WILL HAY AND THE BBC ARE FRIENDS AGAIN
The BBC has apologised fully to Mr.Will Hay the comedian, who was faded out at the end of the music-hall programme broadcast on Saturday night. As a result Mr.Hay has altered his decision not to appear again before a microphone."As far as I am concerned ," he told the News Chronicle last night,"the whole matter is now closed. I hope to be on the air very soon." It was officially announced last night that Mr Eric Maschwitz, BBC Director of Variety had sent Mr Hay the following letter:

Dear Mr Hay,
                     I am sorrier that I can say that, owing to faulty programme timing on our part, it should of been necessary to fade out the end of your sketch. The circumstances on Saturday were exceptional. Our music hall programme had to be followed by a short bulletin, and in that itself had to be limited to ten minutes because it was due to be followed by Mr. Neville Chamberlain's talk, one of the General Election broadcasts, the timing of which is highly desirable... I hope that you will not hold to your statement that you will not broadcast again for us. We should feel very keenly the loss of your co-operation.

Irate phone calls jammed the BBC switchboard and newspapers treated the incident with major coverage. To fade out a star like Will Hay was regarded as an insult, and had caused the BBC quite a bit of embarrassment. Will was quoted in the newspapers of the day as saying "The BBC forgets that it does not provide me with a living. The fee is nothing and I do not need their work."  Will accepted what he called 'a most gracious apology.' In a press statement he went on to say "In view of the BBC letter, I suppose now that I shall broadcast again. As it is we are friends again." The dispute though was to continue in the nations press with the Performer magazine regarding the fade-out incident as deplorable. The Daily Mirror had said that the fadeout had 'caused consternation to thousands of homes.' The Daily Express had announced that it had received hundreds of letters in support of Mr.Hay.

Ten years after his argument with the BBC Will was again in conflict with them, only this time the dispute was far more serious because it  resulted in the cancellation of his radio series. The trouble stemmed from the pressure that was being put on Will and his scriptwriters to turn out material on a weekly basis. Will said he was not going to risk broadcasting a sub-standard show to millions of listeners, thus ruining his reputation that he had built up over twenty years.Will always maintained that he had no argument with the BBC but fought for his scriptwriters who were being forced to work against tight deadlines often going to 'air' under rehearsed. As a consequence this put undue pressure on Will as he always put the finishing touches to the scripts. Hay won high praise from journalists and producers alike for his views on this matter but it was to no avail as the series was scrapped and it brought about a premature end to Will's distinguished radio career although he would still make his appearances on the BBC's Brain Trust.Will was always at ease as the quiz master on the Brains trust and he made a good humoured one too whilst still demonstrating his all round general knowledge. Some would say that it was best to go out on a high rather than to carry on with sub-standard material and in a way the same problem arises today with television comedians who find it difficult to sustain long television 'runs' once their material has been exposed to a wider audience.

It is a sad fact that British comedians seldom quite click on the screen. Mainly recruits from radio and the music hall, they seem too often unable to break loose from the demands of those other entertainment fields. But the fault is by no means entirely with our comics. Unlike Hollywood's film makers, British producers rarely take the time or trouble to launch their comedians in the right style and more especially, in the right vehicle. Oddly enough it was left to a serious -minded favourite from the halls, Will Hay, to stake one of the few major claims for British comedy. Will Hay succeeded admirably in adapting for the movies with his uproariously funny stage schoolmaster with whom he had been delighting audiences since just after the first World War. In his wonderful nitwitted muddlings he retained the honest, down-to-earth humour of a music-hall turn, while neglecting none of the possibilities that the wider canvas of the screen afforded a comic. Once seen his gloriously expressive features and stoopeded, very slightly arrogant posture were never to be forgotten. We remember too his lively skirmishes with classrooms full of large and ignorant schoolboys and his surreptitious interest in their pontoon games and horse-racing speculations. To Hay's headmaster of "St Michael's"- Boys Will Be Boys, Good Morning Boys-or his wildly inefficient Porter in Oh, Mr Porter!-order and confusion were all the same; they thrived in the midst of either. He was joined fairly soon in his screen adventures by two characters who started out as mere stooges, but quickly became comic personalities in their own right - the plump, disrespectful boy, Graham Moffatt; and the toothless Moore Marriot. When Will Hay died in 1949, part of a fine tradition of typically British comedy died with him.

When Will was asked which of his films he most enjoyed he replied 'Windbag!' more than anything else, with it's slight Mutiny on the Bounty satire, and of course Oh, Mr Porter!' Words to best describe Oh, Mr Porter!, must rank with -a classic, a true masterpiece. This is Hay's most loved comedy and probably funniest. When Will Hay came to the cinema from the music-halls he brought with him the formula for turning his music-hall act into one of equal standing for the big screen. The impeccable timing that was required for the music-hall turn sat comfortably on screen and never more so than in Oh, Mr Porter! The beautiful sense of timing along with the comic quips and the playing down of the characters is really superb. In this film nothing is laboured. The direction that is provided by Marcel Varnel has a fast rhythm and it stays with the film throughout. The filming was shot mainly on the abandoned Basingstoke-Alton line which was part of the Southern Railway. The station of Buggleskelly was in fact the real life station of Cliddesden, which was in a dilapidated state before Gainsborough Films got to work on their 'new set'. Oh, Mr.Porter! was filmed at Cliddesden between May and July 1937. All the interior shots were made at Gainsborough Studios, Shepherds Bush during the August and the film had it's first public showing in November 1937 and went on general release on 3rd January 1938.