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Central Television

Cookstown family businesses included a bar & undertakers! 150 150 mhamer

Cookstown family businesses included a bar & undertakers!

Cookstown in Northern Ireland, where Jimmy Cricket was bornJimmy Cricket was reminded of his childhood with a memory-evoking image taken of Cookstown, the County Tyrone town in which he was grew up.

The Northern Irish comedian was born James Mulgrew in Cookstown on 17 October 1945.

Now a popular all-round entertainer, Jimmy said he was recently sent the photograph seen here on the right.

He added: “As you can see, there’s a parade going through the town.

“But, if you look up, you can clearly see the name Mulgrew.

“My parents owned a bar and had an undertaking business at the back.

“And it didn’t finish there – my father was also a taxi driver and an auctioneer. He had four jobs!

“He was an entrepreneur and a character in Cookstown.”

Jimmy left school at 16 years of age and worked for the next two years in a betting shop.

He spent the summer of 1966 working as a Redcoat in Butlin’s holiday camp in County Meath.

That was followed by two more summers at the Butlin’s holiday camp in Essex.

By the early 1970s, he was living in Manchester and from 1972 worked at the Pontins holiday camps in Southport and Morecambe.

He became a household name though his TV series on Central Television in the mid-1980s called And There’s More.

Jimmy ended up settling in Rochdale in the North-West of England with his wife, May, herself a professional singer.

Also read: You Must Be Joking comedians meet up in Cookstown

Find out more about Jimmy’s life here

Brian Conley among special guests in 1980s TV show 150 150 mhamer

Brian Conley among special guests in 1980s TV show

Brian Conley appeared in Jimmy Cricket's TV show on Central Television

Jimmy Cricket has been enjoying editing one of his old TV series, which featured well-known entertainer Brian Conley.

Central Television hosted the series, And There’s More, in the mid-1980s.

Northern Irish comedian Jimmy recalled: “Having fun today editing the second series, which was filmed at Central Television Studios alongside so many of my fellow performers, and technicians and writers and camera crew.

“Back when there was stand-up and sketches in the same show! #SaveTheArts.”

Jimmy will be putting up some clips from the TV series on the homepage of this website, so look out for those, folks!

Conley is an English comedian, television presenter, singer and actor.

He hosted The Brian Conley Show, as well as presenting the Royal Variety Performance on eight occasions.

During a 40-year television career, he has also starred in multiple award-winning television sitcoms, including Time After Time and The Grimleys.

Additionally, he had lead roles West Ends in musicals.

Also on the bill was singer Patti Gold, a very good friend of Jimmy’s.

Patti also featured in Jimmy’s first television series on ITV of And There’s More.

Alongside Patti in that series was impressionist Rory Bremner.

That was Rory’s first break on television before he launched himself on an even bigger stage.

Jimmy himself became a household name through the two TV series, which ran for three years between 1985 and 1988.

Also read: Jimmy’s friend Patti Gold celebrates 60th birthday

Watch series two episode four of And There’s More here

 

YouTube comedy clips & a letter from Jimmy Cricket 150 150 mhamer

YouTube comedy clips & a letter from Jimmy Cricket

Jimmy Cricket

Here is a short letter from your favourite entertainer Jimmy Cricket introducing a new sequence of clips produced for the homepage of this website via his YouTube channel.

 Hi folks,

It’s me, Jimmy Cricket, come closer…

Thank you for coming on my website. If you are regular, a double thank you. And if you are a newcomer, a warm welcome.

I hope you enjoying browsing through and finding something of interest for you.

The newest thing I have is this… last year I came in contact with a young man called Dom Hyndman. Dom organised a charity show to send some young people to Lourdes to help wheel-bound and disabled people get around a pilgrimage, and help with their healing and give them spiritual serenity.

Dom is also a brilliant cameraman and works on all sorts of shows, from Coronation Street to the Antiques Roadshow.

He put together a very good feature for my website called The story in pictures, which was all about how I made my breakthrough into television. The next thing he did was last October when I released an album of Christmas songs for the children’s hospice Francis House; he came to the studio and did some nice footage for me.

When we were thinking about the next project to work on, we decided to go for the four series that I’ve done on Central Television in the 1980s – take the first series and concentrate on the guest stars I had on the show.

So for the next nine weeks we will have a guest artist – they range from Jim Bowen and Frank Carson to Dennis Taylor.

I hope you find it interesting and if there’s anything else you think would make the website more interesting, please feel free to let us know.

Enjoy!

Jimmy Cricket, 5 April 2017

Watch TV programme from 1986! 150 150 mhamer

Watch TV programme from 1986!

Jimmy Cricket on And There's More

Fans of famous entertainer Jimmy Cricket are in for a real treat – an airing of the first episode of his TV series from the 1980s.

And There’s More was filmed for Central Television at their studios in Lenton Lane, Nottingham – sadly no longer there – and transmitted in June 1986.

Now, nearly 30 years later, the programme is being broadcast on Jimmy’s YouTube channel and also on the homepage of this website.

But you will have to be quick as the video will be taken down tomorrow at 5pm (Friday).

Jimmy said: “It showed what great comedy actors and impressionists Rory Bremner and Jessica Martin were; what a good stand-up comedian my friend Adrian Walsh was; and what a good sport Chinese actor Hi Ching was. The show’s special guest was actress and winger-songwriter Hazel O’Connor.”

The series was produced and directed by Tony Wolf and the associate producer was Paula Burden – whose father was the famous music hall comedian Albert Burden.

* Because of technological problems, we were unable to upload the video as hoped yesterday. Sorry for any inconvenience.

‘Clean fun – that’s Cricket’s pitch’ 150 150 mhamer

‘Clean fun – that’s Cricket’s pitch’

 

The feature in the TV Times was written to advertise and promote Jimmy Cricket’s series And There’s More on Central Television

The TV Times feature was written to promote Jimmy Cricket’s series, And There’s More, which was broadcast on ITV

This magazine feature provides a nostalgic glimpse into Jimmy Cricket’s past.

Jimmy Cricket in the TV TimesOne of Jimmy’s ‘Friends’ on Facebook called Tom Stamp posted the attached picture of an article – entitled Clean fun – that’s Cricket’s pitch – which was published in the TV Times in the 1980s.

It was written to advertise and promote Jimmy’s series, And There’s More, which was produced by Central Television and broadcast on ITV between 1985 and 1989.

Jimmy says: “This is a real bit of nostalgia for me – where have all the years gone?!”