[2] He became famous from his appearances on Granada Television's The Comedians and ATV's The Golden Shot, delivering his catchphrase, "me old flower" in his broad Yorkshire accent.

[2][3] After the First World War, his father settled in Royston, where he sold groceries from a horse and cart, and married a local woman, Frances Cook.

His father had been forced to give up his job as a greengrocer as a result of trench foot acquired in France and depended on National Assistance.

[3] After leaving school aged 14 (when, according to his autobiography Ee-I've Had Some Laughs, his father died), Williams worked at Upton Colliery during the Second World War, a reserved occupation.

He played football for the colliery team, before turning professional and signing for Doncaster Rovers in 1948, having also considered York City and Nottingham Forest, aged 19.

And Charlie exploited this to the full.Following his retirement from football in 1959, Williams tried his hand as a singer in local working men's clubs, but it was his comic chat between the songs that was best received, so he decided to move into comedy full-time.

The show broadcast stand-up routines from relatively unknown but often very experienced club comedians, including Frank Carson, Mike Reid and Bernard Manning.

The novel combination of a black man with a Yorkshire accent and his first-hand experience of life in the British working class made him unmistakable.

He caused offence to some, and was praised by others, for defending the Robertson's Golliwog trade mark and for saying that immigrants to the United Kingdom should conform to the British way of life.