I always really admired him.

Derek (Brimstone) was a great admirer of how he'd obviously got himself a really good banjo teacher in the States and really honed his talent into something really sharp.

I thought he must be running out of steam when I saw him doing Stan Boardman's nit nurse routine somewhere in the Orkneys. Seeing someone who had always been so original working threadbare material like that, was a clear warning things were not as they should be.

The folk comedians were hugely resented by the traddy element at the time. However they filled folk clubs, and they were an assertion of the intelligence of working class people when showbiz thought comedy was only gags and one liners. THe folk comedians were discursive, like the American comedians, but being grounded in working class culture - it was too strong for the Beeb.

Parkinson was a breakthrough programme. But the best of that lot never really got a break
itThree or four years later - when Cambridge footlights had middlassified - it was presented as 'alternative comedy'.

The folk comedians were really just one of the reasons that 'folk' was a great artistic movement - rather than just the revival of traditional music. The other strands of the folk movement were the start of acoustic guitar in England, drama, and songwriting.