God Bless little Norman Wisdom.

Mr Grimsdale! Mr Grimsdale!

What’s wrong with ilx lately, sometimes the pic link won’t work?

Died today :(
R.I.P.

I thought he died years ago!

RIP

same here xp, was only checking his wiki page last week

RIP

he was 95. He had dementia.

Norman and Twink from the Pink Fairies, together at last!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXbD5EuUFu8

Sorry, the Pretty Things and it's not Twink is it, anyway that film is almost awesome in parts

Like Robin Williams, there's a whole lot of:

"I don't usually like his films, except for:" and a long list of alright fillums.

His films, usually dialogue-light and slapstick-heavy, were popular all over the world, but he had a cult following in Albania. It was said that on any day of the year one of his 32 films was showing there in some cinema or television station, and he was greeted as a national hero – under the name of his film character, Norman Pitkin – when the iron curtain fell and he could finally visit.

^ never knew this

apparently he was really famous in albania lol

xpost

Yeah, there's a book by Tony Hawks (the comedian not the skateboarder) about how he basically gets NWis to Albania under the premise of getting another 'hit' besides his "stutter rap", basically even then Norm was somewhat disconnected...

asked to have a go on my sister's boobs. RIP old dude.

"He would run up escalators the wrong way, he would fall down stairs, crack jokes and at almost every meal burst into Don't Laugh at Me 'Cos I'm a Fool, his big hit from the '50s.

He was supremely professional and he was extremely good at what he did."

I keep coming across Norman Wisdom films I haven't seen before, I imagined I'd seen them but there's hundreds of the bastards! Anyway, "Follow a Star": dry cleaner Norman wants to become a singer, Jerry Desmonde (of course) is a slimy fading singer who surreptitiously records Norman's voice to use on his recordings. Ron Moody (with hair), Charles Gray (with black hair!), Fenella Fielding and Dick Emery all have small parts - Ron Moody doesn't even have a line. Hattie Jacques, John Le Mesurier and Richard Wattis provide reliable support. It's two hours long!

Honestly not a fan, Happy Shopper George Formby imo, sorry for negative just an observation

The only Wisdom effort I've seen is What's Good for the Goose, as I mentioned 15 years ago in this very thread, where Norm becomes seduced by the hippie lifestyle and grooves out to the Pretty Things. It's really bad. Directed by Menahem Golan, or Golan-Globus Productions! The cast is nowhere near as star-studded as the above, but does feature several "THAT guy" Brit thesp types in supporting roles. Avoid.

The denouement:

Inspired by the time he has spent in Southport, he invites his wife to join him there. She doesn't recognise him when he meets her at the airport, as he is now wearing counterculture scene clothing. He takes her to buy "young" clothes, and goes off with her to the places Nikki and he had visited. They replicate the perfect day he had with Nikki, though his wife doesn't enjoy everything as much as Nikki did. He finds he can have almost as much enjoyment with his wife, and ultimately, the couple embrace dressing "young" and doing cool "now" things.

there's another this week, Man Of The Moment, same time, same channel as the last one.

TPTV is the other place that shows them. i often read descriptions of interesting sounding films there only for them to end 'starring Norman Wisdom' and my heart sinks (not a fan)

(xp) It is dreadful but, as you say, the Pretty Things are featured quite heavily.

I randomly caught Follow A Star on TV many years ago, it is by no means a good film, but was weird enough to be engaging. Everyone seems to be ridiculously miscast, especially Norman, I wonder if his role was turned down by Tommy Steele. The song in the bath is one of the most ridiculous "that's a hit!" moments I have ever seen. That 58-62 era is like the black hole of British entertainment.

It starts off with a great gag though, it looks like Norman and another character are in submarine movie - all grim faced, sweaty and oily, dressed in vests and surrounded by machinery and steam - and it turns out they're in a dry cleaners.

... pressing trousers.

La sagesse normande

The thing about the post that kicks off this thread is I can very much relate to the situation described, how little glimpses of home can affect you greatly when you're far from it. However I have also seen the film it refers to and the "wonderful scene" described is just Wisdom prancing about to emulate a gay hairdressser stereotype character.

tbf it's actually an impersonation of the first celebrity hairdresser in the UK, Mr. Teasy-Weasy, though that's obviously lost on modern audiences.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Bessone

Nothing to do with Norman Wisdom, but seems Mr. Teasy-Weasy's life was not without drama.

In 1979 his 28-year-old daughter Amber, who was pregnant, was killed when returning from a family wedding. Her car crossed a damaged section of the M4 motorway crash barrier and hit an oncoming Porsche. The two people in the Porsche, as well as Bessone's daughter, her husband and two children, were all killed instantly. Several weeks after the accident it was discovered that the male passenger killed in the Porsche was Brian Field, one of the organizers of the 1963 Great Train Robbery, who had changed his name to Brian Carleton.

The only Wisdom effort I've seen is What's Good for the Goose, as I mentioned 15 years ago in this very thread, where Norm becomes seduced by the hippie lifestyle and grooves out to the Pretty Things. It's really bad.

I remember seeing this on television at about two o'clock in the afternoon as a kid, and being surprised that it had nipples in it. Apparently there were different cuts of the film and the BBC must have broadcast the racy, international cut. What do I remember about the film? The theme song went something like "if it's good for THE goose then it's (quack quack) for the gander" in a gorblimey mate accent. A laboured gag at the beginning about sales going neither up nor down and thus being the same. A scene in which Wisdom takes his clothes off while running on the beach. Nothing else. I have a vague sense they were trying to emulate The Rebel. It's surprising the film came out as late as 1969.

His films were bank holiday / sick day / school holiday afternoon staples in the UK. I remember seeing The Bulldog Breed, which has a fascinating bunch of extras. Michael Caine as a sailor! Oliver Reed as a Teddy Boy! William Roache! Sheila Hancock! I remember thinking that films in those days must have been like television shows nowadays.

Of all the films I remember seeing at two o'clock in the afternoon on BBC2 during a weekday the two that really stood out were The Man Who Came to Dinner, which was genuinely funny, and I could swear they broadcast A Matter of Life and Death, which was strange and wonderful. Wisdom was the little king of a molehill.

NB Oliver Reed did look good in leather:
https://www.citizencaine.org/films/the-bulldog-breed/bulldog-breed-oliver.png

Fenella Fielding on Norman Wisdom:

“Not a very pleasant man. Always making a pass – hand up your skirt first thing in the morning. Not exactly a lovely way to start a day’s filming.”