24 October 2023 , 20:15
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Legendary comic Barry Cryer did not need to wear his trademark black-rimmed glasses, his son has revealed.
The eyewear became part of his “character” – even if they spent most of their time hanging around his neck when he was not performing, as he could see perfectly well without them. The late star’s son Bob laughs: “For a man who was considered authentic, and a man of no frills, with no glossy persona, it was funny that he felt naked without them.
“People were so used to the white hair and glasses he was loathe to get rid of them when his eyesight got better.” I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue star Barry, who died in January last year aged 86, has been immortalised in loving memoirs written by his Bob titled Same Time Tomorrow? The Life and Laughs of a Comedy Legend.
Barry (right) in his trademark specs (ITV/REX/Shutterstock)Since his 30s, Barry famous wore glasses, though as time went on his low level prescription corrected itself, but he continued to wear them to suit the “persona” he had crafted, says Rob. At home, Barry was more of a “casual glasses wearer”, and his frames would often be found “stuffed down the v-neck of whatever shirt he was wearing”, continues Bob, who adds of his mum, Barry’s wife Terry: “My mum got tired of the sagging bits in the middle of his polo shirts.”
In the book, Bob, an actor and one of Barry’s four children, reveals that his father had been cracking jokes from his hospital deathbed. He told NHS nurses caring for him at Northwick Park Hospital a famously naughty joke about the Archbishop of Canterbury. He later turned to Bob and deadpanned: “This is serious.”
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Likening the remark to Spike Milligan’s epitaph, “I told you I was ill”, Bob says, adding that though the severity of the situation was “genuine” for his father, “It feels the same territory” as the late Spike’s quip. Bob added: “When he had people around he would want them to feel comfortable, even when treating him in a serious moment.
"It was his survival instinct kicking in – he wanted to entertain because he knew it made him feel good as well.” Proud Yorkshireman Barry, who was born in Leeds in 1935, had his ashes scattered in Airedale, Yorks.
* Same Time Tomorrow? The Life and Laughs of a Comedy Legend, out tomorrow, Bloomsbury £20.