Merseyside Mirth Makers - Norman Vaughan

'Swinging!'

Norman Edward Vaughan was born on the 10th of April 1923, at his aunt's terraced house in 32 Barry Street, Walton, the oldest of four children. Later the family moved to Litherland where his father, a tailor for Lewis's, had been provided with a company house.

Encouraged by his mother, Nina, he taught himself to sing and dance and began a stage career at the age of 14 with a boys' theatrical troupe - the Eton Boys Choir, singing 'D'ye Ken John Peel'. A few years later, he formed a dance trio called 'The Dancing Aces' and toured with it until he was called up to the join the Army in 1945. He served as a sergeant in Italy and the Middle East where, during his military service, he appeared in Army shows with Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe who were later to form the Goons.
Back in civvy street, he found it tough to get work as an entertainer but persevered and in 1951 appeared with Harry Secombe again when they performed on the same variety bill. When he went to audition at London's Windmill Theatre he found there were 300 other young hopefuls. He didn't get the job. It went to a young Jimmy Edwards.

There were a lot of frustrations before show business legend Clarkson Rose booked him as ``second comic'' for some of his shows.

By the mid-1950s, he was starting to get radio dates and some summer shows and first appeared on television in 1954 in 'The Harry Secombe Show' and also in 'Scott Free' with Terry Scott, with both comedians playing out-of-work actors in Bogmouth-on-Sea. In 1960, he had been glad to do a live radio comedy act with Bill Waddington (later of Coronation Street) on a Workers' Playtime broadcast by the BBC from a Lucas Engineering factory. Having performed in Australia earlier that year, Norman had returned to Britain where he continued in summer seasons. By the end of the decade he was compèring the touring Cliff Richard Show (1959-60).

Palladium compere

One Saturday in Blackpool, Vaughan faced a dismal first house. ``There hadn't been many in and it had been a tough show,'' he said. It was then that Lonnie Donegan informed him that the London Palladium producer Val Parnell had been in to see it. ``I almost cried,'' said Vaughan. But Parnell had been impressed and on January 7th, 1962, Vaughan took over the Palladium show. He had a hard act to follow and his response to Bruce Forsyth's then famous catchphrase,"I'm in charge" was to conjure up his own: "swinging!" and "dodgy!" He stayed as presenter for three years, handing over to Jimmy Tarbuck in 1965.
After Sunday Night at the London Palladium, he was in such demand that Cadbury's hired him for a Roses chocolates commercial in which Vaughan used his third best-known catchphrase, while giving a thumbs up, "Roses grow on you". His appearances on Sunday Night at the London Palladium also persuaded ITV to give him his own show, A Touch Of The Norman Vaughan's, while the BBC created The Norman Vaughan Show in 1966 for him.

Cadbury's Roses Commercial

However, Norman found that the show did not subsequently bring him the same level of television success experienced by Forsyth and Tarbuck. Although he had landed the BBC sketch-based series 'The Norman Vaughan Show' in 1966, written by Eric Merriman and Barry Took, he switched to acting on stage. His acting career saw him appear on stage in 'In Order of Appearance' at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1977, tours of  'Calamity Jane' (with Barbara Windsor in 1979) and 'Strippers' in 1986, as well the farces 'A Bedful of Foreigners' in 1980 and 'No Sex, Please – We're British' in 1988, as well as many pantomimes. For many years, he was a regular guest on television variety and quiz shows.

In 1972, he had found himself back on television when he took over from Bob Monkhouse as host of the crossbow-shooting game show 'The Golden Shot' although he left after one series.
Perhaps influenced by The Golden Shot, Vaughan later co-devised, with Andrew Wood, the very popular darts quiz show 'Bullseye' in 1981, presented by Jim Bowen.

Norman sadly passed away, aged 79, in the Royal London Hospital in East London, on the 17th May 2002, from injuries sustained in a road accident on 17 April, at Waterloo Bridge.

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