| Cannon and Ball |
| Birth name |
Thomas Derbyshire
(1938-06-27) 27 June 1938 (age 78)
Oldham, Lancashire, England, UK
Robert Harper
(1944-01-28) 28 January 1944 (age 73)
Oldham, Lancashire, England, UK |
| Medium |
Film, television, stand-up, music, books |
| Genres |
Observational comedy, musical comedy, satire, |
| Subject(s) |
Marriage, everyday life, current events, pop culture
|
Tommy Cannon (born Thomas Derbyshire, 27 June 1938) and Bobby Ball (born Robert Harper, 28 January 1944), known collectively as Cannon and Ball, are an English comedy double act best known for their comedy variety show The Cannon and Ball Show, which lasted for nine years on ITV. The duo met in the early 1960s while working as welders in Oldham, Lancashire. They started out as singers working the pubs and clubs of Greater Manchester and switched to comedy after being told comics earned an extra £3 a night.
Their first TV appearance was in 1974 in the variety show The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club before landing a performance on Bruce Forsyth's Big Night, although their segment didn't make it to broadcast. In 1979, LWT offered them their own series, The Cannon and Ball Show which premiered in ITV on 28 July 1979. Further series followed each year through to 1988, along with Christmas and Easter specials.
In 1982, they appeared in a feature film, The Boys in Blue, based loosely on the classic Will Hay film, Ask a Policeman.The Boys in Blue was regarded critically as weak in comparison and was their only cinema outing. It was released on DVD in 2004.
They also featured in a comic strip Rock on Tommy, which was published in the magazine Look-in.
Their popularity coincided with the rise of alternative comedy, with its emphasis on more socially relevant and political concerns. As time passed, Cannon and Ball's popularity began to decline, though they were not the only comedy act to suffer as comic tastes shifted. During the 1980s, Greg Dyke, the then Head of Programming at ITV station TVS and later to hold a similar position at LWT expressed a concern that northern comedy shows may not suit southern tastes.
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