Jimmy Cricket’s big breakthrough into showbusiness came when he won a TV talent show called Search for a Star.
The Northern Irish comedian says he had previously spent eight gruelling years performing on the North of England club circuit.
“It was a tough, bruising apprenticeship,” Jimmy tells readers of his latest newspaper column in the Lancashire Evening Post.
London Weekend Television’s Search for a Star featured newly discovered talent from the cabaret and club scene.
And winning one of the programme’s heats in 1980 put Jimmy in the national spotlight.
He appreciated the significance of the timing, “breaking into televison in the 1980s when glamorous and dazzling variety shows dominated the schedules”.
Jimmy was later given his own series on Central Television in the mid-1980s called And There’s More.
It included the first TV appearance by the impressionist Rory Bremner.
Watch Jimmy’s first television appearance on Search for a Star here. (Warning: there may be advertisements.)
Read details here of the 1980 Search for a Star heat, which Jimmy won.
World’s poorest communities
In the LEP column, Jimmy also talks about his recently released aut0biography, which is now on sale.
Memoirs Of An Irish Comedian tells the heart-warming story of Jimmy’s illustrious life and career – told in his own words.
The paperback costs £11.99 and is available at online retailer Amazon here.
One pound from the sale of every book goes to Mary’s Meals.
The charity supports feeding projects in some of the world’s poorest communities where hunger and poverty prevent children from gaining an education.
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