Anyone who could make the raincoated all-male audience laugh out loud between the nude ladies was considered good enough. Hence English’s first catchphrase, “Watch the boy!”Arthur English was not a born Cockney, despite the excellent accent. He was born in Aldershot in 1919 and, after doing some local shows in his spare time away from a building site, he took the plunge into professionalism.He bought a day-return to London and walked into the Windmill Theatre, nationally known as the home of new comedians. David Jacobs, who introduced the then new comedian, explained to listeners that English had to have three microphones – “because he just can’t keep still”. That honour belongs to the great Sid Field, whose West End wide boy, Slasher Green, is immortalised for all time in the film London Town (1946).
But where Green’s overcoat was long enough to reach his snappy shoes, it was English’s kipper tie that brought the house down. Early in his act he would unbutton his jacket and out would roll a flowered affair that would end around his knees. It was made by his wife out of some eye-dazzling curtain material, and caused one of the biggest laughs ever heard on Variety Bandbox on radio: “Keeps me knees warm in winter!”, laughed English, much to the annoyance of the producer, who didn’t approve of visual gags.
It was English’s first broadcast (17 November 1949), and in no time at all he was added to the long list of resident comedians who had found fame on that famous radio series: Hal Monty, Derek Roy, Frankie Howerd, Reg Dixon, and all the way to Al Read. Arthur English depicted the wide boy in extremis: he was worldly wise (street- wise we would say today), and literally wide.
His super-spiv suit bore shoulders so broad that, to quote him, “I ‘ad to come in the swing-door sideways!”
English was not the first to caricature the spiv on stage. “The Prince of the Wide Boys” is dead, and with him the last link to that low-life phenomenon of the Forties and Fifties, the spiv. American profits slipped from £2m to £1.6m on sales that also dipped marginally.The group also incurred £300,000 in professional fees relating to the refinancing.ASH had around £159m of debt and its bank facilities, which were due to expire in May, have been extended to 1996.Last year ASH made losses of £11.8m after a £20m provision against its stake in Arius, a distributor of security products.Prior to Mr Buffet’s departure there was speculation that the European businesses would be sold in order to concentrate on the US The company now says such a move is unlikely.. The company’s favoured candidate rejected the job two months ago “We’re still looking,” a spokesman said. The company is currently being run by a management committee led by Lord Lane of Horsell.Profits in Europe for the three months to February fell from £4.5m to £3.8m due to a poor performance from peripheral businesses such as the Irish security systems subsidiary and another offering a care in the community scheme.In the US profits were hit by exchange rate fluctuations and problems at Sonitrol Management Corporation.