BBC Northern Ireland celebrates the genius of James Young,
one of the best known local comedians, re-creating characters which
were immortalised by ‘Our Jimmy’ in Northern Ireland's history.
In An Evening with James Young, on Friday, December 19 on BBC One Northern Ireland at 9pm, local comedy actor William Caulfield breathes new life into characters and humour of the Ulster comedy legend.
The 60-minute programme features a mix of William's tribute show to James Young, a one-off show filmed specially for television, in front of a celebrity audience, at the Grand Opera House, Belfast earlier this year. It features a mixture of live stage performance and pre-recorded comedy sketches. In the sketches, William recreates all of Jimmy’s best loved characters – Derek, Mrs O’Condriach, Billy Hulk and of course, Orange Lil.
William considers the question: "What would the comedy genius have made of the ‘new’ Northern Ireland?”
For one night only, the programme gives ‘Jimmy’ and his cast of characters the chance to speak out and once again, make us laugh at ourselves. From politics to policing, tourism to takeaways and cooking to the credit crunch, ’Jimmy’ looks at life in Northern Ireland in 2008.
As an added bonus at the end of the programme viewers with digital television can use their red button to watch a specially commissioned programme - The Comedy Genius of James Young.
In the programme, William Caulfield talks to people who worked with
James Young during his career on stage and on screen. The husband and
wife team of Matt and Kath Carruth faced the challenges of bringing
Jimmy’s classic 1970’s `Saturday Night’ tv series
to our screens.
Broadcaster John Bennett worked with the comedy genius on and off air
and often found himself at the wrong end of the maestro’s humour.
Leonard McNeill was one of the many young talents given their first break by James Young and went on to become one of Jimmy’s closest friends and Frank Crummey was part of Jimmy’s record breaking Group Theatre Company during his stage career.
An Evening With James Young is an alx production for BBC Northern Ireland.