mhamer

Jimmy Cricket and his wellies had them laughing in the Valleys recently.

The famous Irish comedian performed at Pontypool Park in Pontypool, south Wales, in mid-August.

A feature all about Jimmy and his successful showbiz career appeared in the South Wales Argus a week before the show.

The newspaper article began… If you were a keen viewer of comedy sketch shows in the 1980s, the name Jimmy Cricket stirs up many a comical image.

Remembered for reading humorous letters from his “mammy” while sporting an out-of-shape hat, a dinner jacket matched with a pair of cut-off evening trousers and a trademark pair of wrongly matched wellies clearly marked “L” and “R”, Jimmy was loved by young and old alike for his numerous TV and radio appearances.

The Irish-born comedian’s training ground stretches back to the 1960s when he was a redcoat in Butlins holiday camps organising everything from darts matches to hula-hoop contests.

“Looking back, it’s like what young people do for these performance degrees,” he says.

“I suppose the holiday camps were a bit like that because you learned how to project to the back of the theatre and to put stage make up on. It held me in great stead for pantomime and things like that…”