Alfred Read was a British radio comedian active throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
13 Facts About Al Read
1.
2.
Al Read always wanted to perform - on one occasion, when he was 18, he performed impressions of Maurice Chevalier in clubs in Bolton before being found by his father and having to return to work as a meat-products salesman.
3.
Al Read honed his skills with carefully observed characterisations ranging from drunks to know-alls and cheeky children.
4.
Al Read's humour was observational and was about Northern English working class people, often in a domestic situation.
5.
Al Read quickly became popular on regional and then national radio broadcasts, such as Variety Bandbox and Workers' Playtime.
6.
Al Read recorded monthly editions of his programme, The Al Read Show, in advance, allowing him to diverge from the usual radio variety show format.
7.
The introduction to his radio show was usually "Al Read: introducing us to ourselves"; and he himself described his work as "pictures of life".
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Maurice Chevalier 8.
The Al Read Show series was recorded as outside broadcasts from the Hulme Hippodrome, rented on Sundays by the BBC, with archived papers dating recordings between 1952 and 1955.
9.
In 1963 Read headed a six-part variety series for ITV called Life and Al Read, made and videotaped by ABC Television and shown on Sunday afternoons in many ITV regions.
10.
Al Read appears to have changed his approach for this series.
11.
Al Read retired from performance in the 1970s while continuing to run his business interests from homes in Yorkshire and Spain.
12.
Al Read published an autobiography, It's All in the Book, the same year.
13.
Al Read died in hospital in Northallerton, Yorkshire, in 1987, aged 78, following a series of strokes.