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search for a star

Video of first TV appearance is very popular on social media 150 150 mhamer

Video of first TV appearance is very popular on social media
Jimmy Cricket's first appearance on television
Video footage has appeared on Facebook showing Jimmy Cricket’s first performance on television.
The clip, originally posted by Mike Fox (Man Fom Belfast) on TikTok, shows Jimmy’s near four-minute comedy act.

Belfast-born Jimmy won ITV’s television talent contest Search For A Star at the beginning of the 1980s.

He earned his own television show called And There’s More, which was broadcast over four series between 1985 and 1988.

The show included the first TV appearance by the impressionist Rory Bremner.

Jimmy also appeared in a television special broadcast on ITV called All Cricket and Wellie.

By now, Jimmy was a household name and the subject of Eamonn Andrews’, programme, This Is Your Life, which aired in September 1987.

He also had his own comedy series on BBC Radio 2 during the 1990s called Jimmy’s Cricket Team’.

In addition to his own TV show, Jimmy made numerous other television appearances, including featuring on both the ‘Royal Variety Performance’ and the children’s equivalent.

He appeared regularly on BBC TVs long-running show ‘The Good Old Days’.

The video of his first TV appearance has attracted thousands of likes and hundreds of comments across both Facebook and TikTok.

Comments include: 
Brenda JonesModern Love The green bolded text says "Love This". "i" in the "This" is emphasized with a pink heart. sticker

Garry Williams Class act.

Steve Massey Brilliant 👏 ❤️

Mark Pearce A lovely man, appeared in a Charity Concert with him a few years ago , and we met up at a Butlins Reunion too 🤝😀
Dave Starr I remember from way before that, Jimmy, will never forget the very first time we ever worked together.

Jean Fox I have worked with him on pantos he is a lovely man and still wears his boots loved him when I was younger

A lovely man and still going strong 👍
Search for a Star success signalled start of something special 150 150 mhamer

Search for a Star success signalled start of something special

Next @leponline article chatting about the past and the wonderful television showcase 'Search For A Star' which featured newly discovered talent from the cabaret and club scene (where they came to see you perform live for the audition) #keepvarietyalive

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.

Also read – Autobiography: Buy The Jimmy Cricket Story now!