Radio Waves - Jimmy Clitheroe profile
 


One of radio comedy's success stories was a small scale affair, standing hardly taller than four feet, but much cheeky northern hilarity emanated from it in the form of James Robertson Clitheroe, or as most people knew him, Little Jimmy Clitheroe - The Clitheroe Kid.
 

He was born the son of two Lancashire weavers in 1922 in Clitheroe itself, but most of his childhood took place in the hamlet of Blacko near Nelson, Lancashire. He first performed whilst still a child on stage at the local chapel in Sunday School concerts and revues. At the age of 14 he joined a professional juvenile troupe - although what the thinking here was is anyone's guess as it was an all-girl ensemble! - and he began touring under the stage name of "Little Jimmie" Whether his billing of 'playing the accordion and doing female impressions' has anything to do with his joining this particular troupe is lost in the mists of time! It was here that he came to the attention of promoter and talent scout George Baker and James' career started properly the same year, 1936.

After concentrating on the variety circuit in the northern clubs and theatres, a film career beckoned and he first appeared opposite popular character Old Mother Riley - really Arthur Lucan - as Boots in the 1940 film
Old Mother Riley in Society. Further film roles followed over the next couple of years, including Much Too Shy (1942 with George Formby), Rhythm Serenade (1943 with the distinguished cast of Vera Lynn, comic talents Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss, and comedy actress Irene Handl) and after quite a break with comic Frank Randle in two films in 1949, Somewhere In Politics and School For Randle.

The gap was in the main due to his variety career continuing apace alongside the likes of Randle, Formby, Al Read, Norman Evans and Jimmy James. He was also in demand for characters during the pantomime season where he would revert from playing the schoolboys or kids which were his staple to such characters as Wishee Washee or Tom Thumb; this latter character he would also play in a much later film,
Rocket To The Moon in 1967, a fairly dire sci-fi comedy starring Burl Ives, Terry-Thomas, Lionel Jeffries and Graham Stark. Luckily, his cultivated image of the cheeky schoolboy stood him in good stead and there was little more he had to do to maintain his career over the following thirty years.

This was especially true once he came to the attention of a young writer called James Casey. Casey has since gone on to be a veteran producer and writer of radio comedy in Britain, but in the late Forties he was looking for a young schoolboy to do justice to the material he had written for the Northern Variety Parade Show starring his father, Jimmy James. Whether James suggest Clitheroe to him as a possible player is unknown - they had of course worked together in
Rhythm Serenade by this time - but whatever the reason, Casey called Clitheroe and asked him to go to Manchester to test for the part. Test he did and was given the job, which led to other successful appearances for Jimmy in popular radio shows of the late Forties and Fifties such as Over The Garden Wall with comic Norman Evans - again, this shows how the Northern circuit could make a performer, with work cropping up as a result of the touring done around the clubs and something which has largely disappeared today or metamorphosed into the likes of the Comedy Store.

Another early radio appearance, said by some to be his earliest but not so, was again with Jimmy James called
The Mayor's Parlour. This did, however, lead to his first proper series called Call Boy in 1955, where Jimmy would meet backstage all manner of showbiz guests before they went on stage to do their "turn"; it was basically another radio variety show with many well-known performers appearing including James, Charlie Chester, Morecambe and Wise (when they too were starting to become known), Robb Wilton, Chic Murray, Harry Worth and "Two Ton" Tessie O'Shea Jimmy had previously worked with her in both film (Somewhere In Politics) and pantomime (his first in 1938).

Part of
Call Boy was very akin to a segment of another popular radio show, Take It From Here; The Glums, in that there was a domestic situation featuring Jimmy as the naughty boy getting into trouble. It was felt by head writer James Casey and the rest of the cast that this section of Call Boy could be spun off in its own right as a series, but although the series seemed to be well liked by almost everybody, the Head of the Light Entertainment department objected to having a midget on the radio; why is anyone's guess as no one would be able to tell Jimmy's diminutive stature from just listening to him (and even so he was supposed to be a schoolboy not an adult!) After three series of Call Boy. The go-ahead for the proposed series was granted - probably after a change in head of department! - and Jimmy's enduring radio success was born as The Clitheroe Kid.

Even while his radio career was flourishing, Clitheroe did not neglect his variety performance in clubs and theatres, although theatres and summer seasons were by now more the norm with pantomime out of season; at Blackpool he even managed to notch up a record for appearances between 1944 and 1971. He continued to work with the most loved and well-known performers of the time, including stalwarts such as Frank Randle and Ken Dodd.

On radio
The Clitheroe Kid went from strength to strength, but it started with the right formula and stuck to it. The family set up was unconventional for the time in that there was no father but a Scots grandfather who was often found down the pub, played by Peter Sinclair who had previously appeared in editions of Call Boy with Clitheroe. Jimmy's sister Susan, often referred to by him as "scraggy neck" or "fish face" in the manner that naughty schoolboys do, was originally played by young actress Judith Chalmers, but she soon departed and Diana Day took over for the majority of the series' run. Her boyfriend from early in the fourth series was Alfie Hall, and he was introduced to give Jimmy someone as a stooge to use when he'd get into trouble. Alfie would often land the pair of them up to their necks in trouble being none too bright and blurting out the wrong thing at the wrong moment. He was played impeccably by comic Danny Ross, who would often play up to the live audience during recording, much to the bemusement of the radio listeners who couldn't tell what they were laughing at. Patricia Burke took over the role of Jimmy's long-suffering mother after the pilot episode (Renee Huston played her for that time only), and other characters played by Leonard Williams included the two family friends Harry Whittle and Theodore Craythorpe.

It has to be said that the humour, as with most schoolboy stuff, was obvious and the audience, be it live or listening, could see the punchline coming a mile away, but the cast supported Clitheroe admirably and all had the right timing to produce the goods time and time again. At one point it was the most popular radio situation comedy around, firstly on the Light Programme and then later on Radio 2, attracting audiences of over ten million listeners.

Clitheroe always performed the shows in costume to foster the illusion built up over the years that he was what he purported to be. He never told people his age in case it spoiled this and even appeared in publicity stunts for his local scout troop dressed as a wolf cub. His lifestyle also helped maintain this image; he lived in Blackpool with his mother after his father died, and he apparently never had a girlfriend and didn't marry, although he did have a "female companion" known as Sally for many years.

In the 1960's an attempt was made to transfer
The Clitheroe Kid to television, firstly in That's My Boy and then Just Jimmy, which ran for 5 years until 1968. It cannot be discounted as a reasonable success, but compared to his variety and radio career, Jimmy's tv career didn't really work. By this time Jimmy was in his late forties and the camera lens was far less forgiving than either a studio audience or a listening public, making his schoolboy act less believable in vision. He was reportedly very disappointed by this turn of events, and with the failure of his last film, the aforementioned Rocket To The Moon, in 1967, it was the last to be seen of Clitheroe performing regularly on screen.

He continued in variety and on radio in
The Clitheroe Kid through into the Seventies. However, he had many business interests and was keen on counting the pennies regarding things which are thought to have harmed his career in some ways. Although he owned a racehorse, betting shops and a hotel, he could be too "careful" when spending to get himself the best writers for summer season shows, or would take a better paid, poor quality show over one that paid less but would keep his profile healthy. However, none of this really harmed his image, the image he had fostered for so long on radio and the one he fostered locally of "local boy does good"; he would open fetes, exhibits, charity events and crowned beauty queens while the pageants were still in favour at the seaside resorts.

He remained, however, very private for the rest of his life. By 1972 things were going downhill for him.
The Clitheroe Kid was a victim of both of changing tastes and television taking away its audience share, with ratings sinking to around a million from their ten million high. His companion Sally died later that year in a car crash and in 1973 his mother also passed away. Within a year of the last episode of the show being transmitted, Jimmy had lost all those dearest to him.

On the morning of his mother's funeral, 6th June 1973, Jimmy Clitheroe was found dead at the home he had shared with his mother. The coroner's report confirmed an accidental death, but it was clear to most people that Jimmy's world had finally come to an end for him. After years of bringing a brand of cheeky schoolboy humour to millions of people, the kid finally hung up his catapult and conkers at the age of 51. But his variety performances had entertained many people and through
The Clitheroe Kid he had entertained even more. in the history of radio comedy, even though he was short stuff, Jimmy Clitheroe's name will always walk tall alongside the many other greats now sadly departed.

this article copyright PPS / M.Hearn 2003