Topic: Local "stars"

[Shaky]

Also the guy from the safestyle adverts:



I've heard the safestyle guy actually walks the strees in that gear

Black Lodge - The Early Years

This thread got me thinking about NI comedian Nuala McKeever, who was one of the original Hole in the Wall Gang before branching off with a shortlived UTV sketch show and various other bits and pieces. Her schtick was very broad but she's not an untalented woman so I always found it strange that in a small province largely devoid of modern comic heroes, she never really made much of a dent at home let alone anywhere else. Only other thing I've ever seen her in is some Michael Winterbottom film where Chris Eccleston gets his bum out.

[Glebe]

Hole in the Wall Gang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0XR1RzVRQ

[George White]

I do remember McKeever simply cos UTV original shows were all factual, e.g. Kelly, Lesser Spotted Ulster, School Around the Corner, Jenny Bristow and All Mixed Up, and it was a rare comedy effort. Didn't she also do a series of ads in various roles, possibly for Abbey national... IIRC she dragged up in stubble.
I loved Give My Head Peace as a kid not having a clue what it was actually about, though I am a Protestant educated Catholic. Half the non-Hole in the Wall cast have been in Game of Thrones.

THITW Gang's other stuff though, didn't they try drama, some Fr. Brendan Smyth biopic with future GOT actor Ian Beattie as the bumming  bastard. Seeing him as Meryn Trant was a cultureshock, knowing him only as evil priests, i.e. his role in RTE sitcom Killikaskully, a sort of lighter League of Gents via Fr. Ted with that series' Pat "Tom" Shortt as various characters.

[Fonz]

Who?

Ronnie Pickering

[SteveDave]

Ronnie Pickering

Who?!

[sprocket]

Another person who comes to mind is former Late Late Show pianist Frank McNamara, although apparently he's internationally renowned as Theresa Lowe's husband.

[George White]

Ah, Theresa, the object of Colm Meaney's desire in the Van. 
Once appeared in a banned A-Team after winning a competition cos it was directed by Irishman Michael "brother of Dan" O'Herlihy.

[Fonz]

Who?!

Ronnie Pickering!!!

[Shit Good Nose]

How about Big Jeff in Bristol? Goes to 7-10 gigs a week, apparently, and seemingly is at every gig I go to in Bristol.

Glad to see that he's still on the scene.  Indeed, he was at pretty much every gig I went to (and many many others that I didn't) and his "air everything" became a familiar and comfortable sight.  I then didn't see him for a while and, soon after, my own life and responsibilities "got in the way", so my gigging practically stopped.  Often wondered if he'd moved away or something worse, but presumably that was due to the accident that bomb_dog referred to?

Totally surprises me that he has aspergers/is autistic, as well as some other similar mental health issues to boot - always just thought he let himself go with the music, and otherwise either side of that he was just a "normal" sociable guy.  Good on him.

[jobotic]

TV weatherman Ron Lobeck used to do local appearances. Think my mother met him once when she was a Deputy Head.

Things seem to have gone a bit awry for Ron though

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/ex-tv-weatherman-ron-forced-out--a66687/

There's always Billy Childish driving around in a WW1 abumlance trying not to get noticed 'cos he's not a fucking celebrity.

[Glebe]

Bjork's former band there, with a guest appearance by B-movie star Karen Black, no less!

[George White]

My mother told me about how back in the day, 70s/80s, Sil Fox  was the resident comic at the VHI worker's party, and there was literally silence. That's how awful he is.
Eugene McCarthy? Wasn't he the guy in that Only Fools and Horses episode with Philip Pope as Tony Angelino that Del had to find an act to impress his mother or something?
Mary Byrne - formerly Mary Lee. A few years before her X Factor "fame", she was on an Irish-language TG4 talent show, "Nollaig No 1", where the winning act would have an Irish-language single released at Christmas. She won, apparently my mother catching this on late night telly, to be faced with a gargantuan woman singing, "You''ll Never Walk Alone" as gaeilge. It apparently sold 19 copies on download only. Years pass, and Mary Byrne enters the X Factor. I was 50 per cent sure it was her, and then it was confirmed. They then re-released it as a cash-in. Although the only one I can find is in English.

[Captain Poodle Basher]

My mother told me about how back in the day, 70s/80s, Sil Fox  was the resident comic at the VHI worker's party, and there was literally silence. That's how awful he is.
Eugene McCarthy? Wasn't he the guy in that Only Fools and Horses episode with Philip Pope as Tony Angelino that Del had to find an act to impress his mother or something?
Mary Byrne - formerly Mary Lee. A few years before her X Factor "fame", she was on an Irish-language TG4 talent show, "Nollaig No 1", where the winning act would have an Irish-language single released at Christmas. She won, apparently my mother catching this on late night telly, to be faced with a gargantuan woman singing, "You''ll Never Walk Alone" as gaeilge. It apparently sold 19 copies on download only. Years pass, and Mary Byrne enters the X Factor. I was 50 per cent sure it was her, and then it was confirmed. They then re-released it as a cash-in. Although the only one I can find is in English.

I can (vaguely) recall Sil Fox on the Late Late Show doing his act - must have been the early '80's. Christ but he was shit. He had that too-fast patter of someone who knows they're crap so has to run through the gags at lightning speed to stay ahead of the audience.

Re: TG4. Someone I once worked with appeared several times, on several different shows, pretending to be some random person that the presenters just happened to bump into on the street. The fact that she's rather attractive and fluent in Irish are pure coincidence and nothing more.

[mothman]

Despite repeated visits to Jersey I've yet to even determine where Millbrook is. Or if Benest's still exists. Have to have something to look forward to when you're holidaying in the Channel Islands, I guess...

Andy Ford. Screeching imbecile of a local Bristolian comedian who's been a fixture of the Panto at the Hippodrome for about the last decade.

[Jockice]

Bobby Knutt in Sheffield. Always used to be in the papers and local TV to the extent that after living here for a few years i was convinced he was a national celebrity. Then I mentioned him to my elder sister who has never lived in Sheffield and she'd never heard of him.

He does appear on national TV sometimes. He was in Coronation Street for a few episodes years ago and he's currently in Benidorm. Which my sister watches. Bet she still wouldn't recognise his name though.

[Brundle-Fly]

In my manor we've got Paul Morley, Luke Haines and once upon a time Duke de Mondo, but they're not ones to flaunt their status.

[George White]

Bobby Knutt in Sheffield. Always used to be in the papers and local TV to the extent that after living here for a few years i was convinced he was a national celebrity. Then I mentioned him to my elder sister who has never lived in Sheffield and she'd never heard of him.
He does appear on national TV sometimes. He was in Coronation Street for a few episodes years ago and he's currently in Benidorm. Which my sister watches. Bet she still wouldn't recognise his name though.

He was one of the Dingles in Emmerdale for a while, wasn't he,  and took over from Brian Glover in the Tetley's ads. Also, was in the Paul Squire show that was about making The Paul Squire Show.
Viz had him in a "curly-haired Bobby" versus match with Bobby Ball and Dr. Robert Winston.

[Brundle-Fly]

Re: curly haired Bobbys face off/ Viz comic piece

I bet Bobby Knutt and Bobby Ball must've secretly despised each other. This town ain't big enough for the both of us.

[Jockice]

Re: curly haired Bobbys face off/ Viz comic piece

I bet Bobby Knutt and Bobby Ball must've secretly despised each other. This town ain't big enough for the both of us.

Have you ever seen them in a room at the same time though? Eh?

[Jockice]

He was one of the Dingles in Emmerdale for a while, wasn't he,  and took over from Brian Glover in the Tetley's ads. Also, was in the Paul Squire show that was about making The Paul Squire Show.
Viz had him in a "curly-haired Bobby" versus match with Bobby Ball and Dr. Robert Winston.

I didn't know all that. Maybe he is a national star after all. I once rang his doorbell by mistake though. I was after the bloke from next door.

Talking of the Dingles, I was at at funeral a few years ago and ended up talking to one of the other mourners who told me he was an actor who mainly did voiceover stuff but was someone on the periphery of that family and made occasional appearances. Can't remember his name though.

[Jockice]

Are the Everley Pregnant Brothers known nationally? Because they're absolutely enormous here. Play live  to thousands of people. I know they were on The Last Leg and BBC Breakfast with their Christmas single last year but apart from that....

[George White]

I didn't know all that. Maybe he is a national star after all. I once rang his doorbell by mistake though. I was after the bloke from next door.

Talking of the Dingles, I was at at funeral a few years ago and ended up talking to one of the other mourners who told me he was an actor who mainly did voiceover stuff but was someone on the periphery of that family and made occasional appearances. Can't remember his name though.

Perhaps not a star outside Yorkshire, but he's certainly a known face. A "that guy".

[Vodka Margarine]

I see Doon Mackichan quite a lot. Not being of the Legendary persuasion, I haven't yelled FINANCE ARSE at her yet.

[Gulftastic]

Here's my favourite ad from the already mentioned 'Mike' of 'Mike's Carpets' fame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9giGnsov94

I'd advise looking all his ads up though. They are little gems of local advertising.

[Hello! Replies Hidden]

Gobshite talk show host and shapeshifter.

http://www.peteprice.com

[Sebastian Cobb]

Guitar Wifie

[Gurke and Hare]

I'm throughly enjoying the TV Cream mailout's current YouTube series about all the different ITV regions precisely for this sort of thing. For the entirety of its ten year run, and even before that on Westward, TSW had the ropey and inert rabbit puppet Gus Honeybun "announcing" kids' birthdays. The effort the continuity announcers had to go to make Gus Honeybun appear to have a personality is commendable. A great deal of the "Oi, pack it in, you!" Joe Beazley-esque approach that is just waggling a puppet up and down to denote it is 'misbehaving'.

Ha ha, that's obviously the source for the birthday kangaroo puppet Susie Blake's continuity announcer in As Seen on TV had to use, excellent.


Is Mike Sweeney well known outside Greater Manchester.

[Jockice]

Is Mike Sweeney well known outside Greater Manchester.

I recognise the name but can't quite place it. So probably not.

[Glebe]

birthday kangaroo puppet

Great band name.

[BlodwynPig]

Buster Sparkles, Somali Pirate and entertainer.