Hylda Baker
Encyclopedia
Hylda Baker was a British comedienne, actress and music hall
star.
, near Bolton
, Lancashire
, the first of seven children. Her father, Harold Baker, was a painter and signwriter, who also worked part-time in the music hall
s as a comedian. At ten, Baker made her debut at the Opera House, Tunbridge Wells, and continued to tour as a single variety act - singing, dancing and performing impersonations. By 14, she had started writing, producing and performing her own shows. Her most famous stage act was as a gossip from the North of England, with a silent, sullen companion named "Big Cynthia", almost always played by a man in drag
(and who was played last by Matthew Kelly
). Her act was full of malapropisms and her catchphrase, usually after an innuendo
, was "She knows, y'know!"
It has been suggested by Kelly that Baker's exaggerated vocal delivery had its origins in the mee-mawing
required of Lancashire cotton mill
workers in the weaving sheds. Fellow comedienne Victoria Wood
has described her comedic talent as "peculiarly Northern"
.
television's The Good Old Days
in 1955. This led to her television series, Be Soon (named after another of her catchphrases), in 1957 and a supporting part in the sitcom Our House in 1960, followed by her own sitcom, The Best of Friends, in 1963. She also appeared in films, including Karel Reisz
's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
(1960) and the film version of Lionel Bart
's musical Oliver!
(1968). Reisz had seen her performing her sketches at the Chiswick Empire
theatre.
Baker's most famous role, alongside fellow Lancastrian Madge Hindle
, was as Nellie Pledge in the Granada Television
comedy series Nearest and Dearest
(1968–73). Playing her brother Eli was the comedian Jimmy Jewel
and the series was centred around their characters' love/hate relationship as they tried to run their small family business, Pledge's Purer Pickles. As they bickered onscreen and traded insults such as "knocked-kneed knackered old nosebag" and "big girl's blouse", the insults continued offscreen as the two disliked each other intensely and their arguments became showbiz legend. A film version of the series was made by Hammer Films in 1972 (the same year she was celebrated in an episode of This Is Your Life
). Later in the series, Baker began having trouble remembering her lines and had to rely on cue cards.
Baker played a virtually identical role in the LWT comedy series Not On Your Nellie
(1974–75). In this series she played Nellie Pickersgill, who moves to London
from the North to run her ailing father's pub. However the series was short-lived and, by this time, Baker was again finding it difficult to remember her lines and was also refusing to attend rehearsals. After suing the production company due to an on-set injury in which she broke her leg (after slipping on beer on the set), the series ended, as did her television acting career.
Baker recreated her variety act in an episode of the BBC series The Good Old Days
in 1976.
In an unusual coda to her musical career, she teamed with Arthur Mullard
in 1978 to record a comedy version of "You're The One That I Want
" from the film Grease
. Baker and Mullard, then aged 73 and 68, dressed in wigs and costumes similar to the John Travolta
and Olivia Newton-John
characters from Grease and appeared on the BBC
show Top of the Pops
and the Granada Television
music show for children Get It Together
. The pair recorded an album of pop covers entilted Band On The Trot.
Her final television appearance came the same year in an episode of the BBC arts documentary show Omnibus about female comedians, broadcast on 28 December 1978.
which led in part to the breakdown of her marriage.
Baker lived the life of a star, dressing in furs and keeping monkeys as pets. She annoyed her neighbours with loud parties at her Blackpool
home. In her 70s, she developed Alzheimer's disease
and in 1981 she moved to Brinsworth House
, the retirement home for performers, in Twickenham
, London
. In 1984, she moved to a psychiatric hospital in Epsom
, Surrey
, where she died two years later, aged 81, from bronchial pneumonia.
, known for appearances in Last of the Summer Wine
, wrote a biography and devised and starred in a tribute show, She Knows Y' Know!, at London's Vaudeville Theatre
in 1997. The show won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment in 1998.
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
star.
Early life and career
Baker was born in FarnworthFarnworth
Farnworth is within the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. It is located southeast of Bolton, 6 miles south-west of Bury , and northwest of Manchester....
, near Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, the first of seven children. Her father, Harold Baker, was a painter and signwriter, who also worked part-time in the music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
s as a comedian. At ten, Baker made her debut at the Opera House, Tunbridge Wells, and continued to tour as a single variety act - singing, dancing and performing impersonations. By 14, she had started writing, producing and performing her own shows. Her most famous stage act was as a gossip from the North of England, with a silent, sullen companion named "Big Cynthia", almost always played by a man in drag
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
(and who was played last by Matthew Kelly
Matthew Kelly
Matthew Kelly is an English television presenter and Olivier-award winning actor. Having been trained as a theatre actor, he first came to public prominence as a television presenter of ITV light entertainment shows such as You Bet! and Stars in Their Eyes...
). Her act was full of malapropisms and her catchphrase, usually after an innuendo
Innuendo
An innuendo is a baseless invention of thoughts or ideas. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging , that works obliquely by allusion...
, was "She knows, y'know!"
It has been suggested by Kelly that Baker's exaggerated vocal delivery had its origins in the mee-mawing
Mee-mawing
Mee-mawing was a form of speech with exaggerated movements to allow lip reading employed by workers in weaving sheds in Lancashire in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The noise in a weaving shed renders hearing impossible so workers communicated by mee-mawing which was a cross between mime and...
required of Lancashire cotton mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
workers in the weaving sheds. Fellow comedienne Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...
has described her comedic talent as "peculiarly Northern"
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
.
Television career
Baker came to national attention in BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television's The Good Old Days
The Good Old Days
The Good Old Days is a popular BBC television light entertainment programme which ran from 1953 to 1983.It was performed at the Leeds City Varieties and recreated an authentic atmosphere of the Victorian–Edwardian music hall with songs and sketches of the era performed by present-day...
in 1955. This led to her television series, Be Soon (named after another of her catchphrases), in 1957 and a supporting part in the sitcom Our House in 1960, followed by her own sitcom, The Best of Friends, in 1963. She also appeared in films, including Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz was a Czech-born British filmmaker who was active in post–war Britain, and one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in 1950s and 1960s British cinema.-Early life:...
's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is the first novel by British author Alan Sillitoe and won the Author's Club First Novel Award.It was adapted by Sillitoe into a 1960 film starring Albert Finney, directed by Karel Reisz, and in 1964 was adapted by David Brett as a play for the Nottingham...
(1960) and the film version of Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart was a writer and composer of British pop music and musicals, best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for Oliver!-Early life:...
's musical Oliver!
Oliver! (film)
Oliver! is a 1968 British musical film directed by Carol Reed. The film is based on the stage musical Oliver!, with book, music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart. The screenplay was written by Vernon Harris....
(1968). Reisz had seen her performing her sketches at the Chiswick Empire
Chiswick
Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...
theatre.
Baker's most famous role, alongside fellow Lancastrian Madge Hindle
Madge Hindle
Madge Hindle is a British actress, best known for her roles on television series.Madge's big break came when her good friend, British playwright Alan Bennett, asked her to appear in his 1966 BBC comedy series On the Margin.From 1968 to 1973, she played the role of Lily Tattersall on the series...
, was as Nellie Pledge in the Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
comedy series Nearest and Dearest
Nearest and Dearest
Nearest and Dearest is a British television sitcom that ran from 1968 to 1973. A total of 46 episodes were made, 18 in monochrome and 28 in colour...
(1968–73). Playing her brother Eli was the comedian Jimmy Jewel
Jimmy Jewel
James Arthur Thomas J. Marsh, known as Jimmy Jewel, was a British television and film actor.The son of a comedian and actor who also used the stage name Jimmy Jewel, the youngster made his stage debut in Robinson Crusoe in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, at the age of four, performed with his father...
and the series was centred around their characters' love/hate relationship as they tried to run their small family business, Pledge's Purer Pickles. As they bickered onscreen and traded insults such as "knocked-kneed knackered old nosebag" and "big girl's blouse", the insults continued offscreen as the two disliked each other intensely and their arguments became showbiz legend. A film version of the series was made by Hammer Films in 1972 (the same year she was celebrated in an episode of This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life (UK TV series)
This Is Your Life is a British biographical television documentary, based on the 1952 American show of the same name. It was hosted by Eamonn Andrews from 1955 until 1964, and then from 1969 until his death in 1987 aged 64...
). Later in the series, Baker began having trouble remembering her lines and had to rely on cue cards.
Baker played a virtually identical role in the LWT comedy series Not On Your Nellie
Not On Your Nellie
Not On Your Nellie was a British sitcom that ran from 1974-75. It starred veteran actress Hylda Baker as Nellie Pickersgill, a Bolton woman who moves to London to help run her ailing father's Chelsea pub...
(1974–75). In this series she played Nellie Pickersgill, who moves to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
from the North to run her ailing father's pub. However the series was short-lived and, by this time, Baker was again finding it difficult to remember her lines and was also refusing to attend rehearsals. After suing the production company due to an on-set injury in which she broke her leg (after slipping on beer on the set), the series ended, as did her television acting career.
Baker recreated her variety act in an episode of the BBC series The Good Old Days
The Good Old Days
The Good Old Days is a popular BBC television light entertainment programme which ran from 1953 to 1983.It was performed at the Leeds City Varieties and recreated an authentic atmosphere of the Victorian–Edwardian music hall with songs and sketches of the era performed by present-day...
in 1976.
In an unusual coda to her musical career, she teamed with Arthur Mullard
Arthur Mullard
Arthur Ernest Mullard, original surname Mullord was an English comedy actor.- Early life :...
in 1978 to record a comedy version of "You're The One That I Want
You're the One That I Want
"You're the One That I Want" is a song written by John Farrar for the 1978 film version of the musical Grease. It was performed by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John....
" from the film Grease
Grease (film)
Grease is a 1978 American musical film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Warren Casey's and Jim Jacobs's 1971 musical of the same name about two lovers in a 1950s high school. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway...
. Baker and Mullard, then aged 73 and 68, dressed in wigs and costumes similar to the John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
and Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
characters from Grease and appeared on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
show Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
and the Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
music show for children Get It Together
Get It Together
Get It Together can refer to:* G.I.T.: Get It Together, album by the Jackson 5* "Get It Together" * "Get It Together" *"Get It Together" * "Get It Together", song by Grand Funk Railroad...
. The pair recorded an album of pop covers entilted Band On The Trot.
Her final television appearance came the same year in an episode of the BBC arts documentary show Omnibus about female comedians, broadcast on 28 December 1978.
Personal life and death
Baker suffered two ectopic pregnanciesEctopic pregnancy
An ectopic pregnancy, or eccysis , is a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo implants outside the uterine cavity. With rare exceptions, ectopic pregnancies are not viable. Furthermore, they are dangerous for the parent, since internal haemorrhage is a life threatening complication...
which led in part to the breakdown of her marriage.
Baker lived the life of a star, dressing in furs and keeping monkeys as pets. She annoyed her neighbours with loud parties at her Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
home. In her 70s, she developed Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
and in 1981 she moved to Brinsworth House
Brinsworth House
Brinsworth House is a retirement home especially for members of the acting and entertainment professions, in Twickenham, Greater London, England. The house, opened in 1911, is provided and maintained by the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund, founded in 1908 to care for members of what was at...
, the retirement home for performers, in Twickenham
Twickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. In 1984, she moved to a psychiatric hospital in Epsom
Epsom
Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. Small parts of Epsom are in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. The town is located south-south-west of Charing Cross, within the Greater London Urban Area. The town lies on the chalk downland of Epsom Downs.-History:Epsom lies...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, where she died two years later, aged 81, from bronchial pneumonia.
Legacy
Actress Jean FergussonJean Fergusson
Jean Fergusson is a British television and theatre actress, who is best known for playing the part of Marina on the British situation comedy Last of the Summer Wine from 1985 until it was axed in 2010, and her role as Dorothy in the soap Coronation Street.In theatre, Fergusson's show She Knows You...
, known for appearances in Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and...
, wrote a biography and devised and starred in a tribute show, She Knows Y' Know!, at London's Vaudeville Theatre
Vaudeville Theatre
The Vaudeville Theatre is a West End theatre on The Strand in the City of Westminster. As the name suggests, the theatre held mostly vaudeville shows and musical revues in its early days. It opened in 1870 and was rebuilt twice, although each new building retained elements of the previous...
in 1997. The show won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment in 1998.