Jimmy Cricket

Cricket was born James Joseph Mulgrew^[2] on 17 October 1945^[3] in Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. He was raised in Belfast and left school at 16.^[4][5] Cricket spent the next two years working in a betting shop, before spending the summer of 1966 working as a Red Coat in the Butlins Holiday camp in Mosney, County Meath. He spent the following two summers at the Butlins in Clacton, Essex. By the early 1970s, he was living in Stockport. From 1972, he worked at the Pontins holiday camps in Southport and Morecambe.^[3] He returned to Clacton-on-Sea in 2006 to star in the eight-week summer show Summer Special at the West Cliff Theatre.^[6]

Cricket toured in the UK with other artists such as The Osmonds, Brotherhood of Man, and Gerry and the Pacemakers. He also toured in comedy themed shows with Cannon and Ball, Paul Daniels, Frank Carson, and The Krankies.^[7] In 2022, he toured with Leah Bell in the Right Royal Knees Up Show for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.^[8]

Cricket was given his own television series, And There's More (named after his best-known catchphrase),^[9] produced by Central Television (also notable for including the first TV appearance by Rory Bremner); it ran for four series. Cricket also had his own radio series for BBC Radio 2 called Jimmy's Cricket Team,^[9] written by Eddie Braben and starring Peter Goodwright, Bill Pertwee and Noreen Kershaw.

He featured in The Krankies Klub^[2] alongside the Krankies and Bobby Davro. Cricket appeared in numerous Royal Variety Performances. He also featured on numerous occasions on the BBC TV's long running TV show The Good Old Days.^[2]

Cricket appeared on Bullseye in 1984,^[9] scoring 125 with nine darts for charity. He told Tony at the oche he forgot to add 60, saying 'and there's more'; Tony pretended he forgot and added the 60 to give a total of 185.

He was the subject of an episode of This Is Your Life in 1987.^[9]

Cricket was one of a number of performers to appear in the video for the 2007 Comic Relief single, a cover of The Proclaimers' song "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by Matt Lucas as Andy Pipkin and Peter Kay as Brian Potter.^[9]

Cricket married May Tweedie in 1972. They had four children and four grandchildren.^[2] He died following a short illness on 3 August 2026, aged 80.^[2][5] Cricket's son, Father Frankie Mulgrew, said that the day before his death he wanted "the last rites twice, because like a good comedian he wanted an encore".^[10]

Tributes

Northern Irish comedian William Caulfield called Cricket "one of the most generous and lovely people to work with", while comedian Ted Robbins said he was "one of the last great comics".^[11] Comedian and TV presenter Roy Walker called him a "sincere wee fella" who "loved everyone and everyone loved him". Actor Christopher Biggins also paid tribute, calling Cricket "unbelievably fantastic, I don't think I met a nicer man ever".^[10]

Cricket's humour was entirely clean. A popular theme of his comedy is Irish logic, and the ubiquitous letter from his "Mammy". He almost always appeared in his trademark outfit of cut-off evening trousers, evening tailcoat, hat (given to him by the BBC to wear on The Good Old Days) and Wellington boots marked "L" and "R" for left and right, but each worn on the wrong foot. He frequently prefaced an anecdote with the catchphrase: "Ladies and gentlemen, [beat], come here [or c'mere]" as well as, "and there's more".^[12]

On 18 September 2015, it was announced that Cricket had been awarded by the Roman Catholic Church, a papal knighthood (Order of St. Gregory the Great) from Pope Francis for his charity work.^[13]