A History Of Liverpool Thespians - Ken Jones

 

Ken Jones was born in the Everton district of Liverpool on the 20th of February 1930 and, on leaving school, went into the building trade before working as a signwriter. He also acted with the amateur Merseyside Community theatre, where he met the actor-writer Sheila Fay, then a teacher. The couple ran a theatre in Liverpool and were married on the 30th of October 1964 at St Polycarp Church, in Everton, near where Ken’s family had made their home in Anfield. Deciding to turn professional, they both then moved to London to start at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, before eventually finding a home near Aberystwyth in Wales. On graduating from RADA in 1958, they joined Joan Littlewood's celebrated Theatre Workshop in Stratford, east London. Ken later reflected that Littlewood's ban on make-up forced actors to get inside characters without using artificial aids.

He made his TV debut in a 1962 episode of 'Probation Officer'. Television producers and directors were then quick to cast him in one-off character roles in dozens of dramas and comedies and appeared in seven Wednesday Play productions during the 1960s, including five directed by Ken Loach. One of them was a surreal musical fantasy by the poet Christopher Logue and the composer Stanley Myers, 'The End of Arthur's Marriage' (1965). It featured Ken in the lead role of a man using his father-in-law's £400 life savings, given to him as the deposit on a house, to go on a spending spree with his young daughter. Another memorable appearance was in Neville Smith's soccer gem 'The Golden Vision' (1968) which chronicled Everton's revered centre forward Alex Young, and where he was happy to 'lay it on thick' as in his other comedy roles. He was nifty at naturalism, and belonged for a time to a bold squad of 'Scouse lions' which included Neville Smith, Bill Dean and Peter Kerrigan, who all excelled. His first sitcom starring role came in 'The Last of the Baskets' (1971-72), in which he played Clifford Basket, a factory worker inheriting a stately pile as the 13th Earl of Clogborough. He is destined to be remembered in the supporting cast of the hugely popular series 'Porridge' (1974-75), alongside Ronnie Barker's wily lag Norman Stanley Fletcher. He played 'Horrible' Ives, who earned his nickname – from both inmates and warders of HMP Slade Prison – through displaying the loathsome qualities of being a creep and a snitch. Jailed for fraud, Bernard Ives was also a perpetual cheat, notable for starting his sentences with the words: "'Ere, listen."

 

During his run as the accountant Rex in 'The Squirrels' (1974-77), he and his wife also starred in 'The Wackers' (1975) as a couple, Billy and Mary Clarkson, bringing up their divided Liverpool family – half Protestant, half Catholic, half Liverpool football club supporters, half Everton supporters. It was these programmes made Ken a familiar face on television. Impish and furtive are words that spring to mind when remembering his many comedy performances. He was a gift for casting directors, always able to add a mischievous twinkle to a scene, frequently playing incompetent little devils whose ambition in life was little more than to be a spiv. More sitcom roles followed, as Detective Sergeant Arnold Dixon, one of the police officers pitted against a family of petty criminals, in 'The Nesbitts Are Coming' (1980), as boxing trainer Dave Locket in 'Seconds Out' (1981-82), as Archangel Derek in the celestial comedy 'Dead Ernest' (1982), and as the local authority gardener Tom in 'Valentine Park' (1987-88). He also popped up as Beryl's Uncle Dermot in the second and third runs  of 'The Liver Birds' (1971-72), where Fay played Beryl's mother, Mrs Hennessy, and then Uncle Bernard in the 1991 series of 'Watching'. In the children's series 'Behind the Bike Sheds' (1985) he played Whistle Willie and had several different character roles in programmes such as 'Casualty,' 'Doctors' and 'Peak Practice'.

 

On the West End stage, he acted in Donald Howarth's 'A Lily in Little India' (1966), Willy Russell's 'Breezeblock Park' (1977) and Raymond Briggs's 'When the Wind Blows' (1983).

Ken and Sheila wrote many plays together, including 'Gulpin' (1977), about a girl not wanting to be a bridesmaid when Liverpool football club are playing at home. It was televised by the BBC, with Ken directing. Throughout his full career, whether sighing wearily or nudging hopefully, he always raised a smile.Writer Allan Prior said of him in 1968: "Actors like Ken Jones make you wonder if they are actors at all or people who have walked in off Lime Street. No Actors Studio could teach Mr Jones anything. He is for real."
Sheila died on the 31st of August 2013 from a stroke, aged 87, and Ken only realised he had bowel cancer shortly afterwards. He then moved back from Llanrhystud, west Wales to his Prescot care home so he could be closer to his sister, who helped care for him in his dying days. He passed away on Thursday the 13th of February 2014 at the nursing home in Prescot a week before his 84th birthday, having suffered from bowel cancer for the past six months.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/10/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-david.html