Hmmmm - Formby as Jack-archetype, eh? It extends a lot further than Lancashire; in fact, I'd argue that there are few instances of it unique to the county as far as that particular character goes. Jack (call him what you will) is a good deal richer than Formby, who is the embodyment of a more mawkish sort of idiocy which finds it apotheosis in the irksome antics of Norman Wisdom. Jack is all cunning; his tales display growth, wisdom and surreal twists of heroic outsider logic which are entirely absent from a George Formby narrative. For sure, Formby invariably gets the girl (as does Norman) but the acceptance of this by the audience is part of the aforementioned suspension. Can that really happen in the real world? No. Of course it can't. This is pure escapism. Unlike the Jack-folktales, of course, where by his wit, cunning and knowing charm, Jack gets the girl by means which are entirely (and logically) convincing, no matter how far fetched the devices employed (magic harps, whistles, harps, quilts, ogres, talking fish, and (my favourite!) an old woman who has been stuck to a tree by nose for over 100 years). George has his trusty uke, of course, which has the ability to enchant in a very different way; to astonish by a skill which indicates there must be something more to his blustering buffoonery, but what this is we are are never told - only in vague metaphor. Perhaps the clues are in the song-lyrics which consist of smut and knob-gags in which the commonplace is transfigured into a erotic paradise however so deceptive that paradise might be...