It didn’t occur to me until they made a surreal appearance in the newspapers, but why on earth aren’t The Chuckle Brothers on television anymore? Chucklevision was one of the best programmes that CBBC ever produced, and despite it being on children’s television it appealed to everyone. If you have never seen an episode then I recommend finding one on YouTube and once you have watched it, you’ll want more and more.

Recently, Paul and Barry Elliott (yes, I too was disappointed when I found out that their surname isn’t actually Chuckle, it’s right up there with finding out there’s no Father Christmas or that there isn’t really a little man in the cash point machine handing out money) were called to give evidence in favour of former Radio 1 bell-end Dave Lee Travis, who is on trial for sexual assault. They worked together in pantomime in the 1990s and according to one of DLT’s alleged victims (the case is still going on), he only stopped what he was doing when a Chuckle walked past the dressing room and disturbed things. The judge in the case reprimanded Paul (the tall one who dyes his hair) for referring to ‘we’. Given how long they have been working together, it is understandable that they would think as one.

I didn’t realise just how long they had been working together as a comedy double act, they won Opportunity Knocks in 1967 and then won New Faces in 1974 but didn’t earn their television stripes properly until 1984. ChuckleVision started in 1987 when they were both in their early 40s, ancient in children’s television years. The show ceased to be in 2009 which is a crying shame not just for children’s television but also for comedy full stop. Maybe their age has something to do with it (from their own point of view) as the show was rather physical and could take its toll on a 66 and a 69 year old.

When I first saw the Chuckle Brothers mentioned alongside this story I of course feared the worst; there’s enough of our childhood being stolen away from us thanks to the revelations of sordid sexual depravity in years gone by (I found an old copy of Look In the other day and thought I’d found an early sex offenders register) without having these two cartoonish buffoons struck from the history books.

The show finished in 2009 and although sporadically repeated, isn’t on television enough. If the BBC doesn’t want to show it then why don’t they do what they do with most of their output and sell it to the UK Gold network? There’s a generation of children who have never seen Chucklevision and that is not good. The Chuckle Brothers are (and I know this is high praise) equal to Laurel and Hardy in their comedy and should be appreciated by future generations as Stan and Ollie are.

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