Comic Icons: Will Hay Collection

Triple bill of comedies starring Will Hay. 'Radio Parade of 1935' (1934) was one of the first screen outings for Hay. He plays the Director General of the National Broadcasting Group (NBG) who hides away in his office unaware that the general feeling about his programming is that it is too high-brow and the public are not happy. However, when he discovers this he decides to take action and promotes Jimmy, his Head of the Complaints Department, to Programme Director. Jimmy decides that a series of variety spectaculars are what the public want and sets about hiring the acts. But obstacles are put in his way and he discovers that the NBG has its own cluster of wannabe variety stars. In 'The Ghost of St Michaels' (1941), the outbreak of the Second World War results in the boys' school of St Michaels relocating to Dubain Castle on the Isle of Skye. The new schoolmaster (Hay) scoffs at the legends of a ghostly piper which haunts the castle - until two headmasters come to a grisly end. Who will become the next victim of the phantom piper? In 'The Black Sheep of Whitehall' (1942), Hay plays Professor Davis, the intrepid head of a correspondence college. Davis gets wind of the fact that a Nazi spy has infiltrated an economic delegation with the intent of undermining attempts to reach a trade agreement between Great Britain and certain South American countries. The effort to expose the dastardly fellow sees Hay adopt various disguises in a steady onslaught of mistaken-identity comedy.

Director: Arthur Woods
Director: Marcel Varnel
Producer: Basil Dearden
Producer: Michael Balcon
Writer: Jack Davies
Writer: Paul Perez
Writer: James Bunting
Writer: Angus MacPhail
Writer: John Dighton
Music: Ernest Irving
Actor: Will Hay
Actor: Clifford Mollison
Actor: John Mills
Actor: Helen Chandler
Actor: Claude Hulbert
Actor: Basil Sydney
Actor: Davy Burnaby
Actor: Felix Aylmer
Actor: Henry Hewitt
Actor: The Western Brothers
Actor: Raymond Huntley
Actor: Alfred Drayton
Actor: Elliott Mason
Actor: Owen Reynolds
Actor: Lily Morris
Actor: Charles Hawtrey
Actor: Frank Cellier
Actor: Nellie Wallace
Actor: John Laurie
Actor: Joss Ambler
Actor: Clapham & Dwyer
Actor: Hay Petrie
Actor: Frank Allenby
Actor: Claude Dampier
Actor: Roddy Hughes
Actor: Thora Hird
Actor: Ronald Frankau
Actor: Manning Whiley
Actor: Ted Ray
Actor: Beryle Orde
Actor: Stanelli & His Hornchester