Harry Worth was a ground-breaking post-war British comedian, who introduced us to a new kind of comedy.
Despite his influence at the peak of his career, he appears to have been largely forgotten today. Those who do remember him usually only remember his famous trick in the shop window, used in the opening credits of his sitcom series Harry Worth.
He was one of the first comedians who allowed us to laugh at silliness again after World War Two.
He started out as a self-taught ventriloquist whilst he was with the RAF during the War. Before a performance he often warned his audience that he was not very good, perhaps the origin of his overly apologetic and inept comedy persona.
After the War he went on to join the variety circuit, supporting the likes of Laurel and Hardy!
Worth bucked the trend for brash comedy and outlandish characters at the time. Instead, he created a likeable, gentle and bumbling fellow, who was easily confused by simple and ordinary things in life, causing chaos and confusion as he went about his day. It was difficult to separate the comedian Harry from his on-screen alter ego, Harry!
His comedy mainly revolved around Harry attempting to carry out ordinary tasks: visiting the doctor, booking a holiday – and always causing bewilderment in those he interacted with as he failed to make himself understood.
Arguably as popular as Morecombe and Wise at the time, Harry Worth’s popular BBC sitcom Here’s Harry, later renamed Harry Worth, became the longest running sitcom ever at the time. It ran for over 10 years, and 100 episodes. Unfortunately, many episodes of Harry Worth’s shows were wiped by the BBC during the late 1960s to 1980s.
Harry Worth kept his private life private and didn’t become a celebrity figure outside his sitcom success. He rarely gave public appearances or interviews, and resisted publishers attempts to persuade him to write his biography.
The nature of television humour has changed so much over the decades. Could it be that Harry Worth’s gentle and innocent style has become so unfashionable with younger audiences, he’s been pushed out of the limelight?
Harry Worth’s ability to become frustrated with trivial matters can be seen as a direct inspiration for One Foot in The Graves’ iconic Victor Mildrew, even if Worth was a little less cantankerous!
The equally cheerful and hapless Frank Spencer from Some Mothers Do ‘Ave Em can also be linked to Worth’s bumbling character, and fans of Harry Hill’s silly, childish chappie undoubtedly have a lot of to thank Harry Worth for.
Ken Dodd was an English comedian, singer and occasional actor. He was described as "the last great music hall entertainer", and was primarily known for his live stand-up performances.
A lifelong resident of Knotty Ash in Liverpool, Dodd's career as an entertainer started in the mid-1950s. His performances included rapid and incessant delivery of often surreal jokes, and would run for several hours, frequently past midnight.
His verbal and physical comedy was supplemented by his red, white and blue "tickling stick" prop, and often introduced by his characteristic upbeat greeting of "How tickled I am!"
He interspersed the comedy with songs, both serious and humorous, and with his original speciality, ventriloquism.
He also had several hit singles primarily as a ballad singer in the 1960s, and occasionally appeared in dramatic roles.
He performed on radio and television, and popularised the characters of the Diddy Men.
He was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to entertainment and charity. His stage career lasted for over 60 years, and he continued to perform until the end of 2017, when his health permitted; he died on 11 March 2018, aged 90.
Dodd was described as "the last great music hall entertainer". His stand-up comedy style was fast and relied on the rapid delivery of one-liner jokes. He said that his comic influences included other Liverpool comedians like Arthur Askey, Robb Wilton, Tommy Handley and the "cheeky chappy" from Brighton, Max Miller.
He interspersed the comedy with occasional songs, both serious and humorous, in an incongruously fine light baritone voice, and with his original speciality, ventriloquism. Part of his stage act featured the Diddy Men. At first an unseen joke conceived as part of Dodd's imagination, they later appeared on stage, usually played by children.
Dodd worked mainly as a solo comedian, including in a number of eponymous television and radio shows and made several appearances on BBC TV's music hall revival show, The Good Old Days.
Although he enjoyed making people laugh, he was also a serious student of comedy and history, and was interested in Sigmund Freud and Henri Bergson's analysis of humour. Occasionally, he appeared in dramatic roles, including Malvolio in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night on stage in Liverpool in 1971; on television in the cameo role of 'The Tollmaster' in the 1987 Doctor Who story Delta and the Bannermen;
as Yorick (in silent flashback) in Kenneth Branagh's film version of Shakespeare's Hamlet in 1996; and as Mr. Mouse in the 1999 television movie adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.
Marking Dodd’s 90th birthday, a fulsome appreciation by Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington noted that “Ken has done just about everything: annual Blackpool summer seasons, pantomimes, nationwide tours, TV and radio. He was a very fine Malvolio.” Dodd at the Civic Hall, Ellesmere Port, 2006. Stand-up theatre work was the mainstay of his career.
Dodd was renowned for the length of his performances, and during the 1960s he earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's longest ever joke-telling session: 1,500 jokes in three-and-a-half hours (7.14 jokes per minute), undertaken at the Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, where audiences entered the show in shifts.
Dodd appeared in many Royal Variety Performances. The last was in 2006, in front of Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, at the London Coliseum. Dodd toured frequently throughout his professional career, performing lengthy shows into his eighties, that often did not finish until after midnight. In his final year, he continued to tour the UK extensively, with his comedy, music and variety show.
His final performance was on 28 December 2017 at the Echo Arena Auditorium in Liverpool.
He said the secret of his success was simply, "I love what I do".
Fresh Cream Cakes Naughty But Nice advert from the eighties.
Starring Pat Coombs, Tommy Cooper, Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Williams,
Julia McKenzie, Les Dawson, Roy Barraclough, Larry Grayson & Frankie
Howerd.
--
While Mr Kipling ran its sedate, well-mannered commercials for decades,
boringly recounting scenes not seen in normal households for centuries,
Lyons decided that a more modern approach was required. The basic theme
of the ‘Naughty… but Nice’ campaign was that, yeah, the cakes might have
loads of sugar and cream in them that may be bad for your figure, but
who cared when they tasted as good as this? This devilish assertion was
backed up by a roster of celebs, from Les Dawson in drag to Barbara
Windsor, via Kenneth Williams in, improbably enough, Dracula mode.
(‘Ere! The trouble with these midnight snacks is you get crumbs all over
the bed!’) The slogan is said to be the creation of Salman Rushdie,
trying to raise a few bob to write novels by working as a copywriter.
Perhaps if he’d stuck to writing about cream cakes then he wouldn’t have
had so much hassle in later years. In fact Rushdie is not alone in
taking the commercial shilling over the years – legendary sports
commentator Murray Walker may have been well-known for his garbled
English, but in a previous career he’d informed the nation that Opal
Fruits were ‘made to make your mouth water’.
