Entertainment For Lively Minds
Jimmy Clitheroe
Posted by Richard Raftery on 24 July 2009 - 12:39pm.
was 'the kid himself'. His TV mother (Molly Sugden) died recently. He was 'all there with his cough drops' and his radio show attracted 13 million listeners at its peak. He was very small and died on the day of his mother's funeral. What was it all about?
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My rememberances (such as they are)...
... are of "The Clitheroe Kid" radio show being broadcast on Sunday afternoons when I was small, around 1970/71 as we used to sit down to listen to it after Sunday lunch, there bring nothing on TV in those 3-channel days.
I also remember being quite distubed seeing him on TV for the first time, this strange, small old guy in a school uniform, and even back then have to admit I didn't find him that funny, especially in comparison to Hancock & the Goons (on record, before cassettes were commonplace) which my parents (bless 'em) had brought me up with...
Morrissey was a fan
I can't quite remember the context, but I remember seeing Alan Bennett interviewed, and he said for a time Morrissey was a neighbour of his in London. Morrissey was keen to pop round for tea. Alan Bennett was a bit reluctant at first as he thought the talk would all be about rock music, which he knew nothing about. But the main topic of conversation turned out to be Jimmy Clitheroe.
I remember The Clitheroe Kid as being part of the general dreariness of Sunday radio in the sixties, along with the Navy Lark, and the genuinely depressing Sing Something Simple. Round the Horne was the only funny programme - even though I'm not sure I understood half of it, such as Julian and Sandy.
Sing Something Simple
the sound of death made flesh on old Radio 2. Did anyone ever suggest the Cliff Adams singers had a go at Mozart's Requiem? It might have come in handy.
Mind you, Benny Green used to be on before that and he was much better.
Benny Green has a Blue Plaque
I discovered this a few weeks ago by chance, meandering between Marylebone Road and Oxford Circus. It's on the block of flats he lived in until his thirties.
Probably deserved. Although he could be a bit grumpy about jazz going off with John Coltrane, by playing albums like Ella Fitzgerald sings the Gerswin Songbook, he made me discover that popular music hadn't started with Blodwyn Pig's Ahead Rings Out.
Sing Something Simple and shoot me
In a way it was amazing the way that everything could be sanded down and made to sound the same.
The other thing was it sounded the end of the weekend and school loomed.
I don't remember The Clitheroe Kid being all that funny....
...but it had an appeal nonetheless.
The Clitheroe Kid
followed by the Likely Lads on radio Sunday afternoons..Wee Jimmy now very much "of his time"...but through the magical misty, memory-time spectacles.. pleasant memories emerge of Sunday afternoons in our new council house kitchen after fleeing "the slum clearances" of Stockport. Lovely!
Alfie Hall
(played by Danny Ross) was his sidekick on account of being older sister Susan's (a.k.a. Scraggyneck) boyfriend. He did have a good comedy rasp and his cry of 'Aaaarghh me leg' following his frequent faux-pas was not without humour.
If you want to know what he sounded like - check out Hurricane Smith on YouTube - there is an uncanny resemblance!
Q: What's your name ?
A: Alf Hall
Q: Don't worry, I'll pick you up
Ah, those great Clitheroe Kid jokes, I remember them well.
First thing
I ever remember seeing on TV. We lived in a house just like theirs
Diana Day
played the part of Susan on radio - about her very little else seems to be known! Unless someone out there in Wordland is ready to tell all!