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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
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