Charlie Williams = dead

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=3591&&&edition=1&ttl=20060903182823

I don't recognise his picture on the bbc site either.

Mike Kelley, Derbyshire"

He was a victim of the mood of the seventies, i.e. to be a working clubs comedian and black, you had to do 'anti' black jokes. Naturally it would have been uncomfortable to do the stuff Manning was doing, but he wasn't in the arena where he could take-on the mindset of the time.

I remember seeing a young black comedian (name escapes me for a moment) doing the same sort of stuff, but when Lenny Henry and the other 'alternative' comedians changed things, he was able to at least be himself without apologising all the time, by the time he became reasonably famous. (.. nope. Along the same lines as Brian Conley, etc..)

As the Times obit put it, it is likely to be some years before such issues can be "soberly assessed."

Strange how the likes of Charlie Williams and Joss White could prosper in parallel to Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby the other side of the pond at exactly the same time.

CW's stock response to hecklers: "Shut it, or I'll move in next door to you."

Gary W1lm0t?

I saw last night some "X rated" rundown of TV moments, and during the 'racism of the seventies' bit they showed "Curry and Chips" the terribly wrong Milligan sitcom that made "Love thy neighbour" an exercise in Race relations (which it was for a bit until they ran out of ideas and just returned to 'comedy' 'sambo' lines ad infinitum)

.. without mentioning that the outcry against it got it removed after episode 2? or thereabouts.

He also had to do "chinky" and "paki" jokes as well. I suppose it's not my right to take exception to him belittling his own race but I certainly feel right in thinking that perhaps if he had to spout bigoted garbage about others to succeed then maybe he shouldn't have bothered.

CW's stock response to hecklers: "Shut it, or I'll move in next door to you."

There's a certain hardassedness about that that's (slighty) admirable, I must admit.

He wasn't funny, but he was OK on the Golden Shot. Better than Norman Vaughan anyway. RIP Charlie.

Which were never shown in the Yorkshire TV Region.

http://www.empiremonkey.com/photos/pob_red_close150.jpg