Ceddie could make dying on screen into an artform
I WAS watching a Tv drama the other night and thought of huddersfield’s late and much missed King of Comedy Ceddie Beaumont.
how we could do with his sense of humour in these pandemic days.
On the screen, a lifeless corpse was being placed into a body bag. A close-up and the bag was zipped up and I thought of Ceddie. What a way to earn money. I could do that, I thought. Ceddie did.
As well as being a brilliant stand-up of the old school, he was a television actor who was a background player in the Aidensfield Arms in heartbeat for many years. I could do that, as well, I thought at the time.
Sit there, sipping ale. he was happy with the role and so were the rest of the cast: he kept them entertained in between takes.
One of his early parts was in Coronation Street where he saved the life of Deirdre. he was the driver of a furniture van who stopped her attempted suicide as she contemplated leaping from a bridge onto a motorway.
“The scene gave the impression she was going to jump. Mind, the money they get, I don’t think there was much danger,” he said.
Ceddie appeared in many series, including Where The heart Is and last of the Summer Wine. he phoned one day and said: “I’m in Dalziel and Pascoe.
“Just got the script. You can have it if you want.”
he had encouraged me to write for Tv although I never did.
I had tried once when I was 18 in the days when Tv was gas powered and cranked by a handle. My script had been rejected. however, it would be useful to have a real script, just in case. We met in the pub and he handed it over.
“That didn’t take long,” I said.
“have you learned your part?”
“Oh aye,” he said. his one line, in the opening scene, was: “Oooh, agh,” as he died in a heap at the foot of a flight of stairs.
I could do that, I thought. But not as well as Ceddie.