Colin Crompton & Ray Alan

COLIN CROMPTON d1985. English stand up comedian from Lancashire who found fame on Granada TVs The Comedians during the early 1970s. He is best known however for being "the club chairman" on The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club between 1974-1977. This was an attempt by producer Johnnie Hamp to reproduce the atmosphere of the working mens clubs in a television studio. Crompton was famous for ringing a hand-operated fire alarm bell and then telling the audience to "give order" when making announcements from "the committee" in between acts. He wrote his own scripts, with occasional additions by Neil Shand. A favourite moment during the programme was when he rang his bell to interrupt (Lord Charles ventriloquist Ray Alan d2010) halfway through his act ; "... excuse me Mr. Allen we've had some complaints that they can't quite hear you at the back. Could you hold your dummy a little closer to the microphone please?" This particular joke, like the character of the club chairman itself, owed a heavy debt to (faulty microphone comedian Norman Collier d2013). Colin Crompton died of lung cancer aged just 54 in 1985.