polling old timey British film comedians

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)