Harry Worth

Harry Worth is probably one of the more unlikely of great British comedians. He was born with a name as eccentric sounding as the character he eventually became known as, Harry Bourlon Illingsworth.

Born in Yorkshire in 1917, his early career was like that of many a Yorkshireman at the time, he worked as a miner. He started off as an amateur entertainer, from entertaining as a schoolboy to throwing voices whilst working down t'pit, he entered talent competitions and by the time he was 21 was earning enough to become professional.

As with a lot of his generation his career was stalled by the war but after a stint in the RAF the comedy took off in the early 50s. His initial career was largely as a ventriloquist, with dummies Fotheringay and Clarence. Whilst touring with Laurel & Hardy's British tour in 1952 and again for the 1953/4 tour. Oliver Hardy persuaded Harry to change his act so that it had a smaller amount of ventriloquism and more comedy without the dummy. Eventually Worth dropped the ventriloquism altogether. When he subsequently appeared alone and without a dummy for support he was very nervous, yet similar to contemporary Frankie Howerd he managed to capitalise on his nervousness for comic effect that was a big hit with audiences. His avuncular nature was a refreshing change to the more brash style of other comedians.

Steady work throughout the early 50s led to a discovery by tv producer Johnny Ammonds (most known now for producing Morecambe & Wise shows), this resulted in television work and eventually his own TV series,  The Trouble With Harry, then "Here's Harry" and later simply "Harry Worth". The picture above was in the opening credits to the programme and became an epidemic for watchers of the series, there's plenty who still do it today. The sequence was filmed in St Annes Square, Manchester in a store that is now Starbucks. A quick look through YouTube shows a number of videos of various people "Doing a Harry Worth", I dare you not to laugh at this Herbert



Harry Worth appeared in sitcoms playing characters called Harry Worth regularly between 1960 and 1980, he remains a British institution, not only for his messing about in a shop window but for the character he played so well. The character was at odds with the world and constantly exasperated by the world, but unlike Victor Meldrew in One Foot in The Grave it never got him down and he remained his pleasant self throughout. His ability to take what ever the world threw at him was and like Wile E. Coyote in his pursuit of the Roadrunner, the more he took it, the funnier it became.

His final series in 1980, Oh Happy Band was written by the writers of Are You Being Served and Allo Allo, but sadly only ran for 6 episodes and is not remembered as  Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft's finest work. Harry Worth died in July 1989.