Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An entertainer who for over fifty years played the part of the plucky little man who wins against the odds.
On the island
Eight records
Don't Laugh at Me ('Cause I'm a Fool)Favourite
I did a nice song doing my first film, Travel in Store, and Patty Carstairs, the director, said, I wish we had a song ... And that was Don't Laugh at Me which I had written and which I'm very proud of.
I love to hear really marvellous voices like Mario Lanza, if he could do the the drinking song.
It's one of my favourites because it's a lovely melody and nice lyrics and I did it in a film called Follow a Star.
Nancy (With the Laughing Face)
You know, one of my favourite singers. Beautiful voice, clarity of diction and, well, Frank Sinatra, the best ever.
Gracie Fields, of course, the star of your next record actually. She gave you a boost along the way, didn't she?
Oh, what falling in love? Well that's that's um very romantic in an amusing sort of way.
Norman Wisdom and Joyce Grenfell
I was recording Don't Laugh at Me and there was a very nice lady called Joyce Grenville who was recording in the next studio ... and we started laughing about together ... and you know a couple of days later we did.
I was thinking about writing songs and I suddenly thought about why don't I have a song about writing a song. I think it's got a nice melody, a nice rhythm and the lyrics are alright.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:16Didn't you break all the vases last time you went to Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle?
I did a sh a sh private show at Windsor Castle and the the front of the stage was bedecked with flowers in vases ... and I turned round and I walked up the stairs backwards but I I missed the steps and fell in all the vases and she screamed with laughter.
Presenter asks
6:51How did [the character Norman Pitkin] come into being? When did you create him?
At the Spa Theatre of Scarborough in in 47. And I was sharing a dressing room with a conjurer, and he said to me, Hey, Norman, I've got an idea ... I went into town and I sort of an Oxfam type of shop and I bought a little tight-fitting second-hand suit for thirty shillings and a cap for one shilling.
Presenter asks
11:30Why on earth would you decide to [walk to Cardiff to become a miner]?
I had a job as a as a commie waiter ... I dropped the breakfast tray down the lift shaft ... He he I remember he looked at me and he said, Look, if I get you another job, will you leave? ... So you've always been naturally accident prone ... that waiter got me a job as a page boy, which was a boring job ... and one of them said to me one day ... Why don't we w go and work down the mine ... and we did walk all the way to Cardiff.
The keepsakes
The book
Paul Brickhill
That is a wonderful story. It's about a pilot in the war who had lost his legs and still flew and brought down so many German planes and is as marvellous, bravest man I've ever read about.
The luxury
Presenter asks
16:20When was the moment when you said to yourself, I've had enough of this, I'm really going to make something happen for myself?
I didn't know any different really. I'd never had good food or b brought up and all and everything. It wasn't till I got into the army that that things began to happen. And I owe everything to the army.
Presenter asks
17:49What was the point then at which you suddenly realized you could make people laugh?
We suddenly did a show at the officers' mess ... And I was doing the tap dance and the officers started to laugh ... So I danced and I deliberately tripped. And they laughed louder. So I thought, oh, right, so I tripped and I fell over and they screamed with laughter ... and suddenly I thought to myself, wait a minute, hey, they're laughing, that's it, comedy
Presenter asks
24:18Did you ever find your mother again, the mother who walked out on you when you were nine?
I was doing a show at the Cambridge Theatre in 51 ... suddenly there was a voice right up from the gods up the top, shouting out Norman Wisdom ... and the stage doorkeeper came round and said, Norman, there's a lady would like to see you. And he brought the lady in, and it was my mother. It was my mother.
“Those six years I did in India were the happiest time of my life ever.”
“That's the only time I remember crying, really.”
“I walked down the front steps, and I turned round, and he slammed the door in my face, and I said, I'll never see you again, ever.”