Jones, Rick

Born Frederick Joseph Jones in London, Ontario, Canada.

Rick worked as a forester and nickel miner and saved up to move to London in 1957, where he trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Terence Stamp was a friend and contemporary of his.

He spent three years working at the repertory company Library Theatre in Manchester (1959 – 1962).

In 1961, he toured the US with Theatre Outlook productions, including Coriolanus and made his London West End debut in Fiorello at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1962.

He fronted the 1960s country rock band Meal Ticket and was a resident folk singer at the Pickwick Club in London, which was popular with celebrities. He once performed in front of The Beatles.

Play School creator Joy Whitby saw him when he worked at the Royal Court Theatre in London, in a play called Spoon River, whose cast included fellow Canadians Donald Sutherland, Bernard Braden and Barbara Kelly, along with Isla Cameron and Betsy Blair.

Joy recalled: “He was one of the narrators singing with his guitar on one side of the stage, with Isla on the other side.

“I’d gone to see if she would suit our needs, but Rick was the outstanding performer, holding the audience in the palm of his hand. I rang him up the next day and invited him to join the Play School team – I’m not sure he even had an audition.”

Rick first appeared in the second week making his debut on 27th April 1964. The earliest surviving footage of Rick within the BBC Archives is Friday 1st May 1964, from his first week.

He appeared with Julie Stevens and pianist Jonathan Cohen on the Play School LP (1969 Decca label) and on Play School – Stories Old and New from BBC TV’s Daily Programme for Younger Children (1972 – BBC Record Roundabout 10).

He provided the words and music for the infamous song Bang on a Drum, that appeared in both a BBC Publication and on a BBC Record in 1973.

He remained on the Play School presenting team until 30th March 1973, having presented 447 editions – the seventh-longest-serving presenter.

Julie Stevens recalled: “I did hear that Rick was later sent some pot in the post and was called to the Play School office and not long afterwards he left the programme. I probably think he let himself get found out, as he wanted to move into more acting roles.”

Play School producer Peter Ridsdale-Scott recalled: “Rick and Lionel Morton were both rather like naughty boys always misbehaving. Once I was out with Rick and he suddenly said that he wanted to pop in and see a mate who was in hospital.

“I wasn’t too keen to go but we went to Hammersmith Hospital and said I would wait outside the ward, but much to my surprise I was asked in to a private room. I couldn’t believe it when I saw Donald Sutherland sitting in bed chatting away to Rick, a fellow Canadian compatriot.”

Rick clearly had a hidden mischievous streak and made lasting friendships with some members of the Play School team.

In March 2011, former Play School presenter Marla Landi hosted a reunion lunch which reunited Rick with Joy Whitby, Johnny Ball, Brian Cant, Marian Diamond, Terry Frisby, Phyllida Law, pianist Jonathan Cohen.

Archivist/author Paul R. Jackson was also invited and finally got to meet Rick and talk to him about those early days and had a photo with him and Marla’s Humpty.

Television acting credits include:

• Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet with Jane Asher (Associated Rediffusion, 1962);
• At the Eleventh Hour;
• Emergency Ward 10 (ATV, 1963);
• No Hiding Place (1963);
• The Avengers (1964);
• Sergeant Cork (1966);
• The Saint (1967);
• The Newcomers (1967);
• Dr Finlay’s Casebook (1969).

Other children’s programmes he presented:

• Whoosh! (1968);
• Merry-Go-Round (1969);
• We Want to Sing (1971), Yoffy in Fingerbobs (1972);
• Eight editions of Play Away (1972 – 1974);
• Over the Moon (1978).

He sang on Jackanory in The Little House in the Biog Wood (1966).

He dubbed characters in the French children’s series Belle and Sebastian (1967 – 1968) and wrote the English theme song for another French-produced series Aeronauts (1967 – 1970).

He narrated Storyline (1969) and two Watch with Mother series – Along the Seashore (1970) and Along the Trail (1972).

He was a guest reporter on an edition of Holiday (BBC One, March 1974) and his song Better Believe It Babe featured in Play for Today – The Flipside of Dominick Hide (BBC One. 1980).

Rick married Min Ayles in 1960. They would later divorce. They had two daughters, Chrysta and Flea, who married Spandau Ballet’s drummer John Keeble.

In the early 1980s, he moved to the United States. He released two solo albums on Argo records produced by Harley Usill – Twixt You and Me and Hiya Maya and co-wrote the cult musical Captain Crash vs The Zzorgwomen Chapters 5 and 6 with Steve Hammond and David Pierce.

He continued to write and perform music and in 2009 released a new CD Life Drawing, with his wife Valerie Neale. Their new musical Laughing Daughter had its premiere in Indian Head Maryland in September 2009.

In October 2021, Rick died from esophageal cancer, aged 84. In a tweet, his wife Valerie said:

“He died at home in my arms with his daughters close by. My heart is breaking. We had over 40 beautiful years together, and he was a light in so many people’s lives.”

There was a memorial celebration of his life at The Taberacle, London on 9th February 2022. It was attended by family and many friends, including former lodger and CBBC musical legend Jonathan Cohen, actors Jeremy Clyde and Rula Lenska and Spandau Ballet’s John Keeble and Gary Kemp.

Correspondence

With the help of Julie Stevens, Paul R. Jackson received a letter from Rick in 1989 and with Julie’s help once more, Paul got back in touch with Rick in the United States where he lived. They corresponded in February that year.

Had all the original presenters met before the programme began and were you aware that Joy was trying to use non-English presenters (it was unusual for the BBC at that time)?

“We weren’t aware of Joy’s agenda regarding ethnicity or country of origin of the presenters.

“There wasn’t a formal gathering at which all presenters met. I was a young married father who was offered a job by the BBC, and it looked as if it might be long-term. So I took it.

“Jobs weren’t plentiful in those days, and the BBC was known to be stingy, but regular work held a great fascination for young homemakers.

“Joy was lovely – sharp, intelligent, funny and extremely good at her job. It was a no-brainer, really.”

Were there any co-presenters that you particularly liked working with?

“The presenter pool was so diverse, one never knew what kind of week one was going to get. 

“Marla Landi for instance, was a gorgeous Italian film star, very sweet and none of us could figure out why she might be piddling around in children’s TV when she could be out there with Carlo Ponti or whomever swanking about on the Isle of Capri!

“But there she was, and I remember at the time I was losing my hair at an alarming rate, and she happened also to have a wig-making establishment and offered to create a wig for me.

“I’d had a small hair piece previously – didn’t like it – and in those days it was a sure target for derision – and no one derides better than competing actors, believe me.

“But I agreed and weeks later she turned up with this wig. It was I want to say ‘full’ but it was more than that – ‘overflowing’ might better describe it.

“To me, in that wig, I looked like Big Lord Fauntleroy! I could see myself loping down London’s Haymarket attracting the wrong kind of people and politely refused to wear it and Marla was, of course, upset.

“I feel privileged to have been allowed to work with so many talented, amusing people: Brian Cant was a delight. He made the word ‘nice’ acceptable, and we enjoyed each other’s company.

“The lovely Marian Diamond, Terry Frisby (always a laugh), Phyllida Law (enchanting), Julie of course and beautiful Miranda Connell, who I wanted to put in my pocket and keep, but alas, she was taken and Teddy (Miranda’s husband, actor Edward De Souza) would have kicked the stuffing out of me anyway.

“Virginia Stride – where did they find all these stunning ladies – who whispered an expletive just after wrongly identifying which window we were going through?

“The microphone was tracking in and picked up the little curse and broadcast it live to the nation. We were pleased!

“I met the talented Eric Thompson, immortalised in The Magic Roundabout, and Lady Solti, then Valerie Pitts, so funny and intelligent, and with an accent harking back to gentler times.

“We were extremely lucky with our ladies. The men, on the other hand, one rarely saw.

“I didn’t know many, other than casually, but Lionel Morton and I became friends after Play School and ended up in a band together. I am still in touch with him, the sweet man.”

Rick particularly enjoyed working with some of the creative team

“Ann Reay won over all our hearts. We used to have competitions to see who could make her blush first.

“Peter Ridsdale-Scott was always a treat to work with.

“My take on the programme’s value is that Joy came up with the first viable alternative to the spoon–feeding cutesy pabulum that TV had offered previously.

“It was non-intrusive, gentle, encouraging, careful not to generalise and constructively stimulating. The child could take what he or she wanted and I know from watching my own children that it worked.”

Rick described what it was like filming at the BBC studios in the swinging 1960s

“It wasn’t so much that one was aware at the time of being part of an enormous social upheaval, but being so often in the East Tower, rubbing shoulders with one’s peers and heroes, one was certainly aware of swimming in turbulent waters, literally going round in circles.

“I bumped into pals like Ken Loach or Colin Welland or sneaked into the next studio to meet Little Richard or Neil Diamond.

“One evening, on the supper break that separated the last rehearsal from the taping, I waited for a lift to take me to the restaurant upstairs. The doors slid open, and there pressed against the back wall, alone in the lift was Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a very leftist political fugitive from France there for an exclusive interview.

“I knew who he was and it must have shown on my face, because he was obviously uneasy about being in a lift alone with a stranger. There were people who would gladly have done him harm in those days.

“I smiled as warmly as I could and looked away as if disinterested. When we got to the top the door opened and he leapt out and the film actor Laurence Harvey got in and I went and had dinner with Blue Peter’s Peter Purves. That’s how it was.

“Proximity to the exalted tends to make one realise that everyone’s a person and builds confidence about one’s own place in the mix.

“One other thing comes to mind as I write this, and it too has something to do with the patina of ‘fame’.

“During my tenure at Play School I watched a play one night on the BBC called Talking to a Stranger by John Hopkins, which moved me to write my first ever and perhaps only fan letter.

“I simply said that British drama was obviously in fine hands and I’d been moved immensely by the whole thing, and it had helped me sort my way through a personal problem and signed it Rick Jones.

“A week later a letter arrived for me from Mr Hopkins indicating that honest praise is always welcome to an artist, and if, as he suspected, I was the Rick Jones he thought I was, then we were even, as he often found himself in moments of blocked creativity watching us on Play School and getting back to work refreshed.

“Praise and recognition indeed and I still have that letter somewhere.”

 

Personal information

Clips of Rick on The TV Room

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