Brian Empringham recounts his time working with bitter rivals Jimmy Jewel and Hylda Baker as a sound boy for the BBC
In the late ’60s, I worked as a junior studio manager in the BBC’s radio drama department. I was a sound-effects boy.
Roger Delgado was often cast as the villain, like The Master in Dr Who. He told me that as the Demon King in a Palladium panto with Charlie Drake, he had to disappear through the stage trap in a puff of smoke in the middle of a sword fight. One day, the mechanism didn’t work. The smoke cleared and he could still be seen wielding his sword. They both realised that, very slowly, inch by inch, the trap was being lowered manually by stagehands.
They kept up the pretence of the swordfight, with Roger eventually so low below stage that only his sword could be seen poking up, while Charlie Drake got on his knees to keep the fight going until Roger completely disappeared.
I also worked with two great comedians, Hylda Baker (1905-86, pictured) and Jimmy Jewel (1909-95). This was on a radio version of a TV series called Nearest and Dearest. Nobody warned me the two of them loathed each other so much that they would talk to each other only when they had to, as characters.
A rehearsal seemed to be going well. The pair were standing next to each other at the mic and I stood opposite, ready with whatever sound effects were needed.
Suddenly, Jimmy Jewel stopped, looked at me and said, ‘Will you ask Miss Baker if she is really going to say that line like that?’
I had to address Hylda Baker and say, ‘Miss Baker, Mr Jewel would like to know if you’re really going to say that line like that.’
Only when I had said it did Miss Baker react as if she had been smacked in the mouth – not when she heard Jimmy Jewel say it. She exploded and said to me, ‘You can tell Mr Jewel that I will say that f**king line any f**king way I f**king want.’
I then turned to Jimmy Jewel and said, ‘Miss Baker asks me to tell you that she will say that f**king line any f**king way she f**king wants.’ Like her, he didn’t react at all when she said it, but went ballistic when I repeated it to him.
It was like working with children. How they ever produced good performances together remained a mystery to me.
