Sorry saga has a happy ending – like all good pantos!
Jimmy Cricket has had a couple of unfortunate moments with the press over the years, though one of them had a happy ending.
The famous funnyman told readers in his Monday newspaper column for November that they involved the Sunday People and the Lichfield Mercury.
Writing in the Lancashire Evening Post, Jimmy said: “It was a quiet Sunday morning in summertime, around about the mid 1980s when the phone rang.
It was my oldest brother John calling from Northern Ireland. ‘I’ve got the Sunday People newspaper right in front of me’, he said in an agitated tone.
‘And the headline states that you’re frightened to visit your hometown of Belfast because you’re a Catholic and your wife May is a Protestant!’
‘But that’s preposterous, John,’ I replied, trying to calm him down.
‘Why, only a few months ago, the TV Times paid for me and my family to go to over to the province with a journalist and photographer to visit all the tourist attractions like the Mountains of Mourne and the Giant’s Causeway and extol the virtues of a family holiday over there for the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.’
When John then enquired if I was going to take legal action, I replied that I’d rather write straight to the editor, appeal to his better nature and get a retraction printed in one of the future editions of his newspaper.
Thrity-eight years later, I’m still waiting for a reply from him.
You’ll be happy to know readers, that the second half of this column takes an upbeat turn, and it centres around a rare instance where a newspaper journalist really did retract his opinion.
In 2003, the Garrick Theatre in Lichfield opened its doors.
Empty seats
It was named after an actor of the 17th century called David Garrick who was born in the town and who went to become a famous Shakespearean actor in London.
The Christmas of that year I was part of a pantomime production of Cinderella that played there.
Being the very first panto in, the theatre management had very little time to build up advance bookings, so our opening night was very quiet.
I can still see in my mind’s eye the mother of the young actress who played Cinderella, sitting in an empty auditorium holding a bouquet of flowers and surrounded by empty seats.
Unfortunately, one of the few people who did occupy a seat was the critic from the local newspaper – the Lichfield Mercury.
No doubt fired up by a lack of response from a practically non-existent audience, he gave a scathing review of our production.
Despite a deep gloom descending on the cast when the newspaper hit the streets the next morning, we buoyed ourselves up by the fact that we’d done the same production the year before in Truro, Cornwall and played to respectable audiences.
Unduly harsh
Then, after the first week, comments began to appear in the letters page of the Lichfield Mercury.
From pensioners to Girl Guides, they were all unanimous in their praise for the panto and thought the critic was being unduly harsh in his criticism of it.
Then, a few days before Christmas, there was a knock on my dressing room door.
When I opened it, standing in front of me was the critic himself with a photographer by his side.
In a remorseful tone, he said: ‘All right, I admit I was wrong.
I’m going I take it all back… and to illustrate the fact, if you go and get one of those paper plates full of shaving foam that you use in the slapstick sketch, and hit me in the face with it, we’ll take a photo to go with the retraction.’
And so readers, like all good pantomimes, this article has a happy ending!”
Also read: Mary’s Meals: ‘What better way to start the festive season!’
