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Who was the original broadcaster of The Clitheroe Kid in Jun 1957?
The Clitheroe Kid The Clitheroe Kid is a BBC radio comedy show featuring diminutive Northern comic Jimmy Clitheroe in the role of a cheeky schoolboy , who lived with his family at Lilac Avenue in an unnamed town in the North of England . The pilot show , pilot series , and 16 subsequent series , totalling 290 episodes in all , were originally broadcast between April 1957 . and August 1972 . Cast . In addition to Clitheroe himself , the shows stars included Peter Sinclair playing his Scottish granddad , Patricia Burke as his mother ( in some early shows the part was played by Renée Houston ) , and Diana Day as his long-suffering sister , Susan ( the sister , originally called Judith Clitheroe , was played in the earliest episodes by Judith Chalmers ) . Jimmys father never appeared , and his absence was never addressed . Oldham comedian Danny Ross played Alfie Hall , Susans half-witted , tongue-tied boyfriend , who was often drawn into Jimmys reckless schemes . He joined the show in 1960 , replacing Susans original boyfriend , played by Peter Goodwright . Tony Melody played Mr ( Horatio ) Higginbottom ( his first name was almost never used ) , normally known as Higgie , a taxi driver — Granddads drinking buddy , and father of Jimmys pal Ozzie . Higginbottom was always threatening to give Jimmy a good hiding for things he had done to Ozzie . Ozzie himself was rarely heard , save as an indistinct background voice in occasional early episodes ( such as The Trouble with Higginbottom ) . Several actors regularly played supporting roles in the show , including Leonard Williams ( who played both Mr Craythorpe and Harry Whittle until 1962 ) , Brian Trueman ( who played Harry Whittle from 1966 ) , and Rosalie Williams . Deryck Guyler , who had appeared in supporting roles in some early episodes , spent two years as a regular on the show , replacing Leonard Williams after the latters death . Famous guest stars included John Laurie , later best known as Private Fraser in Dads Army , playing Grandads Scottish brother , Angus , and Mollie Weir as Anguss wife ( she was well known on radio from ITMA and Life with the Lyons ) , who appeared together on at least two occasions every year from 1962 until 1970 . The lost 1956 pilot episode guest starred Irene Handl and Robert Moreton , as Jimmys aunt and uncle , with Anthea Askey as his girl cousin ( playing the roles which would eventually evolve into his Mother , Grandfather and Sister ) , and Eddie Leslie . In the 1957 pilot series , actors who appeared in guest roles included John Broadbent , Violet Carson , Fred Fairclough , Fred Ferris , Tom Harrison , Jack Howarth , Shirley King , Eddie Leslie , Bob Monkhouse , Herbert Smith , Jack Watson , and Patrick Wells . Of the 290 broadcasts aired between 1956 and 1972 , the BBC has retained 57 complete tapes ( in the BBC Sound Archive and at BBC Manchester ) , together with edited BBC Transcription Service vinyl discs preserving a further 118 episodes , making 175 recordings in all . However , almost no complete episodes exist prior to 1st January 1970 ( i.e . from the Pilot series and Series 1 to 13 ) . For the period 1956 to 1969 , supplementing the edited Transcription Service discs , 58 episodes are currently known to exist as off air recordings made by listeners , many of variable sound quality , some of which are incomplete . An on-going project exists to locate and restore the approximately sixty entirely missing episodes , for which no recording of any sort is known , and to locate better quality and more complete recordings for the others . Production . Jimmy Clitheroe was 35 years old when he started playing the part on radio , but ( in the variety theatres and , later , on television ) he could pass as an 11-year-old boy because he had never grown physically beyond that age . Although in later years his lined face gave his real age away , this was not apparent on radio . Created by James Casey in 1956 , the show was produced in Manchester , originally by the North Region studios of the BBC Home Service . But after two series were aired on North Region only , in 1959 the show was deemed sufficiently popular to be moved to the national transmitters of the BBC Light Programme . The radio show was recorded in front of a studio audience , and there were frequently gales of laughter at Jimmys schoolboy humour , or at Alfies mangling of the English language as he tried to explain something , only to make it even less clear , as well as ( to the mystification of home listeners ) Alfie Halls physical comedy , when he performed one of his trademark falls or other sight-gags . Jimmy always wore a schoolboy blazer and cap in the role , even at radio recordings , to maintain the illusion that he was 11-years-old . In the beginning ( and , in fact , for many years ) , his high-pitched voice sounded astonishingly young . And real kids never appeared on the show , as this would have shattered the carefully crafted illusion that he was a child ( the shows popularity overseas arose , in part , because audiences unfamiliar with British showbusiness believed he really was a child ) . So he discussed his pal Ozzie , and his schoolboy friends in the Black Hand Gang ( who would punish any member caught in the company of a girl ) , but the characters he spoke about were never actually heard themselves . The show ( apart from the 1957 pilot series ) was written by James Casey and Frank Roscoe ( occasionally by Ronnie Taylor , who had written the pilot series ) , and from 1958 was also produced by James Casey . Following transmission , the BBC mainly preserved the series as 154 recordings on vinyl discs , sold overseas to Commonwealth radio stations by their commercial arm , BBC Enterprises ( currently trading as BBC Worldwide and BBC Radio International ) . Altogether , the BBC retains 175 episodes , as a mixture of complete original recordings on magnetic tape and 25 minute edits on vinyl disc . Plot elements . Misunderstandings are the essence of the character-driven plots . Jimmy is depicted as frequently eavesdropping , or listening at keyholes , and as mishearing or misunderstanding what he overhears . Even when trying to do a good deed ( as when he believes Grandad has stolen money from a local shop , which he is actually only minding for the bowling club ) , he usually messes up , with the assistance of the disaster-prone Alfie . Another frequent scenario is some variation on one of Jimmys many money-making schemes , intended to finance another visit to the sweetshop , or the purchase of a new pair of roller-skates , or somesuch , but which inevitably leads to disaster . Jimmys comedy technique involves much use of a popular style known ( then as now ) as insult humour . He refers to his teachers by comic nicknames , such as Hum-ya Pete , Whistling Willie and Tick-Tock Tillie . Mr Higginbottom is frequently likened to a rampaging grizzly-bear . And Grandads Scottish ancestry is endlessly mocked , with much talk of haggis and playing the bagpipes in the bath , and he is portrayed as a man who lives only for his beer . Jimmys sister , Susan , is typically referred to as Scraggy-neck , Sparrow-legs , or occasionally the Octopus ( for her clinches with boyfriend Alfie ) . Alfie is endlessly mocked also — often countering by threatening to thump Jimmy ! Its Alfie who Jimmy refers to in his catchphrase , Dont some mothers ave em! ? Mr Higginbottom is also mocked whenever he appears : among other things , his house is said to be a rat-infested dump . But Jimmy treads carefully in this , because the bad-tempered Higginbottom is known for his hair-trigger temper . Higginbottoms son , the much-maligned Ozzie , is a fat kid who Jimmy calls his best friend.. . while frequently thrashing him , mocking him , and involving him in his wild schemes . The one person who escapes Jimmys ready wit is his mother . In real life , his father had died and he was devoted to his widowed mother ; so he wouldnt stand for either his real mother , or his radio mother , being mocked . She is the calm centre around which the chaos revolves . Susan occasionally turns the tables on her little brother ( Jimmy was only ) , in return . In the episode Enough to Make a Kitten Laugh , Susan tricks Jimmy into buying back a lost kitten that he had sold to Ozzie , by offering a reward for it in the local newspaper ( under an assumed name ) , but warns Mr Higginbottom that Jimmy wants it back , so that he has to pay double what Ozzie had paid him . But when Jimmy discovers the trick , he gets the last laugh , selling the kitten ( at a profit ) to an employee at the newspaper , who then turns up at home to demand the reward shes offered . After the end credits , Jimmy would usually deliver a short epilogue , addressed to the audience , tying up loose ends in the plot and , frequently , reporting that Grandad has given him the ( expected ) good spanking for the trouble he caused . External links . - Clitheroe Kid episode guide - BBC Genome for The Clitheroe Kid - Surviving recordings in BBC Sound Archives - Jimmy Clitheroe official website ( founded in 2001 ) - Jimmy Clitheroe website ( archived version ) ( 2012 )