C792 Media Guide for Radio, Television & Modern Life

Short Bio

Wilfred Pickles OBE (13 October 1904 – 27 March 1978) was an English actor and radio presenter. Born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, he moved to Southport, Lancashire, with his family in 1929 and worked with his father as a builder. His most significant work was as host of the BBC Radio show Have A Go, which ran from 1946 to 1967 and launched such catchphrases as "How do, how are yer?", "Are yer courting?", "What's on the table, Mabel?" and "Give him the money, Barney", delivered in Pickles's inimitable style.

 

Career

He joined an amateur dramatic society and in a local production there, met Mabel Celilia Myerscough, all of whose family had been connected with the stage. Pickles remained a proud Yorkshireman, and having been selected by the BBC as an announcer for its North Regional radio service, he went on to be an occasional newsreader on the BBC Home Service during World War II. He was the first newsreader to speak in a regional accent rather than Received Pronunciation, "a deliberate attempt to make it more difficult for Nazis to impersonate BBC broadcasters", and caused some comment with his farewell catchphrase "... and to all in the North, good neet". His first professional appearance was as an extra in Henry Baynton's production of Julius Caesar at the Theatre Royal in Halifax in the 1920s.

 

Key Facts

Have A Go attracted a weekly audience of over 20 million and a mailbag of around 5,000 letters. Contestants could earn £1/19/11d by sharing "their intimate secrets." In May 1954 he brought the show to television with the programme Ask Pickles which ran until 1956. In 1948 a children's board game entitled "Ask Pickles" was published by noted jigsaw manufacturer Tower Press. In 1955 he published an anthology of poetry and prose of the 'north counties' of England called My North Countrie. In 1950 Pickles was awarded the OBE for services to broadcasting.