It turns out he was surprisingly young in his 70s/80s heyday on the BBC. As an impressionist he was not in the same league as Rory Bremner or Alistair MacGowan but that was the niche that he occupied in the TV schedules on Saturday nights – drawing in breathtakingly large audiences by today’s standards. I even recall him having a go at Margaret Thatcher, with an apologetic side-comment to the audience, saying “well, it’s cheaper than hiring Janet Brown!”.
His impressions weren’t uncanny but they did entertain. The shoulders of Ted Heath, the eyebrows of Denis Healy and the guppy-like pipe smoking of Harold Wilson. The politicians certainly appreciated the portrayals as they would often comment that they felt they’d “made it” if they appeared on the show.
He was given a hard time for the “…and this is me” sequence, when he would croon a Perry Como number at the end while 15 million kettles gave the National Grid a simultaneous pummelling. This was not necessarily his fault – in those days a light entertainment/variety show was given a bigger budget by the BBC than a straight comedy show, so having a song on the show facilitated that. This is also why the Young Ones always had a band on at some point.
He was effectively the early evening warm up man for the big hitters appearing later – Morecambe and Wise or the Two Ronnies – before we moved on to Parkinson and Match of the Day. His appearance in those exciting-at-the-time Saturday night TV schedules warrants a brief post of appreciation, I think. RIP.
Both John Culshaw and Alistair McGowan credit him as being the inspiration that there is a career in impressions.
Yarwood impressions did put words in his subjects mouths. His Denis Healy impression always included the phrase “Silly Billy”, which Healy never actually said
His Healey was the prime example of the way his impersonations took on a life of their own which didn’t necessarily have that much in common with whoever it was meant to be.
Healey did say it. From sources I’ve seen he used it numerous times but only after Yarwood had included it in an impersonation.
Healy said it too.
RIP Mr “And this is me!”
Very much of his time and seems to have made the fatal error that
he was far more talented than he actually was.
Some would argue that the end of MY’s career was the only
good thing to come out of Mrs T’s election win.
I suspect my Mum and Dad would have been very sad
Interestingly, while regularly cited as the most watched UK TV show of all time,
M and W’s 1977 Xmas night special attracted fewer viewers than the MY show
Immediately before it.
Because Wings were on the Yarwood show doing the biggest ever not for charity UK hit!
MoK?
Yep
I think you’re being a bit uncharitable there, Jay. He might not have been the closest mimic, but for him it was about the gestures and mannerisms as much if not more than the voice, and in many cases he defined the subjects in the national consciousness. That’s a pretty impressive achievement in my book. As mentioned above and in the fulsome tributes by his professional heirs, he was very influential and to an extent a pioneer. And far from being a ‘warm up’ for more popular acts, his Christmas show of 1977 still holds the record for the largest single Christmas Day audience, some 21.4m.
I was commenting more from my perspective really. Perhaps ITV had some big thing directly pitched against M&W on those nights. As far as I was concerned, Yarwood was on and some of us watched it – but when Eric & Ern came on, we were all there, all the way through.
Understand what you’re saying, BC. but circumstances not of
his own making meant MY was very much of his time.
The arrival of Thatcher effectively did for him in the same
way it swept away generally decent, fair minded, old school pols
like Wislon, Heath, Healey, Jenkins et al.
Come May 1979 and the arrival of Thatcher, Tebbitt and the gang,
gentle lampooning a la MY was no longer enough. His brand of
comedy was never going to survive when faced with the vicious
Chngford skinhead types who gave rise to the more barbed (and
imho far funnier) satire of Spitting Image’s earliest incarnation.
Yarwood was successful because he was able to lampoon a number of larger than life characters that were regularly found on TV – Robin Day, Magnus Pyke, Frank Spencer, Eddie Wearing, Alf Garnett, Brian Clough, Hughie Green as well as Wilson and Health. He did a pretty good Prince Charles but was leant on to drop it.
He had a prime time slot on ITV until 1987 – Thatcher only lasted 3 years longer. But I’d agree, Yarwood’s gentle style, which mostly made his subjects more popular was giving way to the more edgy stuff that Spitting Image pioneered. Impersonators work is usually topical, so typically isn’t repeated in the way that M&W and Two Ronnies gags still are. Yarwood also had health problems, collapsing on stage numerous times, which made it difficult to get live stage work.
IIRC, he suffered from alcoholism; if not towards the end of his career then definitely after its tailing off
@fortuneight
Intrigued by the possibility that MY had been leaned on to stop doing his = rather anodyne and inoffensive take on Charlie Boy, read a couple of obits and googled it, can’t find any mention of such a thing happening anywhere. Any supporting links?
The short answer is no. Years back I recall it being mentioned in Private Eye in a piece that majored on Brian’s ego and thin skin. Possibly prompted by the same source there was an article which I think was in a Sunday supplement that said the Queen would delay Xmas day lunch so they could watch Yarwood despite him poking fun at Brian. But I can’t recall where I saw it. Dropping it because of royal reaction is mentioned in Wikipedia but with no citation. So maybe it’s a myth. Yarwood did impersonations of Brian in the 80’s either way, he got over it.
I was wondering if the claim might have come from one of the bitter interviews MY gave during his boozy, post-fame years. Chazza would have to have a gossamer-thin skin to get riled by MY’s generally good natured riling.
Not sure who mentioned it here, but they made a TV show of Bob Monkhouse’s last stage performance during which MY puts in an appearance. Pretty sure it’s on YT. Well worth watching
It is respectfully acknowledged I think that Yarwood was not a gifted mimic per se but that’s not everything – he used comedic body movements, costumes, well-written gags and catchphrases to get him over the line.
It makes me think of the genius of John Clarke, who did impressions but never changed his appearance or voice. He was a bald, middle-aged man but he did successful impressions of Julia Gillard, for example: