Bernie Clifton (born Bernard M. Quinn, 30 April 1936) is a British comedian and entertainer, known for his work with his orange

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...

puppet costume Oswald the Ostrich.

Early life

Clifton was born on 30 April 1936 in St Helens, Lancashire, where he also grew up. He left grammar school without any qualifications at 15 and became an apprentice plumber. Aged 21, he was called up for

national service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

and became a radar mechanic at the Bomber Command Bombing School (BCBS) at RAF Lindholme. He has been based in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

ever since.

Career

Clifton's first performing job was as a singer with a dance band, but he was fired after a month. His first television performance was on the light-entertainment show '' The Good Old Days'' in 1971, where he was inspired by

Les Dawson Leslie Dawson (2 February 1931 – 10 June 1993) was an English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and pianist. He was known for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona, musical routines, and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife. Early li ...

. He performed in the 1979

Royal Variety Performance The ''Royal Variety Performance'' is a televised variety show held annually in the United Kingdom to raise money for the Royal Variety Charity (of which King Charles III is life-patron). It is attended by senior members of the British royal ...

. He subsequently appeared on several further occasions, including the 2016 show. He made regular appearances on '' Crackerjack!''. During the 1980s, he appeared on '' The Keith Harris Show'', and in 1982, Clifton ran the

London Marathon The London Marathon (also known as the TCS London Marathon for sponsorship reasons) is an annual marathon held in London, England. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held in April, although it moved to Oct ...

with Oswald the Ostrich. In 2002, Clifton featured on the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

documentary series ''The Entertainers'', which followed 1970s and '80s entertainers who had dropped out of the limelight. In 2005, Clifton and Oswald appeared in

Peter Kay Peter John Kay (born 2 July 1973) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. Born and raised in Farnworth, Kay studied media performance at the University of Salford and later began working part-time as a stand-up comedian. In 199 ...

's and

Tony Christie Anthony Fitzgerald (born 25 April 1943), known professionally as Tony Christie, is an English musician and singer. He is best known for his recording of " (Is This the Way to) Amarillo", a double UK chart success. Career 1960s to 1970s Bor ...

's music video for the

Comic Relief Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...

charity re-release of "

(Is This the Way to) Amarillo "(Is This the Way to) Amarillo" is a song written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. It is about a man traveling to Amarillo, Texas, to find his girlfriend Marie. Written by two Americans with a strong country-western lyrical theme, the s ...

". In 2005, Clifton appeared as himself in an episode of the

David Renwick David Peter Renwick (; born 4 September 1951) is an English author, television writer, actor, director and executive producer. He created the sitcom ''One Foot in the Grave'' and the mystery series ''Jonathan Creek''. He was awarded the Writers ...

sitcom ''

Love Soup ''Love Soup'' is a British television comedy drama produced by the BBC and first screened on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. It stars Tamsin Greig as Alice Chenery (a role written especially for her) and Michael Landes as Gil Raymond (series 1 on ...

'' having previously been mentioned by Renwick in an early episode of his sitcom ''

One Foot in the Grave ''One Foot in the Grave'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom written by David Renwick. There were six series (each consisting of six half-hour episodes) and seven Christmas specials over a period of ten years from early 1990 to late ...

''. Clifton made his

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

debut in 2006 at the Udderbelly venue. Writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', Brian Logan gave it 3 out of 5 stars and called it an "exercise in retro comedy", but "also unrepentantly funny". Clifton was a contestant on

Series 5 Series 5 may refer to: * Aston Martin V8 Series 5, an automobile model * BMW 5 Series, a line of automobiles * GeForce 5 Series, a line of video cards * Psion Series 5, a line of handheld computers * South African Class 6E1, Series 5, a series o ...

of ''

The Voice UK ''The Voice UK'' is a British singing reality competition television series. Created by John de Mol and Roel van Velzen, it premiered on BBC One on 24 March 2012. Based on the original Dutch singing competition '' The Voice of Holland'', and ...

'', applying under his birth name. He performed "

The Impossible Dream (The Quest) "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)" is a popular song composed by Mitch Leigh, with lyrics written by Joe Darion. It is the best known tune from the 1965 Broadway musical ''Man of La Mancha'' and is also featured in the 1972 film Man of La Mancha (f ...

" from ''

Man of La Mancha ''Man of La Mancha'' is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, music by Mitch Leigh, and lyrics by Joe Darion. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay '' I, Don Quixote'', which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervan ...

'', and did not advance past the blind auditions. Following his appearance on the show he released an album of covers called ''The Impossible Dream'', which included " The Lady in Red" and "

Wind Beneath My Wings "Wind Beneath My Wings" (sometimes titled "The Wind Beneath My Wings" and "Hero") is a song written in 1982 by Americans Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley. The song was first recorded by Australian singer Kamahl in 1982 for a country and western albu ...

". After a death metal band's song titles were printed on his album cover by mistake, Clifton presented an award at the ''Kerrang!'' Awards in June 2016. In 2018, he starred in ITV's ''Last Laugh in Vegas'', a documentary following eight "showbiz legends" as they prepared a show in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. In January 2020, Clifton appeared as a guest on the first episode of the new series of ''Crackerjack!'' on

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

. In February that year, he played himself in the first episode of ''

Meet The Richardsons ''Meet the Richardsons'' is a British comedy television series that premiered on 27 February 2020, on Dave. It stars comedians Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont as fictionalised versions of themselves discussing their lives in a mockumentary form ...

'' on

Dave Dave may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the 1993 film * ''Dave'' (TV series), a 2020 American comedy series * ...

. Within the episode, he is a family friend of

Jon Richardson Jon Joel Richardson (born 26 September 1982) is an English comedian and radio presenter. He is known for his appearances on '' 8 Out of 10 Cats'' and '' 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'' and his work as co-host with Russell Howard on BBC Rad ...

and teaches him how to operate a monkey puppet similar to his ostrich. Clifton has starred in several

pantomimes Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or f ...

, playing the father of

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

at the

Hull New Theatre The Hull New Theatre is a theatre in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1939 as a successor to the Hull Repertory Theatre Company. The Hull New Theatre features Musical theatre, musicals, opera, ballet, drama, ch ...

in 2018 and at

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

Royal & Derngate Royal & Derngate is a theatre complex in the Cultural Quarter, Northampton, Cultural Quarter of Northampton, England, consisting of the Royal Theatre, Derngate Theatre and the Northampton Filmhouse. The Royal was built by theatre architect Cha ...

in 2019. He has also presented shows on BBC Radio Sheffield, and

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

. In 2018, ''

Inside No. 9 ''Inside No. 9'' is a British black comedy Anthology series, anthology television programme written and created by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. It aired on BBC Two from 5 February 2014 to 12 June 2024, running for 9 series and 55 episo ...

'' titled an episode " Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room"; while Clifton himself didn't appear in the episode, he was mentioned as part of a key plot point occurring in the titular room. On 10 March 2022, he made an unplanned telephone appearance on the Chris Moyles Show on Radio X, having been referenced by comedian, Jon Richardson, who appeared on the radio show earlier that morning.

Personal life

In 1961 Clifton married Marjorie Hancock (b. 1932). They went on to have four children together. Clifton was widowed on 9 September 2000.

Filmography

References

External links

*
Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clifton, Bernie 1936 births Living people 20th-century British comedians 21st-century British comedians 20th-century Royal Air Force personnel Comedians from Lancashire People from St Helens, Merseyside Television personalities from Lancashire Television personalities from South Yorkshire British male comedians