The Stage

Tony Fayne

Published Tuesday 2 February 2010 at 12:05 by Richard Anthony Baker

Tony Fayne, who for 20 years travelled the world as straight man to Norman Wisdom, has died at the age of 85.

As the curtains parted on one sketch they put together, a large sign was seen proclaiming The Tony Fayne Show. Immaculately dressed in a dinner jacket, Fayne then strolls on stage for his first number, Singin’ in the Rain. The routine is soon wrecked by Wisdom, who, from ten rows back in the stalls and wearing his characteristic ill-fitting suit, joins in over-enthusiastically and urges the audience to do the same. Mayhem quickly erupts. The BBC liked the act and chose it as its entry for the Knokke television festival in Belgium in 1976. It won the prestigious Golden Seal award.

Fayne, who was born Anthony Terence Alfred Senington in Bristol on January 18, 1924, started his career as one half of the double act, Fayne and Evans. Both he and David Evans were in the same class at school, where they delighted in imitating their teachers. After leaving school, they put together a routine of impersonations and, in 1940, won a talent contest at the Bristol Empire and were booked to appear on a radio show hosted by the bandleader, Jack Payne. They were just becoming well-known when they were called up for wartime service and they did not meet again until 1948 when they decided to renew their showbiz careers. They quickly established themselves.

They first appeared in the BBC radio show, Variety Bandbox, in 1948. Come 1951, they were part of the Royal Variety Show - they made a film, London Entertains, with the Goons, and, alongside Max Bygraves, they were a supporting act in the first London Palladium show that starred Judy Garland.

Fayne and Evans were fast, sophisticated (at a time when the dying variety theatre was far from sophisticated) and unique. At the start of their act, they asked their audience to imagine two radio sets side by side. They then performed a sports commentary in complete unison, mimicking well-known sportsmen and commentators with deadly accuracy. But their impressions extended far beyond the world of sport. Their other ‘victims’ included many famous showbiz names.

Fayne and Evans went their separate ways in 1959. The split had something to do with Evans’ growing addiction to alcohol. It is unclear as to whether his drinking forced Fayne to end their association or whether Evans turned to drink as a result of the split. It was probably the former, but, whichever it was, this once famous double act was no more.

After their separation, Evans carried on drinking. He had a number of dead-end jobs, and, on one occasion, his drunken habits severely embarrassed Fayne. As Fayne was finishing a solo act at the Bristol Hippodrome, Evans staggered on from the wings and, possibly imagining they were still together, acknowledged the applause. Fayne hardly recognised him. Evans was found dead in his garden shed in 1980.

Fayne restructured his career. He issued a number of satirical long-playing records written by another old school friend, Philip Evans - on television, he succeeded Nicholas Parsons as straight man to Arthur Haynes in comedies scripted by Johnny Speight, and he then teamed up with Wisdom, who found him ideal. As Wisdom recorded in his autobiography, Fayne, “with his schoolmasterly manner and commanding presence, was the ideal foil. Tony is also particularly good at looking annoyed”.

Fayne died on November 30. His wife, Audrey, had died in April 2009. They are survived by their six children, David, Jacqueline, Pamela and triplets Melinda, Teresa and Hazel.