The Blue Lamp and West Hampstead

The Blue Lamp, directed by Basil Dearden, was a classic Ealing Studios film released in 1950.

The locations shots were filmed in the Edgware Road and the action takes place around the famous 'Met' Music Hall.

Film poster for the Blue Lamp

In it, Jack Warner plays a London policeman who is shot by a young criminal portrayed by Dirk Bogarde. The story is by Ted Willis and Jan Read. The script by ex-policeman T.E.B ‘Tibby’ Clarke lends the film a sense of authenticity and captures a snapshot of the post-war destabilisation of the family and the rise of the young delinquent that saw an increase in violent crime.

Peggy Evans and Dirk Bogarde in The Blue Lamp

For more information see the link:

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/447704/index.html

Here is a film clip where Dick Bogarde shoots Jack Warner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYs6X5g-20c&list=PLtWb51h0f90uKz28dKlo270nUwwNqGR8W&index=2

There is a link to West Hampstead because both Jack Warner and Dirk Bogarde lived here at different times.

Jack Warner

Jack Warner became the fatherly police officer Dixon of Dock Green in a television series of that name. Created by Ted Willis it ran from July 1955 until 1976. Dixon was a reassuring traditional officer of the law adapting his pre-war standards and wisdom to the different world of the 1960s: his regular opening ‘Evening all’, became embedded in the national vocabulary. The series altered its style as English society changed and became less cosy but the advent of a harsher view of police life shown in Z Cars brought an end to Dixon of Dock Green in 1976.

Jack Warner in Dixon of Dock Green

Born as Horace John Waters in Bromley in 1895, Warner had a long and successful career in film and television. His sisters Elsie and Doris Waters were well-known comedians who performed as Gert and Daisy in the music hall, radio and films.

Warner studied automobile engineering for a year and began work in a garage for a firm of undertakers. In August 1913 he went to work as a mechanic in Paris and acquired a working knowledge of French which stood him in good stead throughout his life socially and as an entertainer. His imitation of Maurice Chevalier became a standard part of his repertoire. During WWI he served in France as a driver with the Royal Flying Corps and was awarded the meritorious service medal in 1918.

He returned to England and the motor trade in 1919, graduating from hearses to occasional car racing at Brooklands. He was over thirty before he became a professional entertainer making his West End début in 1935 in the double act of Warner and Darnell. He changed his name to Warner at this point because he did not want to trade on the reputation of his sisters.

Warner moved from Prince Albert Road Primrose Hill, to a flat at No.56 Greencroft Gardens West Hampstead, where he lived in the 1930s and 1940s.

During WWII he moved from music hall to the stage and radio. Warner appeared in the films The Quatermass Xperiment (1954), The Ladykillers (1955) and Carve Her Name With Pride (1958). He was awarded the OBE in 1965 and died in Hammersmith in 1981.

Dirk Bogarde

From 1922-25 the Van den Bogaerde family were at No.173 Goldhurst Terrace, having previously lived at No.39 Priory Terrace, off Abbey Road. Ulric van den Bogaerde was the art editor of The Times. Dirk Bogarde, his eldest son, was born in a nursing home in Hemstal Road on 28 March 1921. He was baptised at St Mary’s church, Abbey Road. Dirk began acting in 1939, and while at the Amersham Repertory company he met his lifelong companion and manager, Anthony Forwood. During his wartime service Bogarde took part in the battle for Normandy and the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Bogarde returned to acting after the War. He first came to prominence in Doctor in The House (1954) and went on to become a matinee idol. When he could not get the kind of roles he wanted, he took the risk of buying out his Rank contract for £10,000. He received a British Academy award for his work with the director Joe Losey in The Victim (1961), the first mainstream film to portray the problems gay men had in society. Bogarde played a barrister who had a relationship with a young man. He also starred in The Servant (1963), Darling (1965), and Death in Venice (1971), which Bogarde considered his best film.

Dirk Bogarde, 1959 (NPG)

He wrote several volumes of his autobiography and six novels. He lived with Anthony Forwood, but was unable to say openly he was gay, as this was illegal for much of his career. Bogarde was knighted in 1992 and died at his flat in Cadogan Gardens in May 1999.

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