In this business we love to celebrate the past and pay homage to history. Without Cézanne there would be no modern art. Without Arthur Askey there would be none of today’s funnymen or women.
You might not think of the 5ft 2in comedian’s humour as anarchic, but he was the first to popularise the catchphrase, ad lib, and champion a uniquely British style of surreal comedy.
Born in Liverpool in 1900, his humour echoes down the generations.
Ken Dodd called him a “legend”, Jimmy Tarbuck said he was one of “Liverpool’s great entertainers” and, according to Eric Morecambe’s son, Gary, Askey was the only comedian who made Eric starstruck.
More recently Askey’s most famous catchphrase “I thang you” almost certainly inspired the line “I thank you” in the 1997 film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.
So it was a great honour to be entrusted by Askey’s three grandchildren to sell Arthur Askey’s personal archive.
The 220-lot collection which goes under the hammer this Thursday <Nov 13> is made up of the comedian’s well-annotated scripts, clothes and personnel effects, as well as photographs and letters from a career spanning more than 60 years.
It includes letters from comedians such as Stan Laurel and the actor Sir Laurence Olivier, revealing just how revered Askey, who died in 1982, aged 82, was by his peers.
It also boasts letters of congratulations from two British prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher and Ted Heath, who described himself as one of the comedians “immeasurable fans”.
When Askey became ill in 1982, the Iron Lady wrote a handwritten letter to him in St Thomas’s Hospital, saying: “I do hope that you are not in too much pain. Denis and I are thinking of you.” The letter also features in this week’s sale.
Another letter going under the hammer is dated 1981, when the Iron Lady recommended him for a CBE.
In it she writes: “In my job there are few things which give one especial pleasure: to recognise your wonderful contribution to the life of our country was, for me, a delight.”
The sale also includes both editions of “The Big Red Book” presented to Askey after two appearances on This is Your Life, the first in 1959 and the second in 1974 – a show broadcast on Christmas Day that year.
Among the star-studded cast paying tribute were Gracie Fields who had flown in from Capri, Val Doonican, Jack Warner, June Whitfield and David Nixon.
Treasured photos in the sale also pay tribute to Askey the family man as a loving husband, father and grandfather.
His granddaughter Jane Stewart told me how she loved visiting her granddad’s dressing room with the smell of greasepaint, costumes all over the place and his makeup spread out on the dressing table.
Also included in the sale is a telegram from fellow Liverpudlian Paul McCartney who, as a schoolboy, inherited Askey’s desk at the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys.
The comedian had carved his initials into the desk which, according to McCartney, in later interviews, had become “a shrine” to its revered former owner.
For other comedy fans, the sale includes a photograph that settles one of the longest-running gags in showbiz history.
Since the 1970s, the satirical magazine Private Eye has joked that Arthur Askey and Queen Mother had, supposedly, never been seen in the same room.
The pranksters reasoned because both were the same age (born in 1900) and the same height (5ft 2in) the Queen Mother was, in fact, Askey in drag.
But a photograph in the collection proves otherwise.
It was snapped backstage at the 1978 Royal Variety Performance and shows both the Queen Mother and Askey shaking hands, with Terry Scott and June Whitfield looking on.
One gem in a treasure chest from possibly the greatest British comedian of all time.
Before Your Very Eyes! The Arthur Askey Collection goes under the hammer on November 13 at Hansons Auctioneers’ Etwall saleroom. It can be viewed today, Tuesday and Wednesday from 10am-3pm.
Auction Details
Auction: The Arthur Askey Collection
Auction date: 13th November 2025 | 10am
Location: Hansons’ Derbyshire Saleroom
Auction contact: [email protected]
Catalogue/bidding: www.hansonslive.co.uk | www.the-saleroom.com
