Still on the Ball

HIS last visit to the region nearly cost him his driving licence, but comic Bobby Ball is back on the road again with two tours to the North-East. The first being a stage comedy debut at Billingham Forum all next week in Big Bad Mouse alongside his sparring partner of over 43 years, Tommy Cannon.

Bobby, who escaped a driving ban under his real name of Robert Harper earlier this year after admitting speeding at 97mph on the A1(M) near Washington, has happier memories of the area because he met his second wife, Yvonne, at Stockton.

"This was my stomping ground as a young man. She'll be coming up with me because her sister still lives in the area and she wants to see how the town has changed," says the comic who was approached by director Paul Elliott to take on the tour.

The lightweight plot involves Bobby toning down his brace-twanging loudmouth image initially to play shy Chunkibix biscuit orders clerk Mr Bloome who becomes the factory sex symbol, much to the disapproval of boss Mr Price-Hargreaves (played by Tommy). "The show was first done by Jimmy Edwards and Eric Sykes in the 1970s and they started to ad-lib their way through it and that's what Tommy and I are doing now. Every night is not the same but the rest of the cast are fantastic because we do the play and then come out of it whenever we want to. We do push the rest of the cast.

There's Sue Hodge (the 'Allo 'Allo star) who we haven't managed to make laugh yet, and that's our goal," he says.

"Paul Elliott took on the original show back in 1970 and showed us the script. I said 'it's not very strong', but he replied it will be when you two start adlibbing'."

'It really, really works and the audience go mad about it. This is my first romantic lead. I can't say more about this, except that I am an attractive man. I'm used to being a sex object, when I want sex they object," Bobby comments.

The pair, who were TV comedy icons in the 1980s and 1990s, have been seen more recently in BBC1's Last Of The Summer Wine and ITV's I'm A Celebrity Get me Out Of Here, but still found the idea of acting with a script quite challenging.

"I've become a thespian now, among other names that the wife calls me. On stage we'll do about two minutes from a comedy routine but the play is the main object. The setting of the 1970s takes me back. I remember everything ink blotters. You must remember this. I'm not used to new-fangled things and all that. Flush toilets are very difficult for me," he jests.

The only difficulty with the 70s setting is that society now frowns on the idea of a lusty lad in pursuit of an attractive girl, and in this case chasing her across Manchester Common. "A bloke said to me 'chasing a girl across the common isn't politically correct now' and I told him 'it's a bloody play, get a life'. Just because I'm making love to a girl on stage doesn't mean I mean it," he replies, bursting into laughter.

Cannon and Ball return to the North- East for the Best Of British Variety Tour at Newcastle's Journal Tyne Theatre on September 13. Among the co-stars are 82-year-old Frank Carson who lives in Blackpool near Bobby.

"Frank Carson didn't want to do it until he heard we were on the bill. Then he said 'I'll do it, I've got a lift'. So I'm stuck with Frank for the tour," says the comic of a show which aims unashamedly at the older generation who miss old-style entertainment on TV.

"I can't stand TV. I don't watch it.

When we're talking about Britain's Got Talent and they send a dancing dog through to the final. My dog does something similar, but it's just trying to hump my leg. I remember when we did Opportunity Knocks we came last and the winner was an act called Simon Smith And His Father. That was their name," he says with 'whatever happened to them?' irony.