bhowells

Next time BBC4 are doing on of their light enternatiment theme evening may I suggest thtat they repeat some of the Mike Yarwood BBC programmes.

I havent seen these for years, like quite a few others of his ilk when he defected to Itv it did him few favours. The Saturday shows on BBC1 showed Yarwood at his best. I never thought that he needed to dress up as his subjects, there was a little too much of that sort of thing in the ITV shows.

Ffond memrories of his Christmas shows on BBC1, which usually went out just prior to the Morecambe and Wise festive special, I always loved his Frank SinatarA

Some of his impresonations failed in my view, I didnt think his Frank Spencer was that brilliant, but with Yarwood that didnt seem to matter he was a very engagaing peformer.

I always felt a great thrill when he would break in a new impersonation, I remember when he did Larry Grayson for the first time.

His later Thames shows are available on dvd, might be worth me getting them but I know they wont have the magic of the BBC shows.

Steve Crook

The reason why they haven't been shown could well be that impersonations do age quite quickly. The subjects are usually people who were famous at the time and how many people can remember all the politicians in the Wilson government?

Steve

Husky

Remember that bit at the end of his shows when he said "...and this is me", then proceeded to sing a naff song that was faintly embarrassing. But otherwise I agree his BBC shows were a highlight of the TV schedules at the time and I used to enjoy them a lot. Much prefer Yarwood to smart-arse Bremner.

Marky B

What's he doing now?
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

Windthrop

He had problems with alcohol and depression. He tried to do some straight acting in a revival of a Whitehall farce but it didn't prove successful. The last real public engagement was for the Conservatives (who he had supported in the past) at a party conference.

Thats the joke that killed the Music Hall !

batman

He did a one-off revival a few years ago. It wasn't successful because he was unable to get some of the newer celebrities right. His style also appeared a little stiff (maybe due to nerves, I believe he suffers from severe stage fright) and the biggest cheers came when he did Harold Wilson. I liked him when I was younger, he was a solid professional entertainer but time, and his own demons, did for him in the end.

Happy Birthday Daddy .... I love you!



BAT QUIZ 16 HAS JUST BEEN POSTED IN THE COMPETITION THREAD - 06/01/09

EHV_Emmetts

I remember Mike Yarwood doing impressions of Trades Union leaders and we all laughed because we recognised who they were. This certainly doesn't happen these days.

I think his TV career started to fail when the Tories came to power in 1979 because he couldn't do an impersonation of Thatcher.

NappieB

My favourite Mike Yarwood impersonations were:

Eddie Waring
Harold Wilson
Vic Feather

Mike was wonderful, the best impersonator I've ever seen, but Steve Crook is right about the public's short memory.

"It gets late early out here!" - Yogi Berra on a trip to the country

EHV_Emmetts

Also funny were:

Ken Dodd
Eric Morecambe
Clive Jenkins

winsfordtown

He used to do a Don Revie impression on his radio series which consisted of the line "Well David, I thought that Norman Hunter was the best player on the field, David" - wonder why it didn't work.