THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

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FORGOTTEN HEROES OF COMEDY!

Comedy is of course a matter of personal taste and what we find funny sometimes defies explanation -step forward and explain yourselves fans of Mrs Brown’s Boys and Michael McIntyre. All of this is relative, as the boy said when introducing his 28 stone uncle, but brilliantly put in context in Robert Ross’s exceptional new book, Forgotten Heroes of Comedy.

Robert is a regular Dark Side contributor and one of the world’s leading authorities on British comedy. In this doorstopper of a book, which is worth every penny of its £35 cover price, he brings us a long overdue and affectionate salute to some of the finest, funniest and most fascinating names in comedy from both sides of the Atlantic.

A lot of the names you might have heard of, many you won’t. For example, anyone who grew up in the 60s will remember listening to The Clitheroe Kid on the Light Programme, which Robert says was just as important an ingredient of Sunday lunchtime as the lamb chops and mint sauce he was busy scoffing. You were lucky, mate, we could only afford pork, and always fought over who got the most crackling.

Also well known in their time but still somewhat forgotten these days are the likes of Norman Vaughan, who took over from Bruce Forsyth as compère of Sunday Night at the London Palladium and made it his own with his “Swinging!” or “Dodgy” thumbs up or down catchphrase. Oh and we mustn’t forget his “Roses grow on you” ad campaign. What? You’ve never even heard of it? Another good reason to buy this book.

Sitting alongside more familiar names you will find the forgotten Stooge Shemp Howard, Hollywood golden girl Thelma Todd, Italian film-maker Mario Zampi and the female Tony Hancock, Avril Angers, who was never off the telly back in the day. Marti Caine is in there too, the beautiful and talented redhead who won New Faces and whose light burned very brightly indeed until snuffed out by cancer when she was just 50 years of age. Robert honours so many legends of humour here, who, for a variety of reasons, didn’t quite reach the heady heights of stardom -or, once they did, they couldn’t cope with the pressures. Whether it is a favourite from the distant smoke-and-ale-stained world of the Music Hall like the great George Robey, or the downbeat poetry of Hovis Presley, a 90s comedian and poet who was noted for his down-to-earth humour, Forgotten Heroes of Comedy will hopefully finally elevate them to the Hall of Fame where they belong.