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Appearance on Richard and Judy talking about panto and the Best of British Variety tour in 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shown on UKTV Watch in March 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Judy: Our first guests have been in showbiz for over 40 years and they’re still going strong, getting ready to go back on the road for the Best of British Variety Tour. So a big welcome to Cannon and Ball.<\/p>\n
All: Welcomes and greetings<\/p>\n
Judy: I like your jacket. Very nice.<\/p>\n
Bobby: Am I trendy?<\/p>\n
Judy: Very trendy<\/p>\n
Tommy: You\u2019re very retro?<\/p>\n
Bobby: He\u2019s found a new word. It means you’re in fashion, but you’re old.<\/p>\n
Judy: I know you\u2019re going on this tour? But I mean, do you still work together quite a bit?<\/p>\n
Bobby: Oh yeah, yeah<\/p>\n
Tommy: All the time, yeah.<\/p>\n
Judy: The same act, in clubs or theatres or what?<\/p>\n
Tommy: Yeah, all over the place<\/p>\n
Bobby: We do the same thing we do\u2026 we’ve changed the act, of course, but yeah, we work together. I can’t get rid of him really.<\/p>\n
Richard: How are you getting on these days, cause when you were at your peak in terms of the television years, you didn’t talk very much did you?<\/p>\n
Bobby: Well, I think we’re the only double act that admits to this.<\/p>\n
Richard: You are. You are.<\/p>\n
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Bobby: Yeah, absolutely. The truth of the matter is with me and Tom, 45 years we’ve been together and then for three years we didn’t speak.<\/p>\n
Richard: At all, or just some?<\/p>\n
Bobby: Small, but very attitude there. Yeah, but only for three years out of 45.<\/p>\n
Richard: And what was that about? Is that because you were being manipulated.<\/p>\n
Tommy: It was about a little bit about suddenly flying in from nightclubs, working men’s clubs, pubs suddenly being sort of discovered, if you like. And then all of a suddenly we had drivers, we had people doing things for us, which we were not, we weren’t, it’s not real. It’s not in a real world. When all this was going on and we had an entourage, Bob had an entourage and then things started to get out of hand, you had two camps and before you knew where you are for some strange reason, it was, it would have been simple if we\u2019d have let the pride drop to be honest, between the pair of us and just said hey.<\/p>\n
Bobby: And after three years it did.<\/p>\n
Richard: Who made the first move?<\/p>\n
Bobby: I don\u2019t know<\/p>\n
Richard: We had a discussion about this before, actually, this is the first time we discussed this.<\/p>\n
Tommy: I don’t know. I think, I think Bob, Bob has made the first move. I think it were Bradford at the Alhambra Theatre, I think, and he\u2026<\/p>\n
Bobby: I remember it, I said \u2018shift\u2019<\/p>\n
Tommy: It was strange because although people said oh we didn’t get on. Yes we did. We spoke and we had to, I mean, otherwise the act wouldn\u2019t have worked. But he came up to me one day and he just said, look, it’s silly what’s going on and suddenly we woke up to the fact that, you know, I don’t think we realised actually how we\u2019d drifted apart<\/p>\n
Bobby: Yeah, we had, we\u2019d drifted<\/p>\n
Tommy: And we had, you know, pretty bad<\/p>\n
Judy:\u00a0 But it’s interesting when you say that you’re about the only double act that admits to that, because from sort of, I don’t know for sure about any double acts, but, you know, you can sense sometimes that there must be tension. Sometimes you can tell from when their wives are interviewed. That kind of thing.<\/p>\n
Bobby: That’s right. Yeah, we had 3 years of it, which we think out of 45 isn\u2019t so bad. We know double acts that have done it all their career<\/p>\n
Richard: Or split up<\/p>\n
Tommy: Or split up because they couldn’t take any more of it<\/p>\n
Bobby: We\u2019re like you tow, we’re like a married couple, just without the sex, that’s all.<\/p>\n
Richard: We can talk about that, give you a few hints, help you along.<\/p>\n
Judy: When you first met, you met in a factory didn’t you? And who spoke to who first? I can’t.<\/p>\n
Bobby: Well, I spoke to him first and he was waiting, he was starting at the job.<\/p>\n
Richard: He was new.<\/p>\n
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Bobby: Yeah. And I’ve been there and I were always late because I were gigging in the pubs on my own singing. So I was always late clocking in. And I walked past him and he was waiting for a job like this, frightened to death, you know what it’s like on a new job, and I just said \u2018How are you, cock?\u2019 and that was it. And then we started going out and drinking.<\/p>\n
Richard: And did you start off, you started off as a threesome, didn’t you? There was a guy on keyboard?<\/p>\n
Bobby: Yes<\/p>\n
Tommy: Gambo\u2019s Trio we were called.<\/p>\n
Richard: And you just sang, that’s all you did?<\/p>\n
Bobby: Tommy used to be the drummer<\/p>\n
Tommy: I used to be the drummer<\/p>\n
Richard: But you didn’t do any comedy?<\/p>\n
Tommy: No. None at all.<\/p>\n
Richard: No patter between the songs?<\/p>\n
Tommy: And the reason we did comedy, we were in a nightclub, We were in a working men’s club, actually. And this comic was being paid out and he actually got more money than us.<\/p>\n
Bobby: \u00a33.<\/p>\n
Tommy: And I said hang on there’s two of us. And he said no, he said, you have to be a comic to be on the extra money. So we went and changed to comedy cause we wanted the \u00a33.00.<\/p>\n
Richard: So you went on opportunity knocks in 69, I think you came last.<\/p>\n
Bobby: A rat won on the way back to the canteen playing the spoons<\/p>\n
Richard: But let’s see you in in your heyday. This is a really simple routine. It\u2019s just Old McDonald had a F arm, with you doing the singing. And you, mugging basically. It\u2019s just lovely really.<\/p>\n
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