
Jack at the end of the 60s in donkey jacket shot for his Spotlight entry for 1969. Photo©Peter Simpkin
1961 to 1970
Drama was still very much a part of TV schedules then and he began to clock up parts in many different shows.
I remember as a pre-school kid sitting on the sink drainer looking out of the window waving him goodbye as he went 'off to Manch' with his little canvas and leather strapped case, a sea of musty but cologned corduroy about his slight frame.
Life was tough for him and his family but things were getting better. Some well paid job must have happened about 1962 as a Brenell Mk. 5M reel to reel tape recorder arrived in the house, not sure why, possibly an aid to rehearsal or just a big fun toy. We all got recorded.
He was in reasonably regular work things going well and then to add to it in 1963 Liz's father (grandpa Mann) bought us a house!
This decade saw Jack moving from live TV at Granada into drama and the TV series that he is remembered for. He went on to play many character parts for the next eighteen years. Denis Potter's Stand Up Nigel Barton in 1965 (Potter's first play) aired as the Wednesday Play seemed to put him on the map. Being part of what was groundbreaking TV drama. Several Wednesday Plays, Thirty Minute Theatres and Armchair Theatres followed . Memorable ones for me were Love on The Dole, Barlow of the Car Park and The Discharge of Trooper Lusby. Barlow because it spawned the phrase 'choc-o-lates...for me' much used in the Woolgar household ever since and Trooper Lusby for 'Burgoo' also much used at mealtimes.
This decade he was in an episode of a lot of the now 'cult' series and was the lead or major character in a couple of series too. Some feature films too.


Radio Times feature on the Thirty Minute Theatre with Tony Selby
Radio Times check out the director ! His first play.

A stills photo from Biggles in 1960 has on the reverse;
JACK WOOLGAR, who plays the part of the wounded botanist, "Barlow", in the BIGGLES adventure begining on Wednesday, August 24. Jack Woolgar, a Huddersfield actor, prides himself on being able to play any character part that comes along 'whether it be crook or parson, news-vendor or secret agent, in dialect or accent, with whiskers or without."
©Granada TV