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| | BBC - Comedy Guide - Cannon And Ball |
 | | After years on the northern cabaret circuit, comedians Tommy Cannon (the lighter-haired one, real name Thomas Derbyshire) and Bobby Ball (the darker-haired, moustachioed and smaller one, real name Robert Harper) broke into TV as part of Bruce Forsyth's Big Night, a weekly compendium of stand-alone items presented by Brucie on Saturday nights in late 1978. |
 | | The former welders from Oldham, who had previously worked under the name the Harper Brothers, became major stars very quickly, soon winning their first own series, which, unfortunately for them, was interrupted by the ITV network strike of 1979. |
 | | Nonetheless, with their Abbott And Costello-like antics and catchphrases such as 'Rock on, Tommy' they retained a strong presence on ITV through the 1980s, and moved into the cinema in 1983 with their oneoff movie The Boys In Blue (director Val Guest). |
| www.bbc.co.uk /comedy/guide/articles/c/cannonandball_1299000530.shtml (553 words) |
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