James Joseph Tarbuck (born 6 February 1940) is an English comedian, singer, actor, entertainer and game show host. He was a host of ''

Sunday Night at the London Palladium ''Tonight at the London Palladium'' is a British television variety show that is hosted from the London Palladium theatre in the West End. Originally produced by ATV for the ITV network from 1955 to 1969, it went by its original name ''Sunday ...

'' in the mid-1960s, and hosted numerous game shows and quiz shows on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. He is also known for leading ITV's ''

Live From Her Majesty's ''Live from...'' was a Sunday night live entertainment variety show, variety television show that aired on ITV (TV network), ITV from 16 January 1983 to 27 November 1988 and was hosted by Jimmy Tarbuck. It was broadcast live from a theatre in ...

'' and its subsequent incarnations during the 1980s. Actress and television and

radio presenter A radio personality (American English) or radio presenter (British English) is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host, and in India and Pakistan as a rad ...

Liza Tarbuck Liza Tarbuck ( ; born 21 November 1964) is an English actress, comedian, and television and radio presenter. Early life Liza Tarbuck was born in Liverpool. She is the daughter of comedian Jimmy Tarbuck and his wife Pauline, with an older siste ...

is his daughter.

Biography

Tarbuck was born in

Wavertree Wavertree is a district of Liverpool, England. It is a ward of Liverpool City Council, and its population at the 2011 census was 14,772. Located to the south and east of the city centre, it is bordered by various districts and suburbs such as ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, on 6 February 1940. He has an older brother (William) and his parents, Ada McLoughlin (aka Ada Hannagan) and Joseph Frederick Tarbuck, married in March 1947. He attended Dovedale Primary School in Liverpool, where he was a schoolmate of

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

. His first television show was ''It's Tarbuck '65!'' on

in 1964, though he had been introduced on

in October 1963 by

Bruce Forsyth Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson (22 February 1928 – 18 August 2017) was a British entertainer and presenter whose career spanned more than 70 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the ITV series ''Sunday Night ...

. He then replaced Forsyth as the last original host of the show from 1965 until it was axed in 1967. He has also hosted numerous quiz shows, including '' Winner Takes All'', '' Full Swing'', and '' Tarby's Frame Game''. In the early 1970s he hosted a variety show '' Tarbuck's Luck'' on the BBC. In the 1980s, he hosted similar Sunday night

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...

s, ''

'', '' Live from the Piccadilly'' and finally '' Live from the Palladium'', which were produced by

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 unt ...

for ITV. He appeared on the fourth series of

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

's ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 ...

'' in 2006, but was forced to pull out due to high blood pressure, and needed surgery to fit stents in his heart. In 2008, he returned to a variety format on television screens when he co-hosted, alongside

Emma Bunton Emma Lee Bunton (born 21 January 1976) is an English singer, songwriter, actress, and media personality. She rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Baby Spice. With over 100 million recor ...

, an edition of

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

's variety show ''For One Night Only''. He appeared on ''

Piers Morgan's Life Stories ''Kate Garraway's Life Stories'' (formerly known as ''Piers Morgan's Life Stories'' until 2021) is a British television chat show on ITV1, presented by Kate Garraway and was formerly presented by Piers Morgan. Recorded in front of a studio aud ...

'' on 25 May 2012, while on 3 December that year he was invited to celebrate 100 years of the

Royal Variety Performance The ''Royal Variety Performance'' is a televised variety show held annually in the United Kingdom to raise money for the Royal Variety Charity (of which King Charles III is life-patron). It is attended by senior members of the British royal f ...

along with

Ronnie Corbett Ronald Balfour Corbett (4 December 1930 – 31 March 2016) was a Scottish actor, broadcaster, comedian and writer. He had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the BBC television comedy sketch show ''The Two Ronnies''. He achieved promine ...

and

Des O'Connor Desmond Bernard O'Connor (12 January 1932 – 14 November 2020) was an English comedian, singer and television presenter. He was a long-time TV chat-show host, beginning with ''The Des O'Connor Show'' in 1963, which ran for ten years. He a ...

. Tarbuck made a ''Comedy Playhouse'' pilot for the BBC in 1967, acting in

Johnny Speight Johnny Speight (2 June 1920 – 5 July 1998) was an English television scriptwriter of many classic British sitcoms. He emerged in the mid-1950s. He wrote for radio comics Frankie Howerd, Vic Oliver, Arthur Askey, and Cyril Fletcher. For tele ...

's ''To Lucifer, A Son'' alongside

John Le Mesurier John Le Mesurier (, born John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley; 5 April 191215 November 1983) was an English actor. He is perhaps best remembered for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC television situation co ...

and

Pat Coombs Patricia Doreen Coombs (27 August 1926 – 25 May 2002) was an English actress. She specialised in the portrayal of the eternal downtrodden female, comically under the thumb of stronger personalities. She was known for many roles on radio, ...

, but a series was not commissioned. His only other acting credit was in a 1993 episode of police comedy '' The Detectives'', playing the straight role of Johnny McKenna, an international arms dealer who liked to conduct his business on the

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

course. In October 2015, Tarbuck and

starred in their own one-off show at the London Palladium to raise money for the new

Royal Variety Charity The Royal Variety Charity is a British charity based in Twickenham, London, England. It is dedicated to giving support to those who have professionally served the entertainment industry and find themselves sick, impoverished or elderly. The char ...

. During the following two years they toured clubs and theatres around the UK with his comedy show, and sometimes as a double act with

Kenny Lynch Kenneth Lynch, OBE (18 March 1938 – 18 December 2019) was an English singer, songwriter, entertainer, and actor. He appeared in many variety shows in the 1960s. At the time, he was among the few black singers in British pop music. He was app ...

Personal life

Tarbuck married Pauline (''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Carfoot) in 1959. His best man was footballer Bobby Campbell. The couple live in

Coombe, Kingston upon Thames Coombe is a historic neighbourhood in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in south west London, England. It sits on high ground, east of Norbiton. Most of the area was part of the former Municipal Borough of Malden and Coombe before local ...

, London, and have three children: Cheryl (born in 1960), Liza (born in 1964), and James (born in 1968). Tarbuck has often been nicknamed 'Tarby'. He is a

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

supporter, and at the height of his celebrity was a prominent supporter of

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

and her policies, baking her a cake to celebrate her 60th birthday in October 1985. Tarbuck is well-known as a keen player of golf, and was prominent as a competitor in pro-celebrity golf matches when these were televised. In February 2020, Tarbuck revealed that, the day after his 80th birthday, he had been diagnosed with

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

Discography

Albums

*''Jimmy Tarbuck'' (

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

, 1968) *''Having a Party'' (Wonderful, 1980, Jimmy Tarbuck &

) *''Jimmy Tarbuck'' (Clam Records)

Singles and EPs

*"Someday" / "Wastin' Time" ( Immediate, 1965) *"Stewball" / "When My Little Girl Is Smiling" (Philips, 1967) *"Doctor Dolittle" (

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

, 1967) *"Your Cheatin' Heart" (Parlophone, 1968) *"There's No Such Thing as Love" (RCA Victor, 1968) *"You Wanted Someone to Play With" (RCA Victor, 1969) *"Lucky Jim" / "Run to Him" (

Bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

, 1972) *"Follow the Fairway" / "Lee Trevino" (EMI, 1976)† *"Let's Have a Party" (Laser, 1979, with Kenny Lynch) *"Let's Have a Party" (Towerbell, 1982, EP with Kenny Lynch) *"Again" (

Safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...

, 1985) †Credited to 'The Caddies' (

Henry Cooper Sir Henry Cooper (3 May 19341 May 2011) was a British heavyweight boxer, best remembered internationally for a 1963 fight in which he knocked down a young Cassius Clay before the fight was stopped because of a cut eye from Clay's punches. Coo ...

, Tony Dalli,

, Kenny Lynch,

Glen Mason Glen Orin Mason (born April 9, 1950) is a former American football player and coach. Mason served as the head football coach at Kent State University from 1986 to 1987, the University of Kansas from 1988 to 1996, and the University of Minnesota ...

Ed Stewart Edward Stewart Mainwaring (23 April 1941 – 9 January 2016), known as Ed "Stewpot" Stewart, was an English radio broadcaster and TV presenter. He was principally known for his work as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 (particularly the Saturday morning ''Ju ...

, Jimmy Tarbuck)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tarbuck, Jimmy 1940 births Living people 20th-century English comedians 21st-century English comedians Butlins Redcoats Comedians from Liverpool Conservative Party (UK) people English game show hosts English male singers English radio presenters English stand-up comedians Officers of the Order of the British Empire Television presenters from Liverpool