'Much Loved' Entertainers

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,132]

Yes, there are threads for these people, not that I have bothered to really look...….

Thing is, I'm thinking about variety performers, not the kind of people noted for anything in particular but were the mainstay of British ( maybe US and other nations had the same) TV in the golden era before we had 52,000 channels of shite to choose from instead of just 3.

What got me thinking about this was seeing Lionel Blair on the TV the other day, 90 years old now and, tbf, beginning to look it a bit.

Actor, dancer, performer, guest in a zillion shows, the man was part and parcel of British variety shows of the 60s and 70s but went out of fashion.

Des O'Connor is another, just shy of 87, he was on the TV a while back and his speech and movement had slowed although he was still being Des.

Both are worth a punt for next year if only for the reality that, at some point 'a much loved British entertainer' is going to pop their whatsits.

Some of the list compilers out there, maybe, can get a list up, remind us of who we haven't seen clog dancing on Seaside Special for, like 45 years.....not that Seaside special has been on for eons either.

How times change.

[dean1991 116]

Roy Hudd - 83 next year. 

Think I've seen him in enough to qualify. On a side note, he was killed off from Corrie yesterday. 

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,132]

39 minutes ago, dean1991 said:

Roy Hudd - 83 next year. 

Think I've seen him in enough to qualify. On a side note, he was killed off from Corrie yesterday. 

Yes he was.

[Steve 409]

Stan Boardman, Roy Walker, Jimmy Tarbuck, Freddie Starr, Gary Glitter, Brian Murphy, Rolf Harris, Windsor Davies, James Bolam, David Jason, Geoffrey Palmer, Ricky Tomlinson, June Whitfield, Josephine Tewson, Patricia Routledge, Penelope Keith, Tony Robinson, Jasper Carrott, Roy 'Chubby' Brown, Billy Connolly, Barry Cryer, Pam Ayres, Dame Judi Dench, Tom O' Connor, Richard O'

Sullivan, Tommy Cannon, Bobby Ball, Syd Little, Eddie Large, Stanley Baxter, Bernard Cribbins, Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Bill Oddie

[MadMac 98]

We can't mention Jimmy Tarbuck without Kenny Lynch. Joe Longthorne was at death's door a while back but still soldiers on. Also, The Daily Mail almost killed Barry Cryer off.

[time 7,925]

3 hours ago, MadMac said:

We can't mention Jimmy Tarbuck without Kenny Lynch. Joe Longthorne was at death's door a while back but still soldiers on. Also, The Daily Mail almost killed Barry Cryer off.

Credit where it's due, charon posted this at the time.

 

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,132]

12 hours ago, Steve said:

Stan Boardman, Roy Walker, Jimmy Tarbuck, Freddie Starr, Gary Glitter, Brian Murphy, Rolf Harris, Windsor Davies, James Bolam, David Jason, Geoffrey Palmer, Ricky Tomlinson, June Whitfield, Josephine Tewson, Patricia Routledge, Penelope Keith, Tony Robinson, Jasper Carrott, Roy 'Chubby' Brown, Billy Connolly, Barry Cryer, Pam Ayres, Dame Judi Dench, Tom O' Connor, Richard O'

Sullivan, Tommy Cannon, Bobby Ball, Syd Little, Eddie Large, Stanley Baxter, Bernard Cribbins, Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Bill Oddie

I'd say that most of them, apart from the ones I've highlighted are NOT what you would really call variety performers.

[Clorox Bleachman 2,006]

2 hours ago, Lord Fellatio Nelson said:

I'd say that most of them, apart from the ones I've highlighted. are not what you would really call variety performers.

Aside from that, it's a bit of a fucking push to call Rolf Harris "much loved".

[Toast 14,783]

Well, he was.  Not so sure about Gary Glitter who also got a mention there. 

[charon 4,938]

9 minutes ago, Clorox Bleachman said:

Aside from that, it's a bit of a fucking push to call Rolf Harris "much loved".

 

 

Whit?

 

 

Lol.

 

He " was". You're too young Clorox to get it.

 

He was....

[msc 17,708]

Pretty much right up to conviction, lots assuming he'd be Bill Roache'd or what not.

 

iirc there wasn't much of the "always knew he were dodgy" chat before, unlike yer Saviles and Glitters.

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,132]

15 minutes ago, Clorox Bleachman said:

Aside from that, it's a bit of a fucking push to call Rolf Harris "much loved".

Well, not now, of course!!

As Chaz has said you will probably need to be an old bastard to really get the whole variety performer thing.

It really is a TV era that stretched from the late 50s to the late 70s and, maybe, just bled into the early 80s.

You didn't miss a thing, most of it was fucking hideous.

 

 

[Toast 14,783]

I wouldn't call Pam Ayres a "variety" performer either.   She's a performance poet and has sold shedloads of books.   Bit like John Cooper Clarke, although obviously very different in style.

[One shot Paddy 1,131]

Jimmy Cricket or Russ Abbot. 

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,132]

33 minutes ago, Toast said:

I wouldn't call Pam Ayres a "variety" performer either.   She's a performance poet and has sold shedloads of books.   Bit like John Cooper Clarke, although obviously very different in style.

Christ, that is a stretch!!

I would have gone for Pam Ayres because she found fame on Opp Knocks, a true variety show of it's time, and she was likely to pop up on variety shows that would have had a stand up, shit dancers, Clodagh Rodgers, Norman Barrett and his performing budgies and a guest compere.

Possibly.

Edit: fooking hell!!!!!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaside_Special

[Toast 14,783]

Not really a stretch, because what they do is exactly the same.  One-man/woman show consisting of amusing monologues interspersed with poems. 

I've seen both live, so feel competent to judge.  Both have published numerous volumes of poems.

 

Pam is of course best known for her comic verse but her poems often have a serious point amongst the humour.

Here's a seasonal one:

 

Goodwill To Men - Give Us Your Money

 

It was Christmas Eve on a Friday

The shops was full of cheer,
With tinsel in the windows,
And presents twice as dear.
A thousand Father Christmases,
Sat in their little huts,
And folk was buying crackers
And folk was buying nuts.

All up and down the country,
Before the light was snuffed,
Turkeys they got murdered,
And cockerels they got stuffed.
Christmas cakes got marzipanned,
And puddin's they got steamed,
Mothers they got desperate
And tired kiddies screamed.

Hundredweights of Christmas cards
Went flying through the post,
With first class postage stamps on those
You had to flatter most.
Within a million kitchens
Mince pies was being made,
On everyone's radio
'White Christmas', it was played.

Out in the frozen countryside
Men crept round on their own,
Hacking off the holly,
What other folks had grown.
Mistletoe on willow trees,
Was by a man wrenched clear,
So he could kiss his neighbour's wife
He'd fancied all the year.

And out upon the hillside,
Where the Christmas trees had stood,
All was completely barren,
But for little stumps of wood.
The little trees that flourished
All the year were there no more,
But in a million houses,
Dropped their needles on the floor.

And out of every cranny, cupboard,
Hiding place and nook,
Little bikes and kiddies' trikes,
Were secretively took.
Yards of wrapping paper,
Was rustled round about,
And bikes were wheeled to bedrooms,
With the pedals sticking out.

Rolled up in Christmas paper
The Action Men were tensed,
All ready for the morning,
When their fighting life commenced,
With tommy guns and daggers,
All clustered round about,
'Peace on Earth - Goodwill to Men'
The figures seemed to shout.

The church was standing empty,
The pub was standing packed,
There came a yell, 'Noel, Noel!'
And glasses they got cracked.
From up above the fireplace,
Christmas cards began to fall,
And trodden on the floor, said:
'Merry Christmas, to you all.'

 

And a perfectly serious one befitting Deathlist

 

Woodland Burial

 

Don’t lay me in some gloomy churchyard shaded by a wall
Where the dust of ancient bones has spread a dryness over all,
Lay me in some leafy loam where, sheltered from the cold
Little seeds investigate and tender leaves unfold.
There kindly and affectionately, plant a native tree
To grow resplendent before God and hold some part of me.
The roots will not disturb me as they wend their peaceful way
To build the fine and bountiful, from closure and decay.
To seek their small requirements so that when their work is done
I’ll be tall and standing strongly in the beauty of the sun.

[Vinegar Tits 584]

Freddie Starr has eaten his last hamster

[The Old Crem 3,164]

4 minutes ago, Vinegar Tits said:

Freddie Starr has eaten his last hamster

Seems to be one in which the mirror has the exclusive. Feels a bit morbid for them to publish before the official publicist statement.

[Steve 409]

On 16 December 2018 at 02:47, Steve said:

Stan Boardman, Roy Walker, Jimmy Tarbuck, Freddie Starr, Gary Glitter, Brian Murphy, Rolf Harris, Windsor Davies, James Bolam, David Jason, Geoffrey Palmer, Ricky Tomlinson, June Whitfield, Josephine Tewson, Patricia Routledge, Penelope Keith, Tony Robinson, Jasper Carrott, Roy 'Chubby' Brown, Billy Connolly, Barry Cryer, Pam Ayres, Dame Judi Dench, Tom O' Connor, Richard O'

Sullivan, Tommy Cannon, Bobby Ball, Syd Little, Eddie Large, Stanley Baxter, Bernard Cribbins, Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Bill Oddie

On this list I have got 2 more than the 1 I have got on my Shadow List. Freddie Starr, Windsor Davies and June Whitfield of course are no longer with us. If only I had the courage of my convictions to list these 3 on my actual shadow list I would be on 4 hits. Oh well such is life I guess!!!

[maryportfuncity 9,982]

23 hours ago, Steve said:

On this list I have got 2 more than the 1 I have got on my Shadow List. Freddie Starr, Windsor Davies and June Whitfield of course are no longer with us. If only I had the courage of my convictions to list these 3 on my actual shadow list I would be on 4 hits. Oh well such is life I guess!!!

 

 

Yeah, and such is death too - which is why we're here, right?

 

Not the right thread at the moment but I was reading that Danny Baker got a standing ovation at a live event in Nottingham last night. If he can't get a decent gig on radio going forward he might morph into a much loved entertainer in his final years.

[Sir Creep 7,011]

On 16/12/2018 at 00:52, MadMac said:

We can't mention Jimmy Tarbuck without Kenny Lynch. Joe Longthorne was at death's door a while back but still soldiers on. Also, The Daily Mail almost killed Barry Cryer off.

(x post for completeness)
Joe Langthorne DEAD

[time 7,925]

Barry Cryer is 85 today (assuming that he didn’t die over the weekend and they haven’t told us)

[Deathrace 1,092]

6 hours ago, time said:

Barry Cryer is 85 today (assuming that he didn’t die over the weekend and they haven’t told us)

Gyles Brandreth says on his Twitter that he has spoken to Cryer today so it appears he is still batting. 

[YoungWillz 18,911]

Just now, Deathrace said:

Gyles Brandreth says on his Twitter that he has spoken to Cryer today so it appears he is still batting. 

As a result, Barry dies of exhaustion and excessive earache!