Page "William Hartnell" Paragraph 4

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Hartnell served in the Tank Corps, but was invalided out after eighteen months as the result of suffering a nervous breakdown, and he returned to acting.

Hartnell usually played comic characters, until 1944 when he was cast in the robust role of Sergeant Ned Fletcher in The Way Ahead.

From then on his career was defined by playing mainly policemen, soldiers, and thugs.

This typecasting roles bothered him, for even when cast in comedies he found he was invariably playing the ' heavy '.

In 1958 he played the sergeant in the first Carry On film comedy, Carry On Sergeant, and in 1963 he appeared as a town councillor in the Boulting brothers ' film Heavens Above!

with Peter Sellers.

He also appeared as Will Buckley in the film The Mouse That Roared in 1959 ( again with Sellers ).