Irish Comedy Greats

By Liam McCann

Ireland has produced some of the world's most popular comedians. This ebook explores the lives and professions of its finest exports, such as Jimmy O'Dea, Cork's favourite son Niall Tóibín, Dublin-born Maureen Potter, Hal Roach who spent 26 of his 60 years in showbusiness performing at Jury's Irish Cabaret and Frank Kelly, a comedian who graduated from a bit part in the original Italian Job to the outrageous Father Jack Hackett in Father Ted, a series that also introduced Dermot Morgan as the title character.

• Language: English
• Publisher: G2 Rights
• Release date: Jun 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781782819165

Book preview

HUGH FRANCIS ‘FRANK’ CARSON KSG

Born: November 6, 1926, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Died: February 22, 2012, Blackpool, England

Known for: Opportunity Knocks, Tiswas, The Comedians

Catchphrase(s): It’s a cracker!, It’s the way I tell ’em!

Frank Carson was born in Belfast in 1926 to a family of Irish and Sicilian descent. He was raised in the Little Italy area of the city and went to St Patrick’s School. He joined the local Roman Catholic church choir but eventually went into the building trade, first as an electrician and then as a plasterer.

Carson joined the elite Parachute Regiment at the end of the Second World War. He made more than 40 jumps and spent most of the next three years helping to police the Middle East. He shot and killed an armed terrorist and was himself shot in the leg in a separate incident. Seven of his colleagues were killed when a car bomb exploded outside a cinema, but Carson miraculously survived.

In July 1946 militant Zionists bombed the British administrative headquarters for Palestine, which was housed in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. The hotel’s southern wing was destroyed, killing 91 people and injuring another 46. Carson was called in to secure the scene and helped recover bodies in the aftermath.

Having returned to Ireland, Carson found his vocation as a comic performer of considerable talent and timing, and he made several appearances on television. In 1951 he moved to England to perfect his stand-up routine and he soon joined the BBC’s long-running light-entertainment show, The Good Old Days, which ran from 1953 until 1983. The programme transported viewers back to the Victorian music hall era but with contemporary artistes delivering the sketches, skits and songs. With Leonard Sachs as the compere, cast members included Morecambe and Wise, Reg Varney, Eartha Kitt, Rod Hull, Bruce Forsythe, Roy Castle, Larry Grayson, Edward Woodward, Jimmy Cricket, Bernard Cribbins, Les Dawson and, of course, Carson.

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Carson was such a popular edition to the cast that he was asked to appear on Opportunity Knocks. This national talent show was the forerunner of, and inspiration for, Britain’s Got Talent. Carson won the telephone vote for three series and was catapulted into mainstream comedy. He then joined The Comedians, a half-hour quick-fire show that challenged the cast to deliver non-stop stand-up comedy. Working alongside Russ Abbot, Lennie Bennett, Stan Boardman, Jim Bowen, Bernard Manning, Tom O’Connor, Mike Reid and Roy Walker helped Carson hone his skills. As most of the comedians made their names in the working men’s clubs, particularly in the northeast of England, the humour was frequently racist and sexist but this was acceptable in a less politically correct era. Carson was an exception in that his humour revolved around anecdotes where he was often the butt of the joke.

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Carson was an exception in that his humour revolved around anecdotes where he was often the butt of the joke.

The show’s success led to Carson making frequent appearances on Granada Television’s The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club, which was set in a fictional working men’s club. It gave more up-and-coming performers like Paul Daniels and Cannon & Ball a stage and helped them achieve fame and fortune.

Carson was so popular in the mid-1970s that he was asked to join the cast for the Royal Variety Performance and he remained a TV stalwart. Spike Milligan and Neil Shand wrote the part of Paddy O’Brien, an Irish Republican landlord and coalman, especially for him but the BBC cancelled the series of The Melting Pot after one episode because of political tension between England and Ireland. The show, which featured Milligan as an illegal Asian immigrant, was also accused of being racially insensitive at a time when immigration to the UK from Asia and the Caribbean was a political hot potato.

Carson underwent heart surgery in 1976 but decided not to retire and was soon appearing on the children’s show Tiswas (Today is Saturday, Watch and Smile). The show began life as a filler between programmes but the presenters soon became so popular that they were given their own series by ATV. ITV then took it on and boosted the careers of Chris Tarrant, Sally James, Lenny Henry, Jim Davidson and Bob Carolgees, the latter after a recommendation by Carson. Carolgees and his sidekick Spit the Dog were so popular that they became a regular feature on the show.

Carson was a keen football fan and often watched Blackpool at Bloomfield Road. He also became director of Chasetown FC in Staffordshire and was then appointed vice-president of Newport County in South Wales. Despite several minor health scares, Carson continued to perform stand-up, cabaret and pantomime, and he was awarded a papal knighthood by John Paul II in recognition of his tireless charity work in 1987. He also found time to make two feature films, open Mary Black’s shows in Dubai in 1998, and embark on a national tour. He was also a golfer of considerable skill, although he was better known for his tomfoolery in the 19th hole after a round at St Anne’s.

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Carson was asked to appear on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! in 2004 but by then he was in poor health and producers couldn’t insure him. In 2009 he underwent a knee replacement but he also had cracked a rib that caused a hernia. Despite undergoing a second operation, he was back on stage at the end of the summer for a midweek season of The Comedians in Blackpool. He also continued raising money for charity, but he suffered another health setback when he had to have a stomach tumour removed.

This incomparable comedian died from cancer in Blackpool in 2012 at the age of 85. His funeral was at St Patrick’s Church in Belfast where he’d married wife Ruth 60 years earlier. The funeral was attended by stars of stage, stand-up and screen, as well as sporting heroes and politicians.

Frank’s greatest jokes:

My father fought in World War I and single-handedly destroyed the German lines of communication when he ate their pigeon.

Paddy calls a wrong number at 3am. Is that O’Malley’s Bar? he asks.

No, this is a private residence.

I must have the wrong number, says Paddy. Sorry to have troubled you.

No trouble, says the stranger. I had to get up to answer the phone anyway.

A fella walks into a pet shop and says: Give me a wasp.

The shopkeeper replies: We don’t sell wasps.

The fella says: Well there’s one in the window.

"Someone threw a petrol bomb at Alex Higgins