William Arnold Ridley (7 January 1896 – 12 March 1984) was an English playwright and actor, known early in his career for writing the 1925 play The Ghost Train and later in life for the British television sitcom Dad's Army (1968–1977), in which he played the elderly, bumbling Private Godfrey. He also appeared in such Dad's Army spin-offs as the feature film version and the stage production.
Early life
William Arnold Ridley was born in Walcot, Bath, Somerset, England, the son of Rosa Caroline (née Morrish, 1870–1956) and William Robert Ridley (1871–1931). His father was a gymnastics instructor and ran a boot and shoe shop. He attended the Clarendon School and the Bath City Secondary School where he was a keen sportsman. A graduate of the University of Bristol, he studied in their Education Department, and played Hamlet in a student production. Ridley undertook teaching practice at an Elementary School in Bristol.
Military service
Ridley was a student teacher and had made his theatrical debut in Prunella at the Theatre Royal, Bristol when he volunteered for service with the British Army on the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. He was initially rejected because of a hammer toe.Dad's Army star's First World War heroics, The Daily Telegraph, 26 July 2008 In December 1915, he enlisted as a private with the Somerset Light Infantry, British Army. He saw active service in the war, sustaining several wounds in close-quarter battle. His left hand was left virtually useless by wounds sustained on the Somme;"Godfrey's secret war horror" p13 of Sunday Telegraph (Issue 2,459- dated 27 July 2008) his legs were riddled with shrapnel; he received a bayonet wound in the groin; and the lasting impacts of a blow to the head from a German soldier's rifle butt left him prone to blackouts after the war.Excusing Private Godfrey, BBC Radio 4, 6 July 2012. He was medically discharged from the army with the rank of lance corporal in May 1917.Ridley's WW1 medal index card at The National Archive, Kew Surrey. Document code: WO 372/17/728. He received the Silver War Badge having been honourably discharged from the army due to wounds received in the war, and was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal for his service.
Ridley rejoined the army in 1939 following the outbreak of the Second World War. He was commissioned into the General List on 7 October 1939 as a second lieutenant. He served with the British Expeditionary Force in France during the "Phoney War", employed as a "Conducting Officer" tasked with supervising journalists who were visiting the front line. In May 1940,The real-life wars of Dad's Army actor Arnold Ridley. Bethan Bell, BBC News, 5 February 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2016. Ridley returned to Britain on the overcrowded destroyer HMS Vimiera, which was the last British ship to escape from the harbour during the Battle of Boulogne. Shortly afterwards, he was discharged from the Armed Forces on health grounds. He relinquished his commission as a captain on 1 June 1940. He subsequently joined the Home Guard, in his home town of Caterham, and ENSA, with which he toured the country. He described his wartime experiences on Desert Island Discs in 1973.Interview with Roy Plomley on Desert Island Discs, 1973 "Desert Island Discs", BBC radio, 1973, retrieved 8 February 2016The real-life wars of Arnold Ridley, BBC News website, retrieved 8 February 2016
Acting career
After his medical discharge from the army, Ridley commenced a career as a professional actor. In 1918 he joined the company of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, staying for two years and playing 40 parts before moving on to Plymouth, where he took a break from the stage when his war injuries began to trouble him.
After being stranded for an evening at Mangotsfield railway station, near Bristol, Ridley was inspired to write the play The Ghost Train (1925), a tale of passengers stranded at a haunted railway station in Cornwall, with one of the characters being an incognito British Government agent trying to catch Bolshevik revolutionaries active in Great Britain. The play became a hit, with 665 consecutive performances in London's West End, and numerous revivals. The first credited film version was a German-British silent film, The Ghost Train, in 1927. The Ghost Train was also filmed in 1931, with Jack Hulbert, and again in 1941, when it starred Arthur Askey. A novelisation of The Ghost Train was published by The Readers Library Publishing Company in 1927. Ridley also wrote more than 30 other plays, including The Wrecker (1924), Keepers of Youth (1929), The Flying Fool (1929) and Recipe for Murder (1932).Obituary, The Times, 14 March 1984Amnon Kabatchnik Blood on the Stage, 1975–2000: Milestone Plays of Crime 2012 -. – Page 554 "A dastardly blackmailer is shot and poisoned simultaneously in Arnold Ridley's Recipe for Murder (1932)."
During his time in military service in the Second World War he adapted the Agatha Christie novel Peril at End House into a West End play that premiered in 1940. Ridley's post-war play, Beggar My Neighbour, was first performed in 1951"Plays by Arnold Ridley" , Doollee website and adapted for the Ealing Comedy film Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953).
Ridley worked regularly as an actor, including an appearance in the British comedy Crooks in Cloisters (1964). He also played Doughy Hood, the village baker, in the radio soap opera The Archers and the Rev. Guy Atkins in the ATV soap Crossroads from the programme's inception in 1964 until 1968. He became a household name after he was cast as Private Godfrey, the gentle platoon medic in the television comedy series Dad's Army (1968–1977). He continued to appear into his eighties, and was appointed an OBE in the 1982 Queen's New Year Honours List, for services to the theatre.
He was the subject of This Is Your LifeArnold Ridley, This Is Your Life, Thames Television, 1976 in 1976 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London's Marylebone Station.
Personal life
Ridley was married three times. His first marriage lasted from January 1926 to 1939, and was followed by a short marriage to Isola Strong, an actress (It's Hard to Be Good), at Kensington in 1939,Nicolas Ridley Godfrey's Ghost, Mogzilla, 2009 pp.191–93 before his final marriage to actress Althea Parker (1911–2001) on 3 October 1945;Nicolas Ridley Godfrey's Ghost, Mogzilla, 2009 p.194 they had one son, Nicolas (b. 1947).Nicolas Ridley Godfrey's Ghost, Mogzilla, 2009 p.1 He was a Freemason, and belonged to the Savage Club Lodge in London.See reference on the Lodge's official website.Report of actor's son, Nicolas Ridley, discussing his father.Report in UGLE magazine MQ. The actress Daisy Ridley is his great-niece.
A keen rugby player in his youth, he was President of Bath Rugby from 1950 to 1952.
Death
Ridley died in hospital in Northwood in 1984 at the age of 88 after falling at his residence in Denville Hall, a home for retired actors.The Times, death announcement, 13 March 1984 His body was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium and an urn holding his ashes was buried in his parents' grave at Bath Abbey Cemetery. His collection of theatrical memorabilia was left to the University of Bristol and has been made available online.
Works Plays The Ghost Train (1923) The Wrecker (with Bernard Merivale, 1924) Old Leeds (1928) The Flying Fool (with Bernard Merivale, 1929) Keepers of Youth (1929) (filmed in 1931) Third Time Lucky (1932) Half a Crown (1934) Recipe for Murder (1936) Peril at End House (1945, from Agatha Christie novel) Easy Money (1948) East of Ludgate Hill (1950) Murder Happens (1951) The Return (1953) Mrs Tredruthan's Son (1953) Beggar My Neighbour (1953) Geranium (1954) Tabitha (1956) (written with Mary Cathcart Borer) You, My Guests (1956) Bellamy (1960) Hercule Poirot Strikes (1967, from Agatha Christie novel)from WorldCat
Film adaptations (original author) Ghost Train, directed by Géza von Bolváry (1927, based on the play The Ghost Train) The Wrecker, directed by Géza von Bolváry (1929, based on the play The Wrecker) The Flying Fool, directed by Walter Summers (1931, based on the play The Flying Fool) Third Time Lucky, directed by Walter Forde (1931, based on the play Third Time Lucky) The Ghost Train, directed by Walter Forde (1931, based on the play The Ghost Train) Keepers of Youth, directed by Thomas Bentley (1931, based on the play Keepers of Youth) Kísértetek vonata, directed by Lajos Lázár (Hungary, 1933, based on the play The Ghost Train) Trenul fantoma, directed by Jean Mihail (Romania, 1933, based on the play The Ghost Train) The Warren Case, directed by Walter Summers (1934, based on the play The Last Chance) , directed by René Hervil (France, 1934, based on the play The Ghost Train) Blind Justice, directed by Bernard Vorhaus (1934, based on the play Recipe for Murder) Seven Sinners, directed by Albert de Courville (1936) East of Ludgate Hill, directed by Manning Haynes (1937, based on the play East of Ludgate Hill) De Spooktrein, directed by Karel Lamač (Netherlands, 1939, based on the play The Ghost Train) Shadowed Eyes, directed by Maclean Rogers (1940) The Ghost Train, directed by Walter Forde (1941, based on the play The Ghost Train) Easy Money, directed by Bernard Knowles (1948, based on the play Easy Money) Meet Mr. Lucifer, directed by Anthony Pelissier (1953, based on the play Beggar My Neighbour) Who Killed the Cat?, directed by Montgomery Tully (1966, based on the play Tabitha. Co-written with Mary Cathcart Borer)
Screenwriter The Flying Fool (dir. Walter Summers, 1931) Royal Eagle (dir. George A. Cooper, 1936) East of Ludgate Hill (dir. Manning Haynes, 1937) Shadowed Eyes (dir. Maclean Rogers, 1940)
Filmography Films Year Title Role Notes 1949 The Interrupted Journey Mr Saunders Uncredited 1951 Green Grow the Rushes Tom Cuffley 1952 Stolen Face Dr Russell 1963 Wings of Mystery Mr Bell Children's Film Foundation 1964 Crooks in Cloisters Newsagent 1966 A Man for All Seasons Innkeeper Uncredited 1971 Dad's Army Private Godfrey 1973 Carry On Girls Alderman Pratt 1975 The Amorous Milkman Cinema Attendant
Television Year Title Role Notes 1959 Charlesworth Bank Clerk 1964–1968 Crossroads Rev. Guy Atkins 1965 The Human Jungle Mr Swinnerton Episode: "Heartbeats in a Tin Box" 1967 The Avengers Elderly Gentleman at lake Episode: Never, Never Say Die Z-Cars Gardener Episode: I Never Meant to Drop Him: Part 1 Coronation Street Herbert Whittle Mrs ThursdayDirector Beggar My NeighbourMan2 episodes 1968–1977 Dad's Army Private Godfrey 80 episodes, (final appearance)1968Theatre 625TunicliffeThe War of Darkie PilbeamHospital patient The Very Merry WidowSir Frederick Snayle, QCThe CaesarsNigrinus1969The ContendersWalrusOut of the UnknownMunningsSpecial BranchMr. Turner1970As Good Cooks GoMr. CharmersThe DoctorsPercyW. Somerset MaughamLondon Club Waiter1971CrossroadsGuy AtkinsThe Flaxton BoysMr. Mooney 1972 The Persuaders! Uncle Rodney Episode: The Ozerov Inheritance1973Thriller1st Old Man1975Hogg's BackOld Man
References
External links
Arnold Ridley Collectors' Guide at Brenton Film Arnold Ridley Archive in the University of Bristol Theatre Collection