Radio and TV - Memories and Favourites

It was a regular occurrence that stars appearing at the Hippodrome / Coventry Theatre would attend a service at Holy Trinity Church As a chorister in those days, I met and collected autographs from, inter alia, Jimmy Clitheroe, The Kaye Sisters, Morecambe & Wise, Harry Secombe

I loved listening to Jimmy Clitheroe on wireless. Another favorite of mine was Mr. Pastry, who came to visit us whilst in hospital one year. He had us all in stitches (pun)

I was in the audience with a coach party from the Howitzer Club! I think he was appearing as Aladdin? Every time he came on stage we were supposed to shout: "Baa, baa, galoo, galoo". I haven't the faintest idea why? The club also gave each one of us a huge bag of sweets, far more than anyone could eat, presumably to keep us quiet. It didn't work!

... and mine too! - great photo! What was the radio programme that featured Jimmy Clitheroe?

It was called "The Clitheroe Kid" and was broadcast on the Light Programme on Sunday afternoons.

Jimmy Clitheroe was the oldest schoolboy in the country and he played gooseberry for years with his elder sister Susan and her boyfriend Alfie Hall. Believe it or not Judith Chalmers was Susan in the first series, later played by Diana Day with Danny Ross as Alfie. The Clitheroe Kid did come from Clitheroe in Lancashire, he played the naughty schoolboy for a total of 17 series on the BBC Light programme. Peter Sinclair played his Scottish grandad, Patricia Burke and Renee Houston, his mother. The scripts were generally written by the producer James Casey and Frank Roscoe. After a brief version on television, the Clitheroe Kid ended in 1972 following the death of Jimmy Clitheroe.

Can't say I really warmed to him, really. But "Round the Horne", "The Navy Lark", "ITMA", "Archie Andrews"... Those were the days, eh? I always listened to Round the Horne and later The Navy Lark when I came home from school for lunch. Didn't want to go back after that!!!

Did 'Worker's Playtime' ever visit Coventry? Who compared that, was it Wilfred Pickles? (it's ok, I'm just drifting back to Coventry for you folks!)

I would guess so... I remember "Music While You Work" being played when I was at GEC - but I don't remember it being played anywhere else that I worked. I think the compere of Workers' Playtime was Bob Monkhouse. Wilfred Pickles compered "Have A Go".

Not sure, but I would have thought with Coventry's manufacturing base it would have hosted the programme at some stage. Was this the show that Peter Goodwright found fame on?

I'm pretty sure they did - it would have been odd, if not, given the importance of it! And - Charlie Chester, Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd, Anne Shelton, Betty Driver, Eve Boswell, Dorothy Squires, Julie Andrews, Morecambe and Wise, Peter Cavanagh, Janet Brown, Bob Monkhouse, Peter Goodwright, Percy Edwards, Ken Dodd, Ken Platt, Elsie and Doris Waters etc...

Just thinking about Round the Horne (It's coming... it's coming to a town near you... it's getting closer... it's nearly here! D**n! it's gone again... ) Rambling Sid Rumpo. Sandy and Julian (would they get away with this now??) The 80 year old nude cyclist of Polperro. And it's all still funny! It really was avant-garde comedy, wasn't it? How about some of the other acts that came to the Hippodrome? Like Hylda Baker and 'Gladys' "She knors, y'knor..." Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch Mike and Bernie Winters Max Bygraves

Were you a member of the Black Hand Gang then?

Ha ha - no, Corley Church Sunday School!

So what year did you leave school Keith? You say you listened to them during your lunch break, yet I can only remember these programmes being broadcast on a Sunday. Around The Horne was first broadcast in the 60s as far as I'm aware... I may be wrong (I usually am).