What Worries You Most Should Labour Win...
News1 min ago
R I P Lance Percival,
The Actor who starred in British hit comedy in Up Pompeii, has died at the age of 81.
Among his notable film roles were Carry On Cruising, Postman's Knock and Darling Lili.
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Jno, he did do the topical calypso on TW3
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I met Lance Percival in a pub in South Kensington in about 1972. I cannot remember how but we got chatting and he was a charming man. We spoke in particular about his role as the chef in "Carry on Crusing". I thought he played a wonderful part but he said it was not one of his best performances. In particular he put this down the the fact that he was drafted in at very short notice (about two days if I remember). The original cast for that part was Charles Hawtrey but he was "indisposed". (Lance actually told be that Charlie had been on a month long bender and was very "tired and emotional" when they went to collect him for rehearsals). A lovely man with unique qualities.
NJ, I notice from IMDB.com that Hawtrey was said to have quit after "a dispute over billing". I imagine your version is correct.
The same site also says this:
There were problems with the exploding cake scene, which caused several re-takes to be done. Actor Lance Percival, who portrayed the ship's cook Wilfred Haines, once said of this: "They were trying to get the cake to blow up in my face. It was done with a pressure pump underneath with the cake mixture sitting on top of an air pipe. When they pressed a button the mixture was to shoot all over my face. However, every time I leaned over to 'smell the aroma' just before it exploded, I blinked as it actually shot up i.e. I knew it was coming! Therefore it took nine takes to get a scene that lasts ten seconds - unheard of in a Carry On".
The same site also says this:
There were problems with the exploding cake scene, which caused several re-takes to be done. Actor Lance Percival, who portrayed the ship's cook Wilfred Haines, once said of this: "They were trying to get the cake to blow up in my face. It was done with a pressure pump underneath with the cake mixture sitting on top of an air pipe. When they pressed a button the mixture was to shoot all over my face. However, every time I leaned over to 'smell the aroma' just before it exploded, I blinked as it actually shot up i.e. I knew it was coming! Therefore it took nine takes to get a scene that lasts ten seconds - unheard of in a Carry On".
