When I'm cleaning windows

Perhaps the most memorable exception to the rule was ukulele-toting George Formby, a toothy, music-hall turn from Wigan. During his forty-year career he appeared in 21 films, cut over 230 records, made hundreds of stage performances, appeared in two Royal Command Performances and entertained an estimated three million Allied servicemen and women. By 1939, he was the most popular, highest-paid entertainer in the British Isles and was estimated to be earning over £100,000 a year. He owned, at one time or another, 130 cars, but that was his only real indulgence besides showgirls (his marriage was sexless) and the 40 'coffin nails' (Capstan Full Strength and Woodbines) he smoked a day from the age of 12. He was an instant success with his chirpy Northern humour on the back of songs such as 'Chinese Laundry Blues', 'When I'm Cleaning Windows' and 'Mr Wu', many of which were based on a game with the audience about how far you can take sexual innuendo, drawn both from the seaside postcards of Donald McGill and from northern music-hall tradition. But, despite that wonderfully wide, goofy smile, he was rarely happy, spending several periods in psychiatric hospitals and always feeling unworthy to fill his father's shoes. But, none of this mattered to the 150,000 fans who attended his funeral in 1961.