Saturday, February 10, 2007

Charlie Chester



This is a CD I found in a charity shop but not second hand. Dr. Barnados sell a whole range of these vintage British Comedy CD's for a little under three quid. Most are excellent and contain such stars as George Formby, Will Hay, Norman Wisdom, Max Miller etc. You can find them HERE.

Wikipedia says-

"Charlie was born (as Cecil Victor Manser) in Eastbourne, East Sussex, and became a singer in his youth before turning to comedy. Known as 'Cheeky' Charlie Chester he was well-known to British audiences in the 1940s from his BBC radio show Stand Easy. This show was adapted for television as The Charlie Chester Show in 1949 and became a standup/sketch show for the next 11 years. Frequent cast members included Edwina Carroll, Eric 'Jeeves' Grier, Len Lowe, Deryck Guyler, Len Marten, Arthur Haynes and Fred Ferrari. His radio shows included A Proper Charlie and That Man Chester. Another series - which started out as a sketch - was Pot Luck (1957).
In 1961, Chester starred in a new BBC series called Charlie Chester On Laughter Service, a music and comedy show which visited forces bases throughout Britain. Most of these shows were co-written by Chester colloborators Bernard Botting and Charlie Hart. Late on in his career, he appeared in the Channel 4 sitcom Never Say Die.
In the 1960s he also began presenting a record show on the BBC Light Programme (later Radio 2)."

Charlie Chester - The Vamp Of Baghdad

Charlie Chester - The Old Bazaar In Cairo

Charlie Chester - Courtin'


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4 comments:

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

"With a box full of records, and a bag full of post, it's Sunday Soapbox and Charlie, your host."

That was his catchphrase. He used to do two shows on Radio 2, Saturday and Sunday, until he went on holiday and came back to discover he'd lost the Saturday show - he never went on holiday again after that. His show was a wonderful thing - full of walking frames up for swap and old service pals trying to find each other. Although he lived in London, he used to travel to Birmingham every Sunday to do the programme from the BBC studios there.

Wastedpapiers said...

Thanks for the interesting info. simon. I never listened myself but remember him on the early days of black and white telly doing a quiz show of some sort.

Wastedpapiers said...

Gosh! Cartridges! Those 8 tracks are very collectable I hear but not sure about the Gilbert "O" Sullivan!

elizabeth baker said...

My mother, Edna Fryer, was also a regular member of The Charlie Chester Radio Program. She passed away in 1966. I would love to know if she is on any of the cd's that you or anyone else might have. Thanks much!