It was as integral a part of post-war Sundays in Britain as roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and the Sunday Express.
For 15 years, from 1957 to 1972, up to a quarter of the households in the country tuned in on Sunday lunchtime to listen to the latest escapades of The Clitheroe Kid, a popular radio sitcom starring Jimmy Clitheroe.
The 4ft 3in Lancastrian comedian, who stopped growing at the age of 11 due to a medical condition, charmed the nation with his lovable schoolboy character.
But the pint-sized jester who brought joy and laughter to millions, and who paved the way for other performers such as The Krankies, died a sad and lonely death from an overdose of sleeping pills on the day of his beloved mother’s funeral.
It came after a succession of devastating personal blows which would have been hard for anyone to take.
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The Clitheroe Kid’s story began appropriately enough in the Lancashire town of Clitheroe. Clitheroe was Jimmy’s family name but also his place of birth.
His parents were weavers in a cotton mill, but Jimmy, born on Christmas Eve 1921, was too short to reach the looms.
He worked for a while in a bakery, but the lure of variety proved too great.
“The stage was just meant for him,” his cousin Irene recalled.
While the talented musician could play a number of instruments, he decided to specialise in comedy. In 1936 he made his debut on the Blackpool stage and appeared there every year until 1971, setting a record for consecutive summer appearances.
In 1938 he starred in his first pantomime and was still delighting panto audiences, usually as Tom Thumb or Buttons, into the early 1970s. He worked with all the stars in Northern entertainment, including Frank Randle, Arthur Lucan, aka “Old Mother Riley”, and ukelele-playing George Formby, with whom he appeared in the 1942 film Much Too Shy.
But it was when he moved into radio in the mid-50s that he became established as a household name in his own right.
Originally broadcast on the North Region of the BBC Home Service, The Clitheroe Kid switched to the national Light Programme in 1959.
Soon millions across the country were tuning in to see what mischief Jimmy would get up to each week.
Set in an unnamed town in the North of England, Jimmy lived with his Scottish grandad, his mother, his sister “Scraggy Neck” Susan, with his regular comic accomplice being Susan’s rather gormless, stuttering boyfriend Alfie, played by Danny Ross.
In total, 290 episodes of The Clitheroe Kid were made, making it the longest-running BBC sitcom in history. At its peak, it attracted more than 10 million listeners.
Among devotees was a young Jimmy Cricket: “I was a massive fan growing up in Belfast in the Fifties. I remember later James Casey, the producer and co-writer, telling me Jimmy Clitheroe was perfect for the radio because he sounded so like a cheeky schoolboy, but at the same time had the timing of a seasoned performer.”
Cricket twice saw Clitheroe perform and each time was enthralled: “I saw him at the Britannia Theatre in Great Yarmouth in 1968 and the Queen’s Theatre, Blackpool in 1969. He was hilarious.
“This pompous magician came on stage asking for a volunteer from the audience, and little Jimmy would come up from the audience in his schoolboy attire and proceed to wreak havoc with this guy’s props.”
Jimmy was well-liked by those he worked with. “He was just marvellous,” says Diana Jager, who as Diana Day played Jimmy’s sister Susan.
“After we’d done the recordings we’d all go to the pub together. We were like a family. In fact, Jimmy became a godfather to my daughter Melanie.”
The accordion star Lawrie Adam adds: “Once when we were in Scarborough, he said, ‘Do you want to go fishing tomorrow?’ So we went to the fishing shop to buy some tackle and everyone stopped him to get his autograph. He signed every single one. He was great with the public.”
Yet despite earning £60,000 a year in his heyday Jimmy stayed close to his roots.
Even at the height of his fame, he lived with his mother Emma in a bungalow in Blackpool.
“He was a great character,” says Alex Connor, who still works at The Squirrel, Jimmy’s local.
“He used to come in and play snooker with us. He’d ask the landlord to fetch him a beer crate to stand on. He’d always say to us ‘What’s everyone drinking?’ and offer to buy us all a pint.”
Jimmy invested his money in property, owned racehorses and greyhounds and even had his own betting shop.
He drove a blue Mercedes which had special blocks fitted so he could reach the pedals. But he got so fed up with being stopped by police who thought they’d seen an underage driver he advertised for a driver and general assistant.
But in 1972 the BBC dropped The Clitheroe Kid, just 10 episodes from its 300 milestone. That was a big enough blow, but soon afterwards, after a row, Jimmy’s girlfriend Sally was killed in a car crash.
With his own health declining and concerns too over his mother, who was now in her mid-80s, Jimmy’s world would appear to be collapsing around him.
What was to be his final UK tour took place in early 1973 with Lawrie Adam.
Lawrie recalls: “In Annan, in Scotland, there were lots of people waiting at the dressing room to get Jimmy’s autograph. They pressed on the door and it fell down!
“Jimmy was underneath, but he just laughed it off and signed the autographs.”
But a few weeks later his mood had changed. “When we got to Plymouth he was so depressed,” says Lawrie. “He didn’t really want to mix with anyone.”
Jimmy was found collapsed in his hotel room and taken to hospital. Adam was anxious should Jimmy’s mother find out, but the news got out. Just two months later, on June 1, 1973, Emma Clitheroe died, leaving Jimmy heartbroken.
The next Wednesday, the day of the funeral, relatives who had travelled up from London found Jimmy unconscious in his bedroom. He was taken to hospital but died an hour after his mother was cremated.
A post-mortem exam found he had died from the effect of sleeping pills mixed with several glasses of brandy.
It was a sad end for a man who had brought so much joy to so many.
- Neil Clark is writing a biography of Jimmy Clitheroe
