Posts Tagged :

preston

Hollywood stars and different accents – latest LEP column 150 150 mhamer

Hollywood stars and different accents – latest LEP column

Hollywood stars lived just down the road

Where some Hollywood stars were born and how accents differ around the country are the themes of Jimmy Cricket’s latest newspaper column.

The famous funnyman throws up some legendary acting names such as Sir Rex Harrison and Jaws star Robert Shaw in his Lancashire Evening Post July column.

Jimmy begins: “Do you know what readers when I found out we had more opticians in the UK than anywhere else in Europe, it was a real eye-opener.

“But that was nothing to do with the surprises that I got while watching a series on television.

“It was called something like Discovering So and So.

“And the So and So’s in this case were famous Hollywood stars.

“Each programme focused on a star and the gob-smacking moment usually came at the start!

“For instance, take Robert Shaw who starred in the Steven Spielberg blockbuster movie Jaws.

“He was actually born in Westhoughton in Lancashire. That’s just down the road from me here in Rochdale.

“I could have called in and had a cup of tea with him before he headed off to Hollywood.

“But you will never guess the next one – Sir Rex Harrison. Where was he born?

“Are you ready for this? Huyton! Near Liverpool. Yes, the man who played Professor Higgins and who taught Eliza the flower girl to talk proper English in the musical My Fair Lady was actually a Scouser!”

Read one of Jimmy’s previous columns in the LEP

See a collection of Jimmy’s columns over the past six years

 

Tommy Handley: The life and times of a great comic 150 150 mhamer

Tommy Handley: The life and times of a great comic

the life and times of this great comic Tommy Handley
Tommy Handley is the subject of Jimmy Cricket’s latest column in the Lancashire Post.
The Liverpool-born comedian was particularly successful in the 1940s.

He was best known for the BBC radio programme It’s That Man Again (ITMA), which was broadcast between 1939 and 1949.

Tommy established himself as a comedian and singer on the music hall circuit and was a pioneer broadcaster, performing as a solo entertainer and as an actor in sketches.

His greatest success came in the late 1930s with the comedy show It’s That Man Again, which, after an uneasy beginning, became very popular.

Tommy starred as a good-natured, fast-talking anchor-man around whom a cast of eccentric comic characters revolved.

He died suddenly in 1949 at the age of just 56.

Jimmy’s column about Tommy appeared in the 7 September edition of the Preston-based Lancashire Post.

The Northern Irish comedian tweeted about it.

He said: “Hi folks! Here is my September @leponline column, where I reflect on the life and times of this great comic.”

Also read: Lyndene return: Wonderful to get back to ‘normality’

My chance meeting with ‘courageous’ BBC journalist 150 150 mhamer

My chance meeting with ‘courageous’ BBC journalist

Here is my November LEP column where I tell of my chance meeting with this wonderful courageous lady @OrlaGuerin in Manchester Airport on my way to New York this summer!

Jimmy Cricket has been recalling the moment he met a BBC TV news reporter on his way to catch a plane.

The famous entertainer was travelling to the United States to attend his daughter Jamie’s wedding earlier this year.

In his latest Lancashire Post column, Jimmy tells about his encounter with news presenter Orla Guerin.

He posted the image above and an accompanying comment on Twitter about his November column.

Jimmy said: “I tell of my chance meeting with this wonderful courageous lady @OrlaGuerin in Manchester Airport on my way to New York this summer!????

Orla Guerin MBE is an Irish journalist currently working as a BBC International Correspondent based in Istanbul.

Jimmy says: “How many times have we looked at our television screens and heard those dulcet Irish tones calling out from some war-ravaged part of the globe?

“Shining a light on injustice, holding dictators to task and giving a platform to the oppressed and downtrodden?

‘Spoke with affection’

“Now here she was standing opposite me uttering these immortal words ‘what’s your surname again?’

“Yes readers, I was face to face with BBC correspondent Orla Guerrin. And she couldn’t have been nicer.

“We weren’t in a life-threatening situation now, although going through security at Manchester Airport can be quite stressful.

“Orla was a delight.

“She smiled and, after she’d retrieved her belongings from the security belt, Mrs Cricket took a photograph of the two of us.

“Then, later on in the airport lounge, we talked about comedy and the entertain industry.

“She spoke with affection about the entertainers from her hometown in Dublin that we both knew.

“Then she was off to Istanbul for another assignment and we were off to New York for our daughter Jamie’s wedding.”

Lancashire theatre almost as famous as the Chorley Cake itself 150 150 mhamer

Lancashire theatre almost as famous as the Chorley Cake itself

I talk about the history of the @ChorleyTheatre and how it has survived over the decades, to become a great theatre venue under the direction of artistic Director Ian Robinson!

Jimmy Cricket has been telling readers of his monthly column about a small theatre which has “a warmth and atmosphere all of its own”.

The even-green Northern Irish comedian writes about working with Chorley Little Theatre in his latest column in the Lancashire Evening Post.

He begins: “While visiting Chorley recently, I made it my business to go and see the Little Theatre. Nestling slap bang in the middle of town in a place called Dole Lane, it’s so quaint and cute, you could see why it’s getting to be almost as famous as the Chorley Cake itself.

“It opened in 1910 as the Empire Electric Theatre with a capacity of 700. The less well-off sat at the front on wooden seats, while the posh people were able to put their feet up at the back in ‘plush seats.

“It originally showed silent movies with a live pianist accompanying the action. These piano players were special in the way they interpreted the scenes, using light-hearted music when the characters were happy and dramatic notes when danger struck. What a lovely era that must have been, sitting with your friends passing round the popcorn looking up at the big screen and laughing hysterically at the comedic exploits of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.”

Jimmy finishes off his column by saying: “With a fully licensed bar and car parking facilities just across the road the 236 seater has a warmth and atmosphere all of its own. I know that from playing it myself a few years back.

“It’s run by a team of enthusiastic volunteers and spearheaded by a young man whose passionate about live Theatre called Ian Robinson.

“I myself will be returning there on Sunday May 19 with a new play I’ve written called No More Fiffen and Faffen. It tells the story of a comedy double act. It’s their last night in summer season in an end of pier show, but because things haven’t gone according to plan they decide to make it their last show after 36 years in showbusiness.”

Tickets for Jimmy’s show at the Chorley Little Theatre are £10 concessions £5, Box Office: 01257 284362 for more information visit their website: www.chorleytheatre.com

Read Jimmy’s full column here

 

Paying tribute to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy 150 150 mhamer

Paying tribute to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy

 pay tribute to a fellow Irishman, and to the Silver Screen's Stan and Ollie, with a great performance from @Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly

Jimmy Cricket writes about his admiration for a legendary comedy duo in his latest newspaper column.

In the 1 April edition of the Lancashire Post, the popular Northern Irish entertainer reviews a recent film about the careers of Englishman Stan Laurel and American Oliver Hardy.

They acted during the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema and became well known during the late 1920s to the mid-1940s for their slapstick comedy. Laurel played the clumsy friend of the pompous Hardy.

Jimmy’s column begins: I’ve just come back from doing my one man show at the Slapstick Comedy Festival in Bristol at the Studio adjoining the Old Vic Theatre. The festival was started by a guy called Chris Daniels who just loves visual and silent comedy.

“I did my live set sandwiched between movies of Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy up on the big wide screen. There’s been a resurgence of interest in Laurel and Hardy, mainly due to a biopic of the duo which went on general release in our cinemas recently called Stan and Ollie.

“In fact, I’ve been to see it twice. Well folks, our local Odeon Cinema here in Rochdale only charges a fiver to get in. It’s a moving, tender tribute to one of the funniest double acts ever to grace the silver screen; not only do Steve Coogan as Stan Laurel, and John C Reilly as Oliver Hardy get into the skin of these two lovable clowns, but the ladies that played their wives both give stunning performance as well.

“Nina Arianda plays Stan’s other half and Shirley Henderson is Ollie’s. I had a little inside information on this film. Steve Coogan’s Uncle Bernard takes his grandkids to the same school in Rochdale that I take mine, so I get some tasty nuggets of gossip in the playground.

“I looked at him enviously as he told me about getting the red carpet treatment when he got invited to the premiere of the movie up at the local cinema in Ulverston where Stan Laurel grew up. The only time I get to see a red carpet is when Mrs Cricket hands me the Hoover.”

Read Jimmy’s full column here

 

June Whitfield – a ‘great actress and lovely lady’ 150 150 mhamer

June Whitfield – a ‘great actress and lovely lady’

 

Hi folks I had the great pleasure of working with this great actress and lovely lady the late June Whitfield here is my tribute to her!

Jimmy Cricket has been sharing his memories of his good friend, comedy actress June Whitfield, who died at the end of last year.

The comedian devoted his latest monthly column in the Preston-based Lancashire Evening Post to the late English radio, television and film star.

Jimmy told all his social media followers about his column, saying: “Hi folks I had the great pleasure of working with this great actress and lovely lady the late June Whitfield here is my tribute to her!”

His LEP column read: “The death of June Whitfield at the great age of 93 closes the chapter on one our best ever comedy actresses. In a career that spanned more than six decades, June brought so much joy and laughter that, for many of us, it was not just losing a brilliant performer, but losing a friend.

“You have to go right back to the 1950s to find out when June first got the nation’s chuckle muscles rippling. Radio was king then and June could be heard on a popular show called Take it From Here, penned by Frank Muir and Dennis Norden. She could also be heard on a weekly segment called The Glums, playing Eth, the daft girlfriend to equally dim witted partner Ron, (played by Dick Bentley).

“Her timing and vocal inflections were such that I almost envied the studio audience who were there to witness it in the flesh. She then went on to play straight woman to some of the best comedians of the last century. Tony Hancock, Frankie Howard, Benny Hill, to name but a few.

“So how come when comedians can be a neurotic bunch, (I should know), and always worried about other people getting to many laughs, did June get the gig, so to speak?…”

Read the full column here

 

Sharing some nostalgia on my great friend Phyllis 150 150 mhamer

Sharing some nostalgia on my great friend Phyllis

Sharing some nostalgia here with my great friend and personal manager Phylis Rounce who was with me when Variety was King on Television and out there with live performance!

Jimmy Cricket has been reminiscing on social media with some photographs relating to theatrical agent Phyllis Rounce.

In addition to managing Jimmy, Phyllis also looked after the careers of other stars such as Rod Hull and Emu, and Tony Hancock.

Hull was a comedian, best known as a popular entertainer on British television in the 1970s and 1980s. He rarely appeared without Emu, a mute, highly aggressive arm-length puppet modelled on the Australian flightless emu bird.

Hancock was a high-profile comedian and actor during the 1950s and early 1960s, enjoying major success with his BBC series Hancock’s Half Hour, first broadcast on radio and then on television.

Famous entertainer Jimmy posted the pictures above recently, adding: “Sharing some nostalgia here with my great friend and personal manager Phyllis Rounce who was with me when Variety was King on Television and out there with live performance!”

Speaking in his monthly column in the Lancashire Evening Post last summer, Jimmy said that Phyllis – known as Phil to her friends – was an “exceptional manager who went the extra mile for her artistes”.

He described her as “one of the all-time great theatrical agents in the world of showbusiness”.