George Formby Senior - real name James Lawler Booth - was a huge star in his day, earning around £300 a week in the 1920s, which was quite an amount for the times.

If you listen to late records of George senior and early records of George Junior, the similarity is remarkable. George Senior's line as he came on stage coughing (for real) was "It's not the cough that carries you off - it's the coffin they carry you off in." and, of course, his funny walk with hat and cane inspired the young Charie Chaplin and his tramp persona.