Harry Worth

Harry Worth (born Harry Illingsworth, 20 November 1917 in Hoyland Common near Barnsley, Yorkshire, died 20 July 1989 Hertfordshire) was an English comedy actor. His standard performance was as a genial, bumbling middle-class and middle-aged man from the North of England, who reduced all who came into contact with him to a state of confusion and frustration.

Early life

Worth was the youngest of eleven children of a miner. When he was only 5 months old his father died from injuries resulting from an industrial accident. He left school at 14 and was himself a miner for 8 years before joining the RAF. He taught himself ventriloquism as a teenager and toured for two years with Laurel and Hardy towards the end of their careers. He then became a comedian.

Television career

Worth is now best remembered for his 1960s series "Here's Harry", later re-titled "Harry Worth", of which he produced over 100 episodes. The famous opening credits of "Harry Worth" featured Harry stopping in the street to perform an optical trick involving a shop window (raising one arm and one leg which were reflected in the window, thus giving the impression of levitation). Reproducing this effect was popularly known as "doing a Harry Worth". He also starred in "Thirty Minutes Worth" and "My Name is Harry Worth".

The shop window sequence was filmed at St. Annes Square, Manchester.

One famous comic sketch involved Worth and his family preparing for a royal visit to the area, during which the Queen was to visit his house. His fussing about the house drove his family mad. Just before the Queen was due to arrive, a beggar arrived at the door and kept coming back as an increasingly frustrated Worth tried to get him to go away. When a knock came on the door one more time Worth grabbed a bucket of filthy water and threw it out of the door at the caller, only to find that it wasn't the beggar but the Queen standing there, and he has just soaked her.

Another time Worth has bet on his local football team "Woodbridge" to win. They were a cert to win till Harry Worth started helping them; then they lost.

Another sketch involved Worth complaining to a policeman outside the Houses of Parliament that Big Ben clock was slow because Jimmy Young, the legendary presenter on BBC Radio 2 famed for "always being right" had said that it was ten minutes past ten, while the clock said it was 10am. After pestering the policeman, Worth had the clock moved forward by ten minutes (the first time the timepiece had ever been adjusted). Just as the clock was changed, Young appeared on the radio to apologise that the studio clock was wrong by ten minutes. A mortified Worth was seen speeding away in his car, to furious shouts from the angry policeman.

Although never scripted, his catchprase was generally known as "My Name Is Harry Worth. I don't know why - but, there it is!"

Worth was forced to retire early from his show by health problems but he continued working in radio until a few months before he died, in Hertfordshire ^[1]. Among the last appearances of his career were leading roles in the sitcoms "How's Your Father?" and "Oh Happy Band!"

Personal life

Worth was a private person and resisted attempts by publishers to write his biography; it was over 16 years after his death before a book - My Name Is Harry Worth - was written. According to the 2007 book Hattie: the Authorised Biography, Hattie Jacques claimed Worth was "a martyr to piles".^[2] He died, aged 71, of cancer. ^[3]

External links

• Harry Worth at the Internet Movie Database
• The Official Harry Worth WebSite

References

External links

• Harry Worth at the Internet Movie Database
• The Official Harry Worth WebSite

References