RIP Bobby BALL

[puntingking]

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He was great at what he did. I liked him in Not going out which is a sitcom on the BBC. I also have seen him in other stuff. It was confirmed today that he died of covid 19.

RIP Bobby Ball.

[george r]

Rock on Tommy !!   very sad news...rip..

[Goldfinch]

I also thought he was good in 'Not Going Out'

R.I.P

[mr.bluesky]

I also thought he was good in 'Not Going Out'

R.I.P

Always preferred Cannon and Ball over Little and Large. Bobby Ball was good in 'Not going out' . Started out as welders in Oldham before turning to comedy in the northen working mens clubs. Not in the same league as Morecambe and Wise or the Two Ronnies but quite funny non the less.

[Goldfinch]

Always preferred Cannon and Ball over Little and Large. Bobby Ball was good in 'Not going out'

[NIK]

I remember my dad didn't like them and moaned that all he did was twang his braces and say rock on Tommy, but as this was back in my razzling days C & B totally passed me by. Apparently they were massive on Saturdays nights. Between 1976 up to maybe 1996 I probably spent less than half a dozen Saturday nights in. Or Fridays come to that.   

[rocket88]

I'm filling up over here Tommy!

[king tarzan]

Great player 

[sparkus]

I have absolutely no recollection of their main era and didn't watch 'Not Going Out' but I do remember in the mid-1990s my then girlfriend's parents going to one of their 'shows' and coming home seriously pissed off afterwards at midnight, as apparently it wasn't comedy routines but their born again Christian stuff to a local theatre of baffled and bored couples expecting slapstick gags.  Fine by me as I spent all night with my head up her skirt.

[hullad]

I used to do a bit of comedy myself tlll all the clubs went, I loved them two never forgot there roots. I last talked with them late last year at a gig they did here in Hull. What you saw on TV or theatre was how they where in real life.

The world is a sadder place without them as they are perhaps the last really great comedy double act.

[petermisc]

There wasn't much substance to the double act, it rapidly got a bit repetitive.  There is a limit to how many times people will laugh at you twanging your braces and saying "Rock on Tommy".  They were OK as Saturday night comperes, but as others have said nowhere near The Two Ronnie's let alone Morecambe and Wise.  But when Bobby reinvented himself as a comedy actor, he was superb.  Probably because he was always playing himself.

[sparkus]

There wasn't much substance to the double act, it rapidly got a bit repetitive.  There is a limit to how many times people will laugh at you twanging your braces and saying "Rock on Tommy".  They were OK as Saturday night comperes, but as others have said nowhere near The Two Ronnie's let alone Morecambe and Wise.  But when Bobby reinvented himself as a comedy actor, he was superb.  Probably because he was always playing himself.

I think by the 90s the whole evening telly double act had had its day (at least that's what TV execs thought), not just them but also stuff like Hale and Pace, who were younger comics with more road ahead of them than the Two Ronnies, Morecambe and Wise or Little and Large (bigger draws that they were).  Vic and Bob only kept themselves on TV through gameshows, sitcoms and sketch shows.

It seems at the height of their fame C&B were even able to get a film green-lit in 1982, here in its full 'glory':

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If my nephew ever mouths off again I'm going to force him to sit through all of that.

I can't help but notice C&B's religious epiphany happened after ITV execs told them no more telly.  Still, I am glad Ball got some time back in front of the camera and an audience through the help of younger comics and a less tiresome act.