- Ben Travers
Ben Travers CBE (
12 November 1886 -18 December 1980 ) was a Britishplaywright most famous for hisfarce s.Born in the
London borough ofHendon , Travers was educated atCharterhouse (where today there is a theatre named for him), followed by a brief spell in business. He served in the RFC andRNAS during the First World War and also rejoined the RAF in 1939 as Squadron Leader.Travers' first play "The Dippers" was produced in 1922 by Sir Charles Hawtrey. It was followed by his celebrated series of Farces staged at the
Aldwych Theatre , and a number of well-received serious plays. Travers also wrote five novels, two autobiographies and a book ofcricket reminiscences. In 1970 theBBC produced the farces "Rookery Nook", "A Cuckoo In The Nest", "Turkey Time", "A Cup Of Kindness", "Plunder", "Dirty Work" and "She Follows Me About" for television. At the age of 83, Travers rewrote the plays to concentrate on plot twists and verbal misunderstandings, rather than theslapstick and split-second timing that typified the stage versions.In his ninetieth year he wrote his final work for the stage, the comedy "
The Bed Before Yesterday ", which was successfully produced byLindsay Anderson in the West End in December 1975 for theLyric Theatre Company , starringJoan Plowright andHelen Mirren .On Travers' 90th birthday, when asked in a radio interview whether he didn't feel that at 90 he was a bit old to be writing sex romps, he replied quick-as-a-flash "Ah but you see, I have an "awfully" good memory".
In 1976 at the
Evening Standard Awards , held at the Savoy Hotel on 4 February, he was presented with the 1975 Special Award for his Services to the Theatre, and received the CBE in theQueen's Birthday Honours .He served as prime warden of the
Worshipful Company of Fishmongers .The Plays
* 1922 "The Dippers"
* 1924 "The Three Graces" (an adaptation)
* 1925 "A Cuckoo in the Nest" (adapted from his 1922 novel)
* 1926 "Rookery Nook" (adapted from his 1923 novel)
* 1927 "Thark"
* 1928 "Plunder"
* 1928 "Mischief"
* 1929 "A Cup of Kindness"
* 1930 "A Night Like This"
* 1931 "Turkey Time"
* 1932 "Dirty Work"
* 1933 "A Bit of a Test"
* 1936 "Chastity, My Brother"
* 1936 "O Mistress Mine"
* 1938 "Banana Ridge"
* 1939 "Spotted Dick"
* 1943 "She Follows Me About"
* 1947 "Outrageous Fortune"
* 1952 "Wild Horses
* 1975 "The Bed Before Yesterday"
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
