In the late 50’s, she was cast in a new film at Pinewood, called ‘Carry On, Sergeant’.

In The Kenneth Williams Diaries pbk £14.99, Williams makes many references to Joan Sims – here she tells the story of his marriage proposal to her (she refused gently but firmly) and in general is a great deal more generous about all of her fellow performers than was the acerbic Mr Williams.  It’s my impression, however, that Barbara Windsor might well not be on Joan’s Christmas card list…

The recent past has been more difficult – with a series of falls, and problems with depression and drink, but the author is clearly determined not to dwell on these subjects, and looks forward to future acting opportunities.  This is a surprisingly entertaining book, featuring a host of names from British post-war comedy. - review by Dan Fenton

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