Wilfred Pickles

Wilfred Pickles OBE (13 October 1904 – 27 March 1978) was an English actor and radio presenter.

Born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, he moved to Southport, Lancashire, with his family in 1929 and worked with his father as a builder. He joined an amateur dramatic society and in a local production there, met Mabel Celilia Myerscough (1906–1989), all of whose family had been connected with the stage.

Pickles remained a proud Yorkshireman, and having been selected by the BBC as an announcer for its North Regional radio service, he went on to be an occasional newsreader on the BBC Home Service during the Second World War. He was the first newsreader to speak in a regional accent rather than Received Pronunciation, "a deliberate attempt to make it more difficult for Nazis to impersonate BBC broadcasters", and caused some comment with his farewell catchphrase "... and to all in the North, good neet".

His first professional appearance was as an extra in Henry Baynton's production of Julius Caesar at the Theatre Royal in Halifax in the 1920s. Pickles soon became a radio celebrity, and pursued an acting career in London's West End theatre, on television and on film.

His most significant work was as host of the BBC Radio show Have A Go, which ran from 1946 to 1967 and launched such catchphrases as "How do, how are yer?", "Are yer courting?", "What's on the table, Mabel?" and "Give him the money, Barney", delivered in Pickles's inimitable style. He appeared in the show with his wife Mabel whom he had married on 20 September 1930, at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, Ainsdale, Southport.

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