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Pigs Can Fly
Barry Cryer is a National Treasure - this is his brilliant collection of true, tall, stories from his fifty years in comedy.
Throughout his career, Barry Cryer has collaborated with all the greats, from Max Miller to Tony Hancock, Bob Hope, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, John Cleese, Kenny Everett, Tommy Cooper, Spike Milligan, Morecambe and Wise ... in fact pretty well all the best comedians and comic writers since the mid-1950s. He has also collaboratively penned series like 'Hello Cheeky!', toured with Willie Rushton in their show 'Two Old Farts in the Night', and is a panellist on 'I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'.
This is his collection of completely true apocryphal stories from these fifty years, packed with jokes, fascinating asides and riveting portraits of the major figures in comedy.
Throughout his career, Barry Cryer has collaborated with all the greats, from Max Miller to Tony Hancock, Bob Hope, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, John Cleese, Kenny Everett, Tommy Cooper, Spike Milligan, Morecambe and Wise ... in fact pretty well all the best comedians and comic writers since the mid-1950s. He has also collaboratively penned series like 'Hello Cheeky!', toured with Willie Rushton in their show 'Two Old Farts in the Night', and is a panellist on 'I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue'.
This is his collection of completely true apocryphal stories from these fifty years, packed with jokes, fascinating asides and riveting portraits of the major figures in comedy.
208 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2003
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About the author
Barry Cryer
98 books1 followerCryer was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Educated at Leeds Grammar School, he studied English literature at the University of Leeds.
After appearing in University revue, Cryer was offered a week's work at the Leeds City Varieties theatre, home of The Good Old Days, which became the longest-running television entertainment show in the world. Cryer left university after learning his first-year results and travelled to London. After impressing impresario Vivian Van Damm, Cryer began as the bottom billing act at the Windmill Theatre in London, a theatre which showed comedy acts in between nude tableau shows.
However, Cryer suffered severely from eczema and, after several periods in hospital, was released from his contract by Van Damm. Concluding that a performing career was not a wholly sustainable income choice because of his skin condition, Cryer chose to focus mainly on writing – something he could do even when suffering eczema attacks, which he did for the next eight years.
Cryer always preferred to write in partnership, so that should he dry up he was never left to deliver material. His regular partner during the 1970s was John Junkin, and with Junkin performing as Eric Morecambe and Cryer most often the role of Ernie Wise, the pair wrote some of The Morecambe and Wise Show in its BBC period (the 1972 and 1976 Christmas shows) when regular writer Eddie Braben was unavailable. Cryer still enjoyed performing, appearing with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Junkin in the BBC radio series Hello, Cheeky!, in which the three performers bounced jokes off each other. He also appeared in the comedy television series The Steam Video Company and provided the voice of the judge in the 1975 animated comedy musical Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done. He hosted the ITV comedy panel game Jokers Wild (1969–74) and had a role in All You Need Is Cash, a 1978 spoof documentary about the Beatles parody band the Rutles, as well as a cameo as a police inspector in Kenny Everett's 1984 horror spoof Bloodbath at the House of Death.
With new comedians coming forward who wrote their own material, and age progressing and still wanting to perform, Cryer refocused his career to include more performance, touring with Willie Rushton in Two Old Farts in the Night and, after Rushton's death, That Reminds Me. After a brief early stint as chairman, Cryer was one of the panellists on the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, which began in 1972. He also wrote and starred in You'll Have Had Your Tea with Graeme Garden.
He wrote an autobiography, You Won't Believe This But..., as well as a book of miscellaneous anecdotes, Pigs Can Fly. In 2005 he toured the UK with Barry Cryer: The First Farewell Tour, and in 2008 he toured with Barry Cryer: Still Alive. He remained a popular after-dinner speaker.
He died at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow on 25 January 2022, at the age of 86.
abridged from Wikipedia
After appearing in University revue, Cryer was offered a week's work at the Leeds City Varieties theatre, home of The Good Old Days, which became the longest-running television entertainment show in the world. Cryer left university after learning his first-year results and travelled to London. After impressing impresario Vivian Van Damm, Cryer began as the bottom billing act at the Windmill Theatre in London, a theatre which showed comedy acts in between nude tableau shows.
However, Cryer suffered severely from eczema and, after several periods in hospital, was released from his contract by Van Damm. Concluding that a performing career was not a wholly sustainable income choice because of his skin condition, Cryer chose to focus mainly on writing – something he could do even when suffering eczema attacks, which he did for the next eight years.
Cryer always preferred to write in partnership, so that should he dry up he was never left to deliver material. His regular partner during the 1970s was John Junkin, and with Junkin performing as Eric Morecambe and Cryer most often the role of Ernie Wise, the pair wrote some of The Morecambe and Wise Show in its BBC period (the 1972 and 1976 Christmas shows) when regular writer Eddie Braben was unavailable. Cryer still enjoyed performing, appearing with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Junkin in the BBC radio series Hello, Cheeky!, in which the three performers bounced jokes off each other. He also appeared in the comedy television series The Steam Video Company and provided the voice of the judge in the 1975 animated comedy musical Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done. He hosted the ITV comedy panel game Jokers Wild (1969–74) and had a role in All You Need Is Cash, a 1978 spoof documentary about the Beatles parody band the Rutles, as well as a cameo as a police inspector in Kenny Everett's 1984 horror spoof Bloodbath at the House of Death.
With new comedians coming forward who wrote their own material, and age progressing and still wanting to perform, Cryer refocused his career to include more performance, touring with Willie Rushton in Two Old Farts in the Night and, after Rushton's death, That Reminds Me. After a brief early stint as chairman, Cryer was one of the panellists on the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, which began in 1972. He also wrote and starred in You'll Have Had Your Tea with Graeme Garden.
He wrote an autobiography, You Won't Believe This But..., as well as a book of miscellaneous anecdotes, Pigs Can Fly. In 2005 he toured the UK with Barry Cryer: The First Farewell Tour, and in 2008 he toured with Barry Cryer: Still Alive. He remained a popular after-dinner speaker.
He died at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow on 25 January 2022, at the age of 86.
abridged from Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 23, 2025
5/10 2% MT12%. If anyone would forgive my running a Jokers Wild style laughter monitor against his book, it’s the excellent comedy writer and fast witted comedian Barry Cryer. I’ve always been a huge fan of his and was looking forward to this book immensely as TBH I can’t think of anyone as good at his job in comedy writing as Barry who’d supported almost all the big names. Imagine my surprise then to award Pigs Can Fly 0% LOL moments and only a 12% Minor Titter score - I’ve had fiction novels score better.
The conclusion - the brilliance of a joke lies not only in the writing but the delivery - this would no doubt be a superb book if he’d narrated it himself.
The conclusion - the brilliance of a joke lies not only in the writing but the delivery - this would no doubt be a superb book if he’d narrated it himself.
December 4, 2020
The man who is behind so much of the comedy I've grown up with, a gregarious chap who knows everyone and a raconteur who has superb timing. How can this not be a tremendously entertaining book? That was rhetorical, it can't fail, it was great.
February 4, 2022
Read this over a couple of evenings and found it an easy, comforting read. It's basically a load of anecdotes cobbled together, and it gets repetitive in places, but if you just want something relatively gentle to enjoy and to take your mind off things, it's ideal.
January 30, 2022
RIP Maestro.
July 16, 2022
Laughed out loud all the way through.
July 19, 2022
An agile comic mind telling stories collected over a lifetime of working in the theatre, Radio, and Television. told as only Barry can. A must-listen for any who enjoys a well-told anecdote.
September 24, 2025
Gossamer-thin collection of luvvie-centric anecdotes, presumably dashed off for the Christmas market. Passes muster because it's Barry Cryer after all, and the Brian Sewell limerick and Thora Hird pun are worth the price of admission alone.
Incidentally, the biography of BC by his son is excellent.
Incidentally, the biography of BC by his son is excellent.
May 24, 2015
Read the full review here: https://thereandtheir.wordpress.com/2...
Nope. This book just did not do it for me.
I guess to someone who knows Barry Cryer, it could be interesting to read, but for someone like me, who has no clue who this person is…reading about his day to day life felt a bit…you know…draaag…
But all in all..the only thing interesting in the book, was the title. I had a real tough time sweating it till the end.
Nope. This book just did not do it for me.
I guess to someone who knows Barry Cryer, it could be interesting to read, but for someone like me, who has no clue who this person is…reading about his day to day life felt a bit…you know…draaag…
But all in all..the only thing interesting in the book, was the title. I had a real tough time sweating it till the end.
May 24, 2014
Interesting to read of the author's comedy influences as he grew up. Many of these acts are undeservedly long-forgotten so it is rewarding to find out background of some of the greats and to be introduced to some acts I had never heard of. However, it is a little sycophantic towards celebrities he has known, e.g. I don't want to know anything about Dennis Thatcher and what a nice man he was!
August 8, 2007
short anecdotes and tales from a long and successful life in showbiz. some are very funny, but there aren't really enough to justify the price. I am still a big fan of Barry Cryer, who is a funny, funny man.
March 12, 2014
A collections of stories from Barry's illustrious career. Some hysterical, some sweet, some tragic, some just interesting. Typical of a man whose career has been formed around good writing. A very light read, but I'm glad I didn't buy it. Definitely a library read.
December 3, 2013
Just a load of gags..but they're the best. The Alien screech is Percy Edwards...so priceless!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews