greatreporter.com, October 5th, 2007
10:
Tom
O'Connor
Big-haired
Tom
O'Connor
arguably peaked with daytime quiz show ‘Cross Wits’. But he's also a great after-dinner speaker AND the author of some renowned humorous golf books.
9:
Leslie
Crowther
Ever-grinning Alan Partridge lookalike
Leslie
Crowther
remains the definitive gameshow host. Who can forget 80s masterpiece ‘The Price is Right’, with
Crowther
bellowing ‘Come on down!’ with such Shakespearean gusto?
8:
Bernie
Clifton
A brilliant and highly original entertainer,
Bernie
worked as a stand-up comedian before the fateful day he first came across Oswald the Ostrich. There followed a double act with all the wit but none of the gratuitous violence of Rod and Emu.
7:
Jimmy
Cricket
Like The Great Soprendo,
Jimmy
Cricket
was a comic creation all-too suited to 80s prime time TV. ‘C'mere,’ he promised. ‘There's more.’ And... there was.
6:
Nicholas
Parsons
Boasting the kind of credibility most light entertainers lack,
Nicholas
Parsons
isn't particularly associated with any one role. He's just effortlessly cool for no good reason.
5:
Jim
Bowen
As stoical as a slab of cement,
Jim
was ideally suited to ‘Bullseye’, the dour darts gameshow that cemented the misery of many a schoolkid's Sunday afternoon.
4:
Frank
Carson
About as un-alternative as it's possible to get, funnyman
Frank
Carson
became extremely famous for saying ‘It's the way I tell em!’ and ‘It's a cracker!’ all the time. Now that's comedy.
3:
Jimmy
Tarbuck
Having been around forever (well, he landed his first show back in 1964), it's hard to know what Tarby's most famous for. His love of golf? His gap-toothed grin? Either way, he's a light entertainment god.
2:
Freddie
Starr
Laughing for no reason, fixing victims with his mad stare, throwing maggots on a live studio audience,
Freddie
Starr
is a happy hybrid of
Benny
Hill
and
Jack
Nicholson
in ‘The Shining’. Great stuff.
1:
Bob
Monkhouse
Never mind the lashings of gooey, melting cheese;
Bob
Monkhouse
's sheer joke-abundance, his quip-quota, was so staggeringly high that he could do stand-up spontaneously, simply relying on the inexhaustible storehouse of gags in his head. Genius!
