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“Here is Jimmy Clitheroe in...

James Casey was the creator, producer, and (with the late Frank Roscoe) co-writer, of “The Clitheroe Kid”. He retired in the mid-1980s, after a long and successful career in radio at the BBC in Manchester, to live with his family on Teesside. His father was the famous Variety comedian Jimmy James. As a young man, James Casey appeared in his father's stage act; and whenever opportunity presented itself he and his cousin Eli still performed the legendary “box” sketch originated by Jimmy James and Eli in Variety during the ’Fifties (see film clips, below). The photograph (left) shows Jimmy James & Co performing the box sketch in Variety, with a young Roy Castle as the stooge. Long after his father’s death, Jim Casey revived the sketch with Eli and Roy Castle, and they famously performed it in the 1982 Royal Variety Show on television, to huge acclaim. Jim and Eli went on to perform it in the surviving Variety theatres for over twenty years, between 1983 and 2006. On television, Jim and Eli appeared together, as a gag, in the 1988 Christmas episode of “Last of the Summer Wine”, playing ‘first Drunk’ and ‘second Drunk’ in a homage to Jimmy James’s stage act, in which the teetotal comedian had played the definitive stage drunk. They subsequently made two further guest appearances in the show, in the Christmas specials “Welcome to Earth” (1993) and “A Leg Up for Christmas” (1995). Jim Casey's work continues to be heard nearly every week on BBC Radio, on digital station Radio 4 Extra (formerly called BBC Radio 7). He produced many radio shows, in a long career, including ‘The Clitheroe Kid’, ‘Listen To Les’ (starring Les Dawson), ‘The Enchanting World of Hinge and Bracket’ (starring Dr Evadne Hinge and Dame Hylda Bracket, where he was famously billed as ‘Gentleman James Casey’), and ‘The Worst Show on the Wireless’ and ‘The Show with Ten Legs’ (both of which were written by Eddie Braben, and starred Bill Pertwee and Eli Woods). He wrote for, or produced, many long-lost radio shows broadcast in the 1950s and 1960s, including ‘The Mayor's Parlour’ and ‘Home James’ for his father, Jimmy James; editions of ‘Northern Variety Parade’ starring comedian Norman Evans; ‘Call Boy’, a radio variety show starring Jimmy Clitheroe; ‘Mid-Day Music Hall’, a popular weekly live lunchtime variety show; ‘The Ken Dodd Show’; and many others. These became tombstones to the BBC's policy of refusing to retain in its archives, back then, shows classed as "mere" light entertainment. On a personal note, Jim Casey was the nicest chap you could ever hope to meet.

I first met Jim Casey in 2001, at his home in Stockton on Tees, and wrote an article published in the Spring 2011 edition of ‘Evergreen’ magazine about his life and career.

His connections with show business began as a babe in arms, being left in a wicker props basket in the wings whilst his parents performed his father's Variety act on stage.

He always regretted that his father's ambition was for him to have a ‘real’ job, rather than follow his parents onto the stage; and he ended up writing comedy sketches for his father’s BBC radio show, rather than performing in the show, resulting in his ultimately being offered a staff job by the BBC as a radio light entertainment producer in Manchester, where his most famous work was creating, producing and co-writing (with the late Frank Roscoe) the series ‘The Clitheroe Kid’, which ran for sixteen years.

He was basically a frustrated performer, who loved appearing on a stage at the slightest excuse - such as doing audience warm-ups before radio recordings. After appearing on BBC tv’s ‘Parkinson’ show in 1982, with Roy Castle and Eli Woods, talking about Jimmy James's variety act, he revived the act and toured the surviving variety theatres with Eli, performing his father's famous sketches including ‘Animals in the box’ and ‘The Fish Fryer’.





Sandra and I saw him do the Box sketch at the Wolverhampton Grand in 2001, where we reunited him with his former ‘Clitheroe Kid’ colleague Diana Day; and at Leeds City Varieties in 2003; and at the Weston-super-Mare Variety Festival in 2004. He was still appearing at Leeds City Varieties, with Eli Woods, as late as April 2007.

He passed away in hospital, after a short illness, having suffered from ill health in recent years. His greatest regret was that his much loved son, David Casey, had tragically predeceased him. David, an up and coming radio performer himself, had inherited his father’s talent for comedy, and a formidable ability as a voice artist, and appeared in a number of radio shows from Manchester in the 1980s.

Jim Casey, as everyone affectionately called him, was a tremendously gifted comedy writer. There was nothing he didn’t know about comedy, after a lifetime writing and performing it.

R.I.P., Jim.

Stephen Poppitt,   May 2011

In its beginnings, Jimmy James was supported in the act by two members of his family, chosen more or less at random, including his wife. They played the two stooges in the act.

These two characters were given the humorous stage names Bretton Woods and Hutton Conyers (one was a place in the USA, the other a place in England). Eventually, the character known as Bretton Woods came to be played regularly by his cousin, Jack Casey, and the character gradually came to be known as Eli Woods.

Diana left show business in the 1970s, in order to bring up her children in a more sane environment. Married to a Dutch hotellier, they ran a hotel together in the beautiful Wicklow Moutains in Ireland. Diana now lives in Herefordshire, but still has fond memories of her career as a child actress and singer, of her years in panto, and of 14 happy years on the radio with Jimmy Clitheroe and Danny Ross. She played Jimmy’s sister in the show, who according to the script was called Susan, but was usually addressed by Jimmy as “scraggy-neck”. To Jim Casey’s mortification, but Diana’s delight, fans of the show even addressed her in public as “scraggy-neck” - rather than as Susan or Diana ! When we first met her, in 2001, we had the pleasure of reuniting her with Jim Casey at the stage door of the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, who she hadn’t seen since the final recording of ‘The Clitheroe Kid’ in 1972 !

Diana Day newspaper interview

Unfortunately, some of “The Clitheroe Kid” cast are no longer with us. Danny Ross, who played Alfie Hall, passed away of a heart attack in 1976. Danny was originally a rep actor in the legitimate theatre. In 1951 he had the good fortune to meet Arthur Askey, with whom he spent the remainder of the 1950s touring in stage comedies and making films, before coming to the notice of James Casey and joining the cast of “The Clitheroe Kid” in 1961. Danny came from Oldham, and was always billed in the theatre as “the Oldham Comedian”. He and Jimmy Clitheroe also worked together on television, in the ITV series “Just Jimmy” from 1964-68.

Here are my original notes about Danny - ‘Born in Oldham in 1930, the Lancashire comedian Danny Ross became most famous on radio, playing "daft Alfie" alongside Jimmy Clitheroe in the long-running BBC radio series The Clitheroe Kid. He was originally a stage actor. His first professional job was at Oldham Repertory Theatre as a 14-year-old character juvenile. After national service he resumed acting, and his qualities as a comic actor gained recognition playing alongside Arthur Askey and Glenn Melvyn in the hit stage comedy The Love Match : the 1953 summer show at Blackpool Grand. Its subsequent tour brought him his first West End appearance. He later returned to the Grand for five very successful summer seasons with Glenn Melvyn, including a record-breaking run in the comedy Friends and Neighbours in 1959. His association with Arthur Askey led him into movies, with the 1955 film version of The Love Match, in which all of the stage cast appeared in their original roles. He went on to appear with Askey in two further films, Ramsbottom Rides Again in 1956 (a spoof of the film 'Destry Rides Again'), and in the film version of Friends and Neighbours in 1959. But he's best remembered for his 13-year radio partnership with Jimmy Clitheroe, which began in 1960. He was invited to join the established cast of The Clitheroe Kid, which was made in Manchester. As gormless Alfie Hall he played the boyfriend of Jimmy's sister, becoming the butt of endless jokes. For five years he also played a similar role on television, in Jimmy's ITV comedy series Just Jimmy, which began in 1964. Danny Ross was always billed in the theatre as 'the Oldham Comedian'. In appearance and comic style, he owed something to George Formby, an association which he fostered by performing songs associated with Formby, and appearing in the Formby role in a revival of the stage comedy Zip Goes a Million. When he made a pop record he included a Formby number, The Old Bazaar in Cairo, on the B-side. After the final television series ended in 1968, he returned to the theatre, playing in summer shows and pantomime in and around Lancashire. His radio work with Jimmy Clitheroe continued until the latter's death in 1973. Danny Ross was taken ill on New Year's Day 1976, en route to London with his manager to arrange a new show. He died of a heart attack, aged just 45, at Blackpool's Victoria Hospital, six weeks later.’

Danny also had a singing career.  Listen here to him sing - the romantic ballad Letter of Love the tender and romantic Take Me To Your Heart Again the George Formby comedy number The Old Bazaar in Cairo the Gracie Fields comic song  Stop and Shop at the Co-Op Shop

Peter Sinclair, who played Grandad in “The Clitheroe Kid”, passed away in 1994 at the age of 94. Before the Second World War he was already well-known on the Scottish variety circuit, singing comic songs in the style of Harry Lauder and Will Fyffe. In the post-war years he came south to England and began appearing in films. He gradually became known on the wireless as a singer of Scots ballads, and first worked with Jimmy Clitheroe in the BBC Variety show “Call Boy”. He was asked to be in the very first series of “The Clitheroe Kid” in 1957, so had the distinction of joining the show before any of the other regulars. Patricia Burke and Diana Day only joined in the third series, and Danny Ross in the fourth.

	Listen to Peter singing his most famous song
(To listen use Winamp)

Patricia Burke lived for many years in the South of France. She had retired from show business in the 1980s, and was writing a history of her famous family, although this was interrupted by her final illness. Her mother was the actress Marie Burke, who founded Equity, the actors’ trade union, and her father was “the Lancashire Caruso” - international Operatic tenor Tom Burke, who sang with Dame Nellie Melba. As a young woman Patricia Burke made a number of films, breaking into the film business by chance when a popular play in which she was starring was made into a movie. Patricia played Jimmy’s mother in “The Clitheroe Kid”. A summary of her long film and television career appears on the Adventures of Robin Hood website, which was a tv series she appeared in on a regular basis. You can watch one of her seven Robin Hood episodes, playing opposite Richard Greene, on the MovieFlix.com site, for which you'll need Real Player. You can register free here or login here. Then search for Robin Hood. Her mother, the famous Marie Burke, also guested occasionally in Robin Hood.

Tony Melody was seen most recently in a series of television commercials for the fast food chain McDonalds, which were shown on ITV and Channel 4 in 2002. His early career fortuitously crossed with that of Jimmy Clitheroe. He was in Jimmy’s first big radio success, the Variety series “Call Boy”, and his most famous role was as Mr Higginbottom in “The Clitheroe Kid”. He passed away in June 2008 at the age of 85, after a long career playing character parts on television and in films, which you can read about in his entry in the Internet Movie DataBase. He lived in Blackpool, where an appreciation of his career has appeared in the local Blackpool Gazette. You can read that article on-line here.

Leonard Williams played both Theodore Craythorpe and the scouser Harry Whittle in the early days of “The Clitheroe Kid”. Sadly, he passed away in 1964 after the show had been on the air for 7 years. Jim Casey recalls how brilliant Leonard Williams was as a voice artist, with the unique ability to produce two totally different voices for those characters. Much hilarity was generated among the studio audience whenever Leonard had to play both characters in a scene, as he whipped his “Harry Whittle” hat on and off, to show them which character he was doing. Some measure of his remarkable ability is that after his death two seperate actors had to be cast to play those roles. Of everyone connected with the show, it was Leonard Williams who Jim Casey most admired. Leonard was married, but it’s not known whether his wife, Melda, is still alive today. And very little is known about his early career. If anyone can help to fill in the gaps, or to put us in touch with his family, please contact us as we would like to cover his career properly.

Gordon Rollings appeared with Jimmy Clitheroe on stage, radio and television. They first worked together in the 1950s, in the Pantomime “Little Red Riding Hood”. Gordon later made guest appearances on a number of early editions of “The Clitheroe Kid” on the radio, between 1958 and 1961. He also appeared as a regular in Jimmy Clitheroe’s first television series, “That’s My Boy”, in 1963. Gordon then moved into films, where he had a long career. In the 1980s, he famously played “Arkwright” in the John Smith’s Yorkshire bitter commercials on television, alongside the little dog Tonto. He passed away in 1985. Gordon Rollings was married to Anne Scott, who has also passed away. They met in Variety. His long-time agent was the late Jimmy Vicars. Can you help? Very little is known about Gordon’s early career, before he first worked with Jimmy Clitheroe. If you know anything of his stage career, especially before 1958, or know anyone who might, please contact us. We’d also be grateful if you can put us in touch with anyone who knew or worked with Gordon.

Mollie Sugden first worked with Jimmy Clitheroe on stage, at Blackpool’s Grand Theatre, in the 1963 Summer Season: she was cast as his mother, in a successful stage comedy entitled ‘We're Frying Tonight‘. The following summer, they appeared together in the same show in Torquay. Mollie was already an established comedy actress on ITV television, having worked regularly for them since 1959. When Jimmy was offered an ITV television series in 1964, by ABC, based on the successful format of his BBC radio show, Mollie was offered the role of the mother, on the strength of their established relationship as mother and son on stage, thanks to her established relationship with ITV. This, in spite of Mollie (who was born in July 1922) being seven months younger than Jimmy!

Mollie appeared in the regular role of Jimmy’s mother in 52 episodes of his ITV series, ‘Just Jimmy’, broadcast over five years from 1964 to 1968, a show which also featured Danny Ross, Jimmy’s comedy sparring partner in ‘The Clitheroe Kid’ on radio. In consequence, she was cast by BBC producer Jim Casey in occasional parts in ‘The Clitheroe Kid’, as Jimmy’s next door neighbour Florrie Butterworth. In the 1970s, she became famous as Mrs Slocombe in the BBC television comedy ‘Are You Being Served?’.

Frank Roscoe, who was co-writer of “The Clitheroe Kid”, passed away some years ago. He had been Jim Casey’s writing partner on several earlier shows, and they subsequently also worked together on Ken Dodd’s first ever radio series. BBC producer Ronnie Taylor brought them together in the mid-1950s. They shared a common Northern sense of humour, although Diana Day says the cast could always tell which of them had written a particular show. Frank often collaborated with Jimmy Clitheroe on the script, and as a performer appeared in several editions of the show as Grandad's pal Tommy Twigg, including the episode ‘One Jump Behind’, which is regularly aired on BBC Radio 7. You can listen to it on-line here.

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