Jimmy Tarbuck

Presenter0:00

This download is the only extract the B B C has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley. So it's true this rumour that you come from Liverpool. Well, I'm afraid it is. Yes, it is. As a youngster, Jimmy, what did you want to be?

Jimmy Tarbuck0:14

Professional footballing. That was always always a

Jimmy Tarbuck0:17

being my ambition. I suppose it still is to a little little degree.

Presenter0:21

Were you fascinated by show business as well? Did you hang around music halls as well as football fields?

Jimmy Tarbuck0:26

Oh yes. My my granddad was a Pyrrho in the Isle of Man, and uh not that I ever saw him do that, but uh when he was a young man. And uh I've always loved the theatre.

Jimmy Tarbuck0:37

What was your first job when you left school?

Jimmy Tarbuck0:39

I was a mechanic in a garage, apprentice mechanic. A good one? No, terrible. And then? Thank you very much. Here's your cards.

Jimmy Tarbuck0:46

After that? Oh, you name it. I did it. I I really couldn't settle. I was in and out of jobs, you know.

Jimmy Tarbuck0:52

What sort of job?

Presenter0:53

Yeah.

Jimmy Tarbuck0:53

Oh, uh I worked in the laundry. I was a labourer, a milkman, a gardener.

Jimmy Tarbuck0:59

I used to chew bread for gummy women. That was just as a sideline. And I had older jobs. You name them, I didn't.

Presenter1:02

And uh off had all the jobs, you name'em I'd

Jimmy Tarbuck1:06

And when did comicking come into it?

Jimmy Tarbuck1:10

You know one of these kids who had the smart back answer in school and that? Yeah. Suppose right hard faced cheeky young man and uh

Jimmy Tarbuck1:18

I went on holiday with it with a group of footballers actually. Um

Jimmy Tarbuck1:22

Bobby Campbell, Jimmy Mealia, and uh John Morrissey, three fine footballers. We all went on holiday to a very well-known uh holiday camp and um

Jimmy Tarbuck1:32

I got up on the stage just to give them a laugh in a in a r uh talent contest.

Presenter1:36

Yeah.

Jimmy Tarbuck1:37

For the campers.

Jimmy Tarbuck1:38

and everybody else left and it was a quite exhilarating feeling.

Jimmy Tarbuck1:42

Just fooling around with them laughing and uh lo and behold, that was the start of it all in nineteen fifty eight. Did you win a prize? Yes, I did.

Jimmy Tarbuck1:49

I won the week's uh I went back uh for the camp final, they called it, of all the ma uh, the holiday makers. The finals of everything was held and I won that. Then I won the area final, and then I went on to the final in London. I didn't win that, but I was signed up

Presenter1:58

I know

Jimmy Tarbuck2:03

by an agent and I was put out as a compere on rock and roll shows.

Presenter2:07

Is

Jimmy Tarbuck2:07

And, um, top of the bill was a very well known young man called Cliff Richard. Well, I know him. Who had his first hit called uh Move It Then. It was Cliff Richard and the Drifters, they were called.

Presenter2:18

before they became the shadows.

Presenter2:20

So you started comparing rock and roll shows. Did things go fairly smoothly? Was it a steady progress? Oh no, I mean it was like

Jimmy Tarbuck2:26

like a week's work and then four weeks out of work and then uh

Presenter2:29

Hello.

Jimmy Tarbuck2:31

you know, say two days here, a night there.

Jimmy Tarbuck2:33

And uh but it was all experience, all the time.

Jimmy Tarbuck2:37

And um

Jimmy Tarbuck2:39

You worked a lot in holiday games.

Jimmy Tarbuck2:41

I went back, yes, as a as a compere at Potheli and, um

Jimmy Tarbuck2:46

You know, that

Jimmy Tarbuck2:47

Without those uh the without the seasons in the holiday camps, I don't think I'd have been uh

Jimmy Tarbuck2:54

professionally uh as advanced as I was because I was never off a microphone, always talking to people, even if it was Hello, Missus, how are you today? and it's the bingo round the corner and whatever it was, all the time I was on a microphone. Yes, and getting competent. And uh of course the music halls were closing then and and th the the only place that you could learn your job and and even to this day

Presenter2:59

Leaving the river.

Jimmy Tarbuck3:12

If I was any young comedian or young performer said to me, Where should I go for experience? I'd say a holiday camp in the summer.

Presenter3:18

Mm-hmm.

Jimmy Tarbuck3:19

And then the clubs in the winter? Yes, then the clubs and they, you know, they were hard in the pubs.

Jimmy Tarbuck3:24

And I got the bird a few times and uh you just had to grit your teeth and get on with it. Yes. What was your first big brick?

Jimmy Tarbuck3:29

Um

Jimmy Tarbuck3:32

Well, i i it w it it all happened in kinda ten days. I I did a show up north called Comedy Bandbox that never went out down south. It was for ABC. I've got to thank them because they gave me my very first uh

Jimmy Tarbuck3:44

T V spot

Jimmy Tarbuck3:46

I was in a show in Our Browth in Scotland, the Webster Memorial Hall I was at. And this fellow just sent me a letter: Would you come to London and meet me? And I came down and met this man.

Presenter3:51

That's fine.

Jimmy Tarbuck3:56

And I was immediately uh

Jimmy Tarbuck3:59

Taken to him for his honesty promised me nothing.

Jimmy Tarbuck4:02

And anyway, in in a short period of his uh work he got me this um

Jimmy Tarbuck4:07

This first T V show that went the proverbial bomb. Don't ask me why, but it just did.

Jimmy Tarbuck4:11

And I was in uh a tailor's in Liverpool and he said, I want you to phone me at three o'clock um

Jimmy Tarbuck4:16

on this uh Wednesday afternoon I think it was.

Jimmy Tarbuck4:19

So I said, right, I said, now I said, I want you to be prepared for a shock. So I thought, oh, this is this, he doesn't want to go through with the contract or something like that, you know.

Jimmy Tarbuck4:26

He said you're on Sunday night at the London Palladium on Sunday.

Jimmy Tarbuck4:29

And um

Jimmy Tarbuck4:30

It all went ever so well.

Jimmy Tarbuck4:32

for me that night and uh

Jimmy Tarbuck4:35

when I have down periods, and we all do at times.

Jimmy Tarbuck4:38

I've got a tape of that show and I just sit in my little room at home and put it on the tape recorder and play it. And everything was super. Val Parnell was great. Um

Presenter4:44

Uh

Jimmy Tarbuck4:49

Bruce Forsyth was marvellous, the introduction. Terry Miller was the man who managed me then and still managed me. And a guy called Alec Fyne, I suppose. They were the four people that were really involved with the real big break when it happened in sixty three. And then you found yourself chosen for the Royal Variety Show? Well, that came um in sixty four. And I remember phoning Terry up, I said

Jimmy Tarbuck5:09

When do you ever think I'll get a Roll Command performance? And he's always said there's no chance of that. I'm flying up to Blackpool to see you.

Jimmy Tarbuck5:15

And he flew up. He said, I've got a piece of paper for you. It's bad news.

Jimmy Tarbuck5:18

And, you know, I once again I thought, Oh, dear, what's happened here? and I opened the piece of paper, and there it was. Dear Sir, we have pleasure of informing you that you've been chosen to appear in front of Her Majesty the Queen. Well

Jimmy Tarbuck5:29

But I wasn't allowed to tell anybody because they don't you know, they don't let you tell it well I I was just saying to my mother and father, I've got something smashing to tell you, but I can't tell you yet.

Presenter5:31

You know that

Presenter5:37

And then your own series, it's Starbuck? That was, yes, that was in 1964. Yes. Now you were 23 years old, looking back.

Presenter5:46

Had you the experience to handle it? Could you select the right material, build the character the way you think Tarbag ought to go? Well, to be honest.

Jimmy Tarbuck5:53

Honest with you, at the time, Roy, it was all great fun.

Presenter5:56

Uh

Jimmy Tarbuck5:56

Yeah.

Presenter5:56

Uh

Jimmy Tarbuck5:57

You see the Beatles had arrived.

Jimmy Tarbuck5:59

That's what had really started it, I suppose. And they'd got this great youth cult going, mm, and all of a sudden another fella came on, with the same type of suits, same accent and same hairstyle.

Presenter6:09

Yes.

Jimmy Tarbuck6:09

And uh Zippo Bang, it was marvellous.

Presenter6:12

Wait, did you find yourself pressured very much who had all these agents and

Presenter6:16

big tycoons round you.

Presenter6:18

Not really, because uh

Jimmy Tarbuck6:19

Yeah.

Presenter6:20

Yeah.

Jimmy Tarbuck6:20

Terry did it all, like the business, and always has done and always will do because I he

Presenter6:21

Mm-hmm.

Jimmy Tarbuck6:25

Now he calls me lazy and everything becau because I uh he's laughing in there,'cause I don't want to know about it. I just tell him he he always says to me, like, you know, you're appearing here Oh, he doesn't say, he says, Will you appear you know, fancy this, fancy that But I never go to none of the meetings, you know, not n not not directly. I let him set them all up and then I go along.

Presenter6:42

And then you became the resident compere of Sunday Night at the London.

Jimmy Tarbuck6:45

Oh, well that was you see, it was all like magic. It w it went from one to two to three and then the ne the next step up was in sixty five and they made me compare at the palladium.

Jimmy Tarbuck6:55

And that was Bingo. Well, it was the thing that put me into national prominence without uh shadow of a doubt.

Presenter7:01

Now, Jimmy, you'd done forty-four consecutive Sunday nights at the Palladium in a row. As you said, a national figure, but uh I should think good and overexposed. This was a time when your career had to be planned. What happened next?

Jimmy Tarbuck7:12

Well, we uh

Jimmy Tarbuck7:14

He did manage to get me in the office one day, did the mill, as I called him.

Jimmy Tarbuck7:17

And he said, Well, what do you think? I said, I don't want no television for eighteen months.

Jimmy Tarbuck7:22

And I stayed off.

Jimmy Tarbuck7:24

I worked. I worked, you know, very hard. Of course a lot of the public, and uh, God bless'em.

Jimmy Tarbuck7:29

They're under the impression, you know, that if you don't if you're not on tele, you're not working. But of course you are.

Presenter7:33

Of course you are.

Jimmy Tarbuck7:35

And um I worked in some

Presenter7:37

Summer seasons and and pantomimes.

Jimmy Tarbuck7:39

Yeah.

Presenter7:39

Yeah.

Jimmy Tarbuck7:39

Yeah.

Presenter7:39

Is your career planning out the way you'd want it? Is there any further ambition? Do you want to change it in any other direction?

Jimmy Tarbuck7:46

Well, I think I'm thinking of making a comeback.

Jimmy Tarbuck7:49

Yeah.

Presenter7:49

Uh Great.

Jimmy Tarbuck7:50

Hey f

Jimmy Tarbuck7:53

I was at school with George Harrison and John Lennon for a while. Mm-hmm. See you down in the cabin. Oh yes, I used to go and see them there. Yeah, so you know, I mean, it was very exciting times. Mhm. People have often said to me, you know, i if you could have your success like it's been for you

Jimmy Tarbuck8:08

Would you have it from twenty to thirty, thirty to forty, forty to fifty, or, you know, or give it me when I'm twenty to thirty, man, because like you can enjoy it so much and I have enjoyed it. I've had a very exciting

Presenter8:16

Because like you can

Jimmy Tarbuck8:21

Twenties