Arthur Askey

Askey was born at 29 Moses Street, Dingle, Liverpool, the eldest child and only son of Betsy (née Bowden), originally from Knutsford, Cheshire, and Samuel Askey, company secretary of Sugar Products of Liverpool. Six months after his birth, the family moved to 90 Rosslyn Street, Liverpool. It was here that a sister, Irene Dorothy, was born. Askey was educated at St. Michael's Council School (1905–11) and the Liverpool Institute for Boys (1911–16).Arthur Askey, Before Your Very Eyes (London: The Woburn Press, 1975), p. 22. {{ISBN|9780713001341}}

Askey served in the Royal Welch Fusiliers in the First World War and performed in army entertainments. This would prove an excellent training ground for his career in show business, his first professional appearance coming on stage at the Headgate Theatre in Colchester on the 31 March 1924. After working as a clerk for Liverpool Corporation's Education Department, he was in a touring concert party, the music halls and was in the stage company of Powis Pinder on the Isle of Wight in the early 1930s before he rose to stardom in 1938 through his role in the first regular radio comedy series, Band Waggon on the BBC.{{Cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/duettists/3584197111/|title=Sunshine Concert Party, Shanklin|date=1 June 2009|access-date=24 July 2020|website=Flickr.com}} Band Waggon began as a variety show, but had been unsuccessful until Askey and his partner, Richard Murdoch, took on a larger role in the writing.{{cite web|url=http://www.britishcomedy.org.uk/comedy/bandwagon.htm |title=Bandwaggon |website=Britishcomedy.org.uk |access-date=2020-05-16}}

File:Carole Lynne en The Ghost Train 2 (1941).png (left) and Carole Lynne (centre) in The Ghost Train (1941)]]

During the Second World War Askey starred in several Gainsborough Pictures comedy films, including Band Waggon (1940), based on the radio show; Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt (1940); The Ghost Train (1941); I Thank You (1941); Back-Room Boy (1942);Murphy, 2005, p. 271 King Arthur Was a Gentleman (1942); Miss London Ltd. (1943); Bees in Paradise (1944); The Love Match (1955) and Make Mine a Million (1959).{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-moguls-ted-black/|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=1 December 2024|access-date=1 December 2024|title=Forgotten British Film Moguls: Ted Black}}

His last film was Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse (1978), starring Debbie Ash.{{Cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0039450/|title=Arthur Askey|website=IMDb|access-date=2020-05-16}}

In the early 1930s, Askey appeared on an early form of BBC television—the spinning disc invented by John Logie Baird that scanned vertically and had only thirty lines. Askey had to be heavily made up for his face to be recognisable at such low resolution. When television became electronic, with 405 horizontal lines, Askey was a regular performer in variety shows. When television returned after the second World War, his first TV series was Before Your Very Eyes! (1952), named after his catchphrase. On 3 May 1956, Askey presented Meet The People, a launch night programme for Granada Television. In 1957 writers Sid Colin and Talbot Rothwell revived the Band Waggon format for Living It Up, a series that reunited Askey and Murdoch after 18 years. He continued to appear frequently on television in the 1970s, such as being a panellist on the ITV talent show New Faces, where his usually sympathetic comments would offset the harsher judgments of fellow judges Tony Hatch and Mickie Most. He also appeared on the comedy panel game Jokers Wild.

File:Arthur Askey and Barry Cryer.jpg performing in The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog]]

He made many TV appearances in variety, including BBC TV's long-running show The Good Old Days. His final professional engagement was The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog, recorded in 1982 and broadcast by Channel 4 in 1983.[https://www.bright-thoughts.co.uk/monologues-02.html] The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog production website

In the late 1940s, Askey participated in a BBC radio show called How Do You Do in which listeners could write into the BBC asking for him to come and broadcast a show from their homes, twelve shows were broadcast with Arthur, his daughter Anthea and special guests, as well as a surprise guest each week which was revealed some time throughout the programme. The theme of each show was worked around the occupation of the family from where it was broadcast. This was broadcast on the Light Programme. Only one of the shows was recorded onto acetate discs, which are now held at The British Library. During the 1950s and 1960s, he appeared in many sitcoms, including Love and Kisses, Arthur's Treasured Volumes and The Arthur Askey Show. He was the subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions, in December 1959 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews, and in December 1974, when Andrews, dressed as Humpty Dumpty, surprised him on a television show while discussing the art of pantomime. Askey made four appearances on the BBC Radio series Desert Island Discs in 1942, 1955, 1968 and 1980. He shares the record for most appearances on the programme with David Attenborough.{{cite web |last1=Moss |first1=Stephen |title=Desert Island Discs: 75 defining moments from 75 years of castaways |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jan/06/desert-island-discs-75-defining-moments-from-75-years-castaways |website=The Guardian |date=6 January 2017 |access-date=24 September 2021}}

Askey appeared in the West End musical Follow the Girls.{{cite book|author=Adrian Wright|title=West End Broadway: The Golden Age of the American Musical in London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-TvZ0O5NHQC&pg=PA23|year=2012|publisher=Boydell Press|isbn=978-1-84383-791-6|page=23}} He also made many stage appearances as a pantomime dame.

Askey's recording career included "The Bee Song", which was an integral part of his stage and television act for many years, "The Thing-Ummy Bob",{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b6m-fTEGuW8C |title=The Foreign Office and Finland, 1938–1940 |author=Craig Gerrard|website=Books.google.com|date=15 September 2004 |isbn=9780203322765 }} "I'd Like a Banana", and his theme tune, "Big-Hearted Arthur" (which was also his nickname). In 1941 a song he intended to record, "It's Really Nice to See You Mr Hess"The song is alternatively known as "Thanks for Dropping in Mr Hess" (after Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess fled to Scotland), was banned by the War Office. A collection of Askey's wartime recordings appear on the CD album Band Waggon/Big Hearted Arthur Goes To War.

Private Eye magazine in the 1970s regularly made the comment that he and the Queen Mother had "never been seen in the same room together", referring to the fact that they were about the same age and height and suggesting that the Queen Mother was Askey in drag.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

Askey was appointed OBE in 1969 and advanced to CBE in 1981.

Askey was married to Elizabeth May Swash in 1925 until her death in 1974; he was the father of actress Anthea Askey (1933–1999).{{cite news|author1=Denis Gifford|author-link=Denis Gifford|title=Obituary: Anthea Askey|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-anthea-askey-1078399.html|newspaper=The Independent|access-date=7 September 2015|date=5 March 1999}}

Askey carried on working on his comedy career until just before he was hospitalised in July 1982, owing to poor circulation, which resulted in gangrene and the amputation of both legs.[https://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/17/obituaries/arthur-askey-comic-of-british-stage-and-tv.html Arthur Askey Obituary], The New York Times. Retrieved 20 April 2014 He died in London's St Thomas's Hospital on 16 November 1982 and was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium.

Arthur Askey is among other famous names in the Dirk Wears White Sox version of "Friends" by Adam and the Ants. youtube.com/watch?v=6k6-EeFiN2g&t=113s

• Radio comedy
• Cinema of the United Kingdom
• List of British actors

{{Reflist|group=Note}}

{{Reflist}}

• Arthur Askey (autobiography). Before Your Very Eyes (London: Woburn Press, 1975) {{ISBN|0-7130-0134-8}}
• Kurt Ganzl. The Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre (New York: Shirmer Books, 2001) pp. 75 {{ISBN|0-02-864970-2}}
• Murphy, Robert. (2005). British Cinema and the Second World War. A&C Black
• Slide, Anthony. I Thank You: The Arthur Askey Story. (Orlando, Florida: BearManor Media, 2020).

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160311150840/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b9f3c1954 Arthur Askey] BFI
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100527234058/http://www.britishpictures.com/stars/Askey.htm Star Archive: Arthur Askey (1900–1982)]
• {{IMDb name|id=0039450|name=Arthur Askey}}
• {{British Comedy Guide|people|arthur_askey}}
• [http://www.ltmrecordings.com/bandwaggon.html Askey and Band Waggon audiobook CD at CD41]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Askey, Arthur}}

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Category:Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire