Radio Fun got off to an odd start, putting a non-radio character (Roy Wilson's 'George the Jolly Gee-Gee') on the colour front page; this lasted a few months before George was replaced by Arthur Askey from Band Waggon, where "Big-hearted" Arthur was teamed with Richard "Stinker" Murdoch. The show only ran for 52 episodes in three short series between 1938 and 1939, but was so popular that it became a film and stage show in 1940; Arthur's move from back cover to front cover reflected his popularity in Radio Fun.
Tommy Handley also began as a strip in the early 1940s, but took over the cover in around 1945, by which time Handley was firmly established as a top radio attraction, starring in ITMA (It's That Man Again). It almost never happened, as the first series had to be abandoned when war broke out. It restarted a few week's later, but in a revamped format that really took off.
Radio Fun included dozens of now forgotten stars like Sandy Powell, Duggie Wakefield and the duo Haver and Lee; but it also featured Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon, Kenneth Horne, Petula Clark, Gracie Fields, Peter Brough, Arthur English, Benny Hill and Norman Wisdom, plus singing trio The Beverley Sisters. Listeners to Radio 4 Extra should recognise most of those names.
For adventure, readers had text stories starring Inspector Stanley "The man with a thousand secrets", who battled a remarkable criminal known as The Falcon. The Falcon eventually escaped Stanley's clutches to star in his own comic strip. Shirley Eaton, before she became James Bond's golden girl, was an adventuress, caught up in—and solving—countless crimes. 'Jane X' also began as a text series that turned into a comic strip, replacing Shirley Eaton.
As with all of Clark's books, this one is filled with brief biographies of artists and artistes, so even the most obscure radio star will be an old friend by the end of the book. It's another marvelous volume from the prolific and entertaining writer of a dozen other volumes, often covering comics from the Victorian and Edwardian ages.
A Ridge of High Laughter! The Wonderful World of Radio Fun by Alan Clark
Alan Clark [no ISBN], (October) 2023, 302pp, £30.00 including p&p. Available via Ebay, where you will also find other titles that are still available. This includes an updated edition of Clark's book about the works of C. H. Ross, Sugar-Plums & Tootletum, with an additional 20 pages.
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