The Clitheroe Kid was a long-running BBC radio comedy show featuring diminutive comedian Jimmy Clitheroe in the role of a cheeky schoolboy who lived with his family at 33 Lilac Avenue. Jimmy's best friend was Ossie, alias Oswald Higginbottom, a character who was only heard of secondhand and didn't actually appear. The pilot series and 16 subsequent series equate to 289 episodes originally broadcast between July 1, 1957 and August 13, 1972. Apart from Clitheroe, the show's stars included Peter Sinclair playing Clitheroe's Scottish grandad, Patricia Burke as his mother (in the earliest shows the part was played by Renee Houston), and Diana Day as his long-suffering sister Susan (in the earliest shows the sister was played by Judith Chalmers). Danny Ross played Alfie Hall, Susan's daft, tongue-tied boyfriend who was often drawn into Jimmy's reckless schemes, never learning to steer clear of him. And Tony Melody played Mr Higginbottom, a six foot four inch taxi driver who constantly threatened to give Jimmy a good hiding for what he had done to Ossie. Horatio Higginbottom (the first name was very rarely used) was also grandad's drinking partner. Jimmy Clitheroe was 35 when he started playing the part in 1956, but he could pass as an 11-year-old boy because he had never grown physically beyond that age, though in later years his face gave his real age away. The series was made with a studio audience and there were frequent gales of laughter at Jimmy's schoolboy humour, as well as at Alfie Hall's mangling of the English language as he tries to explain something and makes it worse. Internet ArchiveDownload The Clitheroe Kid
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