Radio comedy from the 50s-60s

[depoix]

When I was a little 'un, Jimmy Clitheroe was my hero. I used to listen to his radio show every Sunday. My gran took me to the Lyceum to see him in panto, must have been about 1960. I got his autograph. Still got it!!

i was stood in the little sweet shop next to the lyceum when jimmy walked in,it would be about 1960:)

[Fareast]

The Colonel in ITMA was called ' Colonel Chinstrap '. I suppose ' do ' had lots of meanings in the '40's and '50's and enabled a lot of comedy to get past the censor, so Mrs. Mopp's enquiry must have sounded very funny to at least half the listeners ! Max Miller also used the word a lot in his act. [ " I like the girls who do. I like the girls who don't . I hate the girl who says she will and then she says she won't. But the girl I like the best, and I think you'll say I'm right, is the girl who says she never does but she looks as though she might ." ].

 

Also, from those far-off days :- Up the Pole [ Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warris ] ;

H-h-h-hancock's Half Hour ; Ben Lyon and the Lyon Family ; The Billy Cotton Band Show ; Take It From Here---------what a wealth of talent-----especially when you consider how very careful they had to be in those days on the BBC. In fact, perhaps that is what made them more creative ?

[hazel]

Sunday morning

 

Forces Favourites,

Life with the Lyons

and Wakey Wakey,

Somebody Stole my Gal being the opening song on the radio as the smell of roast beef in the oven drifted through the house with the sizzle of the Yorkshre pudding hitting the hot fat and the sheer joy of throwing my arms in the air and being young with every new day an adventure.

Memories, I can almost taste it.

hazel

[Fareast]

You've hit the nail on the head, Hazel !

 

I heard or read a strange and funny story about Alan Breeze, the star singer on the Billy Cotton Band Show. Apparently he had a very bad stammer -----except of course when he sang. [ I think this is the case with many stammerers ? ]. Anyway, one day he had to give some sort of evidence in a magistrate's court and obviously there was a problem !

 

The magistrate was told about the singing and the stammering and he gave Mr. Breeze permission to sing his evidence ! [ "As I was walking down the street.........la la la.......I saw a man..........la la la ........" ]. I can't vouch for the truth of the story but perhaps someone else can ?

 

[ Incidentally, Hazel, do you recall that fantastic duo, Hazel & Fareast, who used to do limericks on S.F. I wonder what happened to them ? Must be about 90 now ! ].

[hillsbro]

My goodness - I can also smell the roast beef and my dear mum's Yorkshire pud in the oven. But wasn't "Take it from here" also broadcast on Sunday mornings at one time? I can't be sure, but I seem to associate Jimmy Edwards, the Glum family and June Whitfield saying "Ooooh Ron!" with the same scenario.

 

Oh the memories...

[Plain Talker]

"Ooooh Ron!"

 

"Yes, Eth?"

 

only four words, but you could put such innuendo into them! lol

[hazel]

Hi Fareast,

the limerick thread was such good fun but I think it was exterminated. Wish I had kept a copy cos the rhymes were good.

It does seem lost in the mists of time now

Peterdo and redrobbo, suprasteve, msbehaving and more joined in

 

I tried to revive it recently with a thread called Sheffield forum odes but was it was promptly closed, must have upset the mods.

 

Yes I think Take it from Here was on on Sundays

 

Take it from here, don't go away until you can take it from here, why don't you stay and you can join in the fun the show has begun etc

Seem to remember something about Ron and Eth being in a boat and the waves lapping and the sound of Ooooh Ron.

 

hazel

[Fareast]

Yes, the Glum family ! Brilliant characters-----gormless Ron , helpful, sincere Eth and greedy, drunken Mr. Glum.

 

Little bits of it still stick in the mind. Mr. Glum [ to Eth ] " 'Ave you gorn an ' moved the tablecloth, Eth ? I 'aven't even finished reading it yet. "

 

And what about poor old Mrs. Glum ! She was just a stranglulated voice from the bedroom, rather on the lines of Mrs. Rochester --- locked away but not forgotten !

[Highnote]

What about Ted Ray in "Rays A Laugh" and Kitty Bluett(an Australian lady I think) a very young Peter Sellers, remember"Oh its a little girl,-whats your name little girl?"-- "Jennifer", and don't forget Morcambe and Wise had radio show too, another stalwart of ITMA was Deryck Guyler who went on to bigger things in television,his character was a Liverpudlian Frisby Dyke, Mrs Mopp was Dorothy Summers and Jack Train Colonel Chinstrap and Funff, who got the echo sound of his character"This is Funff speaking! supposedly on the telephone, by speaking in a tumbler.

Ken Dodd too had his own show on radio too.

Mention has been made of Much-Binding-In-The Marsh, with Richard Murdoch, Kenneth Horne, Sam Costa,who was a popular singer before the war but his voice went so he turned to other things, and another in that show who became a familiar face on TV, Maurice Denham.

[Texas]

I think that show was "The navy lark". His saying was something like

"What's it matter what you do,so long as you tear 'em up". Such a long time ago.

If I may put my two bits worth on this topic, the above catch phrase came from another show starring Eric Barker, a long forgotten comedian, and Jon Pertwee as the village postman. I think it was called 'Waterlogged Spa'.

'Navy Lark also had Jon Pertwee in it, and RONNIE Barker, Leslie (left hand down a bit) Phillips, Richard Caldicott, and at one time Denis Price.

It was about a ship called H.M.S.Troutbridge stationed at Portsmouth. In the latter show Jon Pertwee played a Petty Officer, a right wide head, always up to some scam or other.