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I understand there's another website named after Jimmy
at JimmyClitheroe.com

We don't have any connection with it. It currently seems to be inactive, but
you might land on it by mistake and wonder what's gone wrong! The website
which you're currently on is the original site, founded in 2001 in the UK
by Sandra and myself: the co.uk domain.

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KEN DODD SHOW

Ken Dodd show dates
to December 2013
 
IN MEMORIUM

From the 20th Anniversary
of the death of Eric Morecambe

 

 

 

BBC Radio 7 has been Abolished
and replaced by ‘Radio 4 Extra’

Details are on the News page

Radio 7, home of 'The Clitheroe Kid', closed on 31 March 2011. But the show is occasionally on the new station.

 
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 Listen live to Radio 4 Extra
 

 

·  NOSTALGIA  ·

Nostalgia & Celebrities links page

 

 

 

 

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Jimmy Clitheroe, Diana Day, Danny Ross Film, Much Too Shy (1942)
“The Clitheroe Kid”
(Jimmy, Susan and Alfie)
Jimmy aged 21



Jimmy Clitheroe

Jimmy Clitheroe was a star of Variety, films, radio and television. Born in 1921, his career spanned five decades, from the 1930s to the 1970s, and he made his mark in every medium of show business.

Click here for details of Jimmy's films From small but humorous beginnings in Variety, as a boy in an all-girl juvenile troupe, he moved into films, firstly with Arthur Lucan (Old Mother Riley) and subsequently with George Formby, Jewel & Warriss and Frank Randle. The two films he made with Randle were for Film Studios (Manchester) Ltd, and are featured in a recent book.

In the 1940s he worked in Variety with comedians Albert Whelan and Albert Burdon, principally in the North of England, and most often in shows presented by John D Roberton or by Jack Taylor. He began working in Blackpool.

Jimmy as a young man He built an impressive reputation in Variety, and in Blackpool set a record for the number of appearances in summer season shows. He worked there with Frank Randle, Jimmy James and Ken Dodd, amongst others.

He also played in Pantomime. His first panto appearance was alongside Two Ton Tessie O’Shea in 1938. His final panto was in 1971.

In the mid-1950s, Jimmy Clitheroe moved into radio. His first appearance was on the Home Service, in comedian Jimmy James’s show ‘The Mayor’s Parlour’. He soon had his own series, ‘Call Boy’ - a Variety show.

Then came his biggest hit, ‘The Clitheroe Kid’. It ran for 15 years from 1957 on the Light Programme and Radio 2. It was the BBC’s longest-running situation comedy.

          ·  Listen to a clip from the show (requires Winamp)  ·

In the 1960s he broke into television, starring on ITV in ‘That’s My Boy’ and ‘Just Jimmy’ for 5 years from 1963 to 1968. Both shows were made by ABC Television. In the 1960s he also made his best remembered film, Rocket to the Moon, which he made in 1967 with Burl Ives and Terry-Thomas.


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Site map  Don’t some mothers ’ave ’em ?

Coming from a background in the Variety theatre, his humour was broadly in the style of the St Trinians films and early Carry On pictures. His most famous catchphrase was “Don’t some mothers ’ave ’em” - though when referring to Alfie, it was often amended to “Don’t some twits mothers ’ave ’em”.

Another of his catchphrases was “I’m all there with me cough drops” (a Lancashire expression for someone quick-witted). When he got into a scrape - as he frequently did - his catchphrase was “Ooh, flippin’ ’eck”.

Blacko village He was born in Clitheroe, but his childhood was spent in the village of Blacko near Nelson, Lancs. His first stage appearances were in the local Methodist Chapel, performing in Sunday School concerts.

At the age of 14 he joined a professional juvenile troupe and began touring in Variety with them, under the stage name “Little Jimmie”.

He was the eternal schoolboy. He never grew taller than 4ft 3ins, and for most of his life he could easily pass for an 11-year-old boy, a role he played to the hilt.

He never told people his age, in case it spoiled the illusion, and always performed in schoolboy cap and blazer (even at radio recordings, for the benefit of the studio audience). He fostered the illusion by appearing in publicity stunts for his local Boy Scout troop (dressed as a wolf cub), by living with his mother after his father's death, and by seemingly never having a girlfriend.

It all helped to maintain his show business career, which was dependent on that illusion, as he almost always played a schoolboy - in the Variety theatres, in his films, on the wireless, on television, and on record.

He maintained the illusion successfully until his death. To the newspapers he always remained ‘the Peter Pan of Showbusiness’ - the little boy who never grew up.

Only in Pantomime, and his 1967 film, did he step out of the cheeky schoolboy role. Even then it was only to play Tom Thumb - another part for which he was eminently suited. But his most frequent Panto role was in “Aladdin”, where he reverted to the cheeky boy, playing Widow Twankey’s son Wishee Washee.


As a celebrity, he was much in demand at public events. He opened the model village Miniland at Belle Vue in Manchester, opened local fetes, appeared at charity events, and crowned local beauty queens.

He had many business interests outside show business. He owned a racehorse, betting shops, and a hotel. The latter was managed for him initially by his boyhood friend from Blacko, Tommy Trafford, who was also in show business.

Jimmy had a reputation for being “careful” with his money - a trait he got from the hard background which he endured growing up in the Great Depression. He maintained a very private private-life, away from all his other interests, living quietly at Blackpool in a semi-detached bungalow with his mother.

He died in June 1973, following her death. He was found unconscious on the morning of her funeral and died later the same day. An inquest found that his death was due to an accidental overdose of sleeping pills.

 

Career Highlights
1939 Pantomime with Old Mother Riley
(Arthur Lucan)
1940 First film - Old Mother Riley In Society
1942 Much Too Shy - film with George Formby
1949 School for Randle - film with Frank Randle

1954 First radio appearance - "The Mayor’s Parlour" written by James Casey and Frank Roscoe
1956 Starred in the radio Variety series, "Call Boy"
1956 Pilot show of "The Clitheroe Kid"
1967 Final film - Rocket to the Moon
1957-72 16 series of The Clitheroe Kid on the wireless
1939-71 16 Blackpool Summer Season shows over 32 years

 


Just Jimmy (tv series), c.1964

"Just Jimmy" television series

 

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If you have fond memories of Jimmy’s radio series, “The Clitheroe Kid”,
why not suggest to the BBC that they repeat some of the shows

Contact BBC Radio

Or contact them by clicking here


To check this week’s radio schedules for “The Clitheroe Kid” click here

 

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Jimmy Clitheroe

Jimmy Clitheroe
The Kid Himself

 


A Biography of the Clitheroe kid



An appeal for information

We’re writing a book about Jimmy Clitheroe’s life and career, and in the course of our research we’ve spoken to many of his surviving relatives, friends and colleagues.

Currently, we’re researching his later showbiz career, having completed the research we needed to do in Lancashire into his early life.

There are still many troublesome gaps in our knowledge of Jimmy's career, so we would be delighted to hear from anyone who knew or worked with him, or who has memories of him. Even if you only saw him in a theatre show or on TV, please do contact us.

If you'd like to get in touch, drop us a line by e-mail at the address given in the box below. We'd love to hear from you.

Please mention the name ‘Jimmy Clitheroe’ in the subject line of your e-mail, to be sure it gets through the spam filter at our Hotmail account.


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Jimmy Clitheroe Jimmy Clitheroe Jimmy Clitheroe  The Clitheroe Kid Jimmy Clitheroe Jimmy Clitheroe Jimmy Clitheroe

We’re also looking for details about his co-stars in ‘The Clitheroe Kid’
(in which Jimmy starred on BBC radio from 1956 until 1972)

 
  • Actress and singer Diana Day - who played his posh sister, Susan, affectionately known in the show as “scraggyneck”
  • Oldham comedian Danny Ross - who played Susan’s daft boyfriend,  Alfie Hall
  • Comic Tony Melody - who played Jimmy’s sworn enemy, Mr Higginbottom
 





Feedback

We’re always happy to hear from anyone about Jimmy Clitheroe or his co-stars...

Anything concerning Jimmy or the others, no matter what,
is always of interest to us.

To contact us by e-mail, click here   Do, please, e-mail us

We promise to reply to ALL e-mail correspondence!

Feedback

 

·  Click here for the latest News  ·

 

 

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Tony Melody

1923 - 2008

RIP

It is with great sadness that I have to report the death
in Blackpool, on June 27th 2008, of ‘Clitheroe Kid’
star Tony Melody, after a short illness

A tribute appears in the Blackpool Gazette

A formal obituary has been published in the Independent newspaper

 

 

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Jimmy Clitheroe - The Kid Himself

 

We’ve been researching this biography of Jimmy Clitheroe for several years, and have met most of his surviving friends and colleagues. We’ve now researched his entire career in radio, television and Variety.

A fascinating story it is too, going back to his earliest days in show business in the 1930s, when he worked in pantomime and films with Old Mother Riley, and in films with George Formby.

Jimmy’s best-remembered period is the 1960s, on BBC radio in “The Clitheroe Kid” and on ITV in his tv series “Just Jimmy”, in which he starred alongside Mollie Sugden and his “Clitheroe Kid” partner Danny Ross. We’ve talked to “Clitheroe Kid” producer James Casey and to Mollie Sugden, among many others.

In the 1950s, Jimmy worked in Variety for two years with Ken Dodd, who’s told us a lot about those shows and his memories of Jimmy.
 
· The book will be called Jimmy Clitheroe - The Kid Himself  ·

 



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