This rumour about Arthur Worsley being the daddy of all ventriloquists was started by the News of the World and has no foundation in fact. For all I know, he may have put it about a bit and was a well-known ladies man. Some even said he was the ladies man's ladies man.
He was very good though, mainly because he never said anything, he let the dummy do the talking. So in fact, he was only doing half the work. Very smart man. He was always fond of telling himself off via his dummy: "Who's geen a naughty goy then?".
If you had Arthur Worsley on the same bill as Jimmy James and his gang of nincompoop sidekicks you knew you were in for a side-splitting evening, and would probably still be aching from laughter the next morning. It was the cause of many a sick note and a day off work. Which led to the death of the manufacturing industries in Britain, the rise and fall of the unions, Arthur Scargill, Thatcher and the present cock-eyed administration. All because of one episode of Seaside Special in 1961. It makes you think.
