The Pickwick Papers

by Charles Dickens

Papeles Postumos Pickwick 5

© John James Carty

PART FIVE

The idea of ‘niceness’ or decency has always been central to Mr Pickwick’s appeal. He only needs to give that crinkly smile and he has the audience in his grasp. But despite my earler argument, sometimes Mr Pickwick did do something.

His whole progress through the book is decorated with many small acts of kindness, many quiet words of comfort and support to the people he met – particularly young people – and he was capable of brave and vigorous action when called upon.

Clive Francis as Mr. Pickwick

We learn this later in the book when he makes a strong, indeed passionate, fight against injustice in Ipswich, or when he is later imprisoned in the horrific Fleet prison rather than pay a false debt.

But that benevolent smile did much of his work for him; it is a blessing for him that he possesses it, and it is even more of a blessing to those who receive it.

In the 1952 movie, James Hayter was a very fine Pickwick, having the right kind of chipmunk cheeks and twinkling eyes to captivate the audience.

Mr Hayter went on to even greater literary fame, becoming the voice of Mr Kipling – a role inspired by the nostalgia surrounding the image of English novelist Rudyard Kipling – in a long running series of British television adverts for cakes.

(Left to right) Mr Snodgrass (Lionel Murton) Mr Winkle (James Donald) and Mr Pickwick (James Hayter)

James Hayter was an admirable and accomplished actor in movies and on the stage, but he earned more money from these television commercials than he did in the rest of his long career.

Mr Pickwick was played and personified by the great Welsh singer and comedian Sir Harry Secombe, who died in 2001. He had great success in the Leslie Bricusse musical show Pickwick in London’s West End and on tour in the USA.

He was not a wide–ranging actor but he was a man of great warmth and compassion, who enriched many lives. If there’s one word that comes to mind about Mr Pickwick it is ‘warmth’ and Sir Harry had that quality too.

I had a small personal experience of him: I used to travel in and out of London by motorbike. It wasn’t a very reliable bike and one day, in the middle of Wimbledon, South London, in a rainstorm, it stopped.

I wasn’t dressed for this kind of weather and I was soaked to the skin. I must have looked very sorry for myself, standing in the rain, wondering what to do.

Sir Harry Secombe

It wasn’t a disaster – at least with a motorbike you can always get it out of the way by pushing it into some kind person’s garden. You can’t do that with a broken down car.

But I was wet and cold and far from happy. The traffic going the other way, into London, was jammed and moving at a walking pace.

I looked up and saw a Rolls–Royce limousine passing on the other side. It has always been my habit since I arrived in London many years ago to look in the back of a passing Rolls-Royce. I rarely look at the driver.

On this occasion I looked in the back, and there’s this big grinning face at the window, squashing his nose flat against the glass like a happy schoolboy, giving me the ‘thumbs up’ sign with both thumbs and nodding his head cheerfully as if to say, ‘Come on, it’s not so bad!’

It was as if he knew that he had ten seconds of his time available as his limo slowly passed by, and he made me a gift of it. Of course, he knew the power of his smile, the power of being famous. He knew he would make me feel better. I felt better in those few moments than I had felt all week, never mind all day.

I don’t suppose that Mr Pickwick could pull as many faces as Sir Harry could, and  I know that he could not sing opera as Sir Harry, a famous tenor, could.

But I think they both had an enormous capacity to give out human warmth in a way that few of us can. I never saw Sir Harry in the stage musical as its first London run was in 1963 - a bit before my time in London. It’s a great pity that no one made a movie of it.

Harry Secombe as Mr Pickwick.

Recently found on Google: obviously a collector's item: a vynil recording of the Pickwick musical starring Harry Secombe, have a look at www.eil.com!

Pickwick Papers Part 1

Pickwick Papers Part 2

Pickwick Papers Part 3

Pickwick Papers Part 4

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