Music hall star Frank Randle famously claimed some of his finest performances had been at Blackpool Magistrates' Court.

Now the story of the comedian's colourful life will be played out on the stage of the King's Hall in Ilkley.

Randle began life as a gymnast and tumbler at the age of 15 and became of the north's best-loved comics. At the peak of his fame he was earning a remarkable £1,000 a week in an era where the average wage was only £6 or £7 a week, but his madcap ideas - he once tried to turn Accrington Hippodrome into an indoor dog-racing track - and excessive bouts of drinking led him to run-ins with the taxman and an early death.

Skipton-born Keith Clifford is the star of the one-man show Scandals: The Life and Liver of Frank Randle, which he co-wrote with Emmerdale scriptwriter John Chambers.

It's a rare chance to see the two-hour show, which has been performed at more than 1,000 venues throughout the UK and enjoyed a run at the Orlando International Festival in Florida five years ago.

"I have been doing this since 1987 and it's always been well received," said Keith.

"He's great material, is this guy. I'm only playing him. This guy had a story to tell and the life he led was amazing."

The idea for Scandals came about by accident when he was offered a role in a play which presented the perfect opportunity for him to use Randle's unique style of Lancastrian comedy.

"It materialised by chance because I appeared in a show in Oldham in 1983 which was written by Bill Tidy called The Great Eric Ackroyd Disaster," said Keith.

"I styled myself loosely on Frank Randle. After all, Oldham was a great stamping ground for him."

These are exciting times for Keith, who is also well-known as Charley West in Coronation Street and will soon start filming a new series of Last of the Summer Wine.

Keith has already featured in more than one episode as Billy Hardcastle - appearing in bizarre guises ranging from Robin Hood to a caveman - and is due to become a regular character in the long-running comedy,

"Standing on the hillsides of Yorkshire at 1,000ft as a caveman is very, very cold and you don't get a special fee for that. I'm so very pleased to be part of this unit. It's like a working holiday. How far it will go, we'll have to wait and see," he said.

"People have said to me 'Can it go on without Compo?' but it can because there are so many strong characters."

Keith is also a gifted artist and for the past year has been helping to co-ordinate the British Society of Painters exhibitions which are held four times a year in Ilkley.

Six of his pictures - celebrity portraits of characters including Nora Batty, Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy - have been on show at the most recent exhibition which was opened by Coronation Street star John Savident.

Keith, who was been painting since he was 16, said: "I was actually attending college as an engineering draughtsman and I used to spend one day a week going to Bradford College of Art but it got a little bit too much."

It was shortly before Bryan Mosley died that Keith first got involved in the exhibition by doing him a favour.

"We were good friends and he phoned me up and said 'Look, I'm in a bit of a jam. I'm supposed to be appearing in Edinburgh and Ilkley on the same day. Would you open the exhibition for me?'," he said.

SCANDALS is on at 7.30pm on April 7. Tickets are available in advance at £4.50 from the Ilkley Tourist Information Centre or £5 on the door.

Simon Ashberry

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