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Mr Pastry: British television's forgotten star

Paul HayesBBC Radio Norfolk
BBC A black-and-white photo of a man pictured from the chest up. He is in his 50s, but made-up to look older, with white hair and a drooping white moustache. He is wearing a black jacket and a white shirt, glasses, and is holding a black bowler hat in his right hand, visible at the bottom of frame as he holds it up in front of him. He is standing in front of a stone-walled house with a leaded, diamond-pattern window, with a framed painting visible on the wall through the window, and he is smiling at the camera.BBC
Richard Hearne as Mr Pastry in an episode of his sitcom Leave it to Pastry in 1960

He was one of Britain's first television stars, headlining shows for 20 years and even gaining fame in the same US TV series which would later help launch the Beatles across the Atlantic.

But now, Richard Hearne and his Mr Pastry character, who were household names in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, are all but forgotten even in the city of Hearne's birth.

A small plaque on the Theatre Royal in Norwich commemorates his stage debut there as a six-week-old baby in 1908.

But Paul Dickson, who runs walking tours of Norwich city centre, has told an episode of the Secret Norfolk series on BBC Sounds that most people "have no idea" about the star who was once "enormous".

Paul Hayes/BBC A colour close-up of an exterior wall, decorated with small mosaic-style squares, laid out in a grid pattern with mostly black squares interspersed with some sandy-yellow coloured ones, although the black is fading through the colouring on most of those squares. Mounted in the centre of the image is a circular, pale turquoise-coloured plaque, with white lettering on it reading: "Richard Hearne OBE, 1908-1979, Actor, dancer, acrobat and children’s clown, ‘Mr Pastry’ made his debut at Norwich Theatre Royal aged six weeks".Paul Hayes/BBC
A plaque commemorates Richard Hearne on the front wall of the Theatre Royal in Norwich

The son of two stage performers, Hearne and his family lived on Lady Lane opposite the Norwich Theatre Royal. The site is now occupied by the city's Forum building.

Soon after his birth, his mother was appearing in a play at the theatre which required a baby, and young Richard was given the part.

"My mother said I didn't cry at all, I was wonderful," he explained in an interview for BBC Radio 4 in 1968.

"But the only thing is, every time I was turned my eyes were glued to the lime lights. So wherever I was turned, this head was fixed, staring at the lime lights."

Hearne eventually became very well-known on British television as Mr Pastry, an old man character whose doddery, good-natured antics served as a showcase for Hearne's acrobatic slapstick routines.

Hearne would appear as Mr Pastry in variety programmes, children's shows, and even his own sitcoms. Such was his fame that he was one of the stars chosen to feature in the gala opening programme of the new BBC Television Centre in 1960.

A black-and-white mid-shot of a man in his 50s, made up to look older with white hair and a white moustache. He is wearing a black tailcoat, a white shirt and grey trousers, and is pictured side-on from his right-hand-side. He is holding a black bowler hat in his right hand, which is stretched out alongside a mock-up of a 1930s-style BBC television camera which he is pretending to operate. Behind the camera is an impressionistic scenery flat depicting two ornate windows.
Richard Hearne played Mr Pastry in a special programme to mark the opening of BBC Television Centre in 1960

He had been performing aged-up as an older character since he was in his 20s, and first appeared on BBC Television in 1937. But it was only when TV returned after World War Two in the summer of 1946 that he decided to give the character a name.

"When television came back, they wanted me to go back to television," he told Radio 4 in 1968.

"And I said 'Well, if I'm going to play that old man again I'll give him a name, so that I can keep my own identity.' And I'd been playing in a musical comedy, and the name of the character was Mr Pastry."

Mr Pastry's fame extended beyond the UK. Paul Dickson explained that in the 1950s, Hearne became a regular guest on one of the biggest programmes in the United States, the Ed Sullivan Show. This was the series which would later famously help give the Beatles their big break in the US.

"He performed 29 times on the Ed Sullivan Show," Dickson said. "Ed Sullivan really liked it."

After one of his guest spots in 1954, the New York Daily News described Hearne as the "first foreign comedian to make a name for himself in American TV" with a "tremendous US fan following".

A black-and-white mid-shot of two men, half-turned towards one another and smiling on a television studio set with nondescript plain backdrops. The man on the right is in his late 30s, with slightly curly black hair, a black jacket, a white shirt and dark tie. He is a few inches taller than the man on the left, who is in his early 50s with receding grey hair, a grey pinstriped jacket, white shirt and pale-shaded tie. The man on the right is handing the man on the left a large hardback book with ‘This is Your Life’ written on it in block capitals. Behind the two men can be seen various members of a studio audience, or possibly invited guests for the television programme.
Richard Hearne (left), without the Mr Pastry make-up, on This is Your Life with Eamonn Andrews in 1959

Dickson said that Hearne also used his fame to raise money to build swimming pools for groups caring for disabled children.

"Well over half a million pounds in the 50s and 60s, which is a considerable amount of money, and he was awarded the OBE for his work for charity."

Now, however, Dickson finds that even in Hearne's home city of Norwich few people remember the star, who died in 1979.

"When I do my tours, I ask people 'Who remembers Mr Pastry?' When you get someone younger than 60, they have no idea.

"He's a fascinating character, and obviously had a very, very successful career."

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