A COMEDIAN who remains best known for anchoring a popular TV quiz show for many years is to mark his 60th anniversary in showbusiness with a gig in Jersey.
Roy Walker will be returning to the Island on Friday 30 October after making several visits during the 1980s and 90s when the Jersey nightlife scene was in its pomp.
Still gigging at the age of 86, Mr Walker offered a preview of his stand-up style during an interview with the JEP.
“I’ve got to keep going for about another year or two so I can pay off my student loan,” he said. “Half the audience may not have been sure whether I was still around – I go on and say ‘good evening everybody – hands up who thought I was dead’.”
The forthcoming appearance at the Freedom Centre is set to offer a mix of pin-sharp one-liners and an account of a fascinating life in showbiz that began in Mr Walker’s native Belfast.
Initially he was a singer in some of the new breed of clubs that were springing up in the city, doing his first performance in 1966, but after moving to the north-west of England in 1969 after Belfast became gripped by the Troubles, he changed tack.
“They were all vocalists in England,” he said. “Everybody in Liverpool was playing the guitar and singing Beatles songs, so I had difficulty getting work.
“Somebody told me that ‘for a singer you tell a very good joke’ – I wasn’t that keen to start with, but I was booked for an evening at the miners’ club at Trimdon Colliery in County Durham and the band didn’t show up, so I went on and told jokes and got paid, and that was it – I’ve been a comedian ever since.”
Mr Walker’s career took off after he won the television talent show New Faces in 1977, and by the mid-80s he had landed the job for which is still his claim to fame, hosting the ITV quiz show Catchphrase for 13 years.
Although it’s been 27 years since his last broadcast, and Catchphrase has had several other hosts since then – the show remains part of the TV schedules with Stephen Mulhern as its compere – Mr Walker is still the person most associated with the show, with his own catchphrases telling contestants that “it’s good, but it’s not right” and to “say what you see”.
“Back in the 80s and 90s, there were so many comedians hosting game shows, and I’m sure the reason was that a comedian can think on their feet, they aren’t stuck for something to say,” he said.
“My only other qualification was my first name – the rule seemed to be that you had to be a comedian with a three-letter name.
“At the time there was one Tom [O’Connor], two Bobs [Monkhouse and Holness], two guys named Les [Dawson and Dennis], a Des [O’Connor] and a Ted [Rogers], so when I said my name was Roy they said I’d got the job.”
More recently, Mr Walker has continued to headline theatres, cruise ships and to perform at comedy clubs and cabaret nights throughout Britain and overseas. He also keeps a proud eye on family members who also work in showbusiness – his children Mark, Phil and Josie, and his granddaughter Verity.
The trip to Jersey will be a journey down memory lane for Mr Walker, who made regular trips in the 80s and 90s.
“They were usually short on a Sunday, playing venues like the Inn on the Park, staying over and getting a flight back in the morning,” he said. “It’s been a while, but I always got on well with the audience, and if I’m still going, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of people in Jersey who are too – it’ll be great to see them again.”
The Roy Walker evening at the Freedom Centre in St Helier will start at 6pm on Friday 30 October – visit https://freedomcentre.je/event/roy-walker-live-in-jersey for ticket details.
