Robert Morley

I was trying to think of the name of the man who played the part of the old man in "The African Queen". My wife said "I know who you mean - the one who was in... er... what was the name of that film.... it had a cricket match in it....?" "Yes, that's right," I said. "... er... 'The Something Something'... er...".
Well it was of course Robert Morley and the name of the film was "The Final Test".
He had a part that suited him perfectly in that film, an avante garde playwright who was cricket mad. In "the African Queen" he was the Reverend Somebody-or-Other who died in the first section of the film. He was good in that too.
In fact he was good in most parts he played but especially so if the part was very like Morley himself with his fat body, his outlandishly awkward frame, his cultivated English upper class voice and his high intelligence.
Not only was he an actor who, in certain parts, could out-act most of his generation but he was too an excellent raconteur who would appear on programmes like "That Was the Week that Was" and outclass all talkers with his wit, intelligence, humour and good nature.
Why I am thinking of Robert Morley at this time? Well, I was not actually thinking of him to start with but of his son Sheridan Morley who used to DJ a radio programme called "Melodies foy You" on Sunday evenings; it is now DJ'd by Alan Tichmarsh who is good in a friendly, jolly sort of way but who does not have that quality of intense and discerning deep interest that Sheridan Morley had in the pieces he played. Perhaps Sheridan Morley was too heavy for Radio 2. I kinda miss him. He died last year.
His father died in 1992.
A friend of mine told me that he was in a college where Robert Morley came to give the drama students a talk; one of the things that stuck in my friend's mind was a Morley remark about his own "classical body". Morley said "I make it a condition that I will not accept a part in any stage play unless I am given the opportunity to have a scene where I can appear in shorts."
He was not a Sean Connery coming up from the sea in "Dr No"; if there had been a whale coming up with him, that would have been more like him.