Ian Carmichael has died – he was one of those classic British character actors I mention in ‘Paperboy’ who played the same role in everything he did, so that you came to think of him as a well-meaning but hopeless uncle at the end of his tether – the archetypal ‘chinless wonder’.
Carmichael rose to fame in the film version on Kingsley Amis’s university comedy Lucky Jim and made several popular comedies with the Boulting brothers in the second half of the 1950s, including Private’s Progress, Brothers In Law and I’m All Right Jack. He was also Lord Peter Wimsey in the television series based on Dorothy L Sayers’s effete but shrewd amateur detective (1972-75). I was sure I’d posted his fantastic rant about ‘What’s wrong with Britain’ from I’m All Right Jack somewhere on the site, but like keeping books in an attic, I couldn’t find it!
A great shame,I can remember as a young lad seeing many of his early films on the TV on a Sunday morning not necessarily on purpose, but channel hopping before it was called that and not pissing about with the sides, as we knew it, but I could guarantee always finding myself watching and enjoying his films till the end, they were so involving and well written you always wanted Ian Carmichael’s character to come out on top no matter how naive or gullable he was in his films.
Ian Carmichael great entertainer ,sadly missed.
I’m all Right, Jack was marvelous and I really enjoyed his Peter Wimsey. That is a very difficult one to cast as you don’t want to go too far into the effete – just a regular sort of person who happens to have little interest in sport (except cricket it seems to me), a fascination with all other forms of knowledge and a persistent curiosity. Carmichael did a lovely job. I know I saw other things he did, but they don’t come immediately to mind.
Best of all (in my eyes) was ‘School For Scoundrels’ with Carmichael along with Alastair Sim and Terry-Thomas – perfect casting in a superb (and under-rated) comedy.