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by james macgregor | 4th May, 2001 | contact: james@netribution.co.uk

Baxter Back on Box for Celebration Doc

Stanley Baxter, legendary Scots comedian and all-round entertainer, hardly seen in public since his retirement eleven years ago, has been persuaded back before the cameras by the BBC.

He’s recently been in Scotland revisiting his old home territory for a documentary about his life and times in showbusiness. It will be screened as a 75th Birthday tribute at the end of May.

Stanley Baxter became a household name in Scotland before being lured to TV, where his elaborate shows, glitzy costumes, sharp patter and mimicry won him national affection.

Where It All Began

The Baxter showbiz career had very local beginnings, but the pace was set by his mother, a formidable character, who set Stanley on the road to stardom.

"As far as I know the cameras are going to take me to north Kelvinside where I was born, to where I was brought up in Wilton Street," says Stanley.

"My mother, who might have been described as the Hyacinth Bucket of her day, pushed me into the business. She was taking me into all the church halls in our neighbourhood when I was seven, doing impersonations. She was, I suppose, over-protective. All mothers are.

"I’d do Dave Willis, a household name and one of the top Scots comedians throughout the Forties and early Fifties. I’d sing a song called One of the Lads from Valencia and for that my mother made me a matador’s costume.

His mother’s passion for the young Stanley’s performance ability was not shared by her husband, as the star explains:

"My father wasn’t at all approving of all this, I can tell you. He’d declare in no uncertain terms ‘this boy should be doing his homework, not appearing on stage with fat ladies and accordion players in church halls’.

"But even at that age I was hooked and from the age of 14 until I was called up into the Army I’d done a hundred broadcasts."

Entertaining The Troops

It was during national service in the army, while working with fellow soldier performers Kenneth Williams and John Schlesinger, that Stanley Baxter decided that his future lay in showbusiness, but his first attempts ended in rejection.

"Demobbed in 1948, I auditioned for the Old Vic in London, but they were looking for younger, rawer material and I was rejected for being ‘too formed as an artist’.

"Then I bumped into an amateur actor who got me a small part at the Glasgow Citizens and the rest, as they say, is history.

Festival Memories

It was Edinburgh and the 1948 festival which Stanley fondly recalls, saw the start of his professional career. "That was the first of three Edinburgh Festivals I played as a straight actor.

"We had the great Tyrone Guthrie directing at the Assembly Hall and I remember dropping into the Festival Club in George Street for crab salad and white wine - a whole new world for me.

"With a glass in my hand I felt like one helluva fellow.

"For The Thrie Estaites, a medieval morality play, we thought naebody would turn up but we had them standing in their seats for that first

performance. The cast were amazed when Tony (Guthrie), instead of hanging around for the plaudits, caught the night train back to London."

London Calling

It was to be television, not the theatre, which would catapult Stanley into the limelight - at least while budgets were still generous enough to afford the spectacular shows he became famous for. One of the first people he met in London was an old friend from Glasgow who was a newly appointed BBC television producer.

The meeting resulted in On the Bright Side, revues with Una Stubbs, Amanda Barrie and David Kernan. Within weeks Stanley was inundated with offers for film and theatre.


"The first TV of note was On the Bright Side, which ran for two seasons and co-starred Betty Marsden," he recalls.

"Our girl dancers were Una Stubbs and Amanda Barrie. We asked Amanda if she could handle a couple of lines, imagine!

"I got a Bafta for that. A Bafta, I said, what the hell’s that? Network telly was the making of me, and almost the ruination.

Birted Out

"The specials we did were very ambitious, like the movies MGM made in the Thirties and Forties. They were expensive productions - not for the money I was paid, believe me - and I was fired by John Birt. I switched to LWT, where David Bell and I developed a great working relationship for six specials.

"BBC Scotland bought four of them and when Michael Grade came back from America to the BBC he said ‘Come and work for us in London’.

"Before long Birt, still in charge, announced that the Beeb needed to save £19 million and that I was their most expensive artist to produce. So, again, he did me."

By then, though, there wasn’t a viewer in the land who didn’t know who Stanley Baxter was. Over Christmas and New Year most of them habitually said of his specials, new or repeats, that he was the only good thing on the box over the holidays.



Today, Stanley Baxter shuns the limelight, almost to the point of being branded reclusive. And he can’t visualise himself ever returning to Scotland to live.

"I’m happy living in Highgate. I miss my wife Moira, yes. Miss my toast and tea from her first thing."

Baxter married Moira in 1952 but she died three years ago, following a lengthy illness.

"But time’s healed," he adds. "I’ve adjusted and I’m enjoying retirement.

"The stress is off and if it looks like coming back I’ll take a tranquilliser. A wee half of something - and I’m not talking about alcohol, it’ll be half a tablet."


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