The
Unofficial Website The Chuckle Brothers
Comedians
Barry and Paul Chuckle (aka Elliott), were born and brought up in Rotherham, the youngest in a northern showbiz family of eight. They started out in show business at a very early age, putting on performances for the rest of the family. I have had a very good nosy but somehow for boys, they seem very coy about their ages. There were three older brothers Jimmy, Brian (see Patton Brothers below) and Colin, but I haven't found out anything about their sisters.
Lots of visitors and Chuckle Brothers fans have asked me if I can send them signed photographs, arrange for the Brothers to meet them, or open their fetes, galas and charity events. Rotherham - The Unofficial Website is sorry but we don't know the lads personally so we can do none of these things.
February 2005 - I have googled on Chuckle Brothers Fan Club and found the new website address at the foot of the page. Hopefully you will find everything you want there.
Barry, the older brother (whose birthday is on Christmas Eve but whose don't ask which year - as if we can't count up the lines) was part of the all singing comedy act 'The Singing Scholars' which included a young Freddie Starr. The Chuckle Brothers were formed as soon as younger brother Paul was old enough to leave school.
There were the usual years on the on the variety circuit flogging dead horses whilst honing their own brand of humour. The brothers won the TV talent show New Faces in the first series of 1974, and everything went downhill from thereon.
The boys finally got their BBC break in 1985 when 'The Chucklehounds' came to a television near you. Then the dread 'Chucklevision' was born and came to our screens in 1987. To prove how popular it is, a new series has been commissioned! These programmes are transmitted during children's viewing hours, but I am led to believe that the humour and story-lines are aimed at everyone, from two to ninety two year olds. The show regularly has audiences of over three million viewers and is screened for thirty weeks a year. I have watched it, once, in the spirit of research - nuff said. Since then, they've done summer season, panto, clubs, cabaret, circus, even an ice show.
Other credits
1996 Tour 'Live & In Trouble' attracted capacity audiences at 35 theatres and
their 'Summer Roadshow' was a big hit in Scarborough, Torquay and Weymouth.
1996 A game show entitled 'To Me to You' for BBC1 echoing their famous catch-phrase.
This is a board game played out on the studio floor, with a giant dice and shopping trolley
contraption that acts as the marker for contestants who have to carry out their forfeits and
stunts.
1996/97 Christmas Season 'Mother Goose' at the Hippodrome Theatre, Birmingham.
1997 a sell-out nation-wide tour which ran into their Summer Season tour of Blackpool,
Llandudno, Scarborough and Skegness.
1998 Chucklevision was nominated for a children's BAFTA for Best Television
Series.
Other pantomimes - missed the years - Dick Whittington in Sheffield, Darlington and
Bradford, and Jack and the Beanstalk in Nottingham (2000)
13 series of 'To Me... to You'.
Other Road Shows 'The Adventures of the Chuckle Brothers', 'The Chuckle Brothers
in Trouble At Sea', 'The New Adventures of The Chuckle Brothers' (2000), and
their 2001 tour 'Spooky Goings-On'.
New for 2003 'Star Doors' can be seen on Sunday 9 March 2003 at the Lyceum in
Sheffield.
I have also heard of a devilish entertainment called 'Pirates of the River
Rother'.
For those of you who have never had the delight of seeing the Chuckle Brothers the following is a short description of their type of humour.
The pair appear as a slapstick bungling duo, always on the lookout for work
- as odd job men often coming up against an authority figure. They make a great play of
amateurishness which is accentuated by the fact that the two grown men pedal their
Chucklemobile around (it's a kind of tandem, with the bikes side-by-side). Barry does the
pedalling, Paul puts his feet up! Plotlines include working on a holiday camp, running a sedan
chair taxi service, organising conferences, being lollipop men and, of course, getting into
trouble as decorators - always a good comedy cypher. Problems they encounter often lead to that
other well known phrase "Oh dear Paul"
, followed by "Oh dear, oh
dear!
"
Their truly annoying catchphrase "to me, to you"
is heard in real life
wherever hod carriers are throwing bricks to each other, amongst other phrases.
I have been advised that if you want a signed photo or other memento then you should get in touch with their promotion manager Email charlieh@qdosentertainment.plc.uk. I haven't tried it myself so I can't guarantee what response you'll get.
February 2005 Visit their new website www.thechucklebrothersontour.com.
The Patton Brothers
On the very reasonable grounds that these pages are called 'Famous People from Rotherham' and I had never heard of the Patton Brothers, I am appending these details to the Chuckle Brothers' page.
The Patton Brothers, Jimmy and Brian, are the two of the elder brothers of The Chuckle
Brothers. Their father was comedian Gene Patton and they began their career as a double act in
1954. Jimmy Patton started his panto career in 1946, and was joined by Brian in 1956 for
Aladdin at the Wimbledon Theatre. Jimmy and Brian have made many appearances in Chucklevision
with their younger brothers, Jimmy taking the moniker 'No Slacking' due to the
catchphrase that he constantly has to relay to the Chuckle Brothers. "And remember - No
Slacking!"