Harry honoured

Sixties comedy star Harry Worth is to be honoured by a blue plaque on the house where he was born.

Jimmy Cricket will be unveiling the plaque at the property at 47 Fitzwilliam Street, Hoyland Common, Barnsley next Tuesday.

It was there that Worth was born Harry Illingsworth on November 20, 1917. He started his career as a ventriloquist before ditching the dummy, on the advice of Oliver Hardy, whom he supported on tour.

As a comedian with an amiable, bumbling persona he made more than 100 sketch shows in the Sixties, and died in July 1989, aged 72, of spinal cancer.

The new plaque is being installed by the British Comedy Society.

Published: 15 Jul 2010