Askey was known for his short stature (5' 2", 1.58 m) and distinctive horn-rimmed glasses, and his playful humour incorporating improvisation and catchphrases including "Hello playmates!

From the 1950s, Askey was a prominent television presence and made regular appearances on the BBC's long-running music hall programme The Good Old Days.

This would prove an excellent training ground for his career in show business, his first professional appearance coming on stage at the Headgate Theatre in Colchester on the 31 March 1924.

After working as a clerk for Liverpool Corporation's Education Department, he was in a touring concert party, the music halls and was in the stage company of Powis Pinder on the Isle of Wight in the early 1930s before he rose to stardom in 1938 through his role in the first regular radio comedy series, Band Waggon on the BBC.

[3] During the Second World War Askey starred in several Gainsborough Pictures comedy films, including Band Waggon (1940), based on the radio show; Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt (1940); The Ghost Train (1941); I Thank You (1941); Back-Room Boy (1942);[4] King Arthur Was a Gentleman (1942); Miss London Ltd. (1943); Bees in Paradise (1944); The Love Match (1955) and Make Mine a Million (1959).

In 1957 writers Sid Colin and Talbot Rothwell revived the Band Waggon format for Living It Up, a series that reunited Askey and Murdoch after 18 years.

He continued to appear frequently on television in the 1970s, such as being a panellist on the ITV talent show New Faces, where his usually sympathetic comments would offset the harsher judgments of fellow judges Tony Hatch and Mickie Most.

Askey's recording career included "The Bee Song", which was an integral part of his stage and television act for many years, "The Thing-Ummy Bob",[10] "I'd Like a Banana", and his theme tune, "Big-Hearted Arthur" (which was also his nickname).

[11] Askey carried on working on his comedy career until just before he was hospitalised in July 1982, owing to poor circulation, which resulted in gangrene and the amputation of both legs.