NOW it can be told — the best kept secret of War and Peace in our time — from the unpublished (and unlikely ever to be published) biography of the fabulous Colonel Trumper.

Brought to your screens through the fearless enterprise of Granada TV, you can see the first of a new, half-hour series entitled Colonel Trumper’s Private War next Friday.

Based very loosely on the fantastic activities of this hitherto unknown British undercover agent, the screen stories will star Dennis Price as Trumper.

Who is Trumper? Remember the Lubenski Affair? Operations Sea-Biscuit and Barbarhubarb? The Crisis of ’47, the Berlitz Blockade — yes, and even Suarez?

At last it can be revealed — Trumper was the man behind them all. Indeed they might never have happened but for him. He is one of the “faceless” ones of Counter Intelligence.

The man “with the mind of a criminal and the morals of a Borgia”: the man who by himself made the spearhead of a conquering host — Colonel Basil Trumper.

Here now, as a curtain-raiser to the “jolly good show” all the world will soon he talking about, is part of his biography:

Extract from:

“A DAY WITH THE COLONEL”
by Brigadier ‘X’

Admittedly the war has been over for some time now. The ’39 War, that is. But it seems as if it were only yesterday that I first met fabulous Colonel Trumper.

As I recall, it was early in 1940 in the basement of a big steel and concrete building near Chalk Farm Tube Station. I was something in Intelligence in those days.

I particularly remember the light over my door changing from red to green just before Trumper made his entrance into my sector. I knew at once he was not only “safe,” but very well-connected upstairs.

He came into the room as grey as January. But cares couldn’t spoil his good looks. He wore a ‘tache in those days and all of us in the Mess were agreed, he looked remarkably like actor Dennis Price.

I promptly gave him my fullest attention and was rewarded with one or two historic confidences that I will always treasure.

It was just before he formed his now famous Private Army. Indeed he must have had the thing in train that afternoon because I can still feel that peculiar frozen calmness about him which only the biggest minds seem able to summon up for the really big issues.

Trumper threw himself on to a chair with an expression I read as meaning we would fight them on the beaches.

“You’ve heard the news?” he said squinting balefully.

Before I could say “No” or “What news?” Trumper the veteran said, in a tone suitable to one who had just left the side of The Old Man:

“It’s seconds out of the ring, old boy. John Bull’s at bay. They’re looking for leadership in this darkest hour — and, by God, I’m going to go for ’em.”

I will confess now that I shivered slightly as he said this. He was resolution personified. Then he spoke again.

“You know, of course, about Hitler’s astrologer?” he asked me suddenly. I didn’t, but kept quiet. This was big stuff

“Well,” he went on quietly, “I think I’ve found one for Britain I want you to get on to MI 14 at once. Tell them I must have the birth dates of all German officers above the rank of Colonel before 0600 tomorrow. No holds barred. That’s the only way to fight,” he muttered as he left me to begin work on his now famous defeat of Hitler’s Invasion Plans for Britain.

“When a TV series based on my biography was first mooted,” Brigadier X told me, “we all thought Trumper himself would play the lead. Security, however, said ‘No.’ muttering darkly, England may need him again before too long.

“Fortunately, we were able to persuade his near-double, actor Dennis Price, to play the part. And I must say the likeness he portrays is devilish good.

“Price only used a mirror in the early stages of capturing his mannerisms. He now actually thinks like Trumper. A brilliant show!

“For example, when the gentlemen from ITV asked me to put Mr. Price through his paces before he was passed as Trumper. I asked him out of the blue about his chequered career as far back as the affair in Karachi in ’37.

“He replied, quick as a flash:

‘She was blonde. Only a quick posting saved me there.’

“And Catterick in ’39?”

‘Ah yes—a lovely brunette. The only thing mat saved me then was the war.*

“And what did your CO say to you before you went into action in 1940?”

‘If you can do to the German Army what you’ve done to ours — heaven help them?

“Yes, he was devilish goodin fact, he is good, as you can see for yourselves on Friday.”

The post The Colonel: he’s Britain’s secret weapon! appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

IF they should put you in Tussaud’s Blackpool Waxworks, you can safely tell your friends you’re famous. And if Marlene Dietrich has to be moved to make room for you in the top position between Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra you can describe yourself as fabulous.

That is the position allotted to that terror of Coronation Street, Ena Sharpies.

“She’s been a name on people’s lips ever since her part was created last December,” said the firm’s “personality gauge,” Bill Cartnell, when I spoke to him about Ena.

“And in my view,” he said, “she’s likely to be the biggest draw we’ve had here since Mae West ”

Wondering what Violet Carson, who plays Ena, would have to say about this comparison. I went to her home in Fleetwood-road, Bispham.

She had just got home from judging a local beauty contest. Such is the price of her new fame.

“Gercha!” was her Ena-ish comment about the Mae West comparison. She was much more excited by her first view of the photos you see here, which I had with me.

“It’s me father!” she exclaimed — “without the hair on it is, anyway. Look, mother” (and her 80 year-old mother came into the room): “What have I always said? I’m just like Daddy, aren’t I?

“Look there! I’ve even got that bald look that Daddy had.

“And to think it’s only been done from a picture. It’s marvellous. It really is!”

After a cup of tea had revived her from the shock of seeing herself in bits and pieces, she could only say: “God bless Ena Sharples.” And she said it over and over again for a few seconds.

Then she expanded.

“I’ve always been lucky.” she said. “I was lucky to get my first job playing the piano in Manchester’s Market-street cinema at the age of 13.

“And when the talkies came.” she continued. “I was able to switch to radio as a pianist and singer without much of a struggle. I was lucky, too, to be a part of that howling success Have a Go for six years.

“But as radio began to die I began to think of retirement and growing roses. I was getting on. I’m 56, you know.

“Anyway, the next peak in my life, with two peaks in it, grew up suddenly one day last November.

“I had just arrived home from London after playing a Shakespearian role for TV. The phone rang and the part of Ena was offered to me.

“I didn’t hear anything about it being a serial part. So in spite of the fact that it was a bit of a social comedown playing such an old fire-eater, I accepted.”

Now Violet Carson is too much of an actress not to enjoy playing a rich, rewarding part like Ena — even if it has meant neglecting her roses.

And when she made complaints about the penalties of being a national character, I couldn’t detect any lowering of her high-spirited nature.

“Those people who say Lancashire women don’t wear hairnets don’t know ’em like I do. You see, I was born in Coronation Street.

“It was really called Corporation terrace, in Ancoats, Manchester. But I couldn’t make Ena live like she does if I hadn’t lived near such Enas all my life.

“But I must get some gardening done, luv. Do you mind?”

And off she went to work in a garden that is likely to suffer a lot of neglect in future.

The post At last a model Ena – in wax! appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.