Jimmy James

Jimmy James on the left with long time foil Eli Woods.

Being born in Stockton on Tees in 1892 puts James as a contemporary of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel yet James remained in the UK where his stage, radio and even film output led to him having legendary status.

His stage career started as a singer rather than a comic, it wasn't until 1925 that he ventured into comedy.

His first comedy break came when he replaced Jimmy Basso (no idea!) and his rate of pay increased by 50% from £8/week to £12, his next step up came when he replaced a young Max Miller who had insisted on an extra £2/week and been turned down.

By the 1940s he was more established as a comedian and introduced 2 stooges to his act, characters named Hutton Conyers and Bretton (later Eli) Woods. These 2 characters were usually played by members of James' family, his nephew Jack Casey was the long time Eli, Hutton Conyers was played by others including James' son Jimmy Casey (later a BBC light entertainment executive) and Roy Castle.

James' performance style had some similarities to Jack Benny using pauses for increased comic effect. Despite being a teetotaller James was often portraying a drunk to great comic effect, James' drunk was always oblivious to his insobriety and his attempts to conduct himself in a sober manner was the source of the comedy.

James' main vice was gambling and he was notorious for mishandling money and was declared bankrupt three times. His love of horse racing was such that he would often arrange gigs to coincide with race meetings in the area.

In the book Look Back With Laughter TV producer Mike Craig writes of James' unique stage style "he smoked a cigarette in a way I've never seen a cigarette smoked before or since. He waved it about in the air as though his right arm was being worked by a puppeteer."

In his act James was the everyman, his foils represented the known and the unknown, both of whom were idiots. His infamous "box sketch' can be seen further down, a classic sketch representative of James' style and unique voice. Whilst James had frameworks for his set piece sketches there were no scripts and the sketches changed and evolved with every audience. The style of conversation between James and his foils has often been imitated, notably between Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, Morecambe was a big fan and freely admitted to using James' material "as a tribute and because it is very funny, but mainly because it's very funny".

James also made some movies for Mancunian Studios, notably playing the husband of Norman Evans' over the top female character in Over The Garden Wall, a strange film that had few highlights, the notable ones were scenes featuring Jimmy.

He was also very successful on radio, with many series to his name. TV didn't quite do him justice, an early sitcom attempt being with Bernard Bresslaw as the young boxer to James' manager. TV sitcom wasn't the ideal place for a man who was not used to learning lines, more at home with having a rough outline and seeing where that took him, always ready to adlib, unusually this was how films were made at Mancunian Studios and why that was a better environment for him.



and the 'drunk sketch' recreated in Over The Garden Wall






and here's an earlier version of The Box sketch