Norman Wisdom - A Very British Icon

Below is an article I found on a blog site. This is useful to me because the blogger talks about why the British people took to Norman Wisdom and why he was a success not only here in Great Britain but in Albania and Iran, also. He also talks about how British comedy has changed. (Article from paulowensblog.blogspot.com)

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

RIP Norman Wisdom: A Very British Icon

His films weren't sophisticated or especially original. But Norman Wisdom was one of those stars the public held a special place for in their hearts and not just in Albania where he was famously a superstar. According to Shappi Khorsandi he was just as big a star in Iran. Perhaps it's because we grew up with him. Perhaps it was because his films were innocently entertaining and were so quintessentially British, the triumph of the little man against the bullies. His particular type of comedy eventually went out of fashion when the cool 60s came along, but it is telling that they remained popular on TV and with successive generations of kids in the same way that the likes of Laurel and Hardy continued to entertain us long after they had passed into cinematic history.

Most of us have seen them and, though they may not rank as cinematic classics in the true sense of the word, they somehow gained a place in our affections. We've all seen On the Beat in which he was too short to be a policeman but donned his father's old uniform anyway causing chaos; The Early Bird in which he was a milkman fighting off the nasty corporate interloper alongside the famous Mr Grimsdale; or Up in the World in which he was a window cleaner and subjected to tickle torture by his employer's son. Like I say, sophisticated he was not. But then he never claimed to be. He just tried to entertain.

He was one of those actors who had the gift to appear normal and like the rest of us. Perhaps it wasn't a gift at all. Perhaps that was just what he was. For all of his wealth and success he never seemed like a star in the normal sense of the word. One can't imagine Norman making demands for huge trailers, food flown in from afar and drinks at a specific temperature. He was just the working man made good, one of us who got lucky. His ability to project that on screen was what made him so huge.

But he was also a brilliant clown and physical comedian. That trademark walk and the trips and falls were the hallmark of a man who could make people laugh with a minimum of effort. Such comedy was looked down on for many years. But it is no accident that it remains lodged in our memories and inspires our affection. Indeed when he was knighted in 2000 he did one of his trademark trips. The Queen was amused.

Now we live in an age of celebrity, when actors and singers can become iconic figures and identifiable by a single name. Norman Wisdom became a very British version of that, without really trying. Somehow it seems wrong to refer to him by his surname. He was just Norman, the little man in the cap, the classic British underdog; and that's why we loved him.