Comic who kept kids chuckling Barry Elliott
BEFORE finding fame as one half of the Chuckle Brothers, Barry Elliott, along with his younger brother Paul, spent years touring working men’s clubs as the Harman Brothers, performing to hard-toimpress audiences.
During one performance in front of a particularly hostile audience, Barry had a eureka moment: “If no one over the age of eight likes us, then sod ‘em, we’ll target the tots.”
After a rebranding exercise the pair went on to star in one of Britain’s most popular and long-running children’s TV shows ChuckleVision.
Wherever they went their infamous catchphrase, “To me, to you” would follow them and their “simple humour everyone can laugh at” earned the Chuckle Brothers a special Children’s Bafta award for their contribution to children’s TV.
Born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, Barry was one of eight siblings. His father James was a performer who, under the guise of Gene Patton, entertained servicemen in the Far East during the war and his mother Amy was a dancer.
Growing up in showbiz circles, Barry was inspired by his two eldest brothers, Brian and Jimmy, who found success as the Patton Brothers in the 1950s.
Along with Paul, Barry would get a taste for the entertainer lifestyle by staying in resorts when he accompanied Brian and Jimmy on
BORN DECEMBER 24, 1944 DIED AUGUST 5, 2018, AGED 73
tour. As children Barry and Paul would put on shows in the backyard for other children and for a time joined a circus where they worked as clowns.
In 1963 the pair made their stage debut as the Harman Brothers at the Edinburgh Palladium but their comedy double-act fell flat.
Four years later they won the TV talent show Opportunity Knocks as The Chuckles and later found success on the ITV show New Faces in 1974.
After a lull in activity the duo attracted attention by appearing in the 1980 show The Good Old Days and game show 3-2-1.
However the brothers were disheartened once again when an Easter show with the ventriloquist Ward Allen only pulled a crowd of 28 people. Little did they know that among them was Allen’s producer who was keen to sign them up and in 1985 the comedy partners starred on the CBBC mime show Chuckle Hounds, aimed at pre-school children.
Yet their big break came in 1987 when they debuted ChuckleVision on the BBC. Every episode the brothers would undertake a new job or adventure, with older brothers Brian and Jimmy making regular appearances.
Both Barry and Paul sported spiky hairstyles and bushy moustaches but Barry was the smaller of the two, always the clown and always came off worse in their slapstick routines.
The show proved immensely popular, running for 21 series, and when it ended in 2009 an online petition attracted 200,000 signatures calling for the show to continue. To the disappointment of many the BBC did not concede.
After falling into relative obscurity for the next five years, the Chuckle Brothers staged a comeback in 2014 when they released charity single To Me, To You (Bruv) with UK rapper Tinchy Stryder, a die-hard fan who used to run home from school in time to catch ChuckleVision.
The song was an internet sensation and propelled the brothers back into the limelight. TV producers came knocking and the Elliotts appeared in a raft of shows including Celebrity Coach Trip, Celebrity Pointless, Benidorm and – in April of this year – Channel 5 announced the launch of a brand new series, Chuckle Time.
Alongside his extensive TV work, Barry joined Paul every year on the pantomime circuit, completing more than 50 consecutive seasons playing hapless henchmen.
He died following a long battle with cancer and is survived by his wife Ann, to whom he was married for 45 years, son Barrington and daughter Carrie.