Jack Warner (1895 - 1981)

There was a time when Jack Warner was little more than the catchphrase "Evening all" as his work on Dixon of Dock Green overshadowed his other work. Now, with Dixon fading into folk memory and his film work more accessible than it has been for years, it's time to re-evaluate his legacy.

 Jack Warner was genuinely a cockney - born within the sound of Bow Bells. His father made funeral fittings. Warner served in the Royal Air Force in World War One earning a Meritorious Service Medal. He began his working life as a car salesman but moved into motor racing. He started a semi-pro double act with Jeff Darnell, changing his name to Warner in order to distinguish himself from his sisters Esther and Doris Waters who had already built up a reputation on the halls as Gert and Daisy.

Success came a lot slower for Warner and it was only when he was featured on BBC Radio's Garrison Theatre in the early days of World War Two that he became a well-known comic. His personal was that of a cheery Cockney, walking on with a bicycle ("Mind my bike!") and proceeding to read a letter from his brother Sid from overseas.

He made one foray into film with The Dummy Talks during the war years, but it was after the war concluded  that his film career took off. With the new post-war spirit, there was now a place in British cinema for serious portrayals of working class folk. Warner quickly established himself as an authoritative figure, laid-back but with total integrity. In the film Holiday Camp he played Pa Huggett, the first and most successful of his working-class dad characters. This was successful enough for Gainsborough to try a spin-off series for the Huggetts. Though fondly remembered, the series wasn't a huge hit, but it did inspire a long-running radio sitcom.    

He spent the 50s portraying a series of dads, soldiers and coppers. The most significant of these portrayals would turn out to be his P.C. George Dixon in The Blue Lamp though no one would have thought it at the time. Writer Ted Willis based his series Dixon of Dock Green on the character he created for The Blue Lamp despite the fact that Dixon was murdered by Dirk Bogarde's character in the film. Dixon first aired in 1955 and continued until 1976.

Though Warner continued to make sporadic appearances in film, television and variety shows, Dixon dominated his professional life. He was still playing the character into his 80s by which point Dixon had been promoted to a desk job. After Dixon he made the occasional appearance in cabaret until the stroke that debilitated him in the last year of his life. At his funeral the coffin was carried by officers of Paddington Green Police Station.

Filmography 

Jack Warner at Amazon UK  

Jack Warner at Amazon US