Keith harris
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Ray Alan
English ventriloquist, television personality (1930-2010)
This article is about the ventriloquist. For the Scottish footballer, see Ray Allan. For other people with similar names, see Ray Allen (disambiguation).
"Lord Charles" redirects here. For the baseball pitch, see curveball. For other uses, see Lord Charles (disambiguation).
Ray Alan | |
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| Born | Raymond Alan Whyberd (1930-09-18)18 September 1930 Greenwich, London, England |
| Died | 24 May 2010(2010-05-24) (aged 79) Redhill, Surrey, England |
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| Years active | 1944–2010 |
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Raymond Alan Whyberd (18 September 1930 – 24 May 2010) was an English ventriloquist, television entertainer, and writer. His career spanned over half a century, though he was most popular from the 1950s until the 1980s. He was associated primarily with the dummies Lord Charles and Ali Kat and
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Tich and Quackers
"yah daft dook!"
Tich and Quackers was a children’s television series hosted by the incomparable Ray Alan, a master ventriloquist who was not only ‘the guv’nor’ when it came to throwing his voice without moving his lips, but who breathed so much life into his dummies that you’d swear blind they were living creatures. The show featured two main characters: Tich, a naughty blazer-wearing northern schoolboy, and Quackers, a duck who didn’t speak - only quacked. Quackers was operated by Tony Hart. Tich’s catchphrase was, ‘Eh yah daft dook!’.
The series gained immense popularity and even had its own comic strip in TV Comic, which lasted until 1971, long after Ray Alan stopped performing with them. He also recorded a single titled ‘Santa Bring Me Ringo’ (I wanna hold his hand), which was a UK version of a 1964 novelty song originally recorded by Christine Hunter, who mercifully seems to have retired after releasing it. The series was aimed at younger children and included a game called Pop n’ Drop. Children from local schools (in Manchester
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Ray Alan
| Ray Alan | |
| Born | September 18, 1930 Greenwich, London |
|---|---|
| Died | May 24, 2010 (age 79) Bridlington |
Ray Alan (1930-2010) was an English ventriloquist and television entertainer from the 1950s until the 1980s. He was associated primarily with the puppet Lord Charles and later also with the puppets Tich and Quackers.
Biography
Born in Greenwich, London, Alan was educated at Morden Terrace School, Lewisham. Alan was introduced to the world of entertainment at a young age, entering a talent contest at the age of five at his local Gaumont cinema.
Career
Aged 13 he became a call-boy at the Lewisham Hippodrome Theatre, where he started to do magic sets on stage between acts. He then started to entertain private functions, introducing ventriloquism into his act, along with playing the ukulele.
Alan toured in cabaret all over the world and performed once with Laurel and Hardy in 1954. Laurel had provided inspiration for the look of Alan's most famous creation, Lord Charles, who first appeared at a charity show in Wormwood Scrubs Prison, London.
Alan made
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