Jimmy Cricket recalling the comedy of Tommy Handley

"I don't know if you heard or not readers but they found a group of pigeons on the roof of Downing Street recently. Apparently they were planning a coo!" That was the latest joke I put on Twitter because I feel people like to have a chuckle during challenging times. A lockdown is a bit like wartime. We need to keep our spirits up. One comedian who certainly did that was Tommy Handley, writes Jimmy Cricket.

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It's That Man Again - Tommy Handley and ITMA

On Sunday 9 January 1949, just after the 5pm repeat broadcast of the latest episode of ITMA, the nation's favourite comedy show, there was a shock newsflash: Tommy Handley, the star of the programme, had died from a cerebral haemorrhage.

70 years of British comedy - part one: after the war

In an earlier post we told you we were going to look back over the last 70 years of great British comedy. We've tagged some of the best sitcoms from the last 70 years, as 70 Years Of British Comedy so you can follow the series of posts. The story of the modern sitcom is a fascinating one, British sitcoms are admired the world over but how did it all start?

A delicate quadrille

I don't expect you remember the BBC comedy series, ITMA. Dating from the 1940s, it is, in truth, a little before my time too. However, as well as entertaining Britain during troubled times, ITMA (or "It's That Man Again") generated a few lasting catchphrases.

Why we won the war. The most successful British radio comedy of all time, it regularly attracted 20m listeners. Its catch phrases - including, "Can I do yer now, sir?" and "It's being so cheerful as keeps me going" - are still remembered years later.

Comics should be more switched on about radio

There was a national day of mourning when Winston Churchill died in 1965. There was also national mourning, of course, when King George VI died in 1952. But can you name another post-war death that has triggered national grief? The answer is Tommy Handley, the star of the wartime radio show ITMA.

Radio: That Man

ITMA, Britain's most popular radio comedy show, stands for "It's That Man Again." That Man is Tommy Handley, a middle-aged British radio comedian whose unabashed puns, silly syllogisms and noisy sound effects have given him a weekly radio audience that reportedly numbers 18,000,000.