Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/George Robey

George Robey

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/November 29, 2014 by BencherliteTalk 22:26, 17 November 2014 (UTC)



George Robey (1869–1954) was an English comedian, singer and actor in musical theatre, known as one of the greatest music hall performers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Robey mixed everyday situations and observations with comic absurdity, and was a popular Christmas pantomime performer. His notable successes during the First World War included the hit revue The Bing Boys Are Here, in which he sang "If You Were the Only Girl (In the World)". Born in London to a middle-class family, he made his debut on stage at age 21 as the straight man to a comic hypnotist. He soon developed his own music hall act. In 1892, he appeared in his first pantomime, Whittington Up-to-date. He starred in the Royal Command Performance in 1912 and regularly entertained before aristocracy. In 1913 he debuted in film, but with only modest success. From 1918, he created sketches based on his character, the Prime Minister of Mirth. He played Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 in 1935, repeated in Laurence Olivier's 1944 film. During the Second World War, Robey raised money for charities and promoted recruitment into the forces. He was knighted a few months before his death.
 * Most recent similar article(s): found no recent all-round entertainer of that era
 * Main editors: Cassianto
 * Promoted: 2014
 * Reasons for nomination: 60th anniversary of death
 * Support as nominator. Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:50, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Actually, I would have thought that George Formby was the most recent similar article (17th September); before that Marie Lloyd (18th June - TFAREC even says "Literature and theatre – Biography – Music hall" against her entry, which is a clue...). BencherliteTalk 13:18, 15 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Possibly I misunderstood "recent". I looked for music and stopped at classical Gustav Holst, sorry. How many battles/ships/tanks did we show recently? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:29, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Well, I almost laughed at the comparison of Holst and Robey, but I'm not happy. The whole point of me keeping WP:TFAREC up to date - which takes a lot of time - is so that nominators can tell everyone when the most recent similar article was. WP:TFAREC - which is specifically linked to the words "Most recent similar article(s)" - gives the last 6 or 7 months of articles. Doesn't that help you to understand the word "recent"? Part of the idea of getting rid of the points was that we'd have the discussion about the issues the points represented without fixating on point calculations, but if people won't complete the "most recent similar article(s)" section properly, that idea doesn't work and I might as well delete WP:TFAREC. Why were you looking at classical musicians if you were then going to say "no recent all-round entertainer"? Classical musicians aren't the same as entertainers. Robey is not even listed under "Music" at WP:FA, is he? He's under "Literature and theatre biographies", the same as Marie Lloyd. I would ask what battles, ships and tanks have to do with this, but it appears that you're just trying to change the subject. BencherliteTalk 13:43, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Sorry, you misunderstood me. I looked at your list and searched for "music". (OK, I learned from the above that I should have looked for "theatre biographies", will do that next time.) I did not look AT Holst, but saw that I had reached more than two months before the proposed date (which was on the pending list). Within two months (now looking at September and October) we have a tank, a battleship, two battles and a war, - I believe that two entertainers are not too may to bring welcome relief. Please note also that I said "allround", - the other two seem not to have starred in play and film in a Shakespeare role ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:25, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm still at a loss as to why you searched for similar articles just under "music" in the first place when looking for someone to compare to Robey. Did you not notice that the columns can be sorted by "FA category" so that all the "literature and theatre" articles are together, all the music articles are together, etc? Please don't make too fine a distinction between articles when looking for recent similar articles - you now seem to be discounting Formby, for example, just because he didn't appear in a comedy role in a Shakespeare film, which is unhelpful. And only going back from 31st October (the latest date currently scheduled) to 21st September when the page deliberately gives 6 or 7 months of previous articles is also unhelpful. I might not have said as much about this were it not for the fact that your nomination of Today's featured article/requests/Peter Warlock was similarly unhelpful: you didn't mention Holst in that context (another TFA about an early 20th-century British composer, just 39 days previously) and just said "no recent critic" as if that was all that Warlock was known for. Please try to be more helpful in your nominations in future.  And, for the record, I don't have a problem with having three British light entertainers from the first half of the 20th century within a few months of each other, but if people look at the blurb and think "didn't we have a music hall entertainer recently?" your nomination should be giving the answer. That's the point of the space in the template and the point of me maintaining TFAREC.  Thank you. BencherliteTalk 16:50, 15 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Support. Relevant date, most high quality article about a deceased person, educational, encyclopedic, teaches our readers about what comedy is. &mdash; Cirt (talk) 14:05, 15 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Support as author. Cassianto talk 19:17, 15 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Support meets all the criteria, and very relevant for this important anniversary. Jack1956 (talk) 19:57, 15 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Support, as it meets the criteria and there are very few recent articles on theatre people. The literature and theatre list is overwhelmingly literature. -- Ssilvers (talk) 21:43, 15 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Support – concur entirely with the four supporters above.  Tim riley  talk    22:14, 15 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Support - Over two months between entertainers is plenty. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:46, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Support – A two month gap should be OK (although it now means I can't list Formby Snr until next year!) – SchroCat (talk) 22:39, 16 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Support: A well-written article and it seems to be a suitable anniversary. Sarastro1 (talk) 12:00, 18 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Support: Good anniversary, great article, superb comedian (much funnier than Holst) Brianboulton (talk) 21:07, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
 * What about Uranus?  Tim riley  talk    21:30, 20 October 2014 (UTC)
 * What about it? Brianboulton (talk) 22:20, 20 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Support as if it needed it.... The Rambling Man (talk) 13:26, 23 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Support historical stuff always good on mainpage. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 22:28, 26 October 2014 (UTC)