Jimmy Cricket Born James Mulgrew October 17, 1945 (1945-10-17) (age 63) Cookstown, Northern Ireland)

Early life and career

He left school at 16 and spent the next two years working in a betting shop, before spending the summer of 1966 working as a Red Coat in Butlins Holiday camp at Mosney, County Meath. He spent the following two summers at the Butlins Holiday Camp in Clacton. By the early 1970s he was living in Manchester. From 1972 he worked at the Pontins holiday camps in Southport and Morecambe. He returned to Clacton-on-Sea in 2006 to star in the eight week summer show, Summer Special, at the West Cliff Theatre.

Television

He was given his own TV series on Central Television called And There's More (also notable for including the first TV appearance by Rory Bremner). He also had his own radio series for BBC Radio 2. He featured in The Krankies Klub alongside The Krankies and Bobby Davro. He also appeared on the Royal Variety Show in 1984.

With Matt Lucas and Peter Kay he appeared in the comic relief video of The Proclaimers song I would walk 500 Miles.

Style

Jimmy Cricket's humour is entirely clean, in marked contrast to some other Irish comedians. A popular theme of his comedy is Irish logic, and the ubiquitous letter from his "Mammy". He almost always appears in his trademark outfit of cut-off evening trousers, tuxedo, hat (given to him by the BBC to wear on The Good Old Days) and wellies marked "L" and "R" for left and right, but worn on the wrong feet.

Catchphrases

His catchphrases include "come 'ere" and "...and there's more."