By Elliott West
“He kicked the door down, and he turned impressions from being a kind of specialist act, a trick as it were, into top of the bill entertainment, Saturday night affair”.
Rory Bremner
Introduction
Mike Yarwood for me was the best. An impressionist who regularly attracted television audiences of over 20 million viewers in his height and had the art of becoming any famous face he chose to be. A dominant force on British television from the 1960s to 1980s, Yarwood was the inspiration for future generations with the likes of Rory Bremner, Phil Cool, Alistair McGowan and Jon Culshaw following in his footsteps. I learnt how to impersonate a number of people by studying Mike, the first being Harold Wilson. A Labour Prime Minister of my infancy whose Huddersfield accent was much copied but who Yarwood turned into an all-singing and dancing, pipe-smoking politician. His political repertoire didn’t stop there with equally masterful impressions of Ted Heath, James Callaghan and Dennis Healey whom he gave the “silly billy” saying.
Yarwood was a master of his work and with only the prop of two hats, could play Albert and Harold Steptoe, walk into the shoes of Larry Grayson, and Sir Robin Day. He could become that person for seven hours, carrying on the imitation between takes and while eating in the canteen. Bob Monkhouse, Max Bygraves, Bob Hope, Prince Charles or Ronald Reagan. He could play them individually or together with the help of colour-separation overlay and video editing. A man who preferred to be the person without makeup and costume switched his brain frequency to the person in question. Mike did it his way and what a blast it was. The only person I ever saw who could command a BBC or Thames studio or even the London Palladium by sitting on a chair as himself and reeling off a conversation or song as multiple personalities. He used his face and body language to a tee, an act reminiscent of a Punch magazine sketch.
Finding Your Feet
Mike Yarwood was born in Bredbury, Cheshire in 1941 and after leaving school, worked as a messenger and then as as a salesman at a garment factory. A budding football player as a youth, he would go on to be a lifelong supporter of Stockport County Football Club. He would go to work at the BBC, ATV and Thames but this was preceded by his first big break, an appearance on Sunday Night at the London Palladium in 1964. An act where he became Harold Wilson at the height of Wilson’s popularity and to rave reviews.
The Billy Cotton Club
Bill Cotton, BBC Head of Light Entertainment, was famous for spotting successful talent. He oversaw Morecambe and Wise, Val Doonican, Dick Emery, Bruce Forsyth and The Two Ronnies to the BBC. His father, Billy performed with my Great Uncle Tommy Scott in the Billy Cotton Band Show and the Wakey-Wakey Tavern on the BBC in the 1950s and Fearne Cotton continues to hold the family torch today. So when Bill took Yarwood under his wing and commissioned a Saturday night show for him, the spark was instant. Yarwood became a must for television viewing during the year and at Christmas. His shows regularly attracted audiences of 18 million viewers and in 1974 his Christmas show was watched by 21.4 million viewers.
The Fall
Yarwood decided in 1982 to sign up with Thames Television as Benny Hill and Morecambe and Wise had done previously. However, he didn’t fare as well as them with mixed results. He continued with the same studio formula as he had done at the BBC. Yet years of alcoholism, perfection and stage nerves started to take their toll on Mike and in 1987 Thames pulled the plug on his show. Mike knew that his shows no longer had that punch they once had. The new material was getting thinner and light entertainment was gradually waning. Viewers no longer wanted variety, they craved instead the punchy satire of Spitting Image instead. Mike became a victim of his own success. Like Frankie Howerd in the 1960s and Bruce Forsyth in the 1990s, he fell from grace.
Later Years
Mike left television with the door slightly ajar, ready for a return. However, sadly it wasn’t to be. Stage work would dry up and he refused to try and impersonate the people he called at the time “the nice guys of politics, John Major and Tony Blair. Unlike Bruce Forsyth who used the satirical BBC show Have I Got News for You to propel him back to stardom, Yarwood’s appearance in 1995, failed to make an impact. His shows were left in the archives for good and we last saw Yarwood in public at the Albany Comedy Club in 2003 when Bob Monkhouse invited him to attend shortly before Bob’s death.
Mike ended his days in Brinsworth House, a home for retired entertainers in Twickenham, Middlesex. A home where Charlie Drake spent his retirement and Mike spent his time with his good friend of Man About the House and Robin’s Nest fame, Richard O’Sullivan. I was quite shocked to see one of the last pictures of Mike and Richard at the home. Both looked frail but still had that glint in their eyes from their years of stardom. A great entertainer who kicked the door down for others. A Titan who leaves this world, aged 82.
