The Nignog Revue
Feature from 2008
Ernie
Various scans
Trying to track down exactly where and when Eric and Ernie appeared before they became Morecambe & Wise is somewhat of a difficult task. During a conversation Gideon had while repairing a friends computer brought us a gem from the past quite by accident.
Whilst delving deep into the innards of the PC, Gideon pointed her to this site to keep her occupied for a while but was more than surprised by her reply.
"Have you got the Nignog stuff on it?", she asked.
Now way before the term became an insult or derogatory, it was the name of, amongst other things, a revue show, held in Bradford, that attracted many young an talented stars, including Ernie. It was a club for the youth of the area that was ran by the local newspaper, the Telegraph and Argos. It was aimed at getting the local youth out and about and ran until the 1950's.
We had tried before to track down the revue material, but had reached a dead end. Then came even more good news. Her father had appeared with Ernie in several reviews and it was possible that her sister still had some material.
Gideon asked if he could have a look and a date was arranged.
The woman's father was one Harold Gilderdale, one of many performers appearing in the 1935, 36 and 37 Nignog revue. For the record, Ernie appeared in the 1936, 37 and 38 shows. The lady allowed us to look at and scan several programs from the event, plus a newspaper article about her father and one very special items.
In the newspaper article, her father talks about how Ernie was always writing limericks, and that he had written one for him when they had met. He still had it, and had passed it onto his daughter. The limerick was hand written!
Over the next few pages we have converted the newspaper article, scanned the covers and a few page contents of the Nignog revue programs and finally, scanned the hand written limerick by Ernest Wiseman.
HELP!
If anyone has any further information about the Nignog revues, please get in touch.
© morecambeandwise.com 2008