Thoughts on Truly

Jack Ward

Jack Ward

Member
I've always had a soft spot for Truly so maybe I'm a bit biased, but here goes.
The episodes dealing with the passing of Compo aired this week and I realized something about Truly that I hadn't noticed before.
The scenes with just him and Clegg are very good. They really come off as close friends who are dealing with a tragic loss.
I don't believe that any of the other 'Third Men' could have pulled that off. Clegg and Truly seem (to me at least) to actually be friends and not just companions passing the time.
Maybe Cyril could have come closest. Foggy just didn't come off as really liking Clegg or Compo and Seymour (as much as I like him), always seemed more like an outsider than a lifelong friend.
But Clegg and Truly were perfect together and I always felt that they were friends.
 
Foggy always felt superior to the others after all he was The Warrior whereas Compo was idle Clegg a lowly lino salesman plus he worked for the highways dept and also everybody was an idiot ,Wesley was a big hammer man. But I think that deep down he did like the them all but was scared of Nora and Ivy plus he was a complete prat but I liked him as the best third man.Truly was a great character played by a great actor I always like to see his episodes he had an empathy with the other two and was a worthy successor to Foggy .The canal episode with Compo on his bike pulling them along in a boat was one of the best as was Bye Compo.
 
I think it is testimony to Frank Thornton's acting skill that he manages to succeed as Truly. His portrayal ,as an ex flatfoot, who believes without him Scotland Yard would have struggled to control the criminal classes when in reality nothing could be farther from the truth[ in a similar vein to Foggy believing he was a General when he was a lowly Corporal ] is so believable .

His acting is so good you are convinced he was Truly of the Yard his deportment and manner of speaking all add to the embellishment no better demonstrated than when he stops Norman Wisdom in his car to generate the rumour about the Tiger on the loose. It is a testimony to Roy Clarke's writing when he demonstrates Truly's vulnerability in certain episodes such as All of a Florrie albeit showing it in a comedic fashion .

It was clearly a difficult time for all concerned with the problems Brian Wilde was having and it is a testimony to Frank Thornton that he managed to get through a difficult period and come out the other end as certainly one of the popular characters .
 
Frank Thornton not only had acting skill, but obviously had great empathy and compassion needed to get the cast and crew through the time of Bill Owen's passing. In addition, when he took over the third man, he was faced with scripts written for someone else. He made these scripts his own and gladly endured the physical demands of the role.
 
He did a wonderful job making Truly a likeable character. His See Ya Compo was wonderful.
It does seem to take a few episodes for the new guy to become his own person each time there was a switch considering he would be speaking the other guy's lines.
I always wondered why more effort didn't go toward making them different from the start?
I've read that Brian Wilde was offered the opportunity to appear in the funeral episode but turned it down. Can't really see him returning since I felt he never like Compo to begin with.
 
Personally I didn't think it was obvious he was reading another man's lines.

All the military stuff Foggy would have come out with had been removed.

The good thing about Frank Thornton's performance is simply that he didn't overact.

After an extreme character like Foggy, it was only right to have a slightly different character - otherwise it would look like one character trying to copy another character.

It could have worked with Thornton playing a Captain Peacock type, but the Truly character works brilliantly too.

The show had reached a point where quieter, more believable characters were needed again.
 
I've read in various places around the web that Foggy didn't get along with very many people at all.
Speaking of Capt. Peacock, there was an episode where they took Compo to a clothing store that the fellow who played Mr. Lucas from Are You Being Served worked.
It would have been funny if as he had asked if the were being served and have Truly give him a funny look.
 
I will always have a soft spot for Truly, if for no other reason than it was because of Frank Thornton that I became aware of LOTSW. I recognized him while switching through channels one night and stopped to see what he was in, having fond memories of him from Are You Being Served? and its sequel series years earlier. (I'm in the US so this was on our public television.)

As a character Truly works pretty well I think. It was a nice change of pace after the second Foggy period. I like many of those episodes, but the character was growing a bit thin by the end. Truly was a return to the more "real" characters of the shows early years and Frank Thornton was probably a better actor then Brian Wilde, on the whole.
 
Frank Thornton and his contemporaries learned their craft at Drama Schools and in Repertory Theatre , touring in companies where they may well play a different part every week and they effectively created their own database , so to speak, of parts and characteristics they could call up when they were offered a part . If it wasn't in the repertoire the discipline of having to learn parts over the year allowed them to expediently get into that character with ease . The two Ronnies ,Corbett and Barker are of the same ilk , which is why in their shows they were able to play such diverse parts . Whilst plays still tour , the same show will play country wide and as such the actor/actress will play the same part throughout the show's run . I don't think modern day , younger actors have that sort of opportunity
 
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