Hattie Jacques

At 58 years old, Hattie Jacques has this physical status:

Hattie Jacques (born Josephine Edwina Jaques, 1922-2006) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio, and film.

She is best known for her appearances on television and radio as a regular on the Carry On films, where she often played tight, no-nonsense characters. Jacques began her career in 1945 with a performance at the Players' Theatre in London, but she rose to national prominence thanks to her appearances on three popular radio programmes on the BBC: with Tommy Handley on It's That Man Again; with ventriloquist Peter Brough on Educating Archie; and finally with Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour.

In Green for Danger, where she had a brief, uncredited role in the Second World War, Jacques made her cinematic debut in the Second World War.

She appeared in 14 Carry On films from 1958 to 1974, including the formidable hospital matron.

She had a long-running friendship with Eric Sykes, with whom she co-starred in his long-running series Sykes and Sykes and a... The job endeared her to the public, and the two became British television staples. In private, Jacques lived a turbulent life.

She was married to actor John Le Mesurier from 1949 to their divorce in 1965, owing to her five-year affair with another man.

Jacques, who had been overweight since her teenage years, became sick shortly after the Le Mesurier's separation and her weight increased to nearly 20 stone (130 kg).

On October 6, 1980, she died as a result of a heart attack at the age of 58.

Jacques' biographer, Francis Gray, says he was a "talent for greater-than-life comedy that never lost its grip on humanity," but she might also perform "a broader comedian role" as a result of her "extraordinary versatility."

Early life: 1922–1944

Jacques was born Josephine Edwina Jaques on February 7th, 1922, Sandgate, Kent, Kent, 125 Sandgate High Street. She was the youngest child of Robin Rochester Jaques (1897–1923), a serviceman in the British Army and later, the Royal Air Force, and Mary Jaques (née Thorn), a nurse who served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD).

The Jaques family were largely non-theatrical, with the notable exception of Mary, who appeared in the small role of Harry Hathaway in the Christmas pantomime Robinson Crusoe at the Palace Theatre, Cologne, in 1920. Mary loved the theatre and brought Jacques to live performances from an early age. The result had a "profound effect" on the teenage girl, particularly the love of dance. Robin Rochester Jaques, a flight lieutenant with the Royal Air Force, was a keen sportsman and became a semi-professional footballer. He joined Clapton Orient and Fulham F.C., but his career was cut short after he died in a flying crash on August 8. 1923. Mary, Jacques, and her elder brother Robin transferred from Newton in Lincolnshire to London after her brother Robin's death, where Jacques was moved to Chelsea's Lady Margaret primary school. Jacques began her secondary education at the Godolphin and Latymer Schools in Hammersmith in July 1930, while attending the Dean Sisters Academy in Hammersmith, where she was a principal dancer in the academy's performances. She earned unremarkable grades in Godolphin and Latymer in 1939. She worked with amateur dramas on a regular basis, and in May 1939 she appeared with the Curtain Club in Barnes' productions of Fumed Oak and Borgia.

During the Second World War, Jacques became a nurse in the VAD; she served in a mobile unit in London and visited bombed places during the Blitz. Following a reorganisation in the VAD, Jacques needed new work and, in the summer of 1943, she became a welder in a factory in north London, a job that lasted until the end of the year. Major Charles Kearney, an American soldier, became romantically involved with her around this time. Jacques later claimed that Kearney had been involved and that Kearney had been killed in combat, but her biographer, Andy Merriman, discovered that Kearney had a wife and children in the United States when he had proposed to them and that they had returned to them after the war.

Josephine Jacques made her professional debut in 1944, after being auditioned by Leonard Sachs as well—at the Players' Theatre, London, in a revue called Late Joys. She became a regular performer for the company, appearing in music hall revues and playing the Fairy Queen in their Victorian-style pantomimes. As she performed, directed, wrote lyrics, and "developed the persona she was to use in pantomime for years, the large, mighty, yet vulnerable fairy queen," her biographer, Frances Gray, referred to the Players as being Jacques' drama school. It was during her debut on television in June 1946 that she made her debut on television when the show was broadcast on the BBC. She first used the spelling "Hattie" after appearing in the minstrel show Coal Black Mammies for Dixie while at the Players' in 1946. Hattie McDaniel, a well-known actress known for her appearance in Gone with the Wind, compared her to her "blacked up" appearance and Jacques kept the name for the remainder of her life.

In the 1946 film Green for Danger, directed by Sidney Gilliat, Jacques made her big-screen debut, but uncredited for a brief period. She joined the Young Vic Theatre Company in December and appeared in Smeraldina in The King Stag. The performance ran at the Lyric Theatre for a month before embarking on a five-month tour of the United Kingdom. It received positive feedback; the Gloucestershire Echo described it as "a noble performance" and said that Jacques was "very solidly in step." Nicholas Nickleby, Alberto Cavalcanti's film in which Jacques played Mrs Kenwick for the first time in 1949, was released. Jacques was introduced to actor John Le Mesurier while on vacation in June 1947, and the two began a friendship. Le Mesurier was married but he was estranged from his wife.

Ted Kavanagh, the scriptwriter of BBC Home Service's It's That Man Again (ITMA), visited the Players' and invited Jacques to audition for the series, which she did on September 18th for a five guineas. She was so tense during the audition that Tommy Handley, the show's actress, held her hand, which made her more tense. Sophie Tuckshop, the obnoxious schoolgirl, appeared on ITMA as the "thoroughest of epic binges," she said before concluding her stories with the catchword. Jacques began working in ITMA in September 1947, at the start of series eleven, which lasted for 38 episodes, and she was paid ten guineas per episode.

During much of 1948, Jacques continued to record episodes of ITMA for half the week, as well as staying in the Players' Theatre; she also took time during the spring to film Flora in No, No. 26 on the BBC and appear at the Whitehall Theatre in Bates Wharf with the Under Thirty Theatre Group. In the David Lean film Oliver Twist, she appeared as a singer at the Three Cripples tavern later that year. In September, she began recording her second series of ITMA—the show's twelfth—before returning to the Players' for the Christmas pantomime, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood. In the latter performance, The Times reported that Jacques "must certainly be one of the funniest fairies" in her role as Fairy Queen Antedota, one of her favorite parts.

Tommy Handley died on January 9, 1949; the BBC announced that he was "too much the corestone and representation of the actual success" of ITMA, and that they immediately cancelled the broadcast. Handley, according to Jacques later, was "one of the greatest radio artists we have ever known." "I learned a lot from him." Le Mesurier's wife died later this year; shortly after the divorce, Jacques suggested to him, "don't you think it's time to marry?" At Kensington Registrar's Office, the couple married on November tenth of this year. She returned to the Players' house in Southsea after a week of honeymooning as Marrygolda in the Christmas pantomime Beauty and the Beast.

Chance of a Lifetime's early months were released in British cinemas; it was a film in which Jacques "really made her mark," according to her biographer, Andy Merriman. Lifetime is a product of human and industrial relations, based in a plough factory whose boss cedes power to the workforce. Alice, a welder, was paid her 17 days filming "I've been doing this job welding Bailey and Pontoon Bridges and I know how difficult it is."

That's not enough money!"

The bid was accordingly raised, and the price was accordingly raised. Jacques had "the best scene in the film" according to Geoff Mayer, who performed her mock seductive dance in front of an outraged [Niall] MacGinnis."

In the first episode of the weekly radio show Educating Archie as Agatha Dinglebody, Jacques was cast on June 6, 1950. The ventriloquist's dummy Archie Andrews, operated by Peter Brough, was "Archie" of the title. The first series ran for 29 weeks until 19 December 1932. In the show Jacques appeared alongside Max Bygraves, Julie Andrews, Beryl Reid, and—in the second series—Tony Hancock. It was on this program that she first met Eric Sykes, who was supplying scripts for the series. Sykes had been captivated by Jacques since he first visited the Players' in 1948. She later wrote that she "walked about the stage with a sense of dignity and grace as if she owned it." She leapt in the air at the end of her performance, celebrating in the splits, before landing as a snowflake in July. Sykes was introduced backstage to Jacques and thought that the gathering was "the start of a new flight" in his professional life. At the end of the series, Jacques returned to the Players' to appear in the Christmas pantomime, Ali Baba, and the Thirty-nine Thieves, which she and Joan Sterndale-Bennett had adapted after she had copied it out long-hand at the British Museum. In her role as Ali Baba's wife, Cogia, the reviewer in The Times said Jacques was "as appealing as last year."

Throughout 1951, Jacques continued to work in various media, including appearing as Mrs Fezziwig in the film Scrooge starring Alastair Sim; from 3 August to January 1953, she appeared in the Prince of Wales Theatre's related stage show, The Archie Andrews Christmas Exhibition from December 1952 to January 1953. With the Tuft, a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault, she appeared in—and co-adapted—a Christmas pantomime at the Players' Theatre, Riquet. Jacques also played Mrs Jenks in John Gilling's comedy horror film Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, co-starring Arthur Lucan and Bela Lugosi.

Jacques was pregnant in 1952 but did the splits at the end of her pregnancy, appearing in the Players' revue The Bells of St Martins from August to November 1952: she was "monumental of person but remarkably thin of voice," according to The Manchester Guardian. Le Mesurier said he was "faintly relieved" when the revue came to an end due to her efforts, in addition to which she appeared in the 27 episodes of Educating Archie from September 1952 to June 1953. She then curated—but not appear in—the Players' Christmas pantomime of 1952, Babes in the Wood. After a few days of film Up to His Neck, Jacques gave birth to her first son, Robin, in March 1953 and returned to work. Le Mesurier led the 38-minute "movie-masque" The Pleasure Garden, a film that was shot in 1952 and received the Prix de Fantasie Poétique at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival. "Miss Jacques as actress, playing a deliciously arch and absence-minded Fairy Queen from October to April 1954, appeared on Educating Archie and directed Cinderella at the Players' in December 1953; The Times reported that "Miss Jacques as actress, playing a vivacious and forgetful Fairy Queen" would help to recover Miss Jacques's failure as dramatist.

In 1954, Jacques began to work on radio. She was in Paradise Street, a spin-off series from Educating Archie, from May to July, while in June she was in Archie, a one-off special program that was a joint venture between Education Archie and the Goon Show. Mrs Leathers appeared in Educating Archie's series five, as well as being an actress in series five. She produced and directed Twenty Minutes South, first at the Players' Theatre, then to 105 appearances at the St Martin's Theatre, and then in seven episodes of The Granville Melodramas on ITV between October and December.

According to Le Mesurier, a second pregnancy brought Kim, "who came roaring and joking into the world in October 1956, a trifle before his allotted time." Jacques appeared on ITV's In June 1956, the actor appeared on The Tony Hancock Show; this led to the appearance of Hancock's secretary, Griselda Pugh, in Hancock's Half Hour. She appeared in 16 episodes from November 1956 to February 1957, with Hancock, Sidney James, Bill Kerr, and Kenneth Williams. According to television historian Richard Webber, Jacques' arrival on Hancock "given the series an extra boost." She appeared in five more episodes of Hancock's Half Hour between April and June 1957, as well as a further 20 episodes between January and June 1958, just after a special edition on Christmas Day 1958. Terry-Thomas, Eric Sykes, and Harry Secombe performed 380 performances of Large as Life at the London Palladium in 1958. She appeared in the sketches "Concerto for Three Buffoons" by Secombe and Sykes, "The Good Old Days" and the two full company numbers that closed each of the show's two halves.

Jacques appeared in the first Carry On film, which was released in 1958. The "Carry On team" will continue to be employed by this group of actors who would later be known as the "Carry On team" team. Jacques appeared in 14 of these films over a 15-year career, and like many of her Carry On co-stars, she quickly became typecast. Carry On Doctor, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Pain, Carry On Matron, Carry On Fire and Carry On Matron were all recurring roles for Jacques. She was introduced as a "Mother Hen" figure by the team, and she was a close friend to several of her co-stars, including Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims, who received a lot of advice and practical assistance from Jacques. Sims regarded Jacques as her "greatest friend" and as "both a sister and a mother to me." Sims, Williams, and Hawtrey would often be invited to Sims, Williams, and Hawtrey's house for Christmas dinner.

Carry On Sergeant, Jacques' first film in the series, began in March 1958. She portrayed Captain Clark, a "battleaxe medical officer" who struggles to comprehend the hypochondriac Private Horace Strong's deformed body. For the first time in Carry On Nurse, a film that smashed previous year's box office records, Carry On Nurse also sold more than ten million tickets in British cinemas. Despite the fact that Jacques' role was so modest, she appeared in perhaps the most famous scene of the film, in which she retrieves a daffodil from Wilfrid Hyde-White's buttocks as punishment for the staff's constant bullying. The daffodils were imported from Japan, which were then used to advertise the film. Other characterisations followed, including the formidable maths mistress Grace Short of Carry On Teacher (1959) and Laura Moon of Carry On Constable (1960). In the case of the former film, Derek Prouse of The Sunday Times found that Jacques "triumph[ed] over footage that is so remorselessly juvenile that one is beaten into a sort of adoration."

Jacques appeared in the first episode of BBC comedy series Sykes and a... on January 29, 1960, co-starring Eric Sykes as a pair of twins; Richard Wattis and Deryck Guyler were also regulars in the film. "Hattie (Hat) Sykes' — Jacques's character — was "a middle-class, slightly pretentious woman struggling to keep her dignity while the men made fools of themselves." During the next five years, Sykes and a... would have appeared in sixty episodes out of a nine series. The program, according to media analyst Graham McCann, was "one of the finest-natured, least pretentious, and most profitable British sitcoms of the 1960s." Jacques and Sykes "became embedded in the public eye as a priceless comic partnership," they said; to capitalize, they released Eric and Hattie and Things!! Unfortunately, it didn't happen to chart. Jacques played Georgina Ruddy, a librarian who was made to work but was not able to be audible at home in September 1960; she appeared in Our House, Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Bress law, and Joan Sims; Jacques played the librarian Georgina Ruddy, who was forced to sit at work and so made up for it by being extremely tumultuous at home. Watch Your Stern, along with several Carry On regulars, and School for Scoundrels, opposite Ian Carmichael, were two of the Carry On regulars later this year. Nanette Parry's role in Make Mine Mink, in which she co-starred Terry-Thomas and Athene Seyler, has increased after these. Later, she referred to this film as her favorite movie.

In October 1961, Jacques appeared on Desert Island Discs, claiming that she would be too lonely on such a quiet island for someone of her temperament. Carry On had become a well-known film franchise by this time, with author Robert Ross describing it as a "phenomenon" in the book. Carry On Regardless, the year's film, the fifth in the series, Jacques was paid £100 for his small role as a disgruntled hospital sister, who appeared briefly on screen alongside English character actor Kynaston Reeves. Originally intended for a major role in the film, but she was unable to commit to a longer role due to her illness. In 1963, she appeared as "Peggy Hawkins," the emotionally abused wife of taxi-firm boss "Charlie" as played by Sid James. Later this year, Jacques rated the film as her favorite of the series, after she was encouraged to shed her "battleaxe" persona and play the romantic lead opposite James.

In 1963, Jacques' private life became more difficult. She had attended John Schofield, a cockney used-car dealer who chauffeured her to a Leukaemia Research Fund function last year. Since the driver gave her the attention and assistance that Le Mesurier did not have, the couple became intimately involved. Le Mesurier was turned into a separate room when Jacques decided to move Schofield into the family's house. "I could have walked out," he later admitted about this period, but I loved Hattie and the children, and I was certain—I wanted to be safe—that we could fix the harm." Jacques was pleasantly surprised to be the subject of This Is Your Life in February 1963, when she was approached by Eamonn Andrews at rehearsal for the sixth series of Sykes and a... Although Le Mesurier did not comment on his marital situation when being interrogated by Andrews, he said, "the home comes first," which Merriman referred to "rather pointedly." Despite the matrimonial uproar, Jacques and Le Mesurier appeared in The Punch and Judy Man, a 1963 Tony Hancock film. Le Mesurier, a married woman from 1964, made the decision to shield Jacques from all negative coverage and encouraged her to file a divorce lawsuit on the grounds of his own infidelity. This ensured that the public blamed him for the break-up, casting Jacques as the perpetrator in the case.

Jacques appeared in her own television series, Miss Adventure, as the private investigator Stacey Smith in 1964, as well as recording four episodes of the radio show Housewives' Choice. Although Jacques wanted the series to be full of suspense, the shows were more comedic and she was dissatisfied with the results. In August of that year, she appeared as Madame Arcati in an ITV rendition of Blithe Spirit. "finally someone had not overshadowed by Margaret Rutherford," the play's scriptwriter said, "and I had appeared in the 1945 film version.

Jacques went to Rome in 1966 to film The Bobo with Peter Sellers; before that, she went on a strict diet and shed five stone (32 kg), but she was angry that so few people noticed. She loved the filming experience, describing it as "one of the loveliest things I've worked on." Schofield, who had suffered with an Italian heiress, started an affair with an Italian heiress and ended his friendship with Jacques; a hugely distraught woman, Jacques, who had had a weight problem since her teens, began eating comfort food and her weight increased to nearly 20 stone (127 kg).

Carry On Doctor, the Carry On Doctor, was shot by Peter Rogers in 1967. Rogers initially wanted Joan Sims to play the hospital matron, but she turned down the opportunity, citing Jacques's performance in Carry On Nurse could not be improved. Rogers casts Jacques as Matron, with Sims playing a smaller role as the film's lead character Francis Bigger, played by Frankie Howerd. Carry On Nurse's screen time was boosted as the producers considered her presence to be an extension of her previous work. Carry On Doctor was first published in December of this year, to a great deal.

Jacques debuted in 1968 by appearing with Spike Milligan and Frank Thornton in thirteen episodes of the sketch show The World of Beachcomber, based on the Beachcomber column in the Daily Express newspaper and broadcast on the BBC from January to April. On ITV, she appeared alongside Frankie Howerd in his sketch show Howerd's Hour. She maintained her busy schedule with appearances in six films for 1969, including another with Sellers, The Magic Christian. Ginger, the woman who was described as a "grotesque figure," was depicted here, with a "insatiable hunger for bestsellers on World War II." She appeared on television with Harry Secombe and Roy Castle in Pickwick, which was based on the musical of the same name, and Carry On Christmas, she was also on Christmas Eve. Despite the fact that 1969 had been tumultuous, 1970 was relatively quiet in terms of her career output: aside from an episode of Catweazle, she appeared alongside Willoughby Goddard in a six-episode collection of Charley's Grants, she was largely unemployed. Carry On Loving, in which she appeared Sophie Bliss, was released in September that year. Carry On Film was a sequel to Carry On, Where she played Beattie Plummer, Sid Plummer's housebound wife, was played by Sid James. She produced another series with Sykes, Sykes, and a Big, Big Show, a music and sketch show, which had six episodes between February and April this year.

Two more Carry On films followed Jacques in 1972: Carry On Matron, for which she was actively involved in the role, and Carry On Abroad as Floella, the fiery Spanish cook at a half-finished hotel. Besides the film being Charles Hawtrey's last film, it also marked a decrease in Jacques' screen time; she spent only one week filming her scenes. The film's financiers became concerned about Jacques' deteriorating health during post-production. In a letter to series producer Peter Rogers, they expressed their disdain to have her on set in any future film.

Jacques appeared in the first series of Sykes, "the wide-eyed, less-knowing, but remarkably patient sister-cum-mother figure," although Sykes' peak saw 17 million viewers. In Dennis Potter's television play Traitor, Jacques and her son Robin were at home with her son Robin to watch Le Mesurier receive the British Academy of Film and Television Arts "Best Television Actor" award for his portrayal of a "boozy British aristocrat" who became a spy for the Soviets. Jacques cried when her ex-husband received the award and told her son that she "wasn't crying out of professional resentment or even envy of Joan Le Mesurier"; however, there was still no one with whom to live.

In 1974, Jacques' sons were arrested for smoking marijuana, and her house was searched by police. She received official notice that the two boys would be notified as an OBE in the same week as they appeared in court. She declined the opportunity in order to shield her sons from further press intrusion. Later this year, when shooting the third series of Sykes, she suffered from a cancer scare and shed a substantial amount of weight. Despite all of this, she refused to defynch the film schedule; after filming was completed on December 5, she underwent kidney surgery at Charing Cross Hospital for what appeared to be benign tumors on her kidneys.

Jacques appeared in a British Rail promotional film starring her against racing driver Jackie Stewart in a race to London in 1976. Sykes and Jacques appeared together in the stage play A Hatful of Sykes, both in the United Kingdom and internationally, from 1976 to 1995. During the course of the two actors' tours, Sykes changed the script several times to ensure he received more acclaim than Jacques. When he first appeared in Blackpool in 1977, Jacques's health became increasingly uncomfortable as she suffered from arthritis and ulcerated legs, which required daily dressing. Sykes accused her of receiving special care because a dressing room was planned in a way that avoided her from needing to use stairs. Sykes "began to be behaving remarkably strangely" as the show traveled to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and he even accused Hattie of not being able to produce a proper feed line. The relationship between the two people was quickly deteriorating by the time the show appeared in Brighton in 1979, and although the pair applauded each other in public, Jacques was deeply hurt by Sykes' treatment of her. Despite the differences, the pair shot the seventh series of Sykes in 1979 and—in April 1980—the television film Rhubarb Rhubarb; despite the fact that her role was small, she appeared "a little unsteady on her feet."

In May 1980, Jacques' doctor told her not to go to Greece on holiday as planned, so she went to Ireland instead. "You know I'm not going to live long," she told her friend Bruce Copp at the return ferry crossing. Her health was still poor, and insurance companies refused to insure her for film work. By October, her weight had risen once more; she had trouble breathing; and she had been admitted to Charing Cross Hospital. On October 6th, she took a weekend break from hospital and returned home to Eardley Crescent, where she died as a result of heart disease at the age of 58. She was also suffering from kidney disease.

Jacques's funeral took place at Putney Vale Crematorium, where her ashes were scattered. Sykes' sons refused to attend the funeral because they resent the way they had treated her at the stage show; Sykes was furious by the exclusion and was unable to explain why she had been barred; According to Merriman, Joan Sims, the other notable absentee from the funeral was Joan Sims, who "stayed in her house and spent the day drinking, reading old letters from Hattie, and indulgeing in self-pity."

Kenneth Williams was deeply saddened by the death of his friend, and he wrote that "all the chums have died... one is left dead on the shore... the tide is receding and leaving some incongruous wrecks unveiled. I'm afraid I am one of them." "She had an aura of love and compassion about her," John Le Mesurier wrote of him, while her obituary in The Times stated that "she will be remembered with reverence by all who saw her." A month after the funeral, a memorial service was held at St Paul's, Covent Garden, also known as the Actors' Church, which was described by Le Mesurier as a "joyous event."

In St Paul's, Covent Garden, a memorial plaque to Jacques is on display. Eric Sykes and Clive Dunn, a colleague from her Players' Theatre days, unveiled a blue plaque at her former home in November 1995: 67 Eardley Crescent, Earls Court, London. At the BBC Broadcasting House in London, plaques for Jacques, Sid James, and Tony Hancock were unveiled in 2002.

The marriage of Jacques and Le Mesurier in 2011 was the subject of a BBC Four biographical film that centered on Jacques's relationship with John Schofield. Ruth Jones, a British actress who Robin Le Mesurier said, "had captured my mother perfectly." Jones was ecstatic to be the protagonist of her comedy hero, describing her as a "incredibly gifted and fascinating woman both on and off screen."

Early post-war work: 1944–1950

Josephine Jacques made her professional debut in 1944, after being auditioned by Leonard Sachs as well as "c" in her birth name—at the Players' Theatre in London in a revue called Late Joys. Almost immediately, she became a regular performer with the company, appearing in music hall revues and playing Fairy Queen in their Victorian-style pantomimes. As she acted, directed, wrote lyrics, and "developed the persona she was going to use in pantomime for years, the beautiful, powerful, but vulnerable fairy queen," her biographer, Frances Gray, referred to the Players as being Jacques' drama school. It was while appearing in a Late Joys revue in June 1946 that she made her first television appearance when the program was broadcast on the BBC. Since appearing in the minstrel show Coal Black Mammies for Dixie in 1946, she acquired the nickname "Hattie." Hattie McDaniel, a British actress known for her appearance in Gone with the Wind, compared her "blacked up" appearance with her coworkers, and Jacques kept the name for the remainder of her life.

In the 1946 film Green for Danger, directed by Sidney Gilliat, Jacques made her big-screen debut, briefly and uncredited. In December, she joined the Young Vic Theatre Company and appeared in The King Stag's Smeraldina. The performance ran at the Lyric Theatre for a month before embarking on a five-month tour of the United Kingdom. It received rave reviews; the Gloucestershire Echo referred to the piece as a "rich play" and thought that Jacques was "very solidly in step." Nicholas Nickleby, Alberto Cavalcanti's film in March 1947, was released in which Jacques performed her first credit big-screen role as Mrs Kenwick. Jacques was introduced to actor John Le Mesurier while attending the Players' in June 1947 and the two began a friendship. Le Mesurier was married but estranged from his wife.

Ted Kavanagh, the scriptwriter of BBC Home Service' It's That Man Again (ITMA), visited the Players' in August 1947 and invited Jacques to audition for the programme, which she did on September 18th for a cost of five guineas. During the audition, she became so tense that Tommy Handley, the show's actress, held her hand, which made her more jitterious. "But I'm all right now," Jacques screamed for ITMA as the vainious schoolgirl Sophie Tuckshop, where she "would regale listeners with terrifying tales of epic binges." Jacques began her ITMA career in September 1947, at the start of series 11, which lasted for 38 episodes, and was paid ten guineas per episode.

During the week, Jacques continued to record episodes of ITMA for half the week, spending evenings in the Players' Theatre; she also took time in the spring to film Flora in No, No. Nanette for the BBC and appear at the Whitehall Theatre in Bates Wharf with the Under Thirty Theatre Company. In the David Lean film Oliver Twist, she appeared as a singer at the Three Cripples tavern later this year. She started recording her second series of ITMA (the show's twelfth) in September before returning to the Players' for the Christmas pantomime, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood. The Times noted that Jacques "must certainly be one of the funniest fairies" in her role as Fairy Queen Antedota, which was one of her favorite roles in the former role.

Tommy Handley died on January 9, 1949; the BBC announced that he was "too much the face and embodiment of ITMA's actual performance" and that they had to cancel the programme immediately. Handley was described as "one of the finest radio performers we've ever seen," Jacques later stated. So much from him," I learned. Le Mesurier divorced his wife later this year; Jacques proposed to him shortly after the divorce came through, saying, "don't you think it's about time we got married?" At Kensington Registrar's Office, the couple married on November ten years ago. She returned to the Players' house, where she was scheduled to appear as Marrygolda in the Christmas pantomime Beauty and the Beast after a week's honeymoon in Southsea.

Chance of a Lifetime was released in British cinemas in the early months of 1950, and Jacques "really made her mark," according to her biographer, Andy Merriman. The chance of a Lifetime is a story about social and industrial relations based in a plough factory where the boss cedes power to the employees. Alice, a welder, was charged with her fee for 17 days filming. She said, "I've done this work welding Bailey and Pontoon Bridges and I know how difficult it is."

That's not enough money!"

The price was increased in line with the request. Jacques had "the best scene in the film with her mock seductive dance in front of an angry [Niall] MacGinnis," film critic Geoff Mayer said.

Agatha Dinglebody, on June 6, 1950, was cast in the first episode of the weekly radio show Educating Archie. The ventriloquist's dummy Archie Andrews, operated by Peter Brough, was the subject of the "Archie" part of the story. The first series lasted 29 weeks until 19 December. In the second series—Tony Hancock, Jacques appeared alongside Max Bygraves, Julie Andrews, Beryl Reid, and others. It was on this program that she first met Eric Sykes, who was writing scripts for the series. Since visiting the Players' in 1948, Sykes had been impressed with him. Later, she reported that she and her husband "strut around the stage with a touch of elegance and majesty as if she owned it." She leapt in the air, finished in the splits, and landed as a snowflake in July at the end of her act, to widespread applause. After the show, Sykes was introduced backstage and thought that it was "the start of a new flight" in his professional career. At the end of the season, Jacques returned to the Players' to appear in the Christmas pantomime, Ali Baba, and the Thirty-nine Thieves, which she and Joan Sterndale-Bennett had adapted after they had copied it out long-hand at the British Museum. In her appearance as Ali Baba's wife, Cogia, the reviewer in The Times thought Jacques was "as appealing as last year."

Jacques continued to work in various media, including appearing as Mrs Fezziwig in Alastair Sim's film Scrooge; from 3 August to January 1953, she appeared in the Prince of Wales Theatre's related stage play, The Archie Andrews Christmas Show. She appeared in—and co-adapted—a Christmas pantomime at the Players' Theatre in Riquet, a French fairy tale adapted by Charles Perrault. In 1952, Jacques portrayed Mrs Jenks in John Gilling's comedy horror film Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, co-starring Arthur Lucan and Bela Lugosi.

Jacques became pregnant in 1952 and did the majority of her pregnancy, appearing in the Players' revue The Bells of St Martins from August to November 1952: she slid down the table and did the splits at the end, something the Manchester Guardian described as "monumental of body but remarkably thin of voice." When the revue came to an end due to her work, Le Mesurier said she was "faintably distraught" and appeared in the 27 episodes of Educating Archie between September 1952 and June 1953. She then supervised—but not appear in—the Players' Christmas pantomime of 1952, Babes in the Wood. After a few days of film Up to His Neck, Jacques gave birth to her first son, Robin, in March 1953 and returned to work. Le Mesurier was the leading actress in the 38-minute "movie-masque" The Pleasure Garden, which was shot in 1952 and received the Prix de Fantasie Poétique at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival. Miss Jacques was in series four of Education Archie from October to April 1954, and the Times announced that "Miss Jacques as actress, playing a delightfully arch and absent-minded Fairy Queen, contributes greatly to Miss Jacques's demise as dramatist."

In 1954, Jacques began to work on radio. She was in Paradise Street, a spin-off series from Educating Archie, from April to July, while in June she was in Archie, a one-off special programme involving Educating Archie and The Goon Show. She appeared in series five of Educating Archie, as well as acting as Mrs Leathers for 18 episodes of Mrs Dale's Diary between February and April 1955. She produced and directed Twenty Minutes South, first at the Players' Theatre, then for 105 performances at the St Martin's Theatre, and then in seven episodes of The Granville Melodramas on ITV between October and December.

According to Le Mesurier, a second pregnancy brought Kim Kardashian, "who came rollingicking and joking into the world in October 1956, a trifle before his allotted time." Jacques appeared on ITV's In June 1956, he appeared in a show called The Tony Hancock Show; this led to the appearance of Hancock's secretary, Griselda Pugh, in Hancock's Half Hour. She appeared in 16 episodes from November 1956 to February 1957, as Hancock, Bill Kerr, and Kenneth Williams. According to television historian Richard Webber, Jacques's arrival on Hancock "given the series a new boost." She appeared in five other episodes of Hancock's Half Hour between April and June 1957, as well as a further 20 episodes between January and June 1958, before finally releasing a special edition on Christmas Day 1958. She appeared on 380 of the revue Large as Life with Terry-Thomas, Eric Sykes, and Harry Secombe during her time in London in 1958. She appeared in the sketches "Concerto for Three Buffoons" by Secombe and Sykes, "The Good Old Days" and the two complete company numbers that closed each of the two halves of the exhibition.

Jacques appeared in the first Carry On film, which was released in 1958. This series will continue to use the same group of actors who would collectively be known as the "Carry On Team." Jacques appeared in 14 of these films over a 15-year period, and like many of her Carry On co-stars, she quickly became typecast. Jacques played a no-nonsense matron in five of the films – Carry On Doctor, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Doctor, Carry On The Bust, Carry On Matron – Carry On Fiat. She became well-known by the team as a "Mother Hen" figure, and she was a close friend of several of her co-stars, including Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims, who gave Jacques a lot of tips and practical assistance. Sims regarded Jacques as her "greatest friend" and as "both a sister and a mother to me." Sims, Williams, and Hawtrey would often be invited to Sims, Williams, and Hawtrey's house for Christmas dinner.

Carry On Sergeant, Jacques began her Carry On series in March 1958, the first film in the series. She portrayed Captain Clark, a "battleaxe medical officer" who is unable to accept the hypochondriac Private Horace Strong's manufactured illness. For the first time in Carry On Nurse, a film that broke that year's box office records, Carry On Nurse sells more than ten million tickets in British cinemas this year. Despite the fact that Jacques' appearance was still small, she appeared in perhaps the film's best known scene, in which she retrieves a daffodil from Wilfrid Hyde-White's buttocks, a daffodil taken from his mischievous nurse as punishment for his continued bullying of the employees. The Jacques's show was so popular that the producers imported two million plastic daffodils from Japan, which were then used to advertise the film. Other characterisations followed, including Grace Short of Carry On Teacher (1959) and Laura Moon in Carry On Constable (1960). Derek Prouse of The Sunday Times wrote that Jacques "triumph[ed] over footage so remorselessly juvenile that one is shaken into a kind of adoration.

Jacques appeared in the first episode of BBC comedy series Sykes and a... on January 29, 1960, co-starring Eric Sykes as a pair of twins; Richard Wattis and Deryck Guyler were also regulars; "Hattie (Hat) Sykes, Jacques's character, was "a middle-class, barely pretentious woman struggling to keep her dignity when the guys made fools of themselves." During the next five years, Sykes and a... would air sixty episodes in a nine-year series. The program was "one of the finest-natured, least pretentious, and most popular British sitcoms of the 1960s," according to media analyst Graham McCann. Jacques and Sykes "became embedded in the public eye as a priceless comic partnership," they said; to capitalize, they released Eric and Hattie and Things!! ! But it didn't go well. Georgina Ruddy, a librarian who was forced to keep quiet at work and so became incredibly raucous at home in September 1960. She appeared in two films over the course of the year: Watch Your Stern, alongside many of the Carry On regulars, and School for Scoundrels, opposite Ian Carmichael. Nanette Parry's role in Make Mine Mink, in which she co-starred Terry-Thomas and Athene Seyler, has grown since these. This became her new film, according to her later.

Jacques said she would be too lonely on such a quiet island for someone of her temperament in October 1961. Carry On had become a major film franchise by this point, with author Robert Ross describing it as a "phenomenon" at the time. Carry On Regardless was the fifth installment in the series; Jacques received a £100 reward for his small role as a disgruntled hospital sister, who appeared briefly on camera alongside English character actor Kynaston Reeves. Jacques was originally intended for a leading role in the film but she was unable to commit to a long term due to her illness. In 1963, she appeared in her sixth Carry On Cabby as "Peggy Hawkins," the emotionally deprived wife of taxi-firm manager "Charlie" played by Sid James. As she was allowed to ditch her "battleaxe" persona and play the romantic lead opposite James, Jacques later rated the film as her favorite of the series.

In 1963, Jacques' personal life became more difficult. She had attended John Schofield, a cockney used-car dealer who chauffeured her to a Leukaemia Research Fund function, earlier this year. Since the driver gave her the attention and assistance that Le Mesurier didn't have, the couple became intimately involved. Le Mesurier converted into a separate room when Jacques decided to move Schofield into the family's house. "I could have walked out," he later described this period, but I was reassured that we could fix the damage." Jacques was delighted to be the subject of This Is Your Life in February 1963, when she was approached by Eamonn Andrews at rehearsal for the sixth series of Sykes and a... Despite Le Mesurier's refusal to discuss his marital situation when being interviewed by Andrews, he said "rather specifically" that Jacques "come first." Despite the matrimonial drama, Jacques and Le Mesurier appeared in the 1963 Tony Hancock film, "The Punch and Judy Man." Le Mesurier, a 1965 divorcee, moved out of the marital home to shield Jacques from any negative publicity and allowed her to bring a divorce lawsuit based on his own infidelity. This ensured that the press blamed him for the break-up, casting Jacques as the perpetrator in the investigation.

Jacques appeared in her own television series, Miss Adventure, as the private investigator Stacey Smith in 1964, as well as recording four episodes of the radio show Housewives' Choice. Despite the fact that Jacques wanted the series to be full of suspense, the shows were more comedic and she was dissatisfied with the results. In August of that year, she appeared as Madame Arcati in an ITV production of Blithe Spirit. Nol Coward, the play's writer, felt that "finally someone had given a performance that wasn't overshadowed by Margaret Rutherford," who played it in the 1945 film version.

Jacques went to Rome in 1966 to film The Bobo with Peter Sellers; before this, she went on a strict diet and shed five stone (32 kg), but she was dissatisfied that so few people noticed. She loved the filming experience, calling it "one of the loveliest things she's worked on." Schofield stayed out to stay, began an affair with an Italian heiress, and broken a friendship with Jacques; François, who suffered with a weight problem since her teens, started eating comfort food and her weight increased to nearly 20 stone (127 kg).

Carry On Doctor, the Carry On Film producer Peter Rogers assembled the cast for the 15th film in the series Carry On Doctor series in 1967. Rogers initially selected Joan Sims to play the hospital matron, but she declined the role, saying that Jacques's appearance in Carry On Nurse could not be improved. As such, Rogers casts Jacques as Matron, with Sims playing a smaller role as the film's lead character Francis Bigger, played by Frankie Howerd. Carry On Nurse's screen time was increased, as the producers considered her appearance to be a continuation of her previous work. Carry On Doctor was first introduced in December of this year, to a great deal.

Jacques debuted in 1968 on the Daily Express newspaper and broadcast on the BBC from January to April, with Spike Milligan and Frank Thornton appearing in thirteen episodes of The World of Beachcomber, based on the Beachcomber column. Frankie Howerd appeared alongside her in his sketch show Howerd's Hour on ITV a few weeks after the series ended. She maintained her hectic schedule with appearances in six films for 1969, including another with Sellers, The Magic Christian. Ginger, who had been described as a "grotesque figure" in this film, was depicted here as a "insatiable hunger for bestsellers on World War II's atrocities." She appeared on television alongside Harry Secombe and Roy Castle in Pickwick, which was based on the musical of the same name, and in Carry On Christmas, she appeared on Christmas Eve. Despite the fact that 1969 was incredibly hectic, 1970 was relatively quiet in terms of her academic output: aside from an episode of Catweazle, she appeared alongside Willoughby Goddard in a six-episode series of Charley's Grants, she was very quiet. Carry On Loving, in which she played Sophie Bliss, was released in September of this year. Carry On Film produced another Carry On film from 1971, Carry On at Your Convenience, where she played Beattie Plummer, Sid Plummer's housebound wife, starring Sid Plummer. She produced another series with Sykes, Sykes, and a Big, Big Show, a music and sketch show with six episodes broadcast between February and April this year.

Two more Carry On Films followed Jacques in 1972: Carry On Matron, for which she was involved in the title role, and Carry On Abroad as Floella, the fiery Spanish cook at a half-finished hotel. As well as the film being Charles Hawtrey's last film, it also marked a decrease in Jacques' screen time; she spent only one week filming her scenes. The film's insurers became concerned about Jacques's declining health during post-production. In a letter to series producer Peter Rogers, they expressed their reluctance to keep her on film if future films were not forthcoming.

Jacques appeared in the first series of Sykes in which she played Hattie Sykes, "the wide-eyed, less-knowing, yet remarkably patient sister-cum-mother figure"; at the time, Sykes had 17.7 million viewers; at its peak, they had 17 million viewers. In Dennis Potter's television play Traitor, Jacques was home with her son Robin in February 1972 to watch Le Mesurier win the British Academy of Film and Television Arts' "Best Television Actor" award for her portrayal of a "boozy British aristocrat" who became a spy for the Soviets. Jacques wept when her ex-husband won the award and told her son that she had "not screaming out of professional dissatisfaction or even envy about Joan Le Mesurier, but there was still no one with whom to spend her time" in the event.

In 1974, Jacques' sons were arrested for smoking cannabis, and her house was searched by police. She received official notice of her appointment as an OBE in the same week as the two boys appeared in court. She declined the honour in order to shield her sons from further press scrutiny. Later this year, when filming the third series of Sykes, she had a cancer scare and shed a considerable amount of weight. Despite this, she refused to postpone filming; on December 5, she underwent kidney surgery at Charing Cross Hospital for benign tumors on her kidneys.

In 1976, Jacques appeared in a British Rail promotional film pitting her against racing driver Jackie Stewart in a race to London. Sykes and Jacques appeared together in the stage play A Hatful of Sykes, both in the United Kingdom and internationally, from 1976 to 2007. During the course of the various tours between the two performers, tensions became more strained, and Sykes modified the script several times to ensure he received more acclaim than Jacques. When she first appeared in Blackpool in 1977, Jacques's health became ill as a result of arthritis and ulcerated legs, which necessitated daily dressing. Sykes accused her of special care because a dressing room was arranged in a way that saved her from having to use stairs. Sykes "began to be behaving strangely" when the show went to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and he even accused Hattie... of not being able to provide a proper feed line. The two couples' friendship was rapidly deteriorating by the time the show appeared in Brighton in 1979, and although the two friends applauded each other in public, Jacques was still hurt by Sykes' treatment of her. Despite the differences, the pair produced the seventh series of Sykes in 1979, and in 1980—the television film Rhubarb Rhubarb; despite the fact that her role was small, she appeared "a little unsteady on her feet."

In May 1980, Jacques's doctor told her not to go to Greece on holiday as planned, but she went to Ireland instead. "You know I'm not going to live long," she told her friend Bruce Copp after the return ferry crossing. Her health remained poor, and insurance companies refused to insure her for film work. By October, her weight had risen again; she had respiratory difficulties; and she had been admitted to Charing Cross Hospital. She took a weekend break from hospital and returned home to Eardley Crescent, where she died from a heart attack at the age of 58; she was also suffering from kidney disease at the age of 58.

Jacques's funeral took place at Putney Vale Crematorium, where her ashes were scattered. Sykes' parents refused to attend the funeral because they resent the way he had treated her during the performance; Sykes was furious by the exclusion and struggled to understand why he had been barred. According to Merriman, Joan Sims, the other notable absentee from the funeral was Joan Sims, who "stayed in her house and spent the day drinking, reading old letters from Hattie, and indulgent in self-pity."

Kenneth Williams was deeply mourned by the death of his companion, writing: "All the chums have died," the tide has drained, leaving some incongruous wrecks exposed," writes Kenneth Williams. I'm afraid I'm one of them. Jacques' "awesome lady [who] had a glowing aura of love and compassion for her]," Le Mesurier wrote of her, while her obituary in The Times noted that "she will be remembered with adoration by all who encountered her." A month after the funeral, a memorial service was held at St Paul's, Covent Garden, otherwise known as the Actors' Church, which Le Mesurier described as a "joyous occasion."

In St Paul's, Covent Garden, a memorial plaque to Jacques is on display. Eric Sykes and Clive Dunn, a colleague from her Players' Theatre days, unveiled a blue plaque in November 1995 at her former home: 67 Eardley Crescent, Earls Court, London, 67. At the BBC Broadcasting House in London in 2002, plaques were unveiled for Jacques, Sid James, and Tony Hancock.

The marriage of Jacques and Le Mesurier in 2011 was the subject of a BBC Four biographical film called Hattie, which concentrated on Jacques and John Schofield's affair. Ruth Jones, a playwright, was praised by Robin Le Mesurier, who "had captured my mother perfectly." Jones, who was ecstatic to play Jacques, was describing her as a "incredibly gifted and fascinating woman both on and off camera."

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