Frank Carson

How Frank Carson out-talked the others chalking up season after season in Blackpool

Frank Carson (1926-2012) brought his family from Belfast in 1970 and set up home in the North Shore area. The exhuberent Frank out-talked the others by seasoning his patter with catch phrases like "It's a cracker" and "It's the way I tell 'em" and "Frank Carson, News At Ten, sober." He starred in 10 Blackpool summer seasons.

Jim Davidson in 'Frank Carson dressing-room' row

Celebrity Big Brother might have had its fair share of rows - but none quite as bizarre as the latest conflict between Jim Davidson and Linda Nolan. Thursday night's show saw the pair at loggerheads over an apparent incident in the dressing-room of late Irish comic Frank Carson.

How do you transfer stand-up comedians from stage to screen? I can't say it's a question which pre-occupies me, but surely you just stick them in Moss Bros' finest and wire up a microphone. After all, that worked for Frank Carson. Ah, but he was funny. Comics now aren't, or at least not funny-funny. And viewers these days demand more than just gags which, as Eamon Holmes (not a comedian) clumsily put it after Carson's funeral service, are every bit as rat-tat-tat as the gunfire which once echoed round Belfast's streets. Thus, for our more sophisticated tastes, we get The Sarah Millican Television Programme. Oh dear.

The title sequence of spinning TV sets ("I absolutely love telly," Millican will inform us) is itself a relic, though maybe this is irony (ha bloody ha). The canned laughter is too loud. There are interviews (the first one was stilted and went on too long) and there is acting. This should be covered by a warning, like strobe effects are, because apart from Jack Whitehall in Fresh Meat, comedians can't act. Millican was trying to pick up men in a bar after coaching from a sexpert and it was awful. The thing is, she's funny - and filthy. She should have just donned a dinner suit for some of the old rat-tat-tat.

Video: Frank Carson's funeral taking place in Belfast

Thousands of people are expected to line the streets of Belfast later for the funeral of comedian Frank Carson, who was born in the city.

Showbusiness personalities from Britain and Ireland are expected at the ceremony, due to begin at 11:30 GMT at St. Patrick's Church, Donegall Street.

Carson, 85, who died last month at his home in Blackpool, Lancashire, had been ill for some time.

Frank Carson's funeral taking place in Belfast

The funeral of the comedian Frank Carson is taking place in his home city of Belfast.

In pictures: Frank Carson funeral

Photo gallery of the funeral of Northern Irish comic Frank Carson.

Frank Carson fans line streets of Belfast for funeral

Late comic described as 'prime minister of fun' during service attended by Lenny Henry and Dennis Taylor among others.

Frank Carson: A comic who took laughter seriously

Cultural snobs wrote Frank Carson off as un-PC and passé - yet his humour stemmed from a humane understanding of the absurdity of prejudice.

Frank Carson's coffin put on display

Fans of Frank Carson were given chance to pay a personal tribute on Saturday after his coffin was put on display in his local church.

Wild times on the stump with Mayor Frank Carson

After 10 solid hours, the comic's overgrown schoolboy daftness was no laughing matter.