Peter Butterworth (1915 - 1979)
"They're all raving mad!"- Peter Butterworth
Peter William Shorrocks Butterworth was born on 4 February 1919. As well as being best remembered for his appearances in the 'Carry On' series of films he was also a regular on children's television and radio. He was married to the actress and impressionist Janet Brown.
Before his acting career started, Peter served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War. While flying in an attack on the Dutch coast off Den Helder in 1940 his Fairey Albacore was shot down by Messerschmitt Bf 109s killing one crew member and wounding the other. After a forced landing on the island of Texel he was captured becoming a prisoner of war (POW). Sent to the Dulag Luft POW transit camp, at Oberursel near Frankfurt, he later escaped in June 1941 through a tunnel, covering 27 miles (43 km) over three days before a member of the Hitler Youth captured him. Afterwards he joked that he could never work with children again. Two other attempts to escape were made during his time there but he never got beyond the camp grounds. He was subsequently sent to Stalag Luft III, near Sagan, the scene of 'The Great Escape'.
Above: A young Peter Butterworth with wife Janet Brown.
Whilst at Stalag Luft III he met Talbot Rothwell, who later went on to write many of the 'Carry On' films in which Butterworth was to star. Rothwell and Butterworth formed a duet and sang in the camp shows, where booing and catcalls covered the sounds of an escape tunnel being dug by other prisoners. Butterworth was one of the vaulters covering for the escapers during the escape portrayed by the book and film 'The Wooden Horse'. Butterworth later auditioned for the film in 1949 but "didn't look convincingly heroic or athletic enough" according to the makers of the film.
Having never performed in public before, Butterworth sang a duet with Rothwell, a song which Rothwell called 'The Letter Edged In Black'. The performance was followed by some comic repartee which, according to his own account, provoked enough boos and hisses to have the desired effect of drowning out the escape party. After the war, Butterworth kept a photo of the concert party line-up, something which offered inspiration to him when starting a career in acting. Butterworth came to notice after appearing in pantomime around the UK. His first film appearance was in the Val Guest film 'William Comes to Town' (1948).
In 1973 Talbot in fact penned a script for a new 'Carry On' - 'Carry On Escaping'
a spoof of World War II escape films, no doubt based on his own experiences in WWII. The complete script was included in the book 'The Complete A-Z of Everything Carry On'. In 2017 I produced a mock poster for the unmade film and this formed part of a special series of posters, produced by myself, to try and capture what this film as well as several others that remain unmade, may have looked like and who may have appeared in them. I gave Peter a top billing role in tribute to his experiences in WWII. All proceeds from the limited run went to the charity that I support - 'Help for Heroes'.
Also within the same camp as Butterworth and Rothwell were the future actors Rupert Davies and Stratford Johns and John Casson, who was the son of Lewis Casson and Sybil Thorndike. All five remained very close friends after the war ended and they all appeared on 'This Is Your Life' when Butterworth was featured in 1975.
Above: My effort at a mock poster for the unmade 'Carry On Escaping' film.
Peter's association with the 'Carry On' series began with 'Carry On Cowboy' (1965) playing the part of "Doc". He was put in touch with the creator of the series, Peter Rogers, by his friend Talbot Rothwell, the writer of 'Carry On Cowboy' and who had written the previous four films. Out of the actors who were considered to be the 'Carry On' team, he was the sixth most prolific performer in the series, making sixteen film appearances, two Christmas specials, the television series in 1975 and the west end theatre productions 'Carry On London' (1975) and 'Carry On Laughing' (1976) which also toured the country, alongside Sid James, Barbara Windsor, Bernard Bresslaw, Jack Douglas, Kenneth Connor and Liz Fraser.
He was one of only a handful of the original main team to also appear in the final film of the original series 'Carry On Emmannuelle' in 1978.
To me Peter's contributions and performances in the 'Carry On' series were not given the value of crerdit that they deserved. He often played smaller parts but the parts he played were key characters to the plot and were some of the best (and funniest!) characters of the series. My personal favourites are him as 'Citizen Bidet' in 'Carry On Don't Lose Your Head' (1966) and as 'Detective Slobotham' in 'Carry On Screaming' also in 1966.
He was often given military roles too such as 'Simpson' in 'Carry On Follow That Camel', 'Brother Belcher' in 'Carry On Up The Khyber' and 'Major Carstairs' in 'Carry On England'. It may have just been coincidence but with whatever part he was offered he did it total justice.
In May 2018 I had the pleasure of discussing Peter and his long career with his son Tyler, also an actor. I had not realised how young Tyler had been (19 years old) when his father passed away at the young age of 59 in 1979. Tyler and Kenneth Connor's son, Jeremy Connor paired up for the ITV documentary 'Carry On Forever' in 2015. They trawled the vast archive of 'blue books' that captured hundreds of pictures from the series to reflect on their father's enduring friendship throughout their career. Below is an extact from correspondence I received from Tyler earlier this year:
"Thank for the lovely things you have said about my father; it seems he was a much loved man, not only by those he worked with but by those who enjoyed his work too.
Sadly he died when I was just nineteen, and to be honest with you he didn’t really discuss his work at home, so I don’t actually know which was his favourite film, but I think he would have been hugely and pleasantly surprised by their enduring popularity. I think most of the cast would be stunned at how these films are still being shown on tv, and enjoyed, almost every day!
I’m pretty sure he enjoyed doing them as the cast all seemed to get on so well, and he made sixteen of them, so he must have done.
He and Kenneth Williams were good friends, and Kenneth used to come down to our house in Sussex and spend time with us all. I remember a time we all went to Brighton together and had our picture taken by a photographer on the end of the pier. Nothing outrageous happened but even as young children, my sister and I were aware that Kenneth was an amusing man and could explode into a crescendo of wonderful eccentric voices at any moment.
With an eye on the 60th anniversary, I think that without knowing it at the time, these films managed to capture forever a brief period in British humour and social history. They’re a brilliant observation of a time in this nation’s life that’s now long gone - but will clearly never be forgotten!
I wish you well with your website Callum, it’s a noble cause indeed!"
With kind regards,
Tyler
Sadly he died when I was just nineteen, and to be honest with you he didn’t really discuss his work at home, so I don’t actually know which was his favourite film, but I think he would have been hugely and pleasantly surprised by their enduring popularity. I think most of the cast would be stunned at how these films are still being shown on tv, and enjoyed, almost every day!
I’m pretty sure he enjoyed doing them as the cast all seemed to get on so well, and he made sixteen of them, so he must have done.
He and Kenneth Williams were good friends, and Kenneth used to come down to our house in Sussex and spend time with us all. I remember a time we all went to Brighton together and had our picture taken by a photographer on the end of the pier. Nothing outrageous happened but even as young children, my sister and I were aware that Kenneth was an amusing man and could explode into a crescendo of wonderful eccentric voices at any moment.
With an eye on the 60th anniversary, I think that without knowing it at the time, these films managed to capture forever a brief period in British humour and social history. They’re a brilliant observation of a time in this nation’s life that’s now long gone - but will clearly never be forgotten!
I wish you well with your website Callum, it’s a noble cause indeed!"
With kind regards,
Tyler
Having spoken with many of Peter's co-stars and friends from the 'Carry On' films one thing that stands out is that everyone has nothing but kind and happy things to say about Peter. In contrast to some of the other members of the 'Carry On' team there is no 'scandal' or weird and wonderful anecdotes which is testament to the nature and personality of this great man.
Rather poignantly Peter's career actually started and ended with pantomime. In January 1979 he was starring as 'Widow Twankey' in the pantomime 'Aladdin' at the Coventry Hippodrome Theatre. When the show had finished, he went for some supper (a curry according to online accounts) and then made his way back to his hotel. His failure to return for the following day's matinee show caused alarm, and he was found dead in his hotel room from an apparent heart attack, shortly before his 60th birthday. The remainder of the pantomime's run was cancelled as a mark of respect. Following his death, the producer of the 'Carry On' films, Peter Rogers, said that Butterworth was "a thoroughly nice bloke and a dear friend".
Sadly the Coventry Hippodrome and hotel where Peter stayed are now long gone, demolished to make way for the new 'Phoenix' regeneration project. I have however finally managed to track down a picture of Peter in his final role as 'Widow Twankey' from the 1979 pantomime (above right). He is pictured with Tom O'Connor and Pauline Whitaker who were also in the production.
My thanks to TrinityMirror for help in locating this photograph and for their help with the appeal for information on Peter from this production.
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