Jack Train
Jack Train (28 November 1902 – 19 December 1966) was a British comic actor best known for his appearances as a variety of eccentric characters in the BBC radio series "It's That Man Again" ("ITMA"). Life and career. Train was born in Plymouth, Devon on 28 November 1902. During his service in the Royal Navy in the First World War he began performing as an entertainer. Leslie Hore-Belisha, later Minister for War, saw his act when he was entertaining sailors at Devonport, advised him to turn professional and arranged an audition for him. In 1928 he made  his first West End appearance, in a Herbert Farjeon revue called "Many Happy Returns". His only stage appearance in a serious play was in "Journey's End", after which he spent five years as the straight man to Nervo and Knox. He first broadcast in 1924 and was heard on the air frequently, mostly in light entertainment but from time to time in serious drama. In October 1939 he became one of the members of the "ITMA" company supporting its star, Tommy Handley. Train was seriously ill in 1943 and had to miss one series of the show, but otherwise  he remained a stalwart until Handley's sudden death in 1949 put an end to "ITMA". "The Times" said of Train: Train said he based his characterisation of the Colonel on an Indian Army officer he once met in a golf-club bar. After "ITMA", Train was a long serving panellist on the radio show "Twenty Questions", in which, according to "The Times", he "showed himself to be capable of wild flights of fantasy without a script writer to prompt him". He was the subject of "This Is Your Life" in 1957 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at  the BBC Television Theatre. He made two cameo appearances in "The Goon Show" as Colonel Chinstrap: one in "Shifting Sands" (Series 7, programme 17, first broadcast 24/1/1957) and the other in "Who Is Pink Oboe?" (Series 9, programme 11, first broadcast 12/1/1959). In 1958, Train was the host and interviewer for "The Stars Rise in The West", an opening night programme for TWW, the new ITV station for South Wales and the West of England. Train died in London on 19 December 1966.