Hilarious Mrs Shufflewick
QUESTION Who was Mrs Shufflewick?
COMEDIAN Rex Jameson, known to his friends and showbiz colleagues as Shuff, created his stage character Mrs Shufflewick (‘weak-willed and easily led!’) just after World War II.
This red-nosed, drunken Cockney wore a flowery hat and an old piece of fur around her neck.
Rex’s innuendo-packed stage act lived up to Mrs Shufflewick’s unashamed description of herself as being ‘ broadminded to the point of obscenity’.
He always referred to himself as ‘a comedian in women’s clothing’ rather than a drag act.
He was born on June 11, 1924, and when he was two weeks old, his mother left him on the steps of Trinity College, Greenwich. He was adopted and brought up in Southend-on-Sea.
Rex changed his surname from Coster to Jameson when he entered show business.
His career was full of highs and lows, but his talent to amuse never dimmed. In the 1970s, he was rediscovered and adored by performers such as Barry Humphries, Bob Monkhouse and Roy Hudd, who described Rex as a comic genius, saying ‘even in his cups he was gloriously funny’.
Rex died in 1983, aged 58. At his funeral, more than 500 mourners gathered outside the chapel of Golders Green Crematorium.
I remember coming home from school at lunchtimes in the early 1960s and hearing Mrs Shufflewick on BBC radio shows such as MidDay Music Hall and Workers’ Playtime. I would laugh at the character’s hilarious tales which, on reflection, must have been heavily censored.
Anyone wanting to learn more about Rex Jameson – whose life story is crying out to be turned into a stage play or film – should seek out Patrick Newley’s excellent 2007 biography The Amazing Mrs Shufflewick.
Alan Wightman, Newport, Gwent.
QUESTION What is the origin of the phrase ‘tongue in cheek’?
THIS figure of speech implies that what you are should not be taken at face value. This usage perhaps originates with t he i dea of suppressed mirth – biting your tongue to prevent laughter. It’s a similar gesture to a wink.
However, i ts earliest known usage is one of contempt. Tobias Smollett used the phrase in this way in his 1748 picaresque novel The Adventures Of Roderick Random: ‘I signified my contempt of him by thrusting my tongue in my cheek.’
It is used to comedic effect in an anonymous 1761 work, Emily, Or The History Of A Natural Daughter: ‘Hem! Pray, Sir, said he to the bard, after thrusting his tongue into a corner of his cheek and rolling his eyes at Miss Willis (tricks which he had caught by endeavouring to take off a celebrated comedian), were these fine tragedies of yours ever acted?’
Smollett returned to the phrase i n 1771’ s The Expedition Of Humphry Clinker: ‘ At the same time, he thrust his tongue in one cheek and leered with one eye at the doctor and me, who sat on his l eft hand. He concluded the pantomime with a loud laugh, which he could command at all times extempore.’
The ironic definition became fixed in the 19th century. The Ingoldsby Legends, an 1845 literary collection of myths, legends, ghost stories and poetry by the cleric Richard Barham, has a Frenchman inspecting a watch: ‘He examined the face, and the back of the case, and the young lady’s portrait there, done on enamel, he saw by the likeness was one of the f amily; cried “Superbe! Magnifique!” (with his tongue in his cheek). Then he open’d the case, just to take a peep in it, and seized the occasion to pop back the minute hand...’
Justin Gower, Malvern, Worcs.
QUESTION What is a sin-eater?
A SIN-EATER was a poor person who would consume food, such as bread and beer, at a funeral, and by so doing take on the sins of the dead person. The custom appears to have been confined to Wales and adjoining English counties.
Probably the most f amous description of the custom is that given by John Aubrey in 1686/87: ‘In the county of Hereford was an old custome at funeralls to have poor people, who were to take upon them all the sinnes of the party deceased.
‘One of them I remember lived in a cottage on Rosse highway. He was a long, leane, ugly, lamentable poor raskel. The manner was that when the corpse was brought out of the house and layd on the biere, a loafe of bread was brought and delivered to the sinne-eater over the corpse, as also a mazer bowle of maple full of beer, which he was to drinke up, and sixpence... in consideration whereof he took upon him... all the sinnes of the defunct, and freed him (or her) f rom walking after they were dead...’
Aubrey went on to say that though the custom was rarely practised in his day, it had been followed frequently in the past.
Roy Palmer, in his book on The Folklore Of Hereford And Worcester, told the tale of how Roger Mortimer, a young gardener at Alton Court, at Ross in Herefordshire, fell in love with one of the owner’s daughters, Clara Markey.
When Clara’s father arranged for her to marry a member of the local gentry, Roger was distraught. Soon his body was found in a nearby river.
The corpse was taken to the Welsh Harp Inn and, according to Palmer: ‘Jack “the Scape” Clements was hired as sin- eater. A quart of beer and sixpence were passed over the corpse to him, and he stated: “I take all the consequences and so I has all the beer”.’ Mary Webb included a section on (fictional) sin-eating in her 1924 novel Precious Bane and, more recently, Margaret Atwood wrote a short story called The Sin Eater.
Rosemary Susan Hall, Coventry, Warks.
QUESTION What was the first children’s show made for Irish TV?
FURTHER to the previous answer, one of the annual ‘specials’ for Wanderly Wagon was the Christmas Day show, always live from a children’s hospital in Dublin.
The series was enormously popular, and when it ended in 1982, for the first and only time in its history, the RTÉ studios were picketed by children.
The famous Wanderly Wagon was left standing in the grounds of the RTÉ campus for years after the show ended, and a version of the wagon eventually went on display at The Little Museum of Dublin on St Stephen’s Green.
At the funeral of puppetmaster Eugene Lambert in February, 2010, a miniature replica of Wanderly Wagon graced the proceedings.
Alongside Wanderly Wagon, other children’s shows were created, such as Bosco, which began in 1979 and ran through the 1980s. After Wanderly Wagon, The Den began in 1986 and ran, in various formats, until 2010 initially – before enjoying i ts recent resurrection on Sunday evenings.
Brian Desmond, Dublin 8.
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