The Russ Abbot Show was a British television comedy series which starred Russ Abbot

Russ Abbot

Russ Abbot is an English musician, comedian and actor who first came to public notice during the 1970s as the singer and drummer with British comedy showband the Black Abbots, later forging a prominent solo career as a television comedian with his own weekly show on British television.Continuing...

 and ran on the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 from 1986 to 1991, and for 14 episodes on Granada Television

Granada Television

Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....

 from 1994 to 1995. It featured comedy performers Les Dennis

Les Dennis

Les Dennis is an English comedian, television presenter and actor best known as the host of Family Fortunes for 15 years.-Early life:...

, Bella Emberg

Bella Emberg

Bella Emberg is a British actress probably best known for her appearances on The Benny Hill Show and The Russ Abbot Show, where she notably played Blunderwoman...

, Tom Bright, Maggie Moone

Maggie Moone

Maggie Moone is a singer best remembered for her role on the UK version of Name That Tune.In 1980 she participated in A Song For Europe, aiming to become the United Kingdom's entry to that year's Eurovision Song Contest to be staged in The Hague, The Netherlands...

, Suzy Aitchison

Suzy Aitchison

Suzy Aitchison is a British television actress and the daughter of famed actress June Whitfield. She is most notable for her role as Susie on Jam & Jerusalem...

, Gordon Kennedy

Gordon Kennedy (actor)

Gordon Kennedy is a Scottish actor. Kennedy grew up in Tranent, East Lothian, and attended George Watson's College in Edinburgh...

, Paul Shearer

Paul Shearer

Paul Shearer is a British actor who is best known as a member of the Fast Show team. His best-known roles on that programme are as a newscaster and a variety show host on the European television parody sketch 'Chanel 9'....

 and Sherrie Hewson

Sherrie Hewson

Sherrie Lynn Hutchinson is an English actor, broadcaster and novelist.-Early life:Born in Nottinghamshire, Hewson was brought up in a showbusiness family; her father was a singer and her mother a model. She began performing at the age of six, touring the UK's theatres in revues with her own...

 among others.

History

The series originated on radio before making the transition to television. The series returned to radio on BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

 for 42 episodes from November 1997 to February 2002.

Format

The series showcased Abbot's talents as an all round entertainer and included characters such as Basildon Bond, a James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 parody, 'Cooperman', a cross between Tommy Cooper

Tommy Cooper

Thomas Frederick "Tommy" Cooper was a very popular British prop comedian and magician from Caerphilly, Wales.Cooper was a member of The Magic Circle, and respected by traditional magicians...

 and Superman

Superman

Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...

, and C.U. Jimmy, a virtually unintelligible red-headed Scotsman. The programme attracted millions of viewers weekly. The show was very popular amongst younger viewers, prompting two annuals to be published in 1982 and 1983. The annuals featured comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

s based on popular characters Abbot had created in the various series of the show. It was also notable for its "Tears of laughter" theme song, which played at the start and end of the show.