The Real Stanley Baxter
£4.80£9.50 (-49%)
Stanley Baxter delighted over 20 million viewers at a time with his television specials. His pantos became legendary. His divas and dames were so good they were beyond description.
Baxter was a most brilliant cowboy Coward, a smouldering Dietrich. He found immense laughs as Formby and Liberace. And his sex-starved Tarzan swung in a way Hollywood could never have imagined. But who is the real Stanley Baxter?
The comedy actor’s talents are matched only by his past reluctance to colour in the detail of his own character. Now, the man behind the mischievous grin, the twinkling eyes and the once- Brylcreemed coiffure is revealed.
In a tale of triumphs and tragedies, of giant laughs and great falls from grace, we discover that while the enigmatic entertainer could play host to hundreds of different voices, the role he found most difficult to play was that of Stanley Baxter.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Luath Press Ltd (15 Dec. 2021) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 328 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1910022500 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1910022504 |
| Dimensions | 19.8 x 3 x 12.9 cm |
by JOHN WILLIAM NIELD
A courageous and entertaining biography. In my formative years, I enjoyed Stanley Baxter ‘s Christmas Pantomines, with his TV spectaculars later in his career. He hasn’t shirked in being open about his marriage, sexuality and relationships with other performers and TV companies.
He brought back memories of other productions, which I saw as a teenager, including a memorable performance by Eartha Kitt at the Glasgow Alhambra. Like Stanley, I was Gay in the making, and empathized with his experiences and feelings. It was also very interesting to be given the background to his time as a Private on Parade, and subsequent friendship with other members of the troup, including Kenneth Williams and Peter Nichols. A good read.
by Dan
I approached this book with a real sense of anticipation. Having enjoyed Stanley Baxter’s television work for many years, I was curious to find out more about this elusive performer. His life, of which I knew very little, would prove to be both fascinating and, at times, genuinely moving. It’s just a shame the writing failed, in almost every way, to do him justice.
Brian Beacom makes no secret that he is a product of the newspaper industry; in and of itself there is, perhaps, nothing wrong with that. His tabloid journalism style is, however, misplaced in longform prose and, quite often, made me feel genuinely uncomfortable. The Real Stanley Baxter reads like a drawn-out kiss-and-tell red-top feature article; from the overtly salacious (and often irrelevant and misleading) chapter headings, to the sensational tone of the text, Beacom seems to succeed in giving Baxter the thing he spent so much of his life trying to avoid: the lurid tabloid exposé. Take this paragraph which talks of Baxter’s fragile mental state after being arrested on his own in a public toilet:
‘When he arrived at Beaconsfield, Stanley was close to tears. But director Ken Annakin had heard the news on the radio and quickly realised immediately (sic) he had a basket case on his hands. Annakin helped soothe the totally terrified Stanley… but Stanley knew all too well his career was hanging by nothing thicker than the width of Babette’s knicker elastic.’
This crushingly insensitive portrayal of the effects of a hostile world on a man fearful for his life and career illustrates the writer’s overriding priority for sensationalism over compassion for his subject. It also demonstrates a distracting tendency to feature a little too much of the writer’s own voice, something which occurs repeatedly throughout. Some of the best moments in the book are where we hear Stanley recounting his memories ‘first hand’ but these are often appended with Beacom asides like “In his dreams” and “And then he truly lost the plot” which again tilt the tone towards opinionated tabloid journalism. A personal bug-bear too was the writer’s tendency to end each chapter with a ‘and-if-you-think-that’s-bad-wait-till-you-hear-what-happened-next’ sentiment. Perhaps this again betrays Beacom’s background in an industry obsessed with selling more copy.
If the tone isn’t enough to concern the reader, the technical deficiencies of the text are even more jarring. Luath Press declares itself ‘committed to publishing well written books worth reading’. The reader may therefore assume the publisher has engaged the services of an editor (or, at the very least, a proof reader). It’s surprising then that The Real Stanley Baxter is absolutely littered with errors. Some sentences barely make any sense at all:
‘What Stanley does is pretty stupid in that he was not more cognoscente (sic) of what the police were capable of.’
‘But he wouldn’t have to take a time-out from television, to reflect on when he would be fit to offer up his next series or perhaps an hour-long special.’
On occasions there is also a lack of basic fact checking in evidence:
‘When the new sitcom Are You Being Served exploded onto television screens in 1973…’
(Are you Being Served was barely acknowledged by audiences when the one-off pilot episode was included as part of a BBC season of Comedy Playhouse, first shown in 1972.)
It’s a shame these fundamental problems overshadow what is a fascinating and genuinely touching life story. Beacom arguably has some pathos for his subject – the crushingly destructive and terrifying climate of inequality and victimisation gay men endured during those decades is captured quite well – as well as an admiration for Stanley Baxter’s luminous talent. The quality and style of the writing, however, let his subject down and I was left feeling that Stanley deserves so much better than this sorry coda to what has been an incredible life and career.
by Amazon Customer
Very Good Read.
by Dan
Didn’t know this man at all, watched him on tv, the book amazed me in its revelations about this talented man.
by Lindsay
My mum thoroughly enjoyed the book!
by R LAING
An honest memoir of a man who happened to be gay at a time when it was not only a criminal offence, but also a reminder that you could be found out and humiliated and abused for who you were, I definitely wouldn’t want to live in such an oppressive society. whilst Stanley had a hugely successful professional life his private life was one full of sadness and fear and self loathing…I felt .so sad for him
by Paul Gentry
Everything is good
by Virginio
This biography of the amazing Mr Baxter reads like a conversation between him and the author, Brian Beacom, and it does feel like one is there with them. To me Stanley Baxter, whose work I first saw in repeats at BBC back in the ’90s, is simply The Best. And, my God, how did he got away with some of the filthiest jokes is anyone’s guess. Funniest of all (and not rude at all) were his impersonations of Her Majesty, The Queen (and I bet that if she watched them she would have laughed, as the lady was known for her sense of humour) in particular the sketch of the filming of the Queen’s Christmas Speech, where he plays The Queen, the director, the cameraman, the assistant, in short- EVERYONE in it! a scream! When will the BBC bring out the complete DVDs (with extras, subtitles AND list of Chapters, please!)?