Will Hay's comedy genius was in combining the role of authority figure with that of the little man struggling against authority. His hopeless incompetence when placed in a job he can't possibly do makes him a sympathetic, as well as an anarchic, figure. He was seedy, greedy, idle and mean - who could fail to love him?
He served a long apprenticeship in the Music Halls, gradually developing his sketch The Fourth Form at St Michael's, where his schoolmaster character took form. In 1934 he made his first feature for B.I.P. Those Were The Days an adaptation of Pinero's The Magistrate. He made two other films at the studio before moving to Gainsborough and making the films he's best remembered for.
His first film for Gainsborough, Boys Will Be Boys, brought out his schoolmaster character in full but it wasn't until Windbag the Sailor that he was united with Graham Moffat and Moore Marriott as his sidekicks Albert (the fat boy) and Harbottle (the old one). This teaming hit the heights in Oh, Mr Porter! which has a good claim to be Britain's funniest comedy ever.
Hay seems to have resented becoming part of a team and left Gainsborough in 1941 to go to Ealing. His films there are less appealing; partly because the plots usually involved him fighting Nazis, which every other British comedian was doing at the time. He had a straight cameo in The Big Blockade. He was still a top box-office draw but he retired from the screen due to ill health after his next film My Learned Friend. This is a gloriously dark comedy about an incompetent barrister (guess who!) who's on the hit list of his serial-killing client.
| 1934 | Those Were the Days |
| 1934 | Radio Parade of 1935 |
| 1935 | Dandy Dick |
| 1935 | Boys will be Boys |
| 1936 | Where There's a Will |
| 1936 | Windbag the Sailor |
| 1937 | Good Morning, Boys |
| 1937 | Oh, Mr Porter! |
| 1938 | Convict 99 |
| 1938 | Hey Hey USA |
| 1938 | Old Bones of the River |
| 1939 | Ask a Policeman |
| 1941 | Where's that Fire? |
| 1941 | The Ghost of St Michael's |
| 1941 | The Black Sheep of Whitehall |
| 1942 | The Goose Steps Out |
| 1942 | The Big Blockade |
| 1943 | My Learned Friend |
