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Post by Arthur Pringle on Aug 2, 2021 20:53:23 GMT
I think I read that Harry Worth was the 'biggest' star on tv at one point. I remember watching his 70's sitcom 'My Name Is Harry Worth' on UK Gold years ago but it wasn't until I watched his 60's shows on youtube that I became a fan of his, he's now of my favourite comic performers. Very cleverly written some of the 60's programmes he did, each story involving a misunderstanding by Worth that by degrees turns into a much greater misunderstanding.
The only show of his I've seen that I don't really like is '30 Minutes Worth' which was a sketch based show & didn't play to his strength. He began his stage career as a ventriloquist & toured with Laurel & Hardy, Oliver Hardy advised him to ditch the vent act. There's an audio interview with Worth recorded in the 80's during a break in a theatre show he was doing, it was recorded by a fan, he comes across as very down to earth & humble, happy to answer questions in between performing on stage.
Arthur Haynes I've seen bits of, Network have released several volumes of his tv show but I haven't taken the plunge & bought any.
Channel 4 showed most of Will Hay's films in the afternoons during the late 80's, I taped them whenever they were shown.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Aug 3, 2021 8:08:55 GMT
He began his stage career as a ventriloquist & toured with Laurel & Hardy, Oliver Hardy advised him to ditch the vent act. Interesting, didn't know that AP!
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on May 26, 2023 11:19:13 GMT
Another forgotten act has his sprung out at me, The Grumbleweeds. They were on ITV Saturday tea times, early to mid 80s, about the time when this kind of sketch show/variety/club type acts were starting to fade away a bit on TV.
There were five in the group, I think they were from Yorkshire, and the show was a Granada (very cheap looking) production. As was often the case then, any female roles in the programme were either young, where they would bring in a couple of sexy girls, or middle aged where, like on Monty python, the blokes would be in drag.
It wasn't bad, in a daft kind of way
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Nightfly
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Post by Nightfly on May 27, 2023 8:57:25 GMT
Another forgotten act has his sprung out at me, The Grumbleweeds. They were on ITV Saturday tea times, early to mid 80s, about the time when this kind of sketch show/variety/club type acts were starting to fade away a bit on TV. Good one, Carty. They were lads from Leeds - Albert, Carl, Graham, Robin and Maurice (the latter being a Barry Gibb lookalike). Mrs Nightfly got a chance to sing with them once for some radio show in the 70s when she was part of choir as a kid. Like you say, they faded from TV by the late 70s, but their career had a rebirth around the mid 80s when they did a Saturday comedy show on Radio 2 for a few years. They invented new characters and it was a bit of a forerunner to the Fast Show type style. I think there's a few shows online and they're quite good. Not sure if some of them are still performing, but I know Robin Colville from the group became a clinical hypnotist and has featured on some programmes helping people overcome phobias and such.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Aug 5, 2023 17:57:03 GMT
Another one has just come to mind, Freddie Parrot face Davies. I remember him from the 60s when I was quite young and he used to wear a bowler hat, pulled down on his head and talk in raspberries, sticking his tongue out. As a 7 or 8 year old I found him quite funny, but if I saw him now I probably wouldn't.
He turned up years later in the 90s in a straight acting role in a programme I used to watch called The Preston Front, and he wasn't bad in it. Haven't seen him since.
Preston Front wasn't bad, three series mid/late 90s, there were two good characters in it, Spock, a schoolteacher, played by Alastair MacGowan and Lloydy, can't remember the actors name, who was the idiot of the group, these two used to bounce off each other really well and were funny
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Nightfly
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Post by Nightfly on Aug 6, 2023 17:42:36 GMT
Another one has just come to mind, Freddie Parrot face Davies. I remember him from the 60s when I was quite young and he used to wear a bowler hat, pulled down on his head and talk in raspberries, sticking his tongue out. As a 7 or 8 year old I found him quite funny, but if I saw him now I probably wouldn't. Funny you should mention Freddie Davies, Carty. He was the first ever celebrity I saw in public away from TV etc. It was my first visit to London as a kid and he was walking through the ticket hall at one of the Underground stations. I couldn't work out why he looked so normal and didn't have a hat over his ears.
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