Ted Ray (1905-1977)

Robert Ross looks back on the career of great radio comedian and sometime Carry On star Ted Ray...

Ted at the BBC

Jean Kent and Ted in Please Turn Over (1959)

The people of Liverpool have long boasted a keen sense of humour and value their professional comedians in the same hallowed terms as their professional footballers. There is an earthy, naturalistic style to the great Merseyside stand-ups, and one of the best-loved local heroes was and remains slick, straight-down-the-middle joke-teller, Ted Ray.

However, Ted wasn’t a born and bred scouser, but hailed from Wigan, Lancashire, the son of celebrated music-hall performer Charles Alden. Alden had been born Charles Olden, and that too was the name bestowed upon his young son. The Liverpool roots followed very soon after, with the family upping sticks to the city within days of young Charlie’s arrival.

Before American rock ’n’ roll ignited the docks, it was indeed comedy or football that saw Liverpool’s youth search for fame and fortune, and it was while studying at the Liverpool Collegiate School that the boy’s interest turned to football. A keen sportsman all his life, it was, however, a casual ease with a seemingly ad-libbed throwaway comic remark that won him friends and influenced people, and his passion for the sports field soon gave way to a desire to go on the stage.