Publisher HomeHappy Mag | Published 1921–1970 Number of books 39 | |
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Adaptations William Comes to Town (1948) Characters Hubert Lane, Mr. & Mrs. Bott, Ethel Brown | ||
The Just William series is a sequence of thirty-nine books written by English author Richmal Crompton. The books chronicle the adventures of the unruly schoolboy William Brown.
Contents
- Characters and setting
- Current events
- Characters
- Publication and illustrations
- List of books
- Films
- Radio
- Theatre
- 1950s series
- 1960s series
- 1970s series
- 1990s series
- 2010s series
- Comics
- Controversy
- References
Published over a period of almost fifty years, between 1921 and 1970, the series is notable for the fact that the protagonist remains at the same eleven years of age, despite each book being set in the era it was written in. The first book was Just William, and often the entire series is named after this book. Each book, with the exception of Just William's Luck, which was a novel, was a collection of short stories.
The series has spawned various television, film, theatre and radio adaptations. It also has a large fan following, with such groups as the Just William Society.
Characters and setting
William Brown is a middle-class schoolboy of 11, who lives in a country village in Southern England. A number of guesses have been made about where the stories are set. In Pensions for Boys in Sweet William (1936), it is suggested that the village is about 50 miles from London. It has also been suggested (in Margarey Disher's book Growing Up with Just William) that it is situated somewhere around Bromley, Kent. A road sign shown in a Thomas Henry illustration from "William Gets A Move On" in "William Does His Bit" reads "London A1", which would place the village north of London.
William is the leader of his band of friends, who call themselves the Outlaws, with his best friend Ginger and his other friends Henry and Douglas. His scruffy mongrel is called Jumble.
A William story often starts when William or the Outlaws set out to do something — put on a play, collect scrap metal for the war effort, look after Violet Elizabeth Bott for example. William always manages to get into trouble with his parents, although he can never see why. Often his well-meaning efforts result in broken windows and hysterics among Mrs. Brown's friends.
Sometimes William can be very moral — he is inspired to tell the truth for the duration of Christmas Day in William's Truthful Christmas (Still William, 1925) with terrible results:
[William has just received a geometry set and a book on church history for Christmas.]
"Did you like the book and instruments that Uncle and I gave you?" said Aunt Emma brightly.
"No," said William gloomily and truthfully. "I'm not int'rested in Church History an' I've got something like those at school. Not that I'd want 'em," he added hastily, "if I hadn't em."
"William!" screamed Mrs. Brown in horror. "How can you be so ungrateful!"
"I'm not ungrateful," explained William wearily.
Current events
The books within this series often reflected current events within the 20th century. William the Conqueror (1926) for example reflects pre-World War I imperialism, while 1930s books like William The Dictator (1938) dealt with Fascism and 1940s books like William and the Evacuees (1940) were set against the backdrop of World War II . Later on, William and the Moon Rocket (1954) and William and the Space Animal (1956) were written during the space race. Despite the changing events, William and other characters do not age.
Characters
Publication and illustrations
The series was first serialised in Home magazine and then Happy Mag but after being serialised were printed as books of short stories.
All the William books until William and the Witch published in 1964 were illustrated by Thomas Henry in ink, with water colour illustrations for the front covers. After Henry's death in 1962, Henry Ford and Lunt Roberts (who had previously illustrated her Jimmy books) continued in his style.
List of books
Crompton continued to write William books right up until her death with the last, William the Lawless, being published posthumously in 1970.
The publication dates are for the UK.
Books about the series:
Films
Several films were made based on the books. The first of these is Just William (1940). Directed by Graham Cutts, and written by Doreen Montgomery and Ireland Wood, it starred Richard Lupino as William Brown and featured Fred Emney as Mr. Brown, Basil Radford as Mr. Sidway, Amy Veness as Mrs. Bott, Iris Hoey as Mrs. Brown, Roddy McDowall as Ginger, Norman Robinson as Douglas, Peter Miles as Henry, David Tree as Marmaduke Bott, Jenny Laird as Ethel Brown, Simon Lack as Robert Brown, and Aubrey Mather as Fletcher.
Just William's Luck and William at the Circus were both released in 1948 and were written and directed by Val Guest. They starred William Graham as William Brown and featured Garry Marsh as Mr. Brown, Jane Welsh as Mrs. Brown, Hugh Cross as Robert Brown, Kathleen Stuart as Ethel Brown, A. E. Matthews as The Tramp in Just William's Luck and as Minister in William at the Circus, Muriel Aked as Emily, Maid, Brian Roper as Ginger, Brian Weske as Henry, James Crabbe as Douglas, Michael Balfour as Jenks in JWL, uncredied in WatC, John Powe as Policeman in JWL, uncredited in WatC.
Just William's Luck also featured Audrey Manning as Violet Elizabeth, Leslie Bradley as The Boss, Hy Hazell as Gloria Gail, Patricia Cutts as Gloria's Secretary, Ivan Hyde as Glazier, Joan Hickson as Hubert's Mother, Anne Marie as Masseur, Leslie Hazell as Hubert's Gang, Peter Davis as Hubert's Gang, John O'Hara as Hubert's Gang, Michael Medwin as The Boss's Gang, John Martel as Johnnie, Ivan Craig as The Boss's Gang.
William at the Circus also featured Michael Medwin as Reporter, Jon Pertwee as Superintendent, Peter Butterworth as Postman and John Martel as Johnnie.
Radio
Alick Hayes, the BBC radio producer of The Will Hay Programme, decided to put together a cast for the first Just William radio series, which ran for 2 years on the BBC Light Programme (as a sitcom), beginning in 1946. He found his William in John Clark, the young actor who had played D'arcy Minor, and Charles Hawtrey, also from the Will Hay Programme, became Hubert Lane. Gordon McLeod was Mr. Brown, Betty Bowden Mrs. Brown, Harry Locke (later, Michael Allinson) played Robert and Ethel was Rosamund Barnes. Violet Elizabeth was played by Jacqueline Boyer, who replaced the original, and Ginger by Tony Stockman.
Later, for radio, there was a play, William and the Artist's Model, written in 1956.
The BBC has produced many recordings of William stories read by Martin Jarvis, originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4. See Just William (BBC Radio series).
Kenneth Williams read eight stories for Argo in the early 1980s.
Theatre
As was often the case with popular radio shows, there was a big push to put it on the stage, where audiences could get to actually put a face to the famous voices, and the actors could get to earn decent money after the frugal pay checks offered by the BBC – William was paid 4 guineas a show, standard pay for juveniles back then, one line or star, didn't matter. And so it was that the 1947 radio series of Just William found a new life in a stage production, written by Alick Hayes and Richmal Crompton, produced by Violet Elizabeth's father Jack Boyer, opening in Birmingham, and for the next 2 years toured the British Isles on the Moss Empire music hall circuit, busting house records at most theatres it played due to the thousands of children who got their first taste of theatre from the gallery. The closest it got to the West End was the Granville, Walham Green, owned by Jack Boyer, where it became one of the first plays to be televised by the BBC. John Clark, under contract, had to stick it out to the end, even though his voice had begun to break.
1950s series
In 1956 ITV aired a series based on the books called Over to William. The series ran for 13 episodes and starred Keith Crane as William.
1960s series
In 1962 and 1963 a BBC TV series called William was broadcast. The 1962 series starred Dennis Waterman as William. In 1963 he was replaced by Denis Gilmore. It also featured Howard Lever as Robert, Christopher Witty as Ginger, Kaplan Kaye as Henry, Carlo Cura as Douglas and Gillian Gostling as Violet Elizabeth.
Episodes
Series one
Series two
1970s series
Running for two series transmitted in 1976 and 1977, an ITV series called Just William was made by London Weekend Television. It features Adrian Dannatt as William, with Stephen Wilmot as Henry, Diana Fairfax as Mrs. Brown, Hugh Cross as Mr. Brown, Stacy Dorning as Ethel Brown, Bonnie Langford as Violet Elizabeth Bott, Simon Chandler as Robert Brown and Diana Dors as Mrs. Bott.
Episodes
Information from here
Series one
Series two
Christmas Special:
1990s series
In 1994, the BBC broadcast another series also called Just William. Written by Allan Baker and directed by David Giles, it starred Oliver Rokison as William, Tiffany Griffiths as Violet Elizabeth Bott and featured Jonathan Hirst as Ginger, Alastair Weller (credited as Alistair Weller) as Douglas, Polly Adams as Mrs. Brown, David Horovitch as Mr. Brown, Ben Pullen as Robert Brown, Naomi Allisstone as Ellen the maid, and Olivia Hallinan as Susie Chambers.
Episodes
Series one
Series two
2010s series
In July, 2009, it was announced that the BBC were working on a new series of Just William. The episodes were written by Men Behaving Badly writer Simon Nye and broadcast in 2010 starring Daniel Roche (Ben in Outnumbered) who plays William and newcomer Robert A Foster who plays Henry. The series was narrated by Martin Jarvis.
Episodes
Series one
Comics
A Just William comic strip appeared in Look-in magazine from April to October 1977, adapted by Angus Allan and drawn by Arthur Ranson, to tie in to the ITV series being broadcast at that time.
Controversy
William has been criticised by the RSPCA for stories where he is cruel to animals. For example, in one story William's friend Henry paints his dog blue as a circus exhibit. In another William and another dog owner have a competition to see which dog can kill most rats in a certain time. Some stories have been removed from modern publication, such as William and the Nasties from William The Detective where William suspects a Jewish shop owner of dishonesty and forms a mob to evict him. ("Nasty" was William's mispronunciation of Nazi.) This story was written in 1935 before the Second World War, and was probably meant as parody. By the end of the story William and the Outlaws help capture a thief who had imprisoned the Shopkeeper and the Shopkeeper generously allows them to take many items free.
This story appeared in all the 20 impressions of "William the Detective" published by George Newnes (1935–1967), and in all the editions brought out by Armada in the 1970s. It was in 1986, in the edition brought out by Macmillan Children's Books, that this story was first omitted. Richmal Crompton's biographer, Mary Cadogan, wrote that both Richmal Crompton's literary executor – her niece Richmal Ashbee – and her publisher Macmillan "unhesitatingly decided to drop this episode [William and the Nasties] completely from new editions of the book." [Mary Cadogan, Richmal Crompton – The Woman behind "Just William" pp. 117–18]