The Comedians poll

Frank Carson!

Les Dawson should be on this list though, and should win.

Charlie Daze? Is that drug slang?

Actor:
"Bergerac" .... Electrician (1 episode, 1987)
- Winner Takes All (1987) TV episode .... Electrician

Self:
1980s
1970s
"Des O'Connor Tonight" .... Himself (1 episode, 1982)
- Episode #6.1 (1982) TV episode .... Himself

"The Comedians" (1971) TV series .... Himself (unknown episodes)

Logically I should say Carson but I've voted for Vince Earl purely on the basis of his going on to become Ron Dixon in Brookie - altogether now:

"HONEST MICH I'M NORA NASSY!"

Where is Shep's Banjo Boys band?

I thought I knew the name, but didn't make the connection. Never knew he was ever a stand-up.

xpost

I have never heard of any of the people on this poll... All they stand-up comedians?

Bernard Manning is a national hero in our country, man

Tuomas, from an old tv pogramme called 'the comedians', i think.

what sort of comedy is charlie chuck, frank sidebottom, and john shuttleworth?

He was the first guy to really call Tom O'Connor out over his role in the Birmingham pub bombings

That's good Scouse bombing that, you don't get terrorism like that anywhere else in the country.

I've never heard of at least 2/3 of the people on this list, and I'm an old fart.

Of the ones I've heard of, none of them. Whoever mentioned Les Dawson was OTM.

Francis had many catchphrases, all following the pattern of expressing excitement or anger in an ironic fashion:

"Ooh, I could crush a grape"
"Ooh, I could say boo to a goose"
"Ooh, I could jump off a doll's house"
"Ooh, I could wrestle an Action Man"
"Ooh, I could test drive a Tonka"
"Ooh, I could rip a tissue"
"Ooh, I could prise open a mince pie"
"Ooh, I could pop a balloon"
"Ooh, I could wrestle with a Barbie Doll"
"Ooh, I could bend a pipe cleaner"
"Ooh, I could fight a small child"
"Ooh, I could wrestle a mongoose"

I didn't realise this list was taken from the TV show The Comedians, which is why Les Dawson isn't on it. If he was he'd surely win.

Quick, Dom, do a poll for all the comedians left off the two polls so far. I'd like to see who would win between Les Dawson and Bob Monkhouse.

Man, don't make me choose.

Monkhouse > Dawson. Just. Monkhouse does lose points for encouraging Jimmy Carr to go full time as a stand-up, though.

Heart says Les, head says Bob.

Both pretty fun to impersonate.

Monkhouse also slang term for sexual act, Dawson isn't.

Bob Says: I'm not very good at impersonating Yul Brynner.

Frank Carson's tribute to Bernard Manning Play spot The Comedians!

Bobby Knutt was a Dingle in Emmerdale.

Seeing Charlie Williams there reminds me; wasn't there another black Northern comic in the line-up called Josh White?

See there was.

Yes see there was.

Ken Goodwin. Just for being, um, the only one to actually laugh at his own jokes!

Settle down Mark.

You mean his one joke, which I can't even remember apart from the punchline of "she says, we were just waiting for a train."

You people have got phenomenal memories.

Me neither.

Hey translate those last two posts and give it to Serge!

Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club poll next.

Howard Keel vs. Paul Daniels shootout imminent.

No Norman Collier? Surely he was on that show.

Don't recall him ever being on The Comedians, since he wasn't so much a stand-up comic as a music hall turn with two acts - the microphone and the chicken.

What was Russ Abbott's stand-up like? As fantastic as his sketch comedy?

Russ is absolutely filthy as a stand-up; his DVD is actually an R-18.

Before going solo Russ Abbot was also the drummer in a Barron Knights-style alleged comedy group called the Black Abbots who I believe won Opportunity Knocks and were certainly summer season regulars at the end of Blackpool North Pier.

His cover of Atrocity Exhibition is still a big favourite with the Chester Townswomens' Guild.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/russabbotshow/

"I feel it closin' in, Jimmie!"

He featured regularly in TV To Go in the long-running sketch No Country for Old Men

??????!!!!!!!??????????

He was pretty good in Barton Fink too iirc

"See you Jimmy, aye ah'll show ye the life a' the mind right enough, aye!"

I loved Russ Abbott when I was about eight.

Wasn't Larry Grayson on "The Comedians"? Ken Goodwin stands out... in a sort WMC Emo Phillips sorta way. I supsect Colin Crompton was quite funny. As was Mick Miller.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

No, Larry Grayson was on ATV's Saturday Variety, the Ant and Dec Takeaway of its day.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Shock two-headed victory for FRANKIE'S GOT HIS BANNED and IT'S THE WAY I TELL 'EM!

Vince Earl? Who hell he?

http://www.jla.co.uk/images/Artists/EarlVince1P.jpg

Tom, how could you possibly forget Casa Bevron? Not to mention his immobile son Artoni A? Or his hilarious goings out in his "Moby"?

Vince Earl - The Man For Any Occasion

"A very entertaining man" Duke of Westminster

"Your performance was universally acclaimed as one of the best ever, doubly pleasant since it avoided smut and profanities" S.Rowden, Chariman Nth Region, Energy Industries Council

Sounds made up, sadly.

fine #1 choice, some shameful omissions (Cook) and rankings tho

https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2019/05/26/43151/stan_laurel_crowned_britains_greatest_comedian

"the comedians" was a tv show in the uk in the 70s which was for nightclub and working men's club comedians. this is a semi-ironic poll as most of these are shit and many of them at least somewhat offensive in some way.

charlie williams is a bit of a tragic figure. first black comedian to come to prominence in the uk, much of his act was based on stereotyping visible minorities, especially the one he belonged to. he performed for a show for a white audience in rhodesia at the time they had made UDI to preserve white rule (there's footage of this on youtube somewhere)