{{Short description|English comedian}} {{other people}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Jimmy Wheeler | image = Jimmy_Wheeler.jpg | alt = | caption = | other names = | birth_name = Ernest Alfred Henry Remnant | birth_date = {{birth date|1910|9|16|df=y}} | birth_place = Battersea, London, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1973|10|8|1910|9|16|df=y}} | death_place = Brighton, Sussex, England | occupation = Comedian | years_active = 1929–1973 see }} '''Ernest Alfred Henry Remnant''' (16 September 1910 – 8 October 1973), known professionally as '''Jimmy Wheeler''', was a British variety theatre comedian and pioneer of radio and television. Earlier in his career he worked with his father in the double act '''Wheeler and Wilson'''.
==Life and career== He was born in Battersea, London, and as a child had violin lessons and learned to dance. His father was music hall entertainer Ernest Remnant (1884–1957), who performed with Frank Wheeler in the double act Wheeler and Wilson, named after a manufacturer of sewing machines.<ref name=baker>Richard Anthony Baker, ''Old Time Variety: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-78340-066-9}}, pp.71-73</ref>
After Frank Wheeler died, the young Ernest – who had become known as Jimmy after fellow entertainer George Formby Sr introduced him as 'Lucky Jim',<ref name=lewisohn>[http://www.sabbione.com/Jimmy_Wheeler_1.htm Mark Lewisohn, "Jimmy Wheeler", ''Sabbione.com''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130320061146/http://www.sabbione.com/Jimmy_Wheeler_1.htm |date=20 March 2013 }}. Retrieved 3 January 2021</ref> and who had held various other jobs including laboratory assistant and straight actor<ref name=hudd/> – took over as "Wheeler" to his father's "Wilson".<ref name=baker/> From 1929, father and son performed a popular variety act in character as a sailor and railway porter, combining comic cross-talk with slapstick, music and songs.<ref name=baker/> They appeared on radio, and in early experimental television transmissions in 1932,<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?order=asc&q=%22Jimmy+Wheeler%22#search Search: Jimmy Wheeler, ''Radio Times'', ''BBC'']. Retrieved 3 January 2021</ref> and the double act was filmed in 1938.<ref name=baker/>
Starting as a solo act in 1949, Jimmy Wheeler established himself as a popular comedian in his own right. A burly man with a moustache, he used a violin as part of his stage act, in the style of Jack Benny. His style was described as "gruff... the archetypal beer-stained bash comic..",<ref name=hero>John Fisher, ''Funny Way to be a Hero'', Random House, 2013, p.187</ref> and "the epitome of the boozy, four-ale bar story teller".<ref name=hudd>Roy Hudd and Philip Hindin, ''Roy Hudd's Cavalcade of Variety Acts'', Robson Books, 1998, {{ISBN|1-86105-206-5}}, p.194</ref> Some of his stage and radio acts were humorous résumés of well-known operas, which he entitled 'Hopra for the Higgerant' ('Opera for the Ignorant', with typical added Cockney-type aitches). His catchphrase, at the end of his act, was "Aye aye, that's yer lot".<ref name=hero/> Wheeler was popular in London and the South of England, but his act was sometimes less well received in Northern England and Scotland.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}
He appeared regularly on television in the 1950s, tailoring his act to fit the requirements of the new medium while maintaining the same style.<ref name=lewisohn/> From 1956, he had his own series, ''The Jimmy Wheeler Show'', on BBC TV, which ran for three series. Though Wheeler wrote much of his own material, there were additional contributions from Talbot Rothwell, Sid Colin, and John Antrobus.<ref name=baker/>
Wheeler was known as a heavy drinker.<ref name=baker/> Roy Hudd noted that "stories about him are legion", though "most.. are unprintable."<ref>Roy Hudd, ''Roy Hudd's Book of Music-Hall, Variety and Showbiz Anecdotes'', Robson Books Ltd., {{ISBN|0-86051-929-5}}, 1993, p.182</ref> He died in Brighton in 1973, aged 63.<ref name=baker/>
His catchphrase "Aye aye, that's yer lot" was sometimes used by later musicians including Ian Dury and Ray Davies.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|1543031}} * [https://www.britishpathe.com/video/wheeler-and-wilson 1938 film] of Wheeler and Wilson
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wheeler, Jimmy}} Category:English stand-up comedians Category:English male comedians Category:1910 births Category:1973 deaths Category:Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England Category:20th-century English comedians Category:People from Battersea Category:Comedians from the London Borough of Wandsworth