Norman Wisdom RIP

I have just read of the death, aged 95, of Sir Norman Wisdom. The last of the music hall comics to find mainstream film success - Wisdom became a household name in the 1950s and 60s. His clowning, bumbling character (often named Pitkin), varied only slightly in most of these films remaining, hapless, innocent, and plucky. On running gags played on Pitkin's ability to infuriate the hierarchy of whichever organisation the film was set in (army, council, shop etc) with his antics.

BBC2 showed a season of Wisdom films when I was a youngster. While they sometimes seem rather slow today, and much of the humour relates to violations of deference and chains of command that are largely absent today - they are still a source of happy memories for me. I remember sitting in front of my Mum and Dad's old black and white TV, and laughing until I cried at films such as The Bulldog Breed and Trouble in Store.