Jimmy Cricket

James Mulgrew (born 17 October 1945), known professionally as Jimmy Cricket, is an Irish comedian.[1] He first came to prominence as a comedian in the 1970s and has had his own shows on television and radio.

Not to be confused with Jiminy Cricket.

Jimmy Cricket
Cricket in 2018
Born
James Mulgrew

(1945-10-17) 17 October 1945
Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
NationalityIrish
OccupationComedian
Children4, Katie, Frankie, Dale and Jamie

Early life and career

Cricket was born in Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland and left school at 16. He spent the next two years working in a betting shop, before spending the summer of 1966 working as a Red Coat in Butlins Holiday camp at Mosney, County Meath, Ireland. He spent the following two summers at the Butlins Holiday Camp in Clacton, Essex. By the early 1970s he was living in Manchester. From 1972 he worked at the Pontins holiday camps in Southport and Morecambe. He returned to Clacton-on-Sea in 2006 to star in the eight-week summer show, Summer Special at the West Cliff Theatre.

Most recently Jimmy has been touring the UK in The Good Old Days of Music Hall and Variety with Neil Hurst and Shep's Banjo Boys.[2]

Television and radio

He was given his own television series on a show called And There's More (named after his best-known catchphrase), produced by Central Television (also notable for including the first TV appearance by Rory Bremner). He also had his own radio series for BBC Radio 2 called Jimmy's Cricket Team, written by Eddie Braben and starring Peter Goodwright, Bill Pertwee and Noreen Kershaw.

He featured in The Krankies Klub alongside the Krankies and Bobby Davro. He also appeared in numerous Royal Variety Shows. He made many appearances on BBC TVs long running TV show The Good Old Days.

Jimmy was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1987 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in central London - the last regular edition of the programme to be broadcast with Andrews as presenter.[3]

Cricket was one of a number of veteran performers to appear in the video for the 2007 Comic Relief single, a cover of The Proclaimers' song "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by Matt Lucas as Andy Pipkin and Peter Kay as Brian Potter.

Style

Cricket's humour is entirely clean. A popular theme of his comedy is Irish logic, and the ubiquitous letter from his "Mammy". He almost always appears in his trademark outfit of cut-off evening trousers, evening tailcoat, hat (given to him by the BBC to wear on The Good Old Days) and wellington boots marked "L" and "R" for left and right, but worn on the wrong feet. He frequently prefaces an anecdote with the catchphrase: "Ladies and gentlemen, [beat], come here [or c'mere]".

Personal life

Cricket lives in Lancashire with his wife, May. He has four children and two grandchildren. Two of his children, Frankie and Katie Mulgrew, followed him into comedy; Katie using her own name, Frankie as 'Frankie Doodle'. Frankie has since become ordained as a Catholic priest and published his first book, Does God LOL?, in June 2013. Another of Cricket's daughters, Jamie, became a teacher and lives in London. His oldest son Dale is a Lib Dem councillor for Rochdale.

Papal knighthood

On 18 September 2015 it was announced that he had been awarded a papal knighthood (Order of St. Gregory the Great) by Pope Francis for his charity work.[4]

References
  1. Neale, Stephen; Krutnik, Frank (14 June 1990). Popular Film and Television Comedy. Psychology Press. pp. 183–. ISBN 9780415046923. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 April 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. "Jimmy Cricket". Bigredbook.info. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  4. "Comedian Jimmy Cricket honoured with papal knighthood". BBC. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
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