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Ladies and gentlemen, c'mere... (That just happens to be "Northern Irish" for Come Here, by the way)...
As I try to put a (Northern) Ireland accent on while I am writing this, I am very sorry to say that one of Northern Ireland's finest comedians and entertainers after Dennis Taylor, Eamonn Holmes and Gloria Hunniford, Jimmy Cricket has died at the age of 80. Cricket, whose act proved that one can be both funny and clean at the first time, was a huge favourite to many viewers on the television as well on the stage and holiday camps alike. Part of his act was to telephone his Mammy from a public phone box (remember them?) and send a verbal postcard to her. Cricket, born James Mulgrew, presumably took his stage name as a similarity of the name Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio.
I think that Jimmy Cricket and his act was more relatable to an average comedy act from the 1950s or 1960s in a Max Wall, Billy Dainty or Tommy Trinder sort-of way, although Cricket certainly translated his act into a 1970s or 1980s audience. I certainly appreciated him when he was on television just like millions of other viewers would have. He always said that he had an Irish logic when it comes to being clean and funny at the same time, and it's a pity that alternative comedians and those around today are not influenced enough by this.
And there's more...
Jimmy Cricket was also well-known for his black bowler hat; a white (or was it a red?) carnation in his lapel buttonhole; wellington boots, transposed with the L for left and R for right on the wrong side; even I had a pair of jelly shoes back in the 1980s with which I did that to them, probably parodying the great man! He did a few shows for Central TV in the mid-1980s which were named after his catchphrases. A few have been added onto YouTube in recent years, and one can easily say that Mary Whitehouse would have even found them funny as there were no dirty humour to be found in them whatsoever. I managed to get an autographed picture of the man himself; I think that he was appearing in Kent or somewhere like that in the early 2000s.
The very last This is Your Life which was transmitted the evening before Eamonn Andrews' death on the morning of Guy Fawkes Night in November 1987 just happened to be about Jimmy Cricket; quite fitting as both Andrews and Cricket were both fellow Irishmen! My late father said that Andrews looked a little bit peaky in that evening's edition at the time, and no doubt that Cricket looked a lot more perky! I watched one of the episodes of And There's More... on YouTube, and I just happened to notice in one of the comedy sketches that the walls had the same wallpaper as the Rovers Return pub did in Coronation Street between 1986 and 2008! I am sure that Jimmy Cricket would have found that amusing!
Thank you for the laughs and the clean fun - and there's more tributes and memories. I just wish that there was more fun and laughter from the man himself.
As I try to put a (Northern) Ireland accent on while I am writing this, I am very sorry to say that one of Northern Ireland's finest comedians and entertainers after Dennis Taylor, Eamonn Holmes and Gloria Hunniford, Jimmy Cricket has died at the age of 80. Cricket, whose act proved that one can be both funny and clean at the first time, was a huge favourite to many viewers on the television as well on the stage and holiday camps alike. Part of his act was to telephone his Mammy from a public phone box (remember them?) and send a verbal postcard to her. Cricket, born James Mulgrew, presumably took his stage name as a similarity of the name Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio.
I think that Jimmy Cricket and his act was more relatable to an average comedy act from the 1950s or 1960s in a Max Wall, Billy Dainty or Tommy Trinder sort-of way, although Cricket certainly translated his act into a 1970s or 1980s audience. I certainly appreciated him when he was on television just like millions of other viewers would have. He always said that he had an Irish logic when it comes to being clean and funny at the same time, and it's a pity that alternative comedians and those around today are not influenced enough by this.
And there's more...
Jimmy Cricket was also well-known for his black bowler hat; a white (or was it a red?) carnation in his lapel buttonhole; wellington boots, transposed with the L for left and R for right on the wrong side; even I had a pair of jelly shoes back in the 1980s with which I did that to them, probably parodying the great man! He did a few shows for Central TV in the mid-1980s which were named after his catchphrases. A few have been added onto YouTube in recent years, and one can easily say that Mary Whitehouse would have even found them funny as there were no dirty humour to be found in them whatsoever. I managed to get an autographed picture of the man himself; I think that he was appearing in Kent or somewhere like that in the early 2000s.
The very last This is Your Life which was transmitted the evening before Eamonn Andrews' death on the morning of Guy Fawkes Night in November 1987 just happened to be about Jimmy Cricket; quite fitting as both Andrews and Cricket were both fellow Irishmen! My late father said that Andrews looked a little bit peaky in that evening's edition at the time, and no doubt that Cricket looked a lot more perky! I watched one of the episodes of And There's More... on YouTube, and I just happened to notice in one of the comedy sketches that the walls had the same wallpaper as the Rovers Return pub did in Coronation Street between 1986 and 2008! I am sure that Jimmy Cricket would have found that amusing!
Thank you for the laughs and the clean fun - and there's more tributes and memories. I just wish that there was more fun and laughter from the man himself.