JIMMY CLITHEROE
He's all but forgotten now, but little Jimmy Clitheroe was once a massively successful comic. At his height (no pun intended), his marathon BBC radio show, spanning 16 series from 1958 to 1972, attracted as many as ten million listeners. But transferring The Clitheroe Kid to television was never as successful. In the modern vernacular, Clitheroe was vertically challenged - using the non PC word, he was a midget - standing 4ft 3in tall in his socks. He also had a high flutey voice, and these elements, combined with short trousers, enabled him to play the perpetual schoolboy, a role he carried through until his death in 1973, aged 51. The TV series Just Jimmy was based on the same domestic situation as the radio version, with Clitheroe cast as the naughty laddie from Lancashire, Mollie Sugden appearing as his mother (although Patricia Burke was the radio mother, Sugden used to play the role in live stage shows) and Danny Ross as his girl-mad, motor bike-mad cousin.
Clitheroe also appeared in a 1963 sitcom for ABC not screened by London area ITV. This was That's my Boy, again playing a mischievous school boy who was usually in trouble in his family and looking out for more. Earlier, Clitheroe had appeared in Call Boy, a BBC music-hall variety series which ran monthly from January to May 1957. Clitheroe was the young man of the title, a stage hand assisting stage manager Eddie Leslie, introducing the guest artists and getting them on to the stage in time.
Clitheroe also appeared on Comedy Bandbox, a Saturday evening show featuring up and coming comedy acts.
Date of Birth 1922 - Clitheroe, Lancashire, England UK
Date of Death 1973
THE CLITHEROE KID
The Clitheroe Kid was James Robertson Clitheroe, Jimmy Clitheroe to most, who by some strange coincidence did come from the town of that name without having to change his family name! He played the naughty school boy from 1958 to 1972. Although plausable from a distance, he was not really able to pass himself off as a youngster close up, so a TV career did not really take off too well, but at the peak of his fame the radio show was raking in about 10 million listeners, although by the end this had dropped to a tenth of that figure.
Clitheroe was a very private person, and the shows became a sort of escape for him, as well as the release from the worries of his diminutive size, but despite this, his popularity increased and increased, making this series one of the longer running on the radio a total of 17 series. It is surprising then that with such success, and with such a long run that the shows are rarely broadcast. The humour was very obvious and probably has not stood the test of time.
Jimmy had a 45 rpm Record out in 1965
Side A - They all blame Jim / Side B - Jim plays Hookie
Film and TV list.
1942 - Much too Shy
1943 - Rhythm Serenade
1949 - Somewhere in Paradise
1949 - School for Randle
1956 - Stars in Your Eyes
1964 - Just Jimmy (TV Series)
1967 - Rocket to the Moon