George Cole - The Autobiography of George Cole: The World Was My Lobster

N ow that Ive surprised myself and finished writing the main text of this book, it seems strange to start writing the words that go right at the front. It makes a lot of sense though because its only after writing an autobiography that you fully realise who the important people are in your life.

One person of whom there was never any doubt of the importance she has in my life is my wife, Penny Morrell. She has remained steadfastly and lovingly by my side since our marriage in 1967, and she is the mother of our two wonderful children, Tara and Toby, and grandmother to our three delightful grandchildren. She selflessly put her own acting career on hold while our children were growing up to enable me to pursue my career, and that was something for which I can never thank her enough. There was a Mrs Cole before Penny but the marriage ended in a divorce that was heartbreaking for all concerned, especially for the two children that came from it. The circumstances are all very personal and private, and have no place in a book that sets out to chronicle the pride, joy and happiness with which I have been blessed throughout my more than 70 years in the acting profession. This will be the only mention of that marriage in this book.

There is much mention in the book of my good friend and mentor Alastair Sim and his wife Naomi. There is good reason for this. Many autobiographies talk at length about the authors parents and their contribution to the writers life. In my case, for many years, as I was starting my career, Alastair and Naomi were my surrogate parents and I owe them an enormous debt of gratitude. They were wonderful people and are fully deserving of every kind word I have written about them.

There have been many other people over the years who deserve kind words and I would like to take this opportunity to mention them. I have acted in hundreds of roles throughout my career and have worked with thousands of talented people on stage, television and film, both in the public eye and behind the theatre curtains and cameras. I treasure all those experiences and value each and every contribution those people have made to my career. I offer my sincere thanks to everyone who has been a part of it.

There is another group of people who play a critical part in a performers life and usually do not even realise it. This is the audience, whether watching a play in a theatre, or a film at their local cinema, or a play or drama series on television. No matter how good an actors performance may be, it doesnt mean a thing unless there is someone there to watch it, and if people dont watch, the show is a failure. I have been fortunate throughout my career to have had more successes than failures, so I offer my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has watched my performances over the years and has contributed to those successes. Many people have even gone as far as to write to tell me what they think of my work. I always get great pleasure from receiving letters from fans and hearing their comments, and I am genuinely humbled that they have spent the time to contact me to pass on their thoughts. They can never know how much that contact has meant to me and I thank them with utmost sincerity.

I am indebted to Brian Hawkins for prompting me to recall long-forgotten incidents from the past and then helping me record them in a cohesive manner. My first contact with Brian was when he interviewed me in 2002 while he was preparing his amazing book The Phenomenon That Was Minder. We kept in contact afterwards and he suggested to me a few times that we do this book together. I always refused on the grounds that I didnt think I was old enough for an autobiography. I still dont but I am delighted that I eventually gave in because I have enjoyed the process immensely.

I must also thank Henry Holland, Alan Coles, Grant Taylor and Matthew Lee plus their many contacts for so diligently tracking down copies of many of my film and television appearances that I have referred to in the pages that follow. Not only did they do a brilliant job, they are wonderful people as well. They made the writing much easier than it might otherwise have been.

I am grateful to John Blake and his staff at John Blake Publishing for all their help and for having sufficient confidence that I would have a story worth telling. As I write this, they havent seen the finished manuscript, so I hope they are not disappointed. The title The World Was My Lobster is by kind permission of Crispin Cole (John Blake: please note that he has already been paid!).

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who takes the time to read this book both those who read it from cover to cover and those who delve into it looking for an answer to a niggling question about a show I might or might not have been in. I am immensely honoured to be the subject of your interest and I hope to have provided you with some entertainment along the way.

George Cole

Oxfordshire

February 2013

Hawkins, B. (2002) Chameleon Press, Hong Kong.

B ritain in 1925 was slowly recovering from the devastation and heartaches of the First World War, which had ended seven years earlier. London saw the introduction of its first double-decker bus with a covered upper deck, and Scottish inventor John Logie Baird created Britains first television transmitter in a primitive studio in Londons Soho an invention that would later figure prominently in my life. The first full-length movie film with recorded sound another invention of great importance to me would not be released for another two years, when The Jazz Singer, featuring Al Jolson, was released in October 1927. For their musical entertainment, people were listening to such classics as Charleston, If You Knew Susie, Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue and Yes Sir, Thats My Baby on their wind-up gramophones.

I arrived on 22 April 1925 at a nursing home at 19 Defoe Road in Tooting, a district in south-west London between Wimbledon and Streatham, and was given the names George Edward.

I lived for the first five years of my life in a flat in Coverton Road in Tooting with my parents, Florence and George Cole, a few streets away from Tooting Broadway. When I was five we moved to a council flat a couple of miles away in Morden and this remained the family home until my mother moved to the Midlands many years later after my father died.

I dont have many recollections of my early life. I have only two of Tooting. I can remember my father going out on a bicycle one day and getting the wheels stuck in a tramline and falling off. I also remember being put in a pram with a baby girl who had mumps when I was about four years old. I think the idea at the time was to expose children to infectious diseases as soon as possible and get them out of the way (the diseases, not the children). I cant remember whether I actually caught mumps as a result of the experiment. Somehow, I remember there was a pub just round the corner from the place I was born and, strangely, I went in it for the first time nearly 60 years later when we were shooting an episode of Minder there in the 1980s. My first flat was still there as well.

I have one recollection from Morden about a man that used to come round pulling a wheelbarrow asking for old clothes or shoes, and who would give you a toy in exchange. One day I swapped a brand new pair of shoes for a little toy windmill that was probably worth a couple of pennies. My mother came home and was absolutely furious about it. She went out and found him and gave him a right telling-off. She got the shoes back but I cant remember what happened to the windmill.