Description

SAM KYDD The Unpublished Memoirs:

Never Mind the Acting, Just Say the Words

VOLUME 2 1953-58

SIGNED BY JONATHAN KYDD

Paperback book. 15cm wide; 23cm high; 3cm deep. 403 pages with 14 pages of black & white photos.

Sam Kydd holds the record for making the most British films, (290), in a career lasting from 1945 to his death in 1982.  His son, Jonathan, has released a second volume of Sam’s memoirs, drawn from a chance discovery of papers in the attic of the family home. This volume describes Sam’s career from 1953-58. During this period, Sam forged a reputation as a great TV actor, in both comedy and serious roles. In crime dramas such as Dixon of Dock Green and Shadow Squad, he often played the crook with the heart of gold. He was also a man of many accents, in sketch series with Arthur Askey and Tony Hancock. The films he made during this era included Cockleshell Heroes,  The 39 Steps, Up the Creek, The Ladykillers, Yangtze Incident, Devil on Horseback, Tiger in the Smoke, The Hideout, and, in one notable week, he appeared in three films: Reach for the Sky, Ramsbottom Rides Again and A Town Like Alice. He had a big part in They Who Dare, starring Dirk Bogarde, who became Jonathan’s godfather. During this period, Sam became a household name, playing a character called ‘Fred the Burglar,’ in commercials. Meanwhile, his mother still insisted he get a “proper job”. This is both a funny and serious read about a period when there were only two TV channels and you could be in an episode of Armchair Theatre on ITV with 13 million people watching.