Old Mother Riley

{{Short description|Fictional character}}

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Image:lucan-mcshane.jpg and Kitty McShane as Old Mother Riley and her daughter Kitty]]

Old Mother Riley is a fictional character portrayed from about 1934 to 1954 by Arthur Lucan and from 1954 to the 1980s by Roy Rolland as part of a British music hall act.{{cite news|last=Gifford|first=Denis|title=Obituary Roy Rolland|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-roy-rolland-1247384.html|access-date=12 June 2011|work=The Independent|date=26 August 1997}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.jimmyclitheroe.co.uk/lucan.htm |title=Old Mother Riley homepage |access-date=2014-10-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220091526/http://www.jimmyclitheroe.co.uk/lucan.htm |archive-date=2012-02-20 |url-status=dead }}

Old Mother Riley (full comedy name: Daphne Bluebell Snowdrop Riley) is an Irish washerwoman and charwoman character, devised by Lucan (born Arthur Towle).{{cite web|title=Britmovie|url=http://www.britmovie.co.uk/2007/01/19/old-mother-riley-the-life-and-career-of-arthur-lucan/|work=Old Mother Riley: The Life and Career of Arthur Lucan|publisher=Britmovie|access-date=13 June 2011}} His wife Kitty McShane played Old Mother Riley's daughter, Kitty. It was essentially a drag act but also a double act. The couple played music halls, theatres, and broadcast on radio and appeared in films. Lucan was voted sixth biggest British box-office star by the Motion Picture Herald in 1943.{{cite web |author=Matthew Coniam |url=http://www.movietone-news.com/2009/09/1944-45-motion-picture-almanac.html |title=The 1944-45 Motion Picture Almanac |publisher=Movietone News |date=2009-09-13 |access-date=2014-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303172531/http://www.movietone-news.com/2009/09/1944-45-motion-picture-almanac.html |archive-date=2014-03-03 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.brent.gov.uk/media/7031206/Arthur%20Lucan%20-%20the%20man%20who%20was%20Old%20Mother%20Riley.pdf|format=PDF|title=Arthur Lucan – the man who was "Old Mother Riley"|website=Brent.gov.uk|access-date=24 March 2022}} In 1939, Jimmy Clitheroe appeared in an Old Mother Riley pantomime called The Old Woman who Lives in a Shoe,{{cite web|title=Vintage British Comedy|url=http://www.vintagebritishcomedy.co.uk/#/old-mother-riley-theatre/4547927999|work=Old Mother Riley|access-date=13 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218172453/http://vintagebritishcomedy.co.uk/#/old-mother-riley-theatre/4547927999|archive-date=18 December 2014|url-status=dead}} and then the following year had a part in the film, Old Mother Riley in Society. The Film Fun comic included an "Old Mother Riley" strip cartoon in the 1940s.

Old Mother Riley was the first and arguably the most influential drag act on stage and screen. Although nothing like the glamorous acts like Danny La Rue, Old Mother Riley proved that drag could be a smash hit with audiences and make you a star. The Old Mother Riley films also proved that drag could be an acceptable part of comedy and storytelling. Previous to Old Mother Riley, drag was a mixture of singing acts and short comedy sketches in music halls across the UK.

Roy Rolland was Lucan's understudy and stand-in, and after Lucan's death in 1954 he continued to play the Old Mother Riley character in pantomime, on television and in cabaret until the 1980s.

The character and show exist in a comic lineage that extends to Mrs. Brown's Boys.{{cite news |last1=McMullan |first1=Thomas |title=How Mrs Brown's Boys became a critic-proof hit |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46619935 |access-date=24 December 2018 |work=BBC News |date=24 December 2018}}