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Norman Collier (25 December 1925 – 14 March 2013) was a British comedian who achieved popularity following television appearances in the 1970s. He was best known for his 'faulty microphone' routine and for his chicken impressions.


Career and reputation

Collier was born in Hull,
East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, into the working-class family of Thomas and Mary (née Dowling) Collier on Christmas Day, 1925, weighing 15 lb 4 oz. He grew up in the centre of Hull as the eldest of eight children. At age 17, Collier joined the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
and served as a gunner towards the end of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. After being demobilised he found work as a labourer. In 1948, while he was visiting Hull's Perth Street West club, an act failed to turn up, and Collier volunteered to fill in. He felt natural on stage and started to work a few local clubs. While working at BP's chemical factory in
Salt End Salt End or Saltend is a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness. It is situated on the north bank of the Humber Estuary just outside the Hull eastern boundary on the A1033 road. It forms part of the civi ...
, east of Hull, Collier started making his workmates laugh with improvised comic routines during breaks (and all too often outside them). Encouraged by his managers, he started to work the wider northern working club scene, becoming a full-time comic in 1962 and enjoying steady success through the 1960s. He got his initial break at Hull's Perth Street club when a scheduled comedian failed to show, and Collier raised his hand when an audience volunteer was requested. After a positive experience he decided to seek a career in entertainment. He initially began working the local clubs around Hull and further inland in
Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. According to the 2011 UK census, Goole parish had a population of 19,518, an increa ...
. It was at one of these clubs that he heard the bingo caller using a microphone that kept cutting out; this inspired the broken microphone routine. In 1970, he won a
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series called ''Ace of Clubs'', in which club entertainers were pitted against each other, performing their full routines in front of a panel of judges. Collier easily won the final by a unanimous decision of the panel. He came to national media attention after a successful appearance at the Royal Variety Command Performance in 1971. Though occasionally appearing on television thereafter, he made his main reputation on the northern club circuit, and was highly regarded by many fellow comics (notably
Frank Carson Hugh Francis Carson KSG (6 November 1926  – 22 February 2012) was a Northern Irish comedian and actor from Belfast. He was best known for being a regular face on television for many years from the 1970s onwards, appearing in series su ...
,
Les Dawson Leslie Dawson Jr. (2 February 1931 – 10 June 1993) was an English comedian, actor, writer, and presenter, who is best remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife. Early life Les Dawson w ...
, and
Little and Large ''Little and Large'' were a British comedy double act comprising straight man Syd Little (born Cyril John Mead; 19 December 1942) and comic Eddie Large (born Edward Hugh McGinnis; 25 June 1941 – 2 April 2020). Comedy duo They formed their p ...
, who were regular house guests).
Jimmy Tarbuck 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'' in the mid-1960s, and hosted numerous game shows and quiz shows on ITV ...
dubbed him 'the comedian's comedian'. To casual television viewers, he was best known for two routines: one in the guise of a northern club compere whose microphone is working intermittently; another adopting the noises, gestures and movements of a chicken, using his outturned jacket to suggest the fowl's wings. He was the originator of the 'club chairman' character later popularised by
Colin Crompton George Colin Crompton (22 June 1931 – 24 August 1985) was an English stand-up comedian. Biography Crompton, born in Manchester, Lancashire, found fame on the Granada Television programme '' The Comedians'' in the early 1970s. Before his b ...
in the ITV series ''Wheeltappers and Shunters Club''. The 'soundbite' demands of television work never reflected the detailed and large-scale routines that have characterised Collier's club work and which brought him enormous success through the 1970s and 1980s. (He was never a participant, for example, in the 1970s ITV series '' The Comedians''.)


Style

Collier's style was very much in the traditional northern-comic school, based on absurdist situational monologues rather than a 'series of jokes', and showed a notable influence of the 1950s star Al Read. Unlike some comedians of the 1970s, Collier's zany set-pieces often drew on northern working-class archetypes.


Personal life and death

Collier lived in Welton, a village west of Hull. He was married to Lucy, and together they had three children, several grandchildren, and a growing number of great-grandchildren. His autobiography, entitled ''Just a Job'', was published in 2009. He died on 14 March 2013, aged 87, after a long battle with
Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
. His funeral service took place on 27 March 2013 at St Helen's Church,
Welton, East Riding of Yorkshire Welton (or Welton with Melton) is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The parish extends to the bank of the Humber Estuary at its southern extreme, and into the Yorkshire Wolds in the northern part. The A63 road ...
and was attended by many fellow comedians including
Russ Abbot Russ Abbot (born Russell Allan Roberts; 18 September 1947) is an English musician, comedian and actor. Born in Chester, he first came to public notice during the 1970s as the singer and drummer with British comedy showband the Black Abbots, la ...
, Roy Hudd,
Tommy Cannon Thomas Derbyshire (born 27 June 1938), known professionally as Tommy Cannon, is an English comic, actor and singer. He is best known as the straight man of the comic double act Cannon and Ball, until Bobby Ball's death in 2020, in TV programm ...
and
Bobby Ball Robert Harper (28 January 1944 – 28 October 2020), known professionally as Bobby Ball, was a British comic, actor, singer and television host. He was best known as a member of the comic double act Cannon and Ball, with Tommy Cannon (Thomas ...
.


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Collier, Norman 1925 births 2013 deaths Royal Navy personnel of World War II English male comedians Comedians from Yorkshire Place of death missing Neurological disease deaths in England Deaths from Parkinson's disease Male actors from Kingston upon Hull