Hinge and Bracket

Characters

Patrick Fyffe and George Logan created the Hinge and Bracket act after meeting at the Escort Club in Pimlico, London. The two developed a comedy act featuring Fyffe as a retired opera singer who still believes she can sing, with Logan as her male accompanist, which evolved into a dual-drag act of eccentric old ladies. Their portrayal was more realistic than typical drag queens, aiming for mainstream appeal beyond gay clubs; author Roger Baker described them as being at the forefront of a new development in drag based on creating completely convincing characters.

The illusion was reinforced by Fyffe and Logan sustaining the identities of Hilda and Evadne offstage, appearing in character for interviews and other appearances. Some fans believed the elderly ladies were real, though the act included frequent double entendres. The characters were elderly spinsters who had spent their lives performing classical music, often reminiscing about singing opera and working with Ivor Novello and Noël Coward. Their stage act evoked a genteel English inter-war world and included performances of popular songs and light opera numbers, especially Gilbert and Sullivan pieces.

Dr Evadne Hinge usually provided piano accompaniment. Writer Gyles Brandreth described them as a drag act with a difference, offering character and comedy instead of glamour and sex appeal.

Appearances

During the 1970s, Hinge and Bracket spent two years performing in London pubs and clubs, including the Royal Vauxhall Tavern and the Kensington restaurant AD8 owned by Desmond Morgan and April Ashley. At a charity gala at the Oxford Playhouse organised by Gyles Brandreth, co-stars Dame Peggy Ashcroft and Dame Flora Robson reportedly believed Hinge and Bracket to be two elderly lesbians. They also performed together in a West End adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Peter Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage, both of which toured the UK. They made many pantomime appearances and featured on two Royal Variety Shows; their act was reputedly a favourite of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. In the early 1980s, they appeared in a television advertising campaign for Emva Cream Sherry.