This was made in the days when UK TV documentaries about Golden Age entertainers still delineated both the good and bad sides, to try to get the right perspective of the performer shown. Since the advent of Channel 4 and the gradual passing of the generation who knew better they've tended to show only the bad or the fictitious. The last hopeless biography in print of Formby in the '90's had him as a gay Nazi sympathiser - that's entertainment!
George Formby (1904-61) was Britain's highest paid entertainer and the top box office attraction between 1938-44, exuding a "gawky innocence and artless charm" and with a "talent for being ordinary" that struck a (banjolele) chord with the public at the time. Sadly, it is now a Lost Chord with most folk. The doc. starts out in Blackpool to the strains of With My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock and a George Formby Society convention at the Imperial Hotel, it also being the year of the 20th anniversary of Formby's death. Back then they only had 200 members, last I heard it was about 1000 worldwide. Formby Senior and the run up to Junior's main film career is touched upon, but then we're treated to plenty of opinions, clips from his best films (Let George Do It, No Limit, Trouble Brewing), beautifully unremastered 78's and a few home movies. Beryl takes more stick than she deserved for being so possessive of him depending on your point of view of course! But he wouldn't have made it so big without her, full stop.
It was an artless and ordinary little BBC documentary but it gives a good picture of who and what he was and is a good starting point (after the Society website) for those who'd like to know a bit more.
George Formby (1904-61) was Britain's highest paid entertainer and the top box office attraction between 1938-44, exuding a "gawky innocence and artless charm" and with a "talent for being ordinary" that struck a (banjolele) chord with the public at the time. Sadly, it is now a Lost Chord with most folk. The doc. starts out in Blackpool to the strains of With My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock and a George Formby Society convention at the Imperial Hotel, it also being the year of the 20th anniversary of Formby's death. Back then they only had 200 members, last I heard it was about 1000 worldwide. Formby Senior and the run up to Junior's main film career is touched upon, but then we're treated to plenty of opinions, clips from his best films (Let George Do It, No Limit, Trouble Brewing), beautifully unremastered 78's and a few home movies. Beryl takes more stick than she deserved for being so possessive of him depending on your point of view of course! But he wouldn't have made it so big without her, full stop.
It was an artless and ordinary little BBC documentary but it gives a good picture of who and what he was and is a good starting point (after the Society website) for those who'd like to know a bit more.