Comedian Roy Walker talks about his upbringing in Belfast, his recent health scares and why he'd love to do Strictly

The star, who grew up on east Belfast’s Woodstock Road, but lives in the Lancashire seaside resort of Lytham St Annes, said he loves performing on home turf.

"I always get a warm welcome when I come home. I am very much looking forward to it. Northern Ireland is very special for comedy. We have got a wicked sense of humour, ” he says, speaking from his holiday home in Tenerife.

Does he ever miss Belfast? “I don’t think you can ever miss Belfast, it’s leaves an imprint on you – more so than Northern Ireland. People ask me, ‘are you from Northern Ireland?’, and I just say, ‘No, I’m from Belfast’.”

Roy will be appearing with the aforementioned fellow Ulster comedians at McNeill Theatre, Larne on March 21, on March 22 at Belfast’s Grand Opera House and on March 23 at the Riverside Theatre, Coleraine. All shows will feature musical accompaniment and laughter from the comedy showband legends, Clubsound.

"I haven’t appeared in Coleraine or Larne before, so I am looking forward to breaking new ground. Maybe I might get a summer season in Islandmagee,” he jokes.

The star, who earned his comedic stripes performing in working men’s clubs around Belfast, is on more familiar territory in the city and loves the Grand Opera House.

“We are very lucky to have a building like that. I think it’s lovely. I went over to see the pantomime at Christmas, because my son (Phil Walker) was in it with John Linehan (May McFettridge).”

He’s looking forward to performing with The Comedians, but is in no doubt about who is the funniest.

“Definitely me. It says so on the tin.”

The last few months have been tough, health-wise for the star. He’s had shingles and neuralgia and had a triple heart bypass last April, but is sanguine.

"I wasn’t too well, so I’m recovering where it’s a bit warmer in Tenerife. I just keep going. Retire isn’t a word that doesn’t exist in my vocabulary. I think the word ‘retirement’ is for people with proper jobs. They’ve worked hard all their lives, they get up in the morning to go work, to stay there all day, whereas we (comedians) don’t get up early in the morning. This is my hobby and you’d be surprised how far a hobby can take you. I’ve got enough money to last me the rest of my life…. providing I die next Tuesday.”

And he’s still’s gigging. After his shows in Northern Ireland, there’s a variety show in Blackpool.

Does he perform abroad? “Well, I used be a broad, but now I’m a fella!”

And what about cruise ships?

"Yes, have jokes, will travel. That's me.”

From an early age, the stage beckoned for the talented Belfast boy who was the star of school plays and sang with the choir at St Anne’s Cathedral.

"I am really grateful to my science teacher at Park Parade School on the Ravenhill Road, Mr Corbett, who introduced me to comedy and the stage. He was a very strict man, but he saw something in me.”

In a revealing film for BBC NI, Roy Walker – Beyond a Joke, shown in 2019, he reflected on his childhood – including the stigma at the time of being born out of wedlock (Roy never met his own father, who died young), and spending his early years in foster care.

He said: ‘‘I was passed from one foster home to the next one ... four foster homes and then after that I went to a children’s home in Portrush and at the age of seven common sense prevailed and my grandfather demanded I be returned to Woodstock (Road).’

"It sounds written down as if it (childhood) was bad, but I was never abused, or anything like that. I wasn’t uncomfortable.”

He went on to have a varied and eclectic career that included a short stint working in the shipyards, National Service with the Army, and at the age of 20 – somewhat accidentally – becoming a Northern Ireland hammer throwing champion.

During the 1960s, the Talk of the Town cabaret club opened in Belfast giving Roy his first break as a singer and then compere, and it was during this time that he met future wife, Jean Monaghan.

The couple, from different religious backgrounds, were forced out of their greengrocers in east Belfast during the Troubles and moved to the north east of England, and it was here that Roy began building his career on the British comedy circuit.

He performed in working men’s clubs, opened for Dorothy Squires at the London Palladium, and his big TV break came from an appearance on the New Faces talent show.

In the 1980s, presenting Catchphrase – the gameshow that attracted 15 million viewers at its peak – made Walker a household name with his own unique catchphrases ‘say what you see’ and ‘it’s good but it’s not right’.

“I thought it was the easiest job I ever had and the viewing figures were astronomical. It was quite amazing how popular the show was,” said Roy.

DJ Chris Moyles was so disgusted when the programme makers fired the long-time presenter and creator of the show's famous Mr Chips computer, that he came up with Carpark Catchphrase and got him to present it on his highly-rated Radio One Show.

To this day, Roy credits Chris Moyles for re-igniting his career. He was also supported along the way by admirers such as Bob Monkhouse, who, in his bestselling autobiography, praised "Walker's soft Ulster voice, his lack of aggression, the composed expression hiding a gentle smile, his amazing pauses which defied interruption, somehow overawing and silencing hecklers ..."

But, despite his success with Catchphrase, the1980s was also the decade when wife Jean passed away after a short illness at the age of 49.

The night Jean died, Roy vowed never to go back on stage, before coming to the realisation that laughter really is the greatest medicine of all.

“Humour is humour. It doesn’t matter what type of comedian you are, the trick is to make people laugh. I don't think anything has ever changed. Comedy’s been the same since the first time I saw comedians in Belfast, right up until now. People really want to laugh, it makes them feel good. And it makes the comedian happy as well."

As an inveterate professional, with decades of performing under this belt, does he ever get nervous before going on stage?

“The audience are more nervous than me, I think. They’re wondering, ‘is he still alive...I wonder if he’s still breathing… will we have to get him an iron lung or oxygen half way through?’.”

Roy’s three children all followed him into showbiz. His son Phil also made a name for himself in the TV series The Comedians, Mark hosted ITV game show Steal, and Josie has starred in the musicals Cats, Phantom Of The Opera and The Beautiful Game.

"They couldn’t get up in the morning to go to regular work, so they went into showbusiness,” he jests.

When he isn’t working, Roy loves travelling.

"I love going anywhere. I’ve always been the same. I was fostered in Whitehead for a while when I was about six or seven. The railway station there fascinated me, people coming and going and I used to stare at them and wonder where are you going, where are you coming from. I’ve been like that ever since. It affected me. I just love thinking of somewhere to go."

His travel bug was satisfied when he was asked to appear on the 2016 series of the Real Marigold Hotel, spending a month in India.

"I loved India. It was lovely. The food was delicious. We went to the Taj Majal and the Pink City (Jaipur), but, of course, the poverty there is very disturbing. “

He enjoys watching I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and Strictly Come Dancing, admitting he’d love to appear on either.

"Strictly would be great... but I don’t have the movement, mind you when I was young I didn’t have much movement either!”