Arthur Haynes belongs to that age when music hall was finding itself upstaged by radio - with which it still managed to compete - and television. Using radio as a stepping-stone, several acts managed to make the transition to the little screen and the quantum-leap in publicity and popularity that it offered. Jimmy Jewel, Tommy Trinder, and Charlie Chester became just such household names. Catchy, easily remembered, friendly, funny and blokish; cheeky, even risqué, but nothing you'd be ashamed to let you mother or mother-in-law hear, usually after a drink or two. Arthur Haynes belonged to this tribe. He was straighter, less of a crowd-pleaser, more comedian than comic. He was up against the likes of Tony Hancock and Charlie Drake. Haynes had his moments, surviving into the 1960's, by which time the post-music-hall turns were a busted flush. But he was pretty one-dimensional. He was over-dependent on repartee which was never all that funny. Often he featured with a small Irish fall-guy whose name escapes me now. Once he was top-bill at the London Palladium. Still, it's no mean feat to have your own TV show, so he deserves a mention. I remember him more for being a dead-ringer for Da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa'. Seriously; check them out. Find a picture of Arthur, sketch a small moustache on a picture of the famous lady and compare. They're doppelgangers!
Review of The Arthur Haynes Show
