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Ronnie Corbett: Small in size but a comedy giant 150 150 mhamer

Ronnie Corbett: Small in size but a comedy giant

Jimmy Cricket's latest Lancashire Evening Post column is about the famous late comedian Ronnie Corbett

Ronnie Corbett may have been diminutive in size, but he was huge in the world of comedy.

Jimmy Cricket devotes his latest Lancashire Evening Post column to the famous comedian.

Ronnie died almost exactly 10 years ago aged 85.

Said Jimmy: “Here is my tribute to a powerhouse of a man, whom I also had the great pleasure watching perform as Buttons alongside the wonderfully talented Clodagh Rodgers as Cinderella years ago at the #PalaceTheatre in Manchester!”

Here is Jimmy’s full column:

Hi readers, I was watching reruns recently of the classic TV comedy show, The Two Ronnies, and they made me laugh just as heartily as when I first saw them.

I couldn’t help thinking how fortunate, as viewers, we were that these two huge talents – Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker – came together.

After all, they weren’t a comedy double act in the conventional sense, unlike Morecambe and Wise and Cannon and Ball, who dealt in cross-talk and honed their acts over years of live shows.

Consummate ease

Instead, both Ronnies had successful solo careers in tandem with their own TV series together.

That difference came to the fore when it came to television comedy sketches.

Whereas Eric and Ernie and Tommy and Bobby always played themselves, Ronnie C and Ronnie B were such gifted comedy actors that they glided into various characters with consummate ease.

Most of the time with hilarious results.

I must confess one of my favourite bits of their shows together is Ronnie Corbett’s Ronnie in the Chair piece, where he sits in an armchair with a nifty little sweater on, and draws the viewers and the studio audience into his confidence.

We know he’s going to finish on a golden oldie joke, with a nice big punchline, but it’s the build-up that gets us all chuckling, with its one-liners, throw-away lines and asides about the producer.

Royal Air Force

In the one I saw recently, he was bemoaning his poor childhood and emphasised the fact by saying: “I had to go to a cut-price school… it was called St Tescos!”

Great stuff!

Ronnie Corbett was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

His dad William was a master baker and his grandfather was principal organist at St Andrew’s Church of Scotland in the early 20th century.

After three years in the Royal Air Force, he moved to London to pursue an acting career.

The famous female impersonator Danny La Rue took him on to act in sketches at his Mayfair nightclub – Winston’s.

While there, two momentous things happened to him.

He met his future wife Anne Hart, who was performing there.

Their marriage lasted 49 years! Incidentally, Anne was considerably taller than Ronnie.

It was also at Danny’s club that he was spotted by David Frost who signed him for his television sketch show called The Frost Report.

Self-deprecating one-liners

It was there he met Ronnie Barker and together they took television comedy on to new heights, winning the hearts of the nation in the process.

I loved the way Ronnie got so much fun out of his height.

The self-deprecating one-liners used to flow out of him like peas rolling off a knife.

He turned up on Terry Wogan’s TV chat show once and said: “I’m sorry I’m late, Terry. I was feeding the budgie and the cage door slammed behind me!”

Another famous quote I heard him say was: “I’m not tall enough to be the next James Bond and not small enough to be adopted by Madonna!”

I met Ronnie once backstage at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London’s West End, when we were both performing at a benefit concert for the late great British comedy actor Terry Thomas, who’d just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

The conversation hinged around the great comedy writer Eddie Braben who was a mutual friend by virtue of the fact he’d written for both of us at different times.

It was a warm encounter.

Ronnie Corbett may have been diminutive in size, but he was a giant in the world of television comedy!

Also read: LEP column pays tribute to the ‘wonderful’ Vera Lynn

Ken Dodd and the stolen concrete wellies 150 150 mhamer

Ken Dodd and the stolen concrete wellies

Hi friends! Here is my latest #leponline column, a funny and true story which involves one of the greatest comedians we ever produced, (and whom we all sadly miss) Sir Ken Dodd.

The mystery of Jimmy Cricket’s stolen concrete wellies and why there was a happy ending despite them never being found is the subject of his latest newspaper column.

Writing in the Lancashire Evening Post, the Northern Irish comedian tells the story involving a close and famous friend.

Jimmy said on social media: “Hi friends! Here is my latest #leponline column.

“A funny and true story which involves one of the greatest comedians we ever produced (and whom we all sadly miss), Sir Ken Dodd.”

Here is the column:

Welcome readers, I’d like to share a memory – come closer…

It happened over 30 years ago – 1995 to be precise.

And it happened in a restaurant called Patricks in Rawtenstall, Lancashire.

It was my 50th birthday and my family had hired the restaurant to help me celebrate the occasion.

It was wonderful to sit there surrounded by all my friends.

And although the room was full, I couldn’t help noticing two empty seats right next to me.

Then it happened!

I was just about to swallow a spoonful of soup when two people came through the door – could it be?

No it couldn’t, yes it was! Sir Ken Dodd with Lady Anne by his side.

Any doubts I had that it was the real Doddy were swept aside as they both saddled straight up to our table.

Anne placed a tickling stick down, but Ken was carrying something much heavier and when he plonked down his present the table nearly collapsed!

It was a king-sized pair of concrete wellingtons!

Totally unprepared

As I looked closer, I could see the handwritten inscription To Jimmy, Lots of Happiness – Ken.

Now the mystery of the two empty chairs had been solved.

And for the next couple of hours, I shared my birthday meal with a man whom I had both loved and admired all my life.

The next part of this story takes an unexpected twist.

A few years later I was taken aback when Mrs Cricket broke the news to me that the spot in my front garden that was occupied by my birthday wellies was now empty.

Yes folks, they’d been nicked, and I was gutted.

After informing the police, I rang a local radio station.

I thought it would be a novel little story to amuse the listeners.

But I was totally unprepared for the avalanche of publicity that came my way.

Happy ending

The phone calls and emails from radio presenters and journalists around the country enquiring about my missing wellies just kept coming.

I suppose it was a testament to the esteem and affection the nation held for Ken.

It gave me an idea to write a song called Santa Bring My Wellies Back To Me which raised some money for a children’s hospice in Manchester called Francis House.

So you could say I turned a disadvantage into an advantage.

As for the wellies themselves? Well, I never did get them back, but the story does have a happy ending.

Not long after, my good lady sent off for a pair of concrete wellingtons on eBay, which Sir Ken kindly signed again, and they’ve got pride of place in my living room.

Every time I look over at them, I realis how blessed I was to be friends with one of the greatest comedians that ever landed on planet Earth!

Memoirs Of An Irish Comedian now just £10!

 

Bernie Clifton will have you laughing and crying! 150 150 mhamer

Bernie Clifton will have you laughing and crying!

Bernie Clifton will have you laughing and crying!

Bernie Clifton will have you “laughing hysterically at his visual comedy one minute, and sobbing the next when he performs a song like Bring Him Home from the stage musical Les Misérables”.

Fellow funnyman Jimmy Cricket devoted his latest newspaper column to Bernie, who is still performing despite approaching his 90s.

Below is Jimmy’s April column published in the Lancashire Evening Post.

When a pair of concrete wellingtons that the late Sir Ken Dodd gave me as a birthday present went missing from my front garden, I was taken back by the publicity it aroused.

A few weeks after the fuss had died down, I received an email from comedian Bernie Clifton.

It read: “Jimmy, let me know when you’ve had enough publicity from this and I’ll bring them back.”

I roared with laughter.

At the ripe young age of 87, our Bernie is still touring the country gigging, playing practical jokes and spreading happiness everywhere he goes.

Let’s go back to where it all began.

Bernie Quinn was born in St Helens just before the Second World War started and spent his childhood hiding under his bed when the sirens went off.

He was only four years old when a bomb fell on their neighbour’s house four doors away.

Their 14-year-old daughter who used to teach him magic tricks perished in the blast; in his profound sadness, he realised at that early age how fragile life can be.

Kids wore clogs to school in those days and although he scraped through his 11 plus, it was all downhill from then on in.

Happily scoring touchdowns

He was more interested in who was number one in the hit parade of the day, than what went on in the classroom.

His mum persuaded him to become an apprentice plumber, but after he flooded half the neighbourhood that all came to an abrupt end.

Conscription came calling and he joined the RAF.

When he showed his skills as a rugby league player, they signed him up for the local air base team and he sailed through his National Service happily scoring touchdowns.

Reading his autobiography recently, I was quite taken aback at how much Bernie and I had in common.

We both frittered away our time at school; we both messed up every job we took up.

It was only when we both entered the entertainment profession that we found our true calling

In Bernie’s case, it was when he got up to sing with the local dance band in his hometown of St Helens.

Queen Elizabeth giggling at his antics

From there he toured the Yorkshire social clubs as a vocalist, before he found his true calling in comedy.

He got his first big break on the television variety show The Good Old Days, where he met comedy legend Les Dawson who advised him to be a prop comic.

Not long after that, a famous propmaker made Bernie the prop that was to become his calling card – Oswald the Ostrich.

Bernie got so excited when he first saw it that he jumped into it and ran outside.

The sight of a grown man running up and down the street in false ostrich legs had passers-by spellbound.

Would you believe he actually ran the London marathon for charity in a lighter version of the costume?

From then on in, there was no looking back for our Bernard.

He became resident comedian on the children’s hit tv series Crackerjack.

The Royal Variety show beckoned where he had her Majesty Queen Elizabeth giggling at his antics.

Naturally our career paths have crossed from time to time and I’m always in awe the way he radiates the same enthusiasm and energy for comedy, and showbiz, in his eighties, that he had when he started out as a ballroom band singer.

Try to catch his live act readers. He’ll have you laughing hysterically at his visual comedy one minute, and sobbing the next when he performs a song like Bring Him Home from the stage musical Les Misérables.

In the meantime, treat yourselves to his autobiography, Crackerjack to Vegas (www.bannisterpublications.com).

See you next month!

Why my This is Your Life moment almost never happened 150 150 mhamer

Why my This is Your Life moment almost never happened

Jimmy Cricket was once the star of TV's This Is Your Life - but it nearly never happened.

Jimmy Cricket was once the star of TV’s This Is Your Life – but it nearly never happened.

In the popular primetime programme, the host would pop in unexpectedly on a special guest.

The celebrity would then be transported to a television studio and be taken through their life with the assistance of the ‘big red book’ and the help of friends and family.

This Is Your Life was originally broadcast live and alternated between on the BBC and  on ITV over the years.

It was on 29 September 1987 when famous funnyman Jimmy was surprised by presenter Eamonn Andrews on a central London building site.

Jimmy has been recalling the whole experience, which included an amazing coincidence, in his latest Saturday column in the Lancashire Evening Post.

“It happened in the late 1980s but I can still remember it to this day… I’d just come up from the underground and as I stepped out into one of London’s busiest thoroughfares, Oxford Circus, who should I see in front of my eyes but my sister-in-law Evelyn strolling along with her husband Barry by her side.

What made it even more surprising was that Evelyn had emigrated to Australia 15 years before.

Bigger surprise

We exchanged a few pleasantries and Evelyn then mentioned that she’d be up to see her sister May in Rochdale in the coming days.

The object of my visit to London was to promote a book I’d just written called Letters From My Mammy.

So the next morning my agent/manager Phyllis Rounce and I were driven to a building site where the publishers had arranged for me to have some publicity shots taken.

Little did I know that another even bigger surprise was in store for me.

As our car approached this building site, whom should I see but Evelyn again, and beside her a man wearing a black and white donkey jacket, with a yellow tin hat on his head, carrying a big red book under his arm.

And as we drew closer, it became clear that the man was none other than a famous television personality of that era called Eamonn Andrews.

As I stepped out of the car, he greeted me with his soft Irish dulcet tones: “Last night you saw your sister-in-Law Evelyn in the street in London, but tonight Jimmy Cricket, This is your life.

Melodious singing

It had all started many years before, in the summer of 1972, when in my mid-20s, I got job as a Pontin Bluecoat at their holiday camp in Middleton Towers near Morecambe.

Three young sisters – May, Margaret and Evelyn – also worked there as waitresses, and, as they too came from Belfast, I struck up an instant rapport with them.

After they’d finished their dining room duties, May and Margaret would get up in the Sundowner Bar and, under the name The Tweedie Sisters, regale the holidaymakers with their melodious singing.

I was bowled over by the reception the girls got and as I harboured a burning desire to be a full-time comic myself, I hatched a plan that when the season finished at the camp, we would all head off to seek our fame and fortune.

As Manchester was the nearest area with a thriving club scene, we decided to try our luck there.

Evelyn, the eldest sister, was crucial to the project because she was the only one of us who could actually drive.

Recklessness of youth!

I remember one particular night when we were all coming back from a gig and our clapped-out banger broke down.

Two policemen got out of their patrol car to help us, when they saw us pushing it.

When we eventually did get it to go and they waved us off, we all gave a mighty sigh of relief… little did our boys in blue realise that our vehicle was neither taxed nor insured.

Oh the recklessness of youth! It was around this time that Evelyn decided to emigrate to Oz.

Back to This Is Your Life… because of the surprise meet-up in Oxford Circus the night before, the programme itself was very nearly cancelled.

What saved the day was the fact that May had been told her sister wouldn’t be able to come over from Australia.

So, just before the end of the show when Eamonn enquired about Evelyn, I was able to turn the tables and tell her the good news.

Then on came Evelyn for an emotional reunion with her sisters.

Affinity

The only sad bit was that Eamonn himself passed away peacefully in hospital a few weeks later.

It was said he actually watched the show shortly before his death and I have felt an affinity with him ever since.

The programme can be seen on my website – see link below.

The site also contains a fuller version of these events in my autobiography Memoirs of an Irish Comedian.”

The paperback version of Jimmy’s autobiography costs £11.99 at online retailer Amazon.

It is also available via eBook and audio formats.

Signed copies (£13.99 including postage and packing) can be purchased on this website here.

It is also on sale at Jimmy’s live gigs for £10 where he will sign it.

One pound from the sale of every book goes to Mary’s Meals.

Also read: Jimmy Cricket’s signed autobiographies now available by post!

Watch: Jimmy Cricket on TV’s This Is Your Life

 

I wish the new Prime Minister well, but… 150 150 mhamer

I wish the new Prime Minister well, but…

New UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has received some advice from newspaper columnist and famous funnyman Jimmy Cricket.

New UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has received some advice from newspaper columnist and famous funnyman Jimmy Cricket.

Now writing monthly for the Lancashire Evening Post on a Saturday, Jimmy warns the PM in his August column: “All your flowery pre-election promises can turn to dust.”

He adds: “It’s not like pantomime where the fairy godmother can change everything with a wave of her wand.”

Here’s is the column in full:

Well, the general election has come and gone readers and, depending on whom you voted for, you’ll either be toasting with a glass of beer or crying into it.

I did hear that a few days before the election that Keir Starmer was seen in our local swimming baths in Rochdale… he was looking for a floating voter!

You see, I never let you down!

I wish the new Prime Minister well, but it’s not like pantomime where the fairy godmother can change everything with a wave of her wand.

A New York mayor once said: “You canvass in poetry and govern in prose.”

In other words, all your flowery pre-election promises can turn to dust in daily grind of day-to-day politics.

Gem of a place

A week before the election, Equity sent out a message to all its members telling us to vote for the candidates who won’t cut funding for the arts.

It’s a difficult one because people have bigger worries.

Like keeping hospitals open and making sure there’s enough police on the streets.

The local theatre isn’t exactly their first priority.

Having said all that, I once got involved in trying to save a theatre.

The Princess Theatre (pictured) above) in Hunstanton is a gem of a place.

It stands proudly, and majestically, in the centre of the town on a slight hill overlooking the sea.

I got wind that the local council wanted to close it.

When I say local council, it was actually under the jurisdiction of King’s Lynn Council, which is about 25 mile down the road.

I politely asked them to think twice about pulling down a beautiful theatre that families could come out and enjoy a live show.

We owed it to future generations to keep its doors open.

After all, I continued, hadn’t the late Princess Diana herself taken William and Harry when they were small to a pantomime theate when they were staying at Sandringham on their Christmas break (I’d known the producer of that panto – Mark Andrews)?

Strong and flourishing

A few weeks later, I received a nasty letter from the leader of King’s Lynn Council, asking me who did I think I was meddling in their affairs before adding caustically: “And who are you anyway? I’ve never heard of you.”

To be honest folks, I was quite taken aback by his bluntness, as I’d always been brought up to think councillors were the pillars of the community.

But you have to take it on the chin. It’s so much easier to do nothing, but if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.

I’m happy to say that due to public pressure King’s Lynn Council reconsidered their decision and the Princess Theatre in Hunstanton is still going strong and flourishing.

And there’s more… I’d like to finish on a story I heard recently about a barber who cuts the hair of a florist.

When the florist offers to pay, the barber says: “I’m sorry, I’m on community service and I’m not allowed to accept any money.”

New UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has received some advice from newspaper columnist and famous funnyman Jimmy Cricket.

The next morning, when the barber turns up for work,there’s a dozen red roses outside his shop.

When he gives a policeman a short back and sides and tells him his story, the next morning when he turns up for work, there’s a dozen donuts outside his shop.

Then a politician turns up. When he cuts his hair and explains the situation to him, the next morning when he turns up for work there’s a dozen politicians waiting for a free haircut!

Buy Jimmy’s autobiography!

Don’t forget that Jimmy’s official autobiography is on sale.

Jimmy Cricket with his autobiography

Memoirs Of An Irish Comedian tells the heart-warming story of Jimmy’s illustrious life and 50-year career.

The paperback version costs £11.99 at online retailer Amazon. It is also available via eBook and audio.

Signed copies (£15.99 including postage and packing) can be purchased on this website here.

It is also available at Jimmy’s live gigs for £10, where Jimmy will also sign it.

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.

Also read: Jimmy Cricket’s signed autobiographies now available by post!

D-Day landings: Many heroes included Paddy the pigeon 150 150 mhamer

D-Day landings: Many heroes included Paddy the pigeon

Next month (June) sees the celebrations for the D-Day landings.

Next month sees the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings – and Jimmy Cricket marks the occasion in his latest newspaper column.

The Normandy landings were the land and associated airborne operations which took place on 6 June 1944.

Codenamed Operation Neptune and widely referred to as D-Day, it involved the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II –  the largest seaborne invasion in history.

It commenced the liberation of France, and also the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations for the Allied victory on the Western Front.

Writing in the Blackpool Gazette and the Lancashire Evening Post, comedian Jimmy says: “As next month (June) sees the celebrations for the D-Day landings which took place 80 years ago, I always pause to think about the many entertainers who helped to boost the morale of our fighting troops.

Beautiful voice

My friend the late Frank Carson, who served in the forces himself, used to joke: ‘One day I saved the lives of 200 men – I shot the cook!’.

Then, of course, there was the Force’s Sweetheart the late great Vera Lynn.

[Vera Lynn’s songs helped raise morale duringWorld War Two. People knew her best for her wartime anthem We’ll Meet Again. She died aged 103 in 2020.

She was just a young girl vocalist back then and the only time she’d been out of the country was when she travelled to Holland to do a gig with a dance band.

However, she had a yearning to do her bit, and before she knew it, she was touring the swamps of the Borneo jungle in the sweltering heat, giving young soldiers a taste of home with her beautiful voice and melodic songs.

Feathered friend

A lot of the time she performed on the back of army trucks.

You know readers, this may sound funny but I always think of Vera’s pianist and accompanist Len Edwards, who always went with her and who risked life and limb to provide her musical backing.

He truly was an unsung hero.

Which leads me on to mention another hero from the Second World War, in this case a silent one.

His name was Paddy, and on the day of the D-day landings, he flew back all the way from Normandy in record time to provide valuable information that reassured everyone at home, that everything was going to plan and that our soldiers had made a successful landing.

The reason he did this without saying a word?

Paddy was a carrier pigeon and his coded message was tagged on to his foot.

Quiet thanks

But what made Paddy even more special was this…

… Of all the pigeon’s released from Normandy that day, he was the last one to make the journey and, guess what, he was the first one back to Hampshire.

But there’s more readers, come closer, what made his feat all the more remarkable was that not only did he have to contend with open-air fire, but the Nazis had placed specially trained hawks along the way to ambush him.

However, our feathered friend thwarted all their efforts and made it home safe and sound.

He did it in an astonishing four hours and 50 minutes, which became the fastest record by a message-carrier pigeon during the Normandy landings.

Paddy was honoured for his heroic achievements by being awarded the Dicken Medal on September the 1st, 1944.

The medal is given for gallantry or devotion to duty while serving in military conflict and is often known as the animal’s Victoria Cross.

He eventually returned to the place of his birth – Carnlough, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland, to be with his owner – Andrew Hughes.

He lived until 1954, dying at the age of 11.

In 2019 a plaque was unveiled in his honour in Car lough harbour.

So readers, if you ever cross the Irish Sea and take a trip along the Antrim coastline to drink in the beautiful scenery, make sure you stop off at Carnlough Harbour and pay a visit to Paddy’s plaque and give a quiet thanks for a silent hero.”

Also read: LEP column paid tribute to the ‘wonderful’ Vera Lynn

Unforgettable childhood moment – for the wrong reason 150 150 mhamer

Unforgettable childhood moment – for the wrong reason

Jimmy Cricket is a regular columnist in the Lancashire Evening Post

Jimmy Cricket relives a part of his childhood that he would probably rather forget in his latest newspaper column.

The famous funnyman tells Lancashire Evening Post readers about the time his two aunties, Elizabeth and Cassie, came over from the United States to visit.

All the family were excited with the arrivals of the aunts and even more so as they had brought presents with them.

The young Jimmy got a baseball and ball.

And he quickly ran out of the door and into the front garden to practise.

Jimmy missed with his first few swings but connected too well with the fourth, sending the ball hurtling through a front window!

“I can still hear and see the glass smashing, followed by a deathly hush,” says Jimmy in his column.

“It was a well-chastened nine-year-old that went to bed early that night.”

This is just one of the countless tales regaled by Jimmy in his autobiography.

Memoirs Of An Irish Comedian officially went on sale in April priced £11.99 as a paperback.

It is also available as an ebook priced £9.99 (unless you have subscribed to Kindle Unlimited, in which case it is free).

Amazon Kindle allows users to read ebooks purchased on Amazon.

Clean comedy

Jimmy has said he is happy to sign copies of his book at his live shows, where they are available for a discounted price of £10.

The autobiography tells the heart-warming story of 50 golden years in showbusiness – told in his own words.

Recognisable for wearing a funny hat and green wellies marked L and R on the wrong feet, Jimmy has been making people laugh as a professional comedian for half a century.

And he proudly keeps his comedy clean – increasingly rare these days –  making him the perfect family entertainer.

The book is available from online retailer Amazon here.

Mary’s Meals

His best-known catchphrases include ‘And there’s more!’ and ‘Come closer!’

He is also famed for reading out Letters from his Mammy, which have provided the material for two published books.

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.

Also read: Mary’s Meals: 20 years serving global communities

From bingo caller to 50 Golden Years in showbiz!