Today marks 61 years since comedian Freddie Davies's debut on TV talent show Opportunity Knocks - and eleven since the publication of his autobiography Funny Bones, which tells the story of that life-changing experience.
Freddie's big break came at the end of a week which had begun with the comic at his lowest ebb, struggling through an audience participation show in Dunoon, in Scotland. An article in The Stage had claimed he was leading his own troupe, but in fact it was just Freddie and a pianist called Tom, dying twice daily (except Sunday) in an open air theatre near where the ferries docked: "It was called 'Fun With Freddie', and if a few lost souls – kids, dripping wet dogs and some well known local drunks – did happen along to see what all the noise was about, they would be confronted at the end of the show by council operatives from the bin department taking up a collection in tins."
The full story of his leap from ignominy to stardom, taking him from Dunoon to Didsbury, the Manchester suburb where Opportunity Knocks was recorded, can be found in his autobiography Funny Bones, what I cowrote; click on the image of the book to the top right of this blog to find out more.
In the meantime, here's a taster from elsewhere in the book, describing his attempt to incorporate a budgie routine into a summer show with less than optimal results; click on the images below to enlarge if you can't read them.
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