HE was married to a beautiful girl from Southbourne, loved by millions for his comedy antics… and in his autobiography published in 1992, Norman Wisdom, who died this year, told a hot tale about Bournemouth.
It happened 40 years ago when the comic, famous for his trademark tight suit and tweed cap, was appearing at the Winter Gardens with his stage partner and straight man Tony Fayne.
And a few hundred yards away Norman’s good friend, the entertainer Roy Castle, was performing in the summer show at the Bournemouth’s Pier Theatre. And Norman knew that Roy adored curries, often claiming “the hotter the better”.
On the last Saturday they arranged to meet at an Indian restaurant near the seafront after their shows.
But before Roy arrived Norman – who had eaten there before – sneaked in to have a crafty word with the manager.
“Listen,” said Norman, “I want you to make the hottest curry you’ve ever done. One that makes vindaloo look like weak tea. Okay? I’ll pay you a special price for it.”
The deal was done and on the night “they came up with a curry that would have blown the head off a bullock”.
Tony and Norman had tasted it in the kitchen and needed iced water to cool down.
In came Roy Castle who was offered the special dish without being told its nature. He went for it.
“A trolley appeared and a silver dish of something brown and liquid and frightful was placed in front of the star guest,” wrote Wisdom in his book entitled Don’t Laugh at Me.
Roy dipped in his spoon and started wolfing it down while the other two exchanged a wink… and waited for the explosion and perspiration.
It never came.
“It was unbelievable,” wrote Norman.
“Roy finished the lot, keeping up a patter of jokes and stories about his show while we sat with our mouths open in disbelief.”
In his 1992 autobiography, ‘Don’t Laugh At Me’, Norman Wisdom tells of how he met “a lovely young woman” called Freda Simpson while touring with a show called Let’s Make Hey!
A bubbly chorus girl, she doubled as assistant to another comedian who was sharing a dressing room with Norman.
Dorothy Bennett, who today lives in Foxholes Road, Bournemouth, knew Freda when they were both at the Italia Conti School, which moved to Southbourne during the war. She recalls Freda was “an exceptionally pretty girl”.
Norman recalled: “Freda and I hit it off the moment we set eyes on each other. Apart from being a wonderful dancer, she had a great sense of humour, too. It was inevitable I would fall for her and I did.”
The show moved to other towns and they started going out, eventually reaching Acton where Norman asked her if she fancied going for a spin in his Morgan sports car to Bournemouth.
They did, and he met her parents.
Later, when the show reached Bournemouth, he proposed on the pier and Freda accepted. They married in 1947 at Croydon and Norman said she “looked like a princess.”
The couple had two children, Nick born in 1953 and Jackie, born in 1954, whom Norman “loved to bits”.
It seemed the perfect marriage but as a hugely popular star, the demands of his job were huge. One day Freda even gave him a badge that said, “Even a workaholic needs Christmas day off” – and, sadly, many years later, their marriage broke up.
Norman had gone to America to do a show called Walking Happy and it kept him there for 21 months.
And when he returned, Freda had a new man in her life.
Norman got custody of the children and he and Freda remained good friends.
Indeed, in his autobiography he recounted how, even after the children grew up, they would all get together for a fish and chip lunch “or a family curry.”
Freda died, in Brighton, in 1992, and Norman followed in October this year.
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