Bobby Ball dies

[Glebe]

Ah no. Rocking on with Eddie Large as we speak.

[Satchmo Distel]

They had a theme song (Tommy in a syrup here?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC4XclAxR7g&ab_channel=GreyHulk2

Written by Nigel Hess in 1978:

https://www.comedykings.co.uk/index.php/theme-music-together-well-be-ok/#:~:text=Cannon%20and%20Balls%20theme%20song,composer%20Nigel%20Hess%20in%201978.

https://web.archive.org/web/20061119204259/http://www.bucksmusicgroup.com/composers/details/det29.html?Show=Credits

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0381511/

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Dawn French and Stephen Fry have their fingers crossed and are praying.

[vainsharpdad]

Dawn French and Stephen Fry have their fingers crossed and are praying.

Tim Brooke-Taylor
Eddie Large
Bobby Ball

Who's next in the sweep of late 70s/early 80s comedy stars?

I've put a fiver on Russ Abbott. (And it still looked better than his weave. Boom boom.)

[Mr Banlon]

The boy's turned blue, a boo-hoo-hoo-hoo

[kalowski]

Dawn French and Stephen Fry have their fingers crossed and are praying.

Little and Large
Cannon and Ball
Fry and Laurie
French and Saunders

[Keebleman]

It's annoying that people class them with (or even confuse them with) Syd and Eddie.  I think with better material they could have been up there with Les Dawson as mainstream entertainers with highbrow approval.  As it is the only sketch I can recall of them is this one, and it's not even from their show.  But I love watching it, they're both on great form and the friendship between them is obvious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy7yXy9Yyco&t

[petril]

Punt and Dennis
Newman and Baddiel
Horne and Corden
Mitchell and Webb
Zig and Zag

I mean most of them you'd accept, really

[The Cloud of Unknowing]

Dailey and Wayne. (No idea if Dailey is with us still. Legend has it they fell out in a big way and one served a writ on another during their act because he needed it to be witnessed. Sounds unlikely to me.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm2fE9BuvzA

There must have been loads of double acts like that who worked the clubs but never got on TV and we've never heard of.

[Tony Tony Tony]

Punt and Dennis
Newman and Baddiel
Horne and Corden
Mitchell and Webb
Zig and Zag

I mean most of them you'd accept, really

You missed the Ball...

Lee and Herring

[idunnosomename]

Bodger and Badger

[wosl]

For balance:

(Alas) Smith and Jones
Wood and Walters
Lennie Bennett and Jerry Stevens
Rod Hull and Emu

[bgmnts]

Ball's deep in the ground now.

[Glebe]

It's annoying that people class them with (or even confuse them with) Syd and Eddie.  I think with better material they could have been up there with Les Dawson as mainstream entertainers with highbrow approval.  As it is the only sketch I can recall of them is this one, and it's not even from their show.  But I love watching it, they're both on great form and the friendship between them is obvious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy7yXy9Yyco&t

Never saw that before, fantastic! May as well post this old chestnut since nobody else has:

Rik on the Cannon and Ball Show 1984.

Oh yeah, as per Dr Greg in the L&L thread, this is back up on YouTube and features C&B:

The Story of Light Entertainment - Part 1 - Double Acts (22 July 2006).

They had a theme song (Tommy in a syrup here?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC4XclAxR7g&ab_channel=GreyHulk2

That seems vaguely familiar. Let's make it the new official CaB theme!

Watched The Boys in Blue on YouTube or summit a few years back, very of it's time of course but you can't fault C&B for trying. Jon Pertwee pops up as a lighthouse keeper as I recall?

Oh yeah, was nice to see Bobby in The Cockfields last year.

[wosl]

Neglected to add: RIP Bobby Ball. C&B were a league or two better than Little and Large.  Bobby's frantic anguish at those times when he thought Tommy was being unfair or in cahoots against him was always lovely to watch. That C&B Show sketch where Tommy and guest star Steve Davis play a snooker match with no table and imaginary cues and balls, with the aim of triggering and toying with Ball's paranoia, is a true curio.

[TheMonk]

There's a bit on YouTube with them complaining at an Information Centre run by Rik Mayall. The script is naff but Rik and Bobby bounce off each other surprisingly well. A joy to watch.

[Glebe]

There's a bit on YouTube with them complaining at an Information Centre run by Rik Mayall. The script is naff but Rik and Bobby bounce off each other surprisingly well. A joy to watch.

Posted above.

I remember watching Coogan's Run episode 'Dearth of a Salesman' and thinking the guy who played the receptionist was Bobby Ball at first. It's actually (thanks Google) actor/singer Bernard Wrigley. Seen him in summit else too.

[DrGreggles]

He was in Phoenix Nights too.

[petril]

Posted above.

I remember watching Coogan's Run episode 'Dearth of a Salesman' and thinking the guy who played the receptionist was Bobby Ball at first. It's actually (thanks Google) actor/singer Bernard Wrigley. Seen him in summit else too

they've basically been the same person since about 1993 anyway

RIP Bernard too :(

[wosl]

It's actually (thanks Google) actor/singer Bernard Wrigley. Seen him in summit else too.

He's good (the character isn't much of a stretch for him, mind) as the ground-down factory worker in a green boiler-suit who pops up a couple of times asking for drab, out-of-favour foodstuffs in Dinnerladies.

[Psmith]

RIP
Not that I found them funny at all.
Particularly Boys in Blue which was a pathetic attempt at a Will Hay classic.

[msm]

Re-watched TBIB* a couple of months ago (as I appear to have completed films) and it's not very good.
Not sure if this is a 'hasn't aged well' not very good or a 'was never any good' not very good, but the result is pretty much the same.

The theme tune's a banger though.
https://youtu.be/XUt8ARpnDU4

_{*one for the cool kids there}

Saw it at the time and it was not good then , me as a undiscerning 13 year old ,loved them as a kid daft and anarchic

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

they've basically been the same person since about 1993 anyway

RIP Bernard too :(

He won't be too chuffed about that, with being alive and all.

[neveragain]

Mark Lawson's written such a tactless and dismissive article about dear Bobby you would think he was a member of this forum.

[checkoutgirl]

they disappeared from TV too long ago for me to know of them outside of those funny blokes on the Safestyle UK adverts, but from what I've seen of them on repeats (maybe Wheeltappers and Shunters or The Good Old Days?) they seemed like a good laugh.

Yeah they seemed to be unfairly lumped in with Little and Large and Bobby Davro and Russ Abbott but for me Bobby Ball was a cut above that lot for sure. Cannon wasn't up to much, better than Syd Little but that's faint praise. Ball was good enough to make a film like Boys In Blue watchable. Very sad news.

Rock on Tommy.

[idunnosomename]

Mark Lawson's written such a tactless and dismissive article about dear Bobby you would think he was a member of this forum.

is that bald cunt still about? cant wait until that humpty dumpty pointless establishment fucker has a great fall into his shitty grave

[checkoutgirl]

He was in Phoenix Nights too.

Was about to say that, "Snake's eggs!!"

[beanheadmcginty]

Whenever I see Tommy Cannon he always strikes me as more handsome than your average double act partner, albeit in an old fashioned way. But I'm not the best judge because I fancy girls with fannies. Could any of the man fanciers here let me know if I'm right?

[imitationleather]

If Tommy had died first the thread title could have been Non-Cannon.

[DrGreggles]

Nice Bobby-related podcast on Ian Boldsworth's Patreon today.