You can’t beat a bit of Bully!
Nostalgia remembers the career and catchphrases of Jim Bowen – star of Bullseye and Granada show The Comedians
FOR TV viewers in the 1980s, Sunday afternoons just wouldn’t have been the same without the game show Bullseye hosted by north-west comic Jim Bowen. Millions tuned in to see whether contestants could use their darts skills to win Bully’s secret star prize – often a caravan or speedboat – wheeled in by trusty stage-hands.
Anyone who missed out at the final hurdle was greeted with one of Bowen’s now famous catchphrases – ‘Just look at what you could have won!’
Aided by darts commentator Tony Green, Bowen presented Bullseye from its launch in September 1981 right through to July 1995.
There was a brief revival of the show under Bolton comedian Dave Spikey in 2006, but it never quite regained the unique flavour of the original.
Much of this was down to Bowen’s comic timing and asides to the camera while interviewing the three sets of contestants taking part in each programme.
It was timing he’d honed on the ground-breaking Granada TV show
The Comedians, produced in Manchester, which first aired in 1971. Bowen was a regular alongside Manchester comics Bernard Manning, Stu ‘I could crush a grape’ Francis and Ken Goodwin.
The Comedians was the brainchild of producer Johnnie Hamp, who’d previously worked with The Beatles and Cilla Black. The pilot package of seven programmes was so successful that it ran for 12 series up to July 1992.
A spin-off series, The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club featuring Colin Crompton, was broadcast from 1974 to 1977.
Back on Bullseye, Bowen’s rapport with contestants could occasionally be wide of the mark. He’d often interject with words like super, smashing and great – sometimes inappropriately if a guest was telling a hard-luck story!
The show’s mascot, Bully, would also make cartoon appearances as well as being given away to contestants along with the iconic Bullseye tankard and darts.
It was all a far cry from Bowen’s original job as a primary school teacher specialising in physical education – a career he pursued after carrying out his National Service.
Born in August 1937, Bowen was adopted at the age of nine months by bricklayer and First World War veteran Joe Whittaker and his wife Annie and grew up in Clayton-leMoors, Lancashire.
He attended Accrington Grammar School and worked as a dustman in Burnley before National Service with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps from 1955 to 1957.
Bowen’s birth name was Peter Williams but he later changed it to James Whittaker before adopting his familiar stage name.
He became a physical training instructor and then studied at Chester Diocesan Training College before teaching at Caton Primary School near Lancaster.
Inspired by Knotty Ash entertainer Ken Dodd, Bowen moved into amateur dramatics and started performing on the northern comedy circuit.
As well as The Comedians, Bowen appeared in Last of the Summer Wine and the Thames Television children’s sketch show You Must Be Joking with Birds of a Feather star Pauline Quirk, Ray Burdis and John Blundell.
Bowen portrayed the character Dad in the 1981 TV play Happy Since I Met You by Prestwich comedienne and all-round entertainer Victoria Wood.
But it was undoubtedly Bullseye that propelled him to national fame.
Conceived for ATV by Andrew Wood and comedian Norman Vaughan, the show featured three pairs of contestants – one a darts player and the other a quizzer – competing in darts and answering questions to win cash and prizes.
Round One was Bully’s Category Board which saw the darts player aiming for subjects chosen by the quizzer to gain cash. Round Two was Pounds for Points – a straightforward score conversion to cash from the dartboard.
There was always a charity interlude which featured a professional darts player trying to score the highest total with nine darts. Our photo shows Eric Bristow, the ‘Crafty Cockney,’ in action with guest celebrity Rod Hull and Emu in 1984.
The show ended with Bully’s Prize Board and Bully’s Star Prize Gamble featuring the mystery prize. Bowen would always assure contestants their charity money was ‘safe’ as was their ‘BFH’ or bus fare home.
In its later years, Bullseye would become cult viewing for younger audiences. Bowen even commemorated the programme in a stained glass window at his house in Arkholme, Lancashire.
After Bullseye, Bowen was a presenter on Radio Lancashire and Indigo FM in Cumbria. He also performed his solo show – You Can’t Beat a Bit of Bully – at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2005.
A lifelong supporter of Blackburn Rovers Football club, Bowen died at home at the age of 80 in March 2018.
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