Mike Craig
Family name: Craig
Work area/Craft/Role: Writer
Industry: Film, Radio, TV, Theatre
Company: BBC
Websites: mikecraigcomedyman
Interview date(s): 7 March 2000
Interviewer(s): Denis Gifford, Manny Yospa
Production Media: audio
Behp0472-mike-craig-summary
NB: this summary mainly covers names of people -often from the North of England – that Mike recalls working with and writing for.
SIDE ONE
Born Batley, Yorkshire, 1935. Schooling: Hanging Heaton Church of England School. Derek Harrison; Eastborough Dewsbury; Betty Boothroyd, Eddy Waring. 11 scholarship to Wheelwright Grammar School; Theatre. Mother a hairdresser; Carlton Dance Band run by father. Blackout. Dewsbury Empire, Albert Modley On with the Modley; Merry Arcadians; Happidrome; Doris, Up for The Cup; unhappy family life.
Dewsbury choir Moot Hall, Church pantomime, Mr Clerihugh; Joe Black, Harry Shiels, Harry Hanson, The Saxon Players; Richard Vernon, Garrard Green, Anthony Nelwey, Douglas Hayes, David Gordon; Bobby Howes, Robert Beatty; Marie Burke; Jimmy Handley, Dinah Sheridan; Dewsbury Empire, Dr Ferguson, Accountants, Batley Amateur Thespian Society; RAF at 18; Len Sinnot [?], Dance Band, Freckleton, Bonfire Burlesque.
SIDE TWO
Down Your Way; Paddy Garland; 1955 Back to accounts; Our Miss Gibbs £25 radio show 1953; Huntley & Palmers; son – Phil Craig; Variety Club, Batley; James Corrigan; Laurie Kingsley, Wilfred Pickles double act, 1964. Honor Blackman; Yorkshire Post; Jack Platt, Guisborough; Ray Fell, Colin Clewes; Alec Fine; TV; Freddie Davies; Golden Pilot Club; James Casey; Jeff Lawrence; Morecambe and Wise; Barbara Knox; Harry Worth; Eric Morecambe; Ernest Binns; David O’dea; Des O’Connor; ATV; Radio Tarbuck; Thames TV; Les Chatfield; 1976 Morecambe & Wise, producer; Bill Maynard; Al Read; writing comedy, North East accent; Bobby Thompson; David Hatch, producing.
SIDE THREE
Grumbleweeds/Fred Fibber, Bernie Clifton; Variety Club; Bob Oliver Rogers; The Winners; Bob Hoskins; Waiting for God; Rob Naylor and Doug Grant Red Dwarf; Ballard Berkeley; retirement, then recalled .
END
Mike Craig was born in Batley, Yorkshire, on 11th March 1935. Educated at Wheelwright Grammar School, Dewsbury, he was an audit clerk, a printer in the RAF, a sales rep for Huntley and Palmer's, and most famously a prolific comedy writer for television and radio. He started writing seriously in 1964 and was responsible for writing and producing more than 1,200 comedy shows for radio and television. They included series for Ken Dodd, Roy Castle, Harry Worth, Al Reid, Mike Yarwood, Des O'Connor, Tom O'Connor, Jimmy Tarbuck, Bernie Clifton, Gorden Kaye and Morecambe and Wise. It was Craig who wrote the famous sketch on Morecambe and Wise's 1976 Christmas show in which Angela Rippon began reading the news in a serious manner before launching into a high-kicking dance routine.
He became a BBC staff producer in 1977, going on to create several successful radio comedy series. After retiring from the BBC in 1993, Mike devoted his time to organising comedy cruises and performing his ABC of Comedy, in which he exploited his encyclopedic knowledge of British comedians and his talent for voices and comic timing. He died on 28th October 2010 from Pick's disease, a rare illness leading to dementia.
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