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First black comic to break through on TV here with shite like Golden Shot.
A VERY funny comic off camera.....and rude too!!

RIP

While I'll agree with you that he was the first black comedian to break onto mainstream TV, I'll have to disagree with you on just how funny he was.

I saw him live 4 times (I even booked him for a cabaret show at the behest of the venue) and I can trully say he was dreadful.

agree bob,charlie was terrible on the golden shot too, they got monkhouse back on he was very near the mark i thought.

Dreadful yeah, but not by the standards of the day. I can't think of any TV comedian from that era that would be considered funny now.

At that same time, in the States, black comedians were creating new, funnier comedy, but the UK wasn't ready for that then. So a black comedian had to stoop to the depths of the British comedians of the day if he wanted to be noticed. Charlie Williams' comedy was exactly what worked in Yorkshire working mens' clubs - the British audience wasn't ready for anything more sophistcated than that.

Lenny Henry started out with the same cringeworthy type of "comedy". The British audience wasn't then ready for black comedians, unless they rolled their eyes "comically", acted dumb and took the piss out of themselves.

I met Charlie on the Isle of Wight ferry some years ago, and from the relatively short conversation we had it was clear that he was saddened by how his act had had to be tailored to the racist unsophisticated demands of the time.

You may be right Bob, I saw him at a club about 20 years ago and he started with 'That cunt Bernard Manning.......' and on the night, he was very good.....apart from saying 'Me old flower' after every gag. I didn't know he was a professional footballer with Doncaster 'back in the day'.....mind you, I could take my boots up there tomorrow and get a game, and Im out of condition and a lazy cunt

Yes it's certainly true he had to tailor his material for the times when he was on The Comedians and The Golden Shot... but when I saw him live in the mid 90s at private events where he could say and do anything he wanted, he STILL hadn't changed his material from the mid 70s.

!boring!

re the comedians east end comic mike reid could drag a joke out nearly 15 mins,but a good actor yrs later.

Charlie started in the working mens clubs like most comedians did at that time and if you was rubbish they let you know it, and then of course he went on the comedians back in the 70s and was always very popular where he would tread the boards with the likes of Bernard Manning, Mike Reid, Jim Bowen, Dougie Brown and many other comedians of that time and yes that type of comedy is dated now but it made people laugh back then, the funny men of today will be the dated ones tomorrow R.I.P. Charlie.