Pearl Hackney

Pearl Hackney (28 October 1916 – 18 September 2009) was a British actress renowned for her extensive career in radio, stage, television, and film, often collaborating with her husband, comedian Eric Barker, and appearing in guest roles on popular British sitcoms such as Are You Being Served?.^[1]^[2] Born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, to a commercial traveller father and a dressmaker mother, Hackney spent much of her early life in Liverpool after her family's pottery business failed.^[2] She trained as a ballet dancer from age five and, after leaving school, became a principal dancer before transitioning to acting and comedy.^[3] In 1933, she met Eric Barker at the Windmill Theatre in London, where they performed together in revues; the pair married in October 1936 and had one daughter, actress Petronella Barker (born 1942).^[4]^[3] Hackney and Barker formed a professional partnership, starring in radio series like Just Fancy (1951–1961) and Three's a Crowd (1943), as well as forces entertainment during World War II.^[5]^[3] Her television credits included Mrs. Grainger in Are You Being Served? (1974), multiple roles in Coronation Street (1973, 1978), and appearances in All Creatures Great and Small (1978, 1988). She played Mrs. Pike in the radio adaptation of Dad's Army (1974–1976).^[1] In film, she featured in Pete Walker's horror titles such as Schizo (1976) and The Comeback (1978), as well as dramas like Yanks (1979) and The Ploughman's Lunch (1983).^[1] After Barker's death in 1990, Hackney retired from acting but remained active as a parish councillor in Faversham, Kent, where the couple had lived since the 1950s; she died at age 92 in Herne Bay, Kent, and was buried alongside her husband at St. Mary's Churchyard, Stalisfield.^[6]^[2]

Early life

Childhood and family background

Pearl Hackney was born on 28 October 1916 in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England.^[7]^[8] Her father worked as a commercial traveller, while her mother was a dressmaker; the family had previously been involved in the local pottery business.^[7] Following the failure of their Staffordshire business, the Hackneys relocated to Liverpool, where Pearl spent much of her early years.^[7]^[9] From a young age, Hackney displayed a strong aptitude for dance, beginning ballet training around the age of five.^[7] Her parents, unable to finance formal training in London, arranged for her to receive lessons from the renowned ballerina Anna Pavlova during one of the dancer's tours.^[7]^[8] This early exposure to classical ballet shaped her initial path toward a performing arts career, though details of her formal education remain sparse in available records.^[7]

Dance training and early performances

From a young age, she demonstrated a natural aptitude for dance, particularly ballet, and her parents, unable to afford formal training in London, arranged local lessons for her in the city. These opportunities were limited by her impoverished circumstances, and she never attended full-time school, instead immersing herself in music and movement as a primary focus of her education.^[2]^[7] A pivotal aspect of her training came through lessons with the renowned ballerina Anna Pavlova, who provided guidance during a period when Pavlova was touring or offering instruction outside London. This mentorship helped Hackney develop her skills, culminating in her passing advanced ballet examinations. She also honed expertise in tap dancing, which became a signature element of her early stage work, reflecting the versatile demands of variety entertainment at the time. Additionally, during her teenage years in Liverpool, Hackney briefly taught ballroom dancing, an experience she later described as unenjoyable compared to performing.^[2]^[7]^[6] Her professional debut arrived shortly after these qualifications, with her first paid role in a pantomime production in Hull, marking her entry into show business as a dancer around age 14 or 15. This engagement led to further opportunities in ensemble performances, including joining the chorus at the Windmill Theatre in London by 1933, where she participated in revues like Revudeville. At the Windmill, known for its nude tableaux and emphasis on comedy and dance, Hackney performed as part of the ensemble, and it was here that she first met her future husband, Eric Barker, beginning a collaboration that would span decades. These early appearances solidified her foundation in live theatre, blending dance with emerging comedic talents before transitioning to acting.^[2]^[3]^[6]

Professional career

Stage and early acting roles

Pearl Hackney began her professional career in the theater as a dancer in the early 1930s. Her first job came in pantomime in Hull, where she performed following her early dance training. At the age of 15, in 1931, Hackney auditioned successfully for London's Windmill Theatre and joined the chorus line under producer Vivian Van Damm. Over the next four years, she advanced to become the principal solo dancer, specializing in tap and ballet routines within the venue's famous nude revues.^[8] It was during her time at the Windmill that she met fellow performer Eric Barker, whom she married in 1936. Following their marriage, Hackney and Barker left the Windmill to tour in concert parties, a form of variety entertainment featuring sketches, songs, and dances, which they performed together until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. These engagements marked her transition into more comedic acting elements alongside her dance work, though specific roles from this period remain undocumented in available records. During the war, her stage activities were limited as she supported Barker's rising radio career and managed family life.

Radio and television work

Pearl Hackney's radio career began during World War II, where she frequently collaborated with her husband, the comedian Eric Barker, in variety and revue-style programs broadcast by the BBC. One of her earliest joint appearances was in the 1943 series Three's a Crowd, a light entertainment show featuring sketches and songs.^[3] This partnership continued with Navy Mixture in 1944, a forces revue aimed at entertaining troops, and Mediterranean Merry-Go-Round later that year, which was adapted into the domestic series Merry-Go-Round in 1945, with Hackney often playing supportive roles alongside Barker's lead comic characters.^[3] In the postwar period, Hackney and Barker starred together in the 1948 sitcom Waterlogged Spa, a comedic take on a rundown seaside hotel, where she portrayed the manager's secretary to Barker's bumbling proprietor. Their most enduring radio collaboration was Just Fancy!, which ran from 1951 to 1961 on the BBC Light Programme (later BBC Radio 2), featuring gentle satirical sketches written by and starring Barker, with Hackney as a regular foil, often alongside actors like Deryck Guyler and Kenneth Connor.^[3]^[5] Later in her career, Hackney took on a notable dramatic role in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Dad's Army (1974–1976), voicing Mrs. Pike, the mother of Private Frank Pike, in episodes that faithfully recreated the wartime sitcom's ensemble dynamics.^[10] Hackney transitioned to television in the early 1950s, again partnering with Barker in The Eric Barker Half-Hour (1951–1953), a BBC sketch comedy series that showcased their husband-and-wife chemistry through domestic and topical humor across three seasons.^[3] Following Barker's retirement due to health issues in the late 1970s, Hackney pursued a solo television career, appearing in guest roles on popular British series. She played Ethel Bostock in Coronation Street (1973) and Daisy Hibbert (1978), both involved in Weatherfield's community storylines.^[11]^[12] Other credits included Mrs. Grainger in Are You Being Served? (1974), various supporting parts in Z-Cars and Minder during the 1970s and 1980s.^[13]^[14]^[15] Her television work often highlighted her talent for portraying eccentric, no-nonsense older women in both comedy and drama.^[6]

Film roles

Pearl Hackney's film career, though secondary to her extensive work in radio and television, spanned over a decade and featured supporting roles in a variety of British productions, often portraying maternal or eccentric figures with understated wit. Her screen debut came in the sex comedy Cool It, Carol! (1970), directed by Pete Walker, where she played Mrs. Thatcher, the protagonist's mother in a story of youthful disillusionment in London.^[16] This marked the first of four collaborations with Walker, known for his low-budget genre films blending exploitation and social commentary. In Four Dimensions of Greta (1972), another Walker production, Hackney portrayed Mrs. Gruber, a landlady in this sexploitation comedy involving a journalist's investigation into missing au pairs.^[17] She followed with Tiffany Jones (1973), Walker's adaptation of a comic strip, appearing as the Demonstrating Woman in a narrative about a fashion model's adventures.^[18] Her final Walker film was the horror-thriller Schizo (1976), in which she had a small but memorable role as the Lady at the Seance, contributing to the film's atmospheric tension amid a bride's descent into paranoia. Beyond Walker's oeuvre, Hackney appeared uncredited as a wedding guest in the Roy Boulting comedy There's a Girl in My Soup (1970), a farce starring Peter Sellers about romantic entanglements in high society.^[19] She took on the role of Miss Burns, a disciplinarian figure, in the military comedy Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers (1977), a sequel depicting National Service antics in 1950s Singapore.^[20] In John Schlesinger's wartime drama Yanks (1979), Hackney played Aunt Maud, embodying the reserved British demeanor contrasting American GIs during World War II.^[18] Her later roles included Mrs. Penfield in Richard Eyre's satirical The Ploughman's Lunch (1983), a critique of media and class during the Falklands War, where she appeared in a poetry reading scene. Finally, in Eyre's Laughterhouse (also known as Singleton's Pluck, 1984), she portrayed the Pub Landlady in a quirky tale of a farmer smuggling pigs.^[7] These performances highlighted her versatility in both comedic and dramatic contexts, often drawing on her radio-honed timing.^[2]

Personal life

Marriage and collaboration with Eric Barker

Pearl Hackney met Eric Barker, a comedic actor, while performing as a dancer at the Windmill Theatre in London.^[6] They married on 17 October 1936 in Hampstead, London.^[21] The couple initially lived in a flat in Chelsea before relocating to Hillside Cottage in Stalisfield, near Faversham, Kent, where they raised their daughter, Petronella, born in 1942.^[3] Hackney and Barker maintained a close professional partnership throughout their marriage, blending personal and comedic synergy in numerous radio productions, particularly during and after World War II. Their collaborations often featured Hackney in supporting roles that complemented Barker's lead characters, contributing to the success of several BBC series. Early joint work included the 1943 radio series Three's a Crowd, where they co-starred in comedic sketches.^[3] In 1944, they appeared together in the forces revue Navy Mixture, followed by the sitcom Merry-Go-Round (also known as Mediterranean Merry-Go-Round, 1944–1948), in which Barker played a hesitant manager and Hackney portrayed his secretary or a Navy character.^[3]^[22] Their radio partnership peaked in the long-running sketch series Just Fancy (1951–1962), written by and starring Barker, with Hackney as a regular co-star alongside performers like Deryck Guyler; the show featured gentle, humorous vignettes broadcast on the BBC Light Programme.^[23]^[3] Hackney also joined Barker for 21 episodes of The Eric Barker Half-Hour, a BBC radio comedy program that highlighted their on-air chemistry.^[2] On television, they collaborated in the 1950s series Look at It This Way, for which archival photos show them rehearsing together.^[24] Their joint efforts extended to occasional stage revues and variety shows, though radio remained the core of their shared career until Barker's health declined in later years.^[2]

Family and later years

Hackney and her husband Eric Barker had one daughter, Petronella Barker, who became an actress. Petronella was married to actor Anthony Hopkins from 1967 to 1972 and had a daughter, Abigail, with him.^[7]^[25] Following Barker's death on 1 June 1990, Hackney remained in Stalisfield, Kent, where the couple had made their long-term home after their 1936 marriage. She retired from acting in her seventies around the mid-1980s and became active in the local community, serving on the Stalisfield Parish Council and helping to establish the village as a conservation area.^[6]^[2] In her later years, Hackney lived at Hillside Cottage in Stalisfield before moving to receive care at Elliott House in Herne Bay. She died peacefully in her sleep on 18 September 2009 at the age of 92. Her funeral was held at St Mary's Church in Stalisfield on 7 October 2009, and she was buried in the adjacent churchyard alongside Barker.^[25]^[6]

Death

Pearl Hackney died peacefully in her sleep on 18 September 2009 in Herne Bay, Kent, at the age of 92.^[25] She was buried alongside her husband, Eric Barker, at St Mary's Churchyard, Stalisfield, Kent.^[6]