Big Red Book
Celebrating television's This Is Your Life
Bill WADDINGTON (1916-2000)
THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Bill Waddington, actor and comedian, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews - with the help of Joe Loss and his Orchestra - while heading for a taxi at London's Euston Station, having just arrived by train from Manchester.
Bill, who was born in Oldham, was talent spotted as a comedian when he was in the army during the Second World War. He entertained the troops with a concert party called the Blue Pencils, and later featured in the Stars in Battledress concert party. In 1940 he appeared in the radio show Ack Ack Beer Beer, the first of over 800 variety and comedy broadcasts on radio.
After the war, he continued as a stand up comedian, supporting visiting American stars, such as Lena Horne and Frankie Laine, in their tours of UK theatres. Bill became a household name when he joined the ITV soap opera Coronation Street in August 1983, playing the cantankerous pensioner Percy Sugden.
"You're joking! And I haven't got my best suit on either!"
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Behind the cantankerous character of Percy Sugden is a life of laughs. Actor Bill Waddington, like Betty Driver, had lived a full 'other life' before Coronation Street: he was a stand-up comedian of the old school.
Joe Loss and his Orchestra were the first surprise as he stepped off the train from Manchester one afternoon in September of 1986. 'Prickly' Percy could not believe his eyes, because he had shared many a variety bill with Joe Loss back in those immediate post-war years when variety was still packing them in.
Joe reminded Bill how the young comedian had actually got a few reluctant laughs when they played that 'graveyard' of English comedians, the Glasgow Empire. Joe had joshed, 'You were so good I reckon tomorrow night you could risk losing the Glasgow accent.'
The story Percy Sugden had been keeping under that famous flat cap started in Oldham, where he was born at the Clarence Hotel – his parents were the publicans – and started to learn violin at an early age. His sister, Connie, told everybody he was so bad even his pet dog put its paws over its ears. So he took up the ukulele.
This proved the chance to succeed for Bill. Called up during the war, he was taken up by army concert parties. He was in 'Stars in Battledress' at the Normandy landings in 1944, made his radio debut in Ack-Ack, Beer-Beer, and became a stand-up comic immediately after the war.
He had shared variety bills with the best, including Frankie Laine, who greeted him from San Diego.
Oh, yes, and someone else. Back in the early Fifties, when he was billed at Manchester's Hulme Hippodrome as 'Witty Willie' he used to do a sketch with a certain comedienne.
Her name was Jill Summers – now his 'love interest' as Phyllis in Coronation Street.
The only sadness was that his wife of forty years, Lillian, a former singer and dancer, had died, so could not share his night.
Series 27 subjects
Bill Waddington | Robert Foote | Carl Davis | Gorden Kaye | Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson | Monty Fresco | Joe Johnson