Britain's Oldest Stand Up

Gigglebox weekly #53 - Britain's Oldest Stand Up

This week there was documentary hidden away in the schedules on More4. Part of their "First Cut" strand, it covered the return to stand up comedy of Jack Woodward, the oldest stand up comedian in the country, at the age of 90.

Britain's Oldest Stand-Up is an irresistibly charming documentary chronicling 90 year-old Jack Woodward's return to the stage after an absence of nearly half a century. The venue he has his heart set on is the Hammersmith Apollo in London, where he has admired the young upstart Michael McIntyre perform on the BBC's Live at the Apollo show.

And guess what? He lands a five-minute gig there as the warm-up for Ed Byrne. Armed with some new material supplied by comedy writer Les Keen, Jack heads for his date with destiny.

Nervous? Not a bit of it. Jack is excited at the prospect of playing to a 3,000-strong London audience, who hold no terrors for a comic who has played working men's clubs in Gateshead where hecklers threw coal.

"I heard you clapping and got here as quick as I could," is Woodward's opening line, and the laughs just keep coming. Turns out he's a pretty good comic.

My advice to anyone thinking of booking him is - don't delay.

Britain's Oldest Stand Up (More4) was a slight, sweet film by Clair Titley, in the new First Cut series, about her uncle Jack Woodward. He is a 90-year-old Chelsea Pensioner who harbours a dream of resurrecting the comedy act he used to perform in the 50s and 60s and - one of his favourite pastimes being to watch the new bloods plying their trade on the television show Live at the Apollo every Friday night - playing the Hammersmith venue himself. "I've took a fancy to it!" he exclaimed, in a burry, rural West Country accent that must itself be disappearing as fast as any pasture land down there. "I can't explain it - it's just there!"

Thanks to comedy writer Les Keen, who wrote him some new material to get him up to the mark, comedian Ed Byrne, who agreed to let Jack be his warm-up man (and gently warmed up the audience himself for Jack before he came on stage) and some giant prompt cards, he did it. There wasn't much else to the story but the rare sight of a nonagenarian, thrice-married, triple-bypassed (last year) incurable optimist had a charm all of its own.

Britain's Oldest Stand Up review

He finally achieved his dream and provided a sweet end to a sweet documentary.

Britain's Oldest Stand Up (More 4, 10pm) is a documentary about 90-year-old Chelsea pensioner Jack Woodward, whose dream is to perform at London's Hammersmith Apollo.

It's not quite as far-fetched as it sounds, as Jack was a regular stand-up comic many decades back, but given that he's still using material written for his audiences of half a century ago, does he really have a hope in hell of pulling this off?

Early signs are not promising (there's a toecurlingly embarrassing reaction, or lack of one, when he tries out his act at an old people's home), but once he's been taken under the wing of a modern-day gag-writer, it seems Jack may achieve his dream after all...

A tale perfectly suited to the First Cut strand: there's not much to it, but what there is of it is extraordinary. Jack Woodward is 90 and dreams of reviving the stand-up career he gave up in 1968. But he doesn't want to return to the Gateshead working men's clubs, where people used to throw lumps of coal at his head. Jack craves a gig at London's Hammersmith Apollo.

During his preparations (his warm-up gig at an old people's home is a fiasco) we learn Jack's life story - enough to tearfully cheer him on as he very, very slowly walks onto the stage in front of 3,000 people.

First Cut's newbie documentary-makers understandably tend to address subjects close to them. The pros and cons of this approach are laid bare by this warm-bordering-on-sentimental film by Clair Titley about her uncle, a 90-year-old Chelsea Pensioner who wants to revive a comedy career dormant since the '60s. Unfortunately, Jack Woodward's Max Miller-style gags have been declared too decrepit for even the luncheon club circuit, so a pro is drafted in to help him realise his dream of a slot at the Hammersmith Apollo. Will he make it? Emotional distance isn't an option (especially with a soundtrack this cloying), but it's a sweet tale that wouldn't otherwise have been told, and Jack is a game old chap who's overcome considerable emotional and physical hurdles to make it this far.

If all those bright, frenetic panel shows have led you to believe comedy is a young man's game, think again. Meet Jack Woodward: he's a 90-year-old Chelsea pensioner who desperately wants to be a stand-up comic and perform at the Hammersmith Apollo. Suffice to say, it's not going to be easy: though he used to be an entertainer in the 1950s, he hasn't updated his act since and struggles to learn new material. But as this heartwarming story shows, he has an innate ability to make people smile. 'The biggest problem for me being a stand-up comic,' he says, 'is for me to actually stand up.'

Britain's Oldest Stand-Up, More4 - review

A 90-year-old's dream of playing the Hammersmith Apollo made for a simple, cheering documentary, says Jack Seale.

Chelsea Pensioner Jack Woodward followed his father into the armed forces and, later, showbusiness, becoming a BBC warm-up man in peacetime. But his last gig, in a working men's club in the north, was in 1968. And now, aged 90, he says: "My biggest problem with standup comedy is standing up." This touching little film follows Jack's progress as he prepares to open for Ed Byrne at the Hammersmith Apollo. Will he remember his lines? "I've still got what it takes to get a lady into the bedroom. A stair lift."