First watched : April 1973
I thought these guys would be cropping up pretty soon. The Grumbleweeds were from Yorkshire and followed a similar career path to The Barron Knights, formed as a conventional beat group in 1962, played in Hamburg with The Beatles and switched to comedy although they wrote their own material rather than rely on parody. They were Robin Colvill, Graham Walker, Maurice Lee, Carl Sutcliffe and Alan Sutcliffe. An appearance on Opportunity Knocks in 1967 boosted their profile. Although never much loved by the critics they were pretty sharp with Graham in particular able to ad lib on the spot.
They got their own 25 minute variety show The Coal Hole Club replacing Crackerjack in April 1973. The second and final series the following year was re-branded The Grumbleweeds . I remember it as being pretty funny ; whether any of it survives I don't know.
The series disappeared but they didn't. They were regular guest stars on light entertainment programmes until well into the nineties and had a long running radio show on Radio Two from 1979 to 1988. From 1983 to 1987 they had another TV show on Granada but I don't remember that at all. Times got a bit harder after the radio show finished. The Sutcliffes left the line up in 1987 and Maurice followed suit in 1998 when Graham developed throat cancer. When he partially recovered he and Robin soldiered on as a duo until his death a couple of years ago. Robin decided to carry on with a new partner.
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