polling old timey British film comedians

I like Will Hay quite a bit, incompetent authority figure is an evergreen.

Need to watch more Formby.

Formby’s records are great, Donald McGill postcards come to life.

He was anti-apartheid before the practice was introduced so is a bit of a legend in my book. https://ayewellhmm.wordpress.com/2021/01/23/george-formby-anti-apartheid-hero/

Max Wall was an old timey British comedian who was funny, but as I understand it he had this odd career where he had some initial success on stage in the 30s, then fell into obscurity before being rediscovered in the late 60s, and his film career only really began at that point?

Joyce Grenfell is brilliant, but probably a different tradition than these guys, revue rather than music hall?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm61yavCp-o

I've never seen much Max Miller, but a lot of the Arthur Atkinson character from the Fast Show seems to be based on this scene from Hoots Mon (1940) where he plays a comedian called Harry Hawkins. I'm sort of confused about whether Hawkins supposed to be a good comedian or is diegetically grating?

some of Miller's Catchphrases, from wikipedia:

"Now, there's a funny thing"
"Listen! Listen!"
"There'll never be another"
"They don't make 'em anymore, duck!"
"It's people like you who give me a bad name"
"It's all clever stuff, no rubbish!"
"How's your memory, gal?"
"Miller's the name, Lady"
"I don't care what I say, do I?"
"That's nice, Maxie"
"You can't help liking him"
" 'Ere!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Miller_(comedian)#Catchphrases

I have always liked both Norman Wisdom and Will Hay. Will Hay films used to be on British TV quite a bit when I was a child, but they disappeared at some point and I haven't seen them for years. I particularly remember the one where he was an incompetent railway stationmaster who did something wrong and as punishment was redeployed to an incredibly obscure rural station in Northern Ireland. I liked the atmosphere of it, quite spooky at times, with a ghost train that turned out to be Republican gun-runners or something. There was also a windmill that mysteriously turned at night (or was that another of his films?). That was spooky as well.

Same with Norman Wisdom. The films were always on TV, then disappeared, but in his case I own a couple of DVDs. My wife and I have very similar taste in many things, but Norman Wisdom isn't one of them. As an American, she had never heard of Wisdom, so was initially happy soon after we first met to watch a DVD with me. She politely watched it all the way to the end, but later told me, never again.

I voted for Norman Wisdom in the end, but I like Will Hay about the same.

The others I'm not so keen on, barely know their work, or in some cases have never heard of. Tommy Trinder is a well-known name to me but I don't think I've ever seen him on TV or in films. I remember more that he owned or had something to do with Fulham FC at one point. Arthur Askey was alright, tolerable you could say. Did he used to be on Crackerjack or something like that? George Formby: alright, I suppose. I once saw a film starring The Crazy Gang and I didn't like it. Tommy Cooper must have been younger, so he lasted into the relatively modern era, but I didn't find him funny at all.

Tommy Cooper's career didn't really start until after WWII I think? I'd considered him part of the next generation along with the Goons, Eric Sykes, Take It from Here, Barry Took etc

I love Joyce Grenfell in the St. Trinian's films.

Frank Randle, too blue for the Blackpool gentry

Formby is my sentimental fave on the list

Arthur Lucan's grave is in Hull

also going for Formby Jr

surprised not to see Tommy Handley here - not that I would vote for him, i find his humour completely impenetrable

if it “stands the test of time" it wasn't really funny in the first place

^ but enough about old ILX threads

any complaints about omissions or wrongful inclusions are probably otm, I have no idea what I'm doing tbh but someone had to start the thread

I particularly remember the one where he was an incompetent railway stationmaster who did something wrong and as punishment was redeployed to an incredibly obscure rural station in Northern Ireland. I liked the atmosphere of it, quite spooky at times, with a ghost train that turned out to be Republican gun-runners or something. There was also a windmill that mysteriously turned at night (or was that another of his films?). That was spooky as well.

I believe this is Oh, Mr.Porter - Cairns of the Shadowplay blog mentions it as one of many British comedies of the time modeled on Arnold Ridley's comic play The Ghost Train, comedies with a supernatural element that turns out to be smugglers/IRA/nazis, kind of the template for Scooby Doo (sadly not that many IRA characters in that show tho).

Here's all the Shadowplay links, I had fun reading so you might too:

https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2024/04/17/creep/ Arthur Askey
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2024/04/16/berk/ Tommy Trinder
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2024/04/15/chump/ Charlie Drake (whom I really couldn't include in this poll chronologically)
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2024/04/14/nuts/ The Crazy Gang
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2024/04/13/wind/ Will Hay
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2024/04/12/slush/ George Formby
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2024/04/11/gump/ Norman Wisdom
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2024/04/10/slop-2/ Arthur Lucan
https://dcairns.wordpress.com/2024/04/09/chin/ Jack Hulbert

wait arnold ridley wrote plays!?

also TIL that daisy ridley of stars wars is his great niece

one of the only things i know about Arnold Ridley is The Ghost Train authorship

Frank Randle and Robb Wilton are the two my dad used to go on about.

In December 1915, he enlisted as a private with the Somerset Light Infantry, British Army.[7] He saw active service in the war, sustaining several wounds in close-quarter battle. His left hand was left virtually useless by wounds sustained on the Somme;[6][8] his legs were riddled with shrapnel; he received a bayonet wound in the groin; and the legacy of a blow to the head from a German soldier's rifle butt left him prone to blackouts after the war.[6][9]

Ridley rejoined the army in 1939 following the outbreak of the Second World War.[9]

Voted for Will Hay, as much for his excellent supporting players - Moore Marriott, Graham Moffatt, Charles Hawtrey etc - as for Hay himself. The 1938 Old Bones of the River, co-written by Val Guest, is SO racist it's unlikely to ever be screened in public again.

Used to love Norman Wisdom films as a kid but find them all but unwatchable now - there's something really creepy and unpleasant about his belligerent man-child character,

The film of the Ghost Train is, last time I looked, still good fun - the model is clearly Bob Hope's spooky comedies like Cat and the Canary and The Ghost Breakers (another horrendously racist film).

I voted for George Formby because of a surreal experience that happened to me in 1995. Some friends and I were on a train heading into central London to go clubbing. The train stopped at a station about half of the way there, and we guessed from a tannoy announcement that it'd probably be stuck there for some time. So we got off the train and left the station to get a taxi. One driver parked up at the taxi rank outside the station had a big 7 seater estate, and there were 6 of us, so we approached him. He was a middle aged man who looked EXACTLY like George Formby, clothes, voice, everything. We get in the taxi and drive off. After about a minute he says "do you mind if I put the radio on? there's this programme I always listen to". We're like, sure, no problem, whatever, thinking it'd be The Archers or Gardener's World or something. He turns on the radio and it's the fucking TIM WESTWOOD RADIO 1 RAP SHOW, blasting out of the speakers at ear-splitting volume. And George is banging his head along to the music, singing along with the lyrics, having a great time.

Yes. Tommy Cooper shouldn't be on there.

Will Hay is king.

oh mr wu

(xp) ... with Moore Marriott and Graham Moffat preferably.

I only have heard of a couple of these from being mentioned in Spike Milligan’s war memoirs, at some point he’s having an argument with a fellow soldier who insists that Gracie Fields is funnier than Groucho Marx.

This stuff… as a child I did not like these films being on BBC2; I resented them taking space that could go to something else (idk what, Rathbone Holmes maybe). I've never been able to get over that and never wanted to watch them so I can't vote.

Reading about this world is fascinating & that blog was a joy so thanks for the links daniel (& it reminds me I should read Shepperton Babylon).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

the crazy gang died of swine flu in paris in the summer of 2009

Formby only 56 when he died. Probably a ripe old age for the times though

Flanagan & Allen are probably the most notable absences from this poll - in terms of acts who were enormously popular. Also, I suppose, Jimmy Hanley, though I think he was more radio than film. I don't know if I've ever seen Jimmy Hanley in anything and not much of Flanagan & Allen - though I remember Bud Flanagan being very London Jewish (openly Jewish you might even say).

Flanagan & Allen were part of the Crazy Gang.

Ah, I wondered about that.

I find the Crazy Gang fascinating. Six comedians, all of whom according to the articles I read had basically interchangeable personas.

Apart from Flanagan & Allen I'd never heard of any the other members of the Crazy Gang. Nor did I know it was made up of three double acts - one of which was Scottish!

"Perhaps the best remembered of their gags is when an attractive girl in a grass skirt is followed across stage by Bud Flanagan wheeling a lawnmower."

:/

i feel when we smugly tut tut a present-day tabloid for headline referencing a 70s sit-com we're forgetting that e.g. likeable 80s TV show shine on harvey moon* was referencing a song written in fkn 1903 lol

(reminded of this bcz "shine on harvest moon" is considered a flanagan & allen song: true pop culture has some tough-as-boots connective tissue) (viz the connective tissue between the crazy gang and hellraiser = kenneth cranham)