Stand Up Virgin Soldiers

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On the face of it, the title of this film, and the fact that Robin Askwith is in it, suggests that this film is typical of most 70s films that Askwith appears in: brief nudity, poor plot, simply an excuse to show semi-naked women. Don't be fooled, it is actually better than that and this was not what I was expecting. So Young, So Bad (1950) Idealistic and naive psychiatrist Dr John Jason (Paul Henreid) arrives at the Elmview Reform School for Troubled Girls and immediately begins… While he was studying at Barnado’s in Kingston, he went on an exchange program to Kingston Technical school. In 1950 he went to Singapore for 18 months, hardly cheered by the stories circulating of jungle fighters playing with severed human heads. One conscript who sat in a pool all day in the hope that the chemicals in the water would damage his eyes enough to get him discharged was eventually discharged – for deafness. Thomas was able to recount a funny version of all this not only in The Virgin Soldiers but also in his 1984 autobiography, In My Wildest Dreams. It was when one conscript said wistfully that he hoped he would get a shag before he got a bullet that Thomas got the idea for The Virgin Soldiers, while he also sent articles to his old employers and other newspapers. Excellent performances from the supporting cast: George Layton, Nigel Davenport, John Le Mesurier, Edward Woodward (whose character Sgt Wellbeloved is not all what he makes out to be) and Warren Mitchell as Morris Morris (with a very funny Welsh accent).

The film's popularity spawned a 1977 sequel, Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers [1] with Nigel Davenport repeating his role as Sgt Driscoll. This is where Leslie Thomas met Charles Mitchell the author who encouraged him to study journalism at the Walthamstow-based South West Essex Technical College.Even as he was very successful as an author, he continued working casually as a journalist and was a familiar presence on television and radio. Viva Knievel! (1977) Real-life human crash test dummy Evel Knievel plays himself in a ridiculous PG-rated fictional adventure movie. Some drug dealers in… Eventually, he got a job at the “Evening News,” which is where he penned his debut work “My Name is Mud,” which was unfortunately never published.

Find sources: "Leslie Thomas"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( March 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) The Virgin Soldiers is a 1966 comic novel by Leslie Thomas, inspired by his own experiences of National Service in the British Army. [1] It was Thomas' debut novel; he had previously published an autobiography. The Virgin Soldiers sold millions of copies during the author´s lifetime. [2] Plot summary [ edit ] The core of the plot is the romantic triangle formed by the protagonist, a conscript soldier named Private Brigg, a worldly professional soldier named Sergeant Driscoll and Phillipa Raskin, the daughter of the Regimental Sergeant Major. The location is a British army base in Singapore during the Malayan Emergency. He was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life in 1979 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at a Barnardo’s hostel in Kingston, Surrey. [ citation needed]

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Recalling his move to leafy Wiltshire, Thomas said: “Ted Heath was the first person to ask us over when we moved to The Close in Salisbury. I said: ‘I can’t believe I live here – I’m a working class boy’ and he said, ‘So am I’, which I suppose he was. I am not political, but he was an unusual man and a great friend to us. Robin Askwith is a crude substitute for Hywel Bennett and the lavatorial humour sits uneasily alongside the stabs at drama.

Still, he never shows anything but affection for most people that he writes about. It is a touching novel that is at times also hilarious in that very British way. To avoid getting beaten up by the bigger boys, Thomas invented stories – and did it so much better than anyone else that his services were constantly called upon. After a visit to Norwich he won a 2s 6d prize for his description of the city. When the war broke out, Leslie used to pray that his father’s ship would get sunk. His prayers ultimately came true when his father’s ship was targeted by a torpedo and he died in the subsequent inferno. His books have given so many people pleasure over the years, with their mix of great characters, strong sense of time and place, and unique ability to combine laughter and tears in the space of a few sentences.” While his subsequent titles did not have as much success as his debut, they also offer a fascinating overview of life in Britain in times of great change.Thomas was especially proud of his non-fiction books on islands and other picturesque places, Some Lovely Islands (1968), A World of Islands (1983) and The Hidden Places of Britain (1981). He carried on with casual journalism, remained a familiar presence on radio and television, and in 2005 was appointed OBE. His final book, Almost Heaven (2010), was a set of stories relating to Salisbury Cathedral and people connected with it. Nonetheless, all he ever wanted was to be called up which eventually happened as he ended up in the Royal Army Pay Corps. Starting in 1950, he lived in Singapore for 18 months, where he gathered all manner of hilarious stories and experiences. That Thomas was able to divine the funny side of almost any situation made for his survival personally and as a writer. His father was a "wandering Welsh sailor" whose home was in Newport, Gwent – a stoker in merchant ships who became domestically violent aftger getting drunk, which was often. When he was on the dole, his wife went with him to collect his money so that he could not spend it on drink before he reached home. When he once came home excessively drunk even by his standards, his wife threw a chamber pot at him. He didn't show himself again for two years: the pot was full. Thomas was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales. He was orphaned at the age of 12, when his mariner father was lost at sea and his mother died only a few months later from cancer. [2] He was subsequently brought up in a Dr Barnardo's home; the story of this upbringing was the subject of his first, autobiographical, book, This Time Next Week. After a full two years spent in the sweltering heat of the jungle already, this isn't what any of the boys were hoping to hear and it's not long before there are a few tears of frustration shed. Their situation is made all the worse by the continued presence of Sergeant Wellbeloved, and before long the arrival of a new Lieutenant - a man who even describes himself as "a bit of a shit".

In 2007, he wrote his last novel in “Soldiers and Lovers,” which explored the romance of characters living at the tail end of World War II. The success of The Virgin Soldiers enabled him to become a full-time writer. He penned more than 30 books and both Tropic of Ruislip and Dangerous Davies, The Last Detective, were adapted for television. His final book was a bitter-sweet romance called Soldiers and Lovers. He also wrote two autobiographies and travel books. However, it's not all downhill for the boys. There's a British hospital nearby, which means a steady stream of lovely English nurses to attempt to woo, and for Private Brigg there are always the reasonably priced services of local girl 'Juicy Lucy'! Thomas got married to Diana Miles in the early 1970s and the two lived together until his death in May 2014. So Evil, So Young (1961) Lucy Owens (Jocelyn Britton) and her friend Claire (Bernice Swanson) burgle some jewellery from a mansion but are disturbed by…In 1984, Thomas published In My Wildest Dreams recounting his childhood in South Wales, his days in Doctor Barnardo's homes in London, his National Service in the Far East, and his career in journalism. His novels about 1950s British National Service such as The Virgin Soldiers spawned two film versions, in 1969 and 1977, while his Tropic of Ruislip and Dangerous Davies, The Last Detective have been adapted for television (the former as Tropic in 1979 and the latter having also spawned a film version, in 1981 and a TV series in 2003 with Peter Davison).