Bernard Youens (b 28 Dec 1914 - d 27 Aug 1984)

Probably best remembered for his portrayal of the workshy, beer swilling Stan Ogden in Coronation Street from 1964 until his death in 1984, Bernard's role as coalman in Mancunian's Cup-Tie Honeymoon (1948) can be viewed here! See Film Clip of Betty Jumel with Bernard Youens, Dan Young with Alec Pleon

For a full biography see Wikipedia - also Click Here to see a copy of a letter forwarded to us by a Hot'Un fan, Mr J P Mallett - the letter was sent to his mother because Bernard (Cpl Popley) was with her first husband in Anzio when he was killed during the war.

Betty Jumel (b 1901 d 14 Oct 1990)

Betty Jumel was one of Britain’s best female comics and one of the few who could play a pantomime dame. She was well able to hold her own alongside the more manic Mancunian male stars such as Dan Young or Frank Randle in such films as Demobbed, Under New Management and Cup-Tie Honeymoon. On stage she became the regular comedy partner of Norman Evans. She’d play the man, he’d play the woman!

Bunty Meadows - (b Olive Lilian Oldmeadow 27 February 1914 - d 1983)

Bunty appears in the following films: Home Sweet Home, Under New Management and Somewhere in Politics.

Bunty married Cecil Frederick Watson (see below)in 1938 at Southport. They had an act together as "Frederick and Meadows" and made Blackpool their home base. Bunty joined the cast of Happidrome in 1942 and appeared in the film of that name in which she took the leading female comedy role. During the war Bunty also travelled with the Entertainments National Services Association (ENSA), entertaining the troops. After the war Bunty continued to work on variety shows and pantomimes in Blackpool, Manchester, Oldham and other places around the North West.

Thank you to Mark Samuels for the pictures and information about Bunty, his mother's cousin.

Cecil Frederick (b Cecil Frederick Watson 1903 - d 1958)

Married Bunty Meadows (above) New Year's Day 1938 at Southport Register Office. One of the witnesses was Billy Merson - we are guessing him to be the famous northern Music Hall artist and composer - perhaps they were all appearing together at Southport.

Cecil Frederick appeared in Home Sweet Home and Randle and All That. He and his wife Bunty played characters that worked extremely well alongside the rough-edged Northern comics like Norman Evans and Frank Randle

Along with Harry Korris and Robbie Vincent, he was part of the comic trio "Ramsbottom, Enoch and Me". Cecil was Ramsbottom, Vincent was Enoch and Korris was "Mr Lovejoy". These three had a hugely popular Saturday night radio programme "Happidrome" that was aired throughout the war and finished broadcasting in 1947. His suave, debonair manner was a perfect foil to Korris's mock pomposity and Enoch's gormless twerp roles.

Dan Young (b 19 Apr 1899 d 1970)

Appeared in fourteen Mancunian films including Boots Boots, School For Randle and It’s A Grand Life. He started out on the Halls as a ‘’Dude’ comedian, a type of comic mimicking an upper class twit. We get a chance to see part of his Variety act in Off The Dole when he does a bit of patter and a song entitled The Nearer The Bone – The Sweeter The Meat. He was apparently incapable of learning a script, but his style of slapstick was a big hit with audiences. After Mancunian he toured with a stage revue and in 1953 gave a young Liverpudlian comedian Ken Dodd his first break.

Diana Dors (b 23 Oct 1931 d 4 May 1984)

Britain's Blonde Bombshell

Diana Dors was born Diana Fluck in Swindon in 1931. From an early age she was obsessed with films and film stardom and persuaded her mother to send her to Stage School at the age of fifteen.
It wasn’t long before she got her first film part – a walk on in a movie entitled The Shop At Sly Corner 1947, and shortly after that she played the part of Charlotte in David Lean’s Oliver Twist 1948.

Judicious application of peroxide gave her the ‘blonde bombshell’ look and a film career to match. She became Britain’s number one sex-symbol and all round ‘bad girl’ or so the tabloid press dubbed her and her over ambitious manager/husband Dennis Hamilton did little to stop the rumours and gossip.

Her appearance in Mancunian’s It’s A Grand Life in 1953 was a kind of punishment meted out to her by Rank for some alleged misconduct. She regarded travelling to Manchester as the equivalent of being sent to Siberia and loathed working with Frank Randle who she described as a “disgusting, dirty old drunk”
Her later career was dogged by bad management, scandal and failed love affairs. She wasn’t, truth be told, a bad actress – she just made some bad choices. She died of stomach cancer in 1984.

another chance to see Donovan & Byl in action! - again! again!

Donovan & Byl - added November 2005 - Happily we have met via the Internet Cora Lee, grand-daughter of Byl (Bill Thirlaway) - the tall one of the two. Cora saw the clip of her grandad's act for the first time via the link on the Cuthbert page - the sequence we treasure from a "short" that John E Blakeley made from extra footage that was filmed but not used in Home Sweet Home (the short is called 'Randle and All That').

We join Cora in amazement that Bill was 45 when the Randle & All That footage was shot - and he could still stand on his head at 80 years old! Cora has sent us the picture opposite from an original photograph of Havel & Byl (their earlier name) - in their pyjamas - one of their acts opened to "Lazy  bones, Sleepin' in the Sun" with the two of them waking up in an Iron bed on stage!

We now know that Bill Thirlaway was a 'Geordie', born in 1900. He moved to Manchester where he met Cora's Nanna (also called Cora) when she delivered a copy of the Mirror to him on a motorbike with her leather helmet and kiss curl in the 1920s! They moved to Blackpool in the 1940s and unfortunately both have now passed away (Bill in 1983). He is sadly missed by all the family - Cora, who was 19 when Bill died, remembers his stories of people like Jimmy Tarbuck, Bruce Forsyth - and how Hilda Baker was the babysitter! We look forward to more memories from Cora and the family!

Duggie Wakefield (b 28 Aug 1899 d 14 Apr 1951)

Born in Hull, Douglas 'Duggie' Wakefield began his career as a child performer, moving into slapstick/knockabout comedy in his late teens.

He crafted his comedy routines in a series of revues staged by Archie Pitt, Gracie Fields' first husband. Through their friendship he met and married Gracie Fields' sister Edie.

With comedy cohorts Jack Butler, Billy Nelson and Chuck O'Neil, a classic of modern Variety was created in a sketch called Four Boys From Manchester. Perhaps this was the reason John E Blakeley put all four of them into starring roles in two 1930s Mancunian Films - The Penny Pool (1937) and Calling All Crooks (1938)

The team performed several times on the Royal Variety Show and were still popular when Duggie died in 1951.

Frank Randle (b 30 Jan 1901 d 7 Jul 1957)

“The greatest character comedian that ever lived”, Gracie Fields

Born in 1901 in Standish, Wigan, the illegitimate Randle was actually christened Arthur Hughes. When his mother married a retired soldier he took his name of McEvoy – Frank and Randle were to come later in his career. From around the age of eleven the young McEvoy would walk to Blackpool with a mate and entertain holidaymakers on the beach by applying a fake moustache with a piece of burnt cork and doing Chaplin impressions. With the few coppers they made they’d buy a fish supper and hopefully have enough for transport home. Sent to work in a mill at the age of thirteen young Arthur was found asleep at his post by the foreman – Legend has it that when he was woken the foreman said to him – “Nathen’, tha’rt tired out lad. Tha’d better get home and get some sleep.” The departing lad replied – “Aye. And it’ll be a long sleep too cos I’m not comin’ back!”

Shortly afterwards he went to live in his beloved Blackpool taking any job he could. He joined a gymnasium and there began his lifelong obsession with keeping fit. Despite the unbelievable quantities of alcohol that he drank he always believed that he’d be immune from illness and live well into his nineties as long as he practised on his Indian clubs every day (a set always stood in his dressing room right up to the very end). It was at the gym that he became a very proficient tumbler and trampolinist. This led to his first break in showbusiness when he was invited to join an acrobatic troupe, The Three Ernestos, who had a booking at the 1922 Tower Circus. Over the next ten years he worked with Astley’s Trapeze Troupe, became Arthur Twist when he was in The Bouncing Randles Trampoline Act, and Arthur Heath when the mood took him.

It was in 1922 when he took part in a marathon walk from Blackpool to Manchester and met a character who was to inspire one of his greatest comic turns – an eighty-two year old hiker.
He began filling in during set changes as a ‘Front Cloth Comic’ and developed the first of his comedy turns – the boatman – a down at heel seaman with a rowing boat touting for customers on Blackpool beach – “ Any more for the Skylark! Come on, Hurry up – they’ll be taking the sea in in a minute! – Do you know I’ve had numerous offers for this vessel.. numerous. But what good’s a yo-yo to me?”

It was the success of this character that gave him the confidence to turn into a full-time comedian. He also changed his name again – this time to Frank Randle. In 1935 he got his big break from the promoter Jack Taylor and was put second on the bill to George Formby at the Blackpool Opera House.

By 1940 he had his own touring revue – The Scandals – and was about to enter the big league, earning up to a thousand pounds a week, when he signed a lucrative film contract with John E Blakeley and Mancunian. The first movie in which he co-starred with another Blackpool legend Harry Korris, was Somewhere In England and this was quickly followed by a succession of low budget films, quickly produced to cater for the tastes of a primarily Northern audience. By 1945 his star was huge and he even had a yacht moored off the North pier at Blackpool, but his behaviour was becoming more and more erratic as drink and quite possibly psychosis exacerbated his mood swings. Two bottles of whisky plus a crate of Guinness a day combined with a loaded Luger pistol is a heady mix and one that frightened a fair number of his contemporaries.

In the end it was TB along with the alcoholism that carried him off in 1957. He was the dark side of northern comedy to Formby’s light, but much more besides. Frank was about class, masculinity, regionalism, envy, anger, hatred even. He was a man who, for better of worse, made absolutely no compromises throughout his entire life. He was a unique comic talent who we can only view today through the lens of the eight movies he made for Mancunian and the two movies he made for Butchers (see List Below) – Long live Frank Randle!

FRANK RANDLE FILMS (all Mancunian unless otherwise stated):

Somewhere in England (1940)

Somewhere in Camp (1942)

Somewhere on Leave (1942)

Somewhere in Civvies - Butchers Films (1943)

Home Sweet Home (1945)

When You Come Home - Butchers Films (1947)

Holidays With Pay (1948)

Somewhere in Politics (1948) - MISSING - CONTACT CP Lee if you know of a copy

School For Randle (1949)

It's A Grand Life (1953)

FRANK RANDLE'S GRAVE is at I238 in Blackpool's CARLETON CEMETERY. Click here for location map. Cleaned up by Cuthbert members on Saturday 22 July 2006, there is the following inscription on his headstone:

O Sacred Heart of Jesus Have Mercy on the Soul of FRANK RANDLE (Arthur McEvoy) the Beloved Husband of Queenie and Son of Rhoda who Died 7th July 1957 in his 56th Year. Many Will Remember Him.

I GOT NOTHING THAT I ASKED FOR

BUT EVERYTHING I HAD HOPED FOR

DESPITE MYSELF MY PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED

I WAS AMONG ALL MEN RICHLY BLESSED

----------

On 7th July 2007, on the 50th anniversary of Frank's death, hundreds of Frank Randle fans gathered on the North Pier in Blackpool to see the unveiling of his blue plaque which Cuthbert Club members clubbed together to have made. It is sited on the side of the Exhibition Centre wall opposite the door to the Carousel Bar (Frank would have loved the position!). There will be a return to the site on the nearest Saturday to the 7th July each year - may Frank smile down on us through the sun's rays each time!

George Formby (b 26 May 1904 d 6 Mar 1961)

The Emperor of Lancashire

Born in Wigan in 1904 he was the son of Music Hall star George Formby Senior. Sent off as a lad to train to be a jockey (his parents dreaded the idea he would go on stage), he started treading the boards after his father’s death from lung disease in 1924. Adopting his father’s stage persona it took George the younger a while to develop his own identity. This was helped along no end by his marriage to dancer Beryl Ingham who introduced him to the banjolele and carefully honed his act to create the gormless, warm-hearted character who would enchant Britain throughout the 1930s and 40s.

Fortunately for us Formby’s first two films were made by John E Blakeley and we can catch a unique glimpse of his act in transition – he is still ‘John Willie’ the character created by his father, a harder, sharper kind of person than he would become under the tutelage of Basil Dean, but we can also discern the emerging lovable, bashful geek that would win George the Soviet Union’s most prestigious award - The Order of Lenin.

Formby was arguably the spiritual opposite of Frank Randle and the two had little affection for each other. The possible reason why is written about in the History section of this website – Frank Randle and Mancunian.

See links for the official George Formby website.

Harry Korris (b 8 Oct 1891 d 4 Jun 1971)

“ Eeeeh – If ever a man suffered!” was long-suffering Harry Korris’s catch-phrase. The portly star of three Mancunian movies and countless sea-side revues had on of the first smash hit radio comedy shows entitled Happidrome where he shared the bill with Robbie Vincent and Cecil Fredericks as ‘Ramsbottom, Enoch and me”. The programme was set in a down at heel variety theatre and was hugely popular throughout the War.

In the three Somewhere films he starred in for Mancunian Harry Korris played the long suffering sergeant who had to curb the manic mayhem wrought by Frank Randle (“Gerroff me foot!”) and Robbie Vincent (“Let me tell you!!!). He also mugged his way successfully through several of Randle’s stage act sketches that were filmed for inclusion in the movies, playing the Vicar in Somewhere In Camp and putting on a dress for Somewhere On Leave’s ‘Interviewing A maid’ sketch.

He took, for showbiz, the unusual step of retiring from the stage in 1950 and lived happily for the rest of his life until his death in 1971.

Jenny Howard (b c1902 in Walthamstow, d 21 Jan 1996 in Tweed Heads, Australia) and Percy King (b ? d ?)Hear Jenny Howard sing 'Golden Shores of Wigan' courtesy of Cuthbert Members Albert and Richard Gallagher.

Jenny Howard was a popular stage performer often labelled the 'poor man's Gracie Fields' because every time Gracie released a record Jenny would follow up with a copy on the cheaper Woolworths label. Born Daisy Evelyn Louise Blowes, she married Percy Boughton who was her manager under the stage name Percy King, stage partner/pantomime writer/producer/etc. Jenny's bill matter was as 'the generator of electric radiance'.

In 1936 she starred in John E Blakeley's 'Dodging the Dole' playing the part of a flirtatious waitress singing such songs as 'Waiting at Table'. Note her arms and stance in the film still which has kindly been sent to us by H E Trigg (Eddie), a founder member of the BHMS, now living in Australia. Eddie has written a 170-page biography of Jenny which is available for viewing in Islington Town Hall, London and the Australian Cultural Centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

In 1940 promoter Wallace Parnell invited Jenny and Percy to perform overseas for 'our Allies' which is how the couple came to find themselves in Australia. Immediately adopted by the Australian public, Jenny Howard remained popular through her long and busy life there and she finished up with Australia's highest honour the AM for her 'Devotion to Australian Theatre' and 'Devotion to the Australian Children's Hospitals'.

Jimmy Jewel (b 1906 d 1995) and

Ben Warriss (b 29 May 1909 d 14 Jan 1993)

“Two Great Comedians - & A Full London Cast!”

Highly successful double act, immensely popular in the 1940s and 50s. Cousins by birth (both born in the same bed!) they came from a showbiz family – Jimmy taking his dad’s stage name, Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warris started his career in blackface at the age of ten. They were appearing on the same bill at the Palace Newcastle when one of the other acts failed to turn up so they went on and did a double act and the rest as they say is history.

They starred in two Mancunian films – What A Carry On! 1949, and Let’s Have A Murder 1950. Jimmy Jewell later said that they felt uncomfortable with John E’s directing and wished he would have let them have more of their own way with the script, but the movies werte still highly successful in the North West.

Jimmy Clitheroe (b 1921(?) d 6 Jun 1973)

“I’m All There With Me Coughdrops”

Born, not too surprisingly, in Clitheroe Lancs in 1916, Jimmy was what is known medically as a ‘midget’, most definitely not a ‘dwarf’. Midgets are perfectly formed, miniature humans and Jimmy wasn’t the only one to have worked with John E Blakeley – the great Stan Little being the first in Off The Dole 1935, and Home Sweet Home 1945.

When Jimmy was hired to work at Mancunian in 1948 he already had a fine Variety pedigree having worked on stage with Albert Burdon and been produced by both Jack Taylor and Tom Arnold.
He was approached in 1958 by Jimmy James’s son – James Casey, who was a producer for BBC Radio in Manchester, and a highly successful, long running radio series – The Clitheroe Kid was the result. He died tragically in 1973, still as popular as ever.

Jimmy sings 'Jim Plays Hooky' (thanks again to Albert and Richard Gallagher)

See links for the official Jimmy Clitheroe website.

Jimmy James (b 1892 d 1965)

A native of Stockton-on-Tees, born James Casey, Jimmy James is often hailed as the ‘comedian’s comedian’. He started his stage career as Terry – the blue-eyed Irish boy singing popular songs of the day. Service on the Western Front in the First World War put paid to that when he was gassed and he never regained his singing voice. Slowly over the years he developed one of the funniest stage routines in variety history, along with his two stooges – Our Eli and Bretton Woods (played in later years by a young Roy Castle).

His first film for Mancunian was sharing the bill with Norman Evans in Over The Garden Wall, Evans playing his wife! His second appearance is in the Jack Warner vehicle, Those People Next Door, where he and Eli perform a ten-minute cameo reprising James’s hilarious drunk routine (he himself was teetotal!).
James’s popularity never waned – he stole the show at the Royal Variety Performance in 1953 and he made many TV appearances before his untimely death in 1965.

Jimmy James with Our Eli

Josef Locke (b 23 Mar 1917 d 15 Oct 1999)

Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, one of nine children he began singing in local churches at the age of seven. After an adventurous youth spent in the Army and the Police, he became a local celebrity nicknamed 'The Singing Bobby'. This led to him touring the UK Variety circuit where he became highly popular with his Irish charm and fantastic tenor voice.

Basing himself in Blackpool he quickly fell in with Frank Randle and in 1948 found himself appearing in Holidays With Pay. This was soon followed with a starring role in What A Carry On but the mixture of Randle/Locke/Guinness/Whisky was almost too much for even John E Blakeley to control! The drinking bouts between Frank and Jo became legendary, often ending in fist fights between the two of them - though they usually made up the next day - but one day they didn't ... and Jo went on to become a massive star in his own right.

In 1992 the Peter Chelsom film Hear My Song was released, a fantasy based on the notion of Locke returning from his Irish exile to complete an old love affair and save a Liverpool-based Irish night-club from ruination, with Locke played by Ned Beatty. Fantastic Josef Locke website can be found in our Links page.

Maudie Edwards (b 16 Oct 1906, d 24 Mar 1991)

Born in Neath, Wales, Maudie Edwards had her own of theatrical troupe based in Swansea. She became a big hit on both sides of the border with her regular Revues. Her film career began in 1936 when she appeared in an Australian/UK co-production The Flying Doctor.

Over the next thirty years she worked with Will Hay, Peter Sellers and Peter O’Toole. She provided the singing voice for Diana Dors in Diamon Çity (1949), the same year she was appearing with Frank Randle in School for Randle and the little-seen short Bella’s Birthday (she played Bella). Shortly after that she shared the bill at the London Palladium with Frank Sinatra, and in 1961 Maudie has the first line in Coronation Street as Elsie Lappin selling the Corner Shop to Florrie Lindley.

Nat Jackley (b 14 Jul 1909 d 17 Sep 1988)

The India Rubber Man
Born in Sunderland, Nat Jackley first appeared on stage with the Eight Lancashire Lads Clog Dancing Troupe, as did, many years before, Charlie Chaplin. He then had dance act with his sister and then a comedy double act with Jack Clifford. Nat started as the straight man until it became obvious he was the funny one and from then on he never looked back.
His slightly off beat delivery combined with a genius for eccentric dancing made him a firm favourite on the Halls and it was only a matter of time before John E Blakeley hired him to appear in Mancunian films. He twice shared the bill with Norman Evans and Betty Jumel, firstly in Demobbed (1944) and then Under New Management (1945).
He later went on to work with the Beatles in Magical Mystery Tour (1967) and underwent something of a renaissance as a television actor until his death in 1988.

Norman Evans (b 11 Jun 1901 d 25 Nov 1962)

Norman entered this planet’s airspace in Rochdale, Lancashire. After leaving school in 1915 he had a variety of jobs, but his heart lay in amateur theatricals. In 1931 he was persuaded to audition for Rochdale’s most famous star, Gracie Fields. She was so impressed that she put him on the bill with her the following week at the Chiswick Empire. He was a huge success, his famous gossiping housewife comic character, Fanny Fairbrother, was to make audiences laugh for the next three generations. After Norman’s death the concept and the character was carried on by Les Dawson.

In 1935 Norman was sharing the bill with Betty Driver who’d just appeared in Boot! Boots! (1934) and it was inevitable that he’d work for Mancunian at some point. He starred in Demobbed with Nat Jackley, Betty Jumel and Dan Young. Under New Management (1945) followed and thankfully features a scene where he recreates another of his legendary stage sketches ‘The Dentist’ - preserved on film by Mancunian for posterity. Four years later came Over The Garden Wall (1950) made at the Rusholme Studios and co-starring Jimmy James in which they play a brilliantly funny husband and wife team.

Norman Evans was a regular guest on American TV particularly The Ed Sullivan Show and was billed as – ‘The Man Who Brought Vaudeville Back To Broadway!’

In the 1950s he toured regularly with Betty Jumel, and made numerous TV and pantomime appearances. To see Norman Evans' sketch with his puppet Panda on youtube.com click here.

Pat Phoenix (b 26 Nov 1923 d 18 Sep 1986)

Born Patricia Federica Pilkington. Bold, her childhood was quite tough but she had a burning ambition to be an actress. She got her first break on BBC Children's Hour in 1940 and quickly joined the Rusholme Repertory Company along with Bernard Youens.

When John E Blakeley began Mancunian Production at Dickenson Road she was hired to appear alongside Sandy Powell in the first feature film to be produced there - Cup Tie Honeymoon (1947). She played Sandy Powell's wife in a sketch entitled The Soldier's Return Home and pleased Powell so much that he gave her a contract to appear in a Revue with him. Her last appearance for Mancunian was as Diana Dors' stunt double in It's A Grand Life (1953).

From there she moved into serious acting in the Joan Littlewood Theatre Workshop and made appearances in several kitchen-sink movies such as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and A Taste of Honey (1961).

She was cast as Elsie Tanner in Granada TV's Coronation Street for which she will be remembered as a pioneer actor of British soap.

with Sandy Powell

Cup Tie Honeymoon (1948)

Robby (Robbie) Vincent - 'ENOCH' (b 1895 d 06 March 1968 (Blackpool))

'Let me tell you' - Stooge and sidekick of Harry Korris from 1926, Enoch's publicity material described him as 'a dimunitive, dancing drummer'. His appearances for Mancunian were in the 'Somewhere' war series.

Robbie's major success came when he and Harry joined up with Cecil Frederick (husband of Bunty Meadows) and began a radio show called 'Happidrome'.

Happidrome saw Korris as the down-at-heel manager of a Music Hall with Robby as his flustered assistant and Frederick as the stage manager. Being set in a Music Hall, the show allowed guest artistes to appear every week and became a mainstay of broadcasting from 1941 to 1947.

Robby continued in Variety with occasional TV appearances until his death in 1968 and of course he can be seen in the film version of Happidrome (1941) - A back-up copy may be purchased from Cuthbert price £5.00 plus £1.00 p&p.

Robby Vincent in

Somewhere in England (1940)

Sally Barnes (b 1922 in Brighton d 24 Jun 1985)

Young ingeneue actress, a close friend of Randle, who was given parts in 'Somewhere in Politics' and 'Holidays With Pay' - See Performers Gallery for Salary Card.

In the 1950s her career was guided by the Delfonts and she appeared in the 1957 star-packed 'Make Mine A Million' playing the part of - Sally.

(Mother of model and game-show hostess Laura Beaumont.)

Sandy Powell (b 30 Jan 1900 d 26 Jun 1982)

Sandy Powell was one of the most successful comedians of his generation. He started performing at the age of five when his mother lied and said he was eleven! He was one of the first comedians to realise the importance of records and released a whole series of 78s of his sketches that sold in the millions. Rather than take an outright fee he was canny enough to take a penny per disc.

Sandy showed the same Yorkshire acumen in his film career starting in 1933 with Pathe Pictorials' short two-reelers of his stage shows before moving into feature films with The Third String (1933) and Can You Hear Me Mother (1935). Inevitably he was invited by John E Blakeley to Manchester where he starrred in the first film to be produced at the Dickenson Road Studios - Cup Tie Honeymoon (1947). Until his death, he remained a huge success on television and the stage, being awarded an MBE in 1975.

Tessie O'Shea (b 13 Mar 1913 d 21 Apr 1995)

Affectionately nicknamed 'Two Ton Tessie' throughout the thirties and forties Tessie was one of Britain's most popular performers, releasing a string of hit records accompanying herself on banjolele.

On stage the once-slim performer came across as a bundle of dynamite, singing, dancing and clowning non-stop and playing such number as Oh What A Silly Place To Kiss A Girl, He Never Slept A Wink Last Night and Hold Your Hand Out You Naughty Boy. Radio fame quickly followed and then films. She appeared in two Mancunian movies - Somewhere in Politics (1948) and Holidays With Pay (1948), both times playing opposite Frank Randle as his spouse.

She refused to be put out by Randle and his drunken tantrums and, when annoyed with him would jump on his feet. He very quickly behaved himself around her!

Tessie O'Shea moved to America in the early 1960s and had a fantastically successful career on Broadway and in Hollywood.

Wee Georgie Wood (b 17 Dec 1894 d 19 Feb 1979)

The dimunitive comic was 4ft 9in tall and started the trend for boy characters played by grown men that continued in Mancunian Productions with Stan Little and later on, Jimmy Clitheroe.

He was one of the most famous stars of Music Hall and Variety. A partnership began in 1916 with Dolly Harmer who always took the role of his mother was a popular double act that continued until 1953.

By the time he appeared in John E Blakeley's Two Little Drummer Boys, he was already a veteran performer with forthright opinions:

"I think it is much better to have films of the type of Two Little Drummer Boys rather than the heavy German film or the conventional American stuff. If we are going to get good British films, it is much better that they are truly British in atmosphere and concerned with British people. The old melodrama ought to lend itself to a successful treatment on the films", he told a journalist in Manchester just prior to filming.

In 1933 he married Ewing Eaton, an American vaudeville perfomer two inches taller than him. In 1953 he retired from performing but carried on writing regular columns for the showbiz press and working on behalf of the British Music Hall Society.

Wilton Bros (Goulding) (Arthur Goulding b 25 Feb 1921)

The Wilton Brothers ("introducing their mother") were a popular stage act specialising in musical comedy. Playing a wide range of instruments the highlight of their performance was bringing on their mother who then sang with them. The brothers were born in Bradford Yorkshire and made their stage debut as small children in 1927. Arthur (playing the accordion in picture) spent four years as Frank Randle's comic apprentice starting in Blackpool in 1940. The brothers appeared in three films with Randle: Somewhere in England, Somewhere in Camp and Somewhere in Civvies.

Arthur Goulding left Randle's Scandals in 1943 and followed a solo career as a comedian and later as a pianist at the Dorchester London. Now retired, when asked recently by a journalist what it had been like working with Frank Randle he gave a one-word answer - "Hell!"