Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Archie Andrews – not to be confused with the US cartoon character of the same name - was once one of Britain’s best-loved ventriloquist dummies.
Archie Andrews – not to be confused with the US cartoon character of the same name - was once one of Britain’s best-loved ventriloquist dummies.
On the arm of Peter Brough, the
pair were a sensation in the 1950’s where the radio show ‘Educating Archie’ was
regularly listened to – yes, you’ve spotted the anomaly there, haven’t you? –
by audiences in excess of 15 million. ‘Educating’ was a platform for up and
coming stars too and Tony Hancock, Max Bygraves, Benny Hill, Dick Emery, Bruce
Forsyth and Julie Andrews were just a few of the familiar names who made their
show business debuts alongside Brough and Andrews.
The pair transferred to the growing medium of TV in 1958 but
the tele-visual experience only revealed the rather disturbing fact that
Brough’s mouth moved a bit too much whenever Andrews was speaking and the act
had become dated by the time the ‘60’s arrived.
Dressed in cap, scarf and
stripey blazer and referring to Brough simply by his surname in a disparaging
style, Archie is very much a product of the decade in which he found his fame.
Later years would see the ventriloquist dummy as an altogether more macabre
item though and, if you’re nervous around such a doll, it’s likely Archie
Andrews may be the stuff of nightmares.
Peter Brough died in 1999 and Archie is now – quite
literally probably – in the hands of a collector who paid £34,000 for him in 2005 at a private auction. Now approaching his 70th year, Andrews
may recall ‘The Little Fir Tree’ with a spoken intro about ‘other boys
teasing him because he was different’ and continuing with the tale of a little
tree who lived quite close to ‘where I come from in the woods’. The whole thing
is supposed to be a Children’s classic but is spooky beyond words and I can’t
get the spoken ‘It Looked Pretty’ out of my mind as Brough sings.
Try it if you dare but treat it with caution…Hey, what’s
that?..it can’t be but…is that Archie sitting in the corner over there? How
come he is speaking but no-one is holding him? Brough? Brough? Noooooo…!
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