Big Red Book
Celebrating television's This Is Your Life
Norman WISDOM (1915-2010)
THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Norman Wisdom, comedian and actor, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews while being interviewed for the BBC television programme Tonight at the Playhouse Theatre in Manchester, from where the programme was then broadcast.
Norman, who was born in London, spent time in the Merchant Navy before enlisting in the British Army with the 10th Royal Hussars. In 1930 he was posted to India, where he became the army's flyweight boxing champion and where, as a bandsman, he first learnt to play various musical instruments. He developed his skills as a performer by entertaining his colleagues in concert parties while serving with the Royal Corps of Signals during the Second World War.
After the war, Norman entered show business full-time and made his professional debut at the Collins Music Hall, London, in October 1945. He toured the country in pantomime and revue, displaying his skill for physical comedy and developing his character of the Gump - in his ill-fitting suit and cloth cap. By the late 1940s, he was starring in London's West End and would later secure a film contract with the Rank Organisation, who cast him in a string of highly successful low-budget comedies, which began with Trouble in Store in 1953.
Norman Wisdom was a subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions - surprised again by Eamonn Andrews in February 1987 at St Margaret's Tavern in Twickenham.
programme details...
- Edition No: 44
- Subject No: 44
- Broadcast live: Mon 2 Dec 1957
- Broadcast time: 7.30-8.00pm
- Venue: Playhouse Theatre, Manchester
- Series: 3
- Edition: 10
on the guest list...
- Maud - mother
- Tom King
- Ernest Parker
- John Zimmerman
- Arthur Thomas
- Walter Hedley
- Mr Trevor
- Roy Murray
- Billy Marsh
- David Nixon
- Fred - brother
- Freda - wife
- The Band of the 10th Hussars Filmed tribute:
- Vera Lynn Recorded tribute:
- Ed Sullivan
related appearances...
- Gracie Fields - Mar 1960
- David Nixon - Dec 1973
- Paddie O'Neil - Jan 1980
- William Roache - Oct 1985
- Gary Wilmot - Dec 1986
- Billy Marsh - Mar 1990
- Honor Blackman - Feb 1993
- Ron Moody - May 1994
- Reg Gutteridge - May 1994
- Stan Boardman - Nov 1995
- Rick Wakeman - Nov 1998
- The Night of 1000 Lives - Jan 2000
- Todd Carty - Nov 2000
- John van Weenen - Feb 2001
- Kevin Woodford - May 2001
production team...
- Researchers: Michael Friend, Ray Marler, Ronald Vivian
- Writer: Ken Smith
- Director: unknown
- Producer: T Leslie Jackson
- names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life
- with thanks to Nick Wisdom for his contribution to this page
second tribute
it's all about the comedy
surprised again!
a celebration of a thousand editions
the programme's icon
This Is Your Life by Eamonn Andrews
Weekend Magazine reports from behind-the-scenes
Nick Wisdom, son of Norman Wisdom, recalls aspects of this edition of This Is Your Life in an exclusive interview recorded in March 2012
Photographs of Norman Wisdom This Is Your Life - and a photograph of Norman Wisdom's big red book
Manchester Evening News 3 December 1957
This Is Your Life grabbed Norman Wisdom in Manchester – but this programme is almost impossible for a comedian.
Wisdom's life - he was once a down-and-out, sleeping behind a London statue - has been a dramatic rise from rags to riches, but the characters that turned up last night were pretty dull.
Evening Telegraph 3 December 1957
NORMAN Wisdom's sincerity shone through This Is Your Life like a searchlight. The tributes paid to him by those who had taken part in his climb "from rags to riches" clearly delighted him... and they did me good, too.
What a delightful tribute Mrs Wisdom paid to her husband: "Life is never dull with Norman... and it is rather wonderful."
Halifax Daily Courier and Guardian 3 December 1957
WHEN so many shivering people were huddling their firesides and television sets last night it was more than regrettable that BBC TV's programme planning produced nothing better than a negative schedule. Entertainment was unbalanced.
Over two hours were given to show business people and much of those two hours to show people off duty. Occasional programmes like these make good television, but an overdose in one night is bad planning, for it occurs to me that the majority probably wouldn't care whether or not Barbara Kelly arrived too late to eat dinner or why Peter Haigh was wearing a dinner jacket.
The evening started off badly with a This Is Your Life programme which was as flat as a forgotten bottle of champagne. Norman Wisdom was the guest and he was unfunny enough to underline the fact that comedians when off duty take life seriously.
Kent Messenger 6 December 1957
TRICYCLE TOO BIG SO HE SAT ON BACK MUDGUARD
Norman Wisdom, the famous comedian who spent his childhood in Deal, was the subject of Monday's BBC television feature This Is Your Life.
A number of people living in Deal took part in the programme, which unfolded incidents in Norman Wisdom's life.
Among those taking part in the programme were his mother, who lives in Station Road, Walmer, his brother, Mr Freddy Wisdom, and Mr Ernest Parker, who gave Norman his first job after leaving school.
Although 36-year-old Norman was born in Paddington, he has always considered himself to be a "Deal boy" for he was taken to the town before he could walk.
His first job was an errand boy at Lipton's, in High Street, where Mr Ernest Parker, who gave Norman the job, is still manager.
Mr Parker thought Norman would be too small to manage the heavy tricycle and supervised a riding test before engaging him.
"Norman couldn't really reach the pedals but he pleaded so hard for the job, I had to give it to him," said Mr Parker.
He didn't know, however, that for weeks Norman used to ride the tricycle sitting on the back mudguard.
Norman still recalls with pride that he was regarded as the fastest errand boy in the town.
As a youngster he appeared in several local shows with his brother, but Freddy, who has a fine baritone voice, was not persuaded to go on the stage.
Today he is a branch manager of a coal merchant's office.
Since those far-off days of the 1930's Norman's life has read like an adventure story. He has been a cabin boy, served in the Army, and almost starved after deciding to make the stage his career.
The Evening News 7 December 1957
IT was almost like the pre-war Cochran days in Manchester this week for the opening of "Where's Charley?" with Norman Wisdom.
On the night before the curtain went up Norman was lured to a presentation of This Is Your Life on television. So, the dress rehearsal began late and went on through the night, few of the company getting to bed before five in the morning.
There was another call at 11.30 and a final run-through and dress rehearsal in the afternoon.
The evening show began at seven o'clock; but such is the resistance of these performers to tiredness that after I'd had supper with leading lady Pip Hinton, we and Norman Wisdom, Bernard Delfont and several others sat up discussing the show until the early hours.
And on that day, just to keep their spirits up, they had a matinee as well.
Series 3 subjects
Albert Whelan | Colin Hodgkinson | Vera Lynn | Arthur Christiansen | John Logie Baird | Richard Carr-Gomm | Jack TrainEdith Powell | Anne Brusselmans | Norman Wisdom | Victor Silvester | Jack Petersen | Lucy Jane Dobson
David Bell | Matt Busby | Minnie Barnard | Gordon Steele | Louie Ramsay | Tubby Clayton | Daniel Angel
Anna Neagle | 'Dapper' Channon | Frederick Stone | Paul Field | Noel Purcell | Barbara Cartland
Harry Secombe | Archie Rowe | Humphrey Lyttelton | Francis Cammaerts | A E Matthews