James Brown Whittaker[1] (born Peter Williams; 20 August 1937 – 14 March 2018), known professionally as Jim Bowen, was an English stand-up comedian, actor and television personality.

In the 1960s, he worked part-time as a stand-up comedian on the northern club circuit, balancing his comedy career with his day job as a teacher.

[6] The advent of Granada TV’s The Comedians in 1971 gave him the opportunity to appear on national television, which ultimately helped persuade him to become a full-time entertainer.

[9] Television opportunities followed, and he made appearances in Last of the Summer Wine as a library attendant, and on Granada's The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club.

[6] He also starred alongside Ray Burdis, John Blundell, Pauline Quirke and the pop group Flintlock in two series of Thames Television's children's sketch show You Must Be Joking in 1975 and 1976.

The show quickly became a popular feature of ITV's schedules on Sunday early evenings, achieving 15–20 million viewers and at times obtaining higher ratings than prime-time soap operas.

[15] Bowen was the presenter throughout, along with Tony Green as the darts commentator, and several of the catchphrases he used on the programme became well-known (though he claimed never to have said "Super, smashing, great").

[19] In 2005, Bowen performed a solo show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe about Bullseye, called "You Can't Beat a Bit of Bully".

[23] Jim was instantly recognised in both his home area and when travelling to venues with the Personalised Number Plates J80 WEN which adorned several of his cars until he sold it in 2016.

By 2012, he was recovering and regaining some mobility once more, and even started performing his stage show "You Can't Beat a Bit of Bully", but suffered a third stroke in November 2014, which left him struggling to walk and talk.