Our purveyor of comedic songs today comes from an unlikely source. Bernard Bresslaw was an English actor. He is best known as a member of the Carry On film franchise. Bresslaw also worked on television and stage, did recordings and wrote a series of poetry. During the late 1950’s he suprisingly had a series of comedic hit records in the UK charts.
Bernard Bresslaw was born the youngest of three boys into a Jewish family in Stepney, in February 1934. He attended the Coopers’ Company School in Tredegar Square, London. His father was a tailor’s cutter and he became interested in acting after visits to the Hackney Empire. London County Council awarded him a scholarship to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where he won the Emile Littler Award as the most promising actor. After Educating Archie on radio and The Army Game on television, more television, film and Shakespearean theatre roles followed, until he was cast in Carry on Cowboy in 1965. Although officially starring in 14 Carry On films, Bresslaw did appear in one other: Carry On Nurse. The legs of Terence Longdon were deemed to be too thin and scrawny looking, so Bresslaw’s were used as ‘stand’-ins for the scene where Joan Sims gives him a bath.
Bresslaw’s catchphrase, in his strong Cockney accent, was “I only arsked” first used in The Army Game, and later revived in Carry On Camping (1969). At 6 ft 7 in, he was the tallest of the Carry On cast, head and shoulders over fellow Carry On regular Barbara Windsor, who was 4 ft 10 in. Because of his height, he was briefly considered for the part of the Creature in Hammer’s Curse of Frankenstein (1957), which ultimately went instead to Christopher Lee. Bresslaw later made a comedy version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde for Hammer titled The Ugly Duckling (1959). He made great efforts to prepare for roles, for example learning Fanagalo phrases for Carry On Up The Jungle (1970).
He featured as Varga, the lead villain in the 1967 Doctor Who story The Ice Warriors. Even though all the actors playing the aliens were over six feet tall, Bresslaw towered over them. Sonny Caldinez, who played an Ice Warrior in the story, stated in a 2004 interview that Bresslaw “was the only man that could make me feel small.”
Bresslaw was a member of the Grand Order of Water Rats, a British entertainment fraternity and in 1988 he was elected “King Rat” of the order.
