Our Maurice knows what’s comedy magic B

ILL Maynard, another of my comedy heroes, passed away last week, in a year that has already seen the deaths of Jim Bowen and Sir Ken Dodd.

Somehow it seems more pertinent when those who made us laugh eventually take their final curtain without chance of an encore. It also prompts us to look back at their careers with a chuckle.

Maynard packed a lot into his life, but two roles summed him up best for me.

The first was as the accident prone council workman in Oh No It’s Selwyn Froggitt that was filmed in Skelmanthorpe and ran from 1974 to 1978.

The pilot was written by Roy Clarke of Summer Wine fame, and the first three series by Alan Plater.

The second character of note was Claude Jeremiah Greengrass in Heartbeat.

One was a loveable loser, the other a loveable rogue.

Heartbeat continues to get reruns but Selwyn Froggitt seems to have slipped into the long grass of television archives. Come to think of it, so have many other comedy series that made me laugh at the time.

Some programmes, such as Love Thy Neighbour, rightly fall foul of political correctness, even as period pieces.

The same could be said for the brilliant Johnny Speight’s Till Death Do Us Part, although Alf Garnett did more for breaking down prejudice than government legislation.

And what about In Loving Memory, Home To Roost, Citizen Smith, Only When I Laugh and Get Some In?

Whatever teenagers of 50 years ago in Please Sir?

They made me laugh then; would they make me laugh now?

Old movies have a niche channel in Talking Pictures that re-runs films that would otherwise not get a screening, plus quirky shorts that show pre-war and post-war UK life.

But there doesn’t seem to be a dedicated channel for British comedy series like Selwyn Froggitt.

On my shelves, I have boxed sets of Summer Wine, Allo Allo and Oh Dr Beeching! and they still tickle my funny bone.

As for Selwyn, I’ve sent for the four-disc boxed set in his memory.

Why? Because it was magic, our Maurice.