Wisdom gained celebrity status in lands as far apart as South America, Iran and many Eastern Bloc countries, particularly in Albania where his films were the only ones with Western actors permitted to be shown by dictator Enver Hoxha.

[6] His parents were Frederick, a chauffeur, and Maud Wisdom (née Targett), a dressmaker, who often worked for West End theatres and had made a dress for Queen Mary.

In Argentina he survived three rounds of boxing for prize money but was badly beaten and had to fight off some sexual advances by a fellow sailor.

[10] He rode horses, became the flyweight boxing champion of the British Army in India[4] and taught himself to play the piano, trumpet, saxophone, flute, drums, bugle and clarinet.

[8] Wisdom then joined the Royal Corps of Signals, and performed a similar military function at the unit headquarters in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

[5] In 1940 aged 25, at a NAAFI entertainment night, during a dance routine, Wisdom stepped down from his position in the orchestra pit, and started shadow boxing.

After Wisdom appeared at a charity concert at Cheltenham Town Hall on 31 August 1944,[13] actor Rex Harrison came backstage and urged him to become a professional entertainer.

Magician David Nixon was also part of the cast and the two worked together so well that they went on to continue the act on other variety stages starting at the London Casino in September 1948.

[18] Wisdom had already adopted the costume that would remain his trademark: tweed flat cap askew, with peak turned up; a suit at least two sizes too tight; a crumpled collar and a mangled tie.

There was a whole generation of performers who learned everything on the stage.Wisdom made his TV debut in 1948 and was soon commanding enormous audiences and had a small film role in A Date with a Dream released in the same year.

[22] Never highly thought of by the critics, they were very popular with domestic audiences and Wisdom's films were among Britain's biggest box-office successes of their day.

[citation needed] The films usually involved the Gump character, usually called Norman, in a manual occupation in which he is barely competent and in a junior position to a straight man, often played by Edward Chapman (as Mr Grimsdale) or Jerry Desmonde.

The series often contained a romantic subplot; the Gump's inevitable awkwardness with women is a characteristic shared with the earlier Formby vehicles.

The film also starred a young Michael Caine who later recalled he did not enjoy working with Wisdom because he "wasn't very nice to support-part actors".

[28] In 1966, Wisdom spent a short period in the United States to star in the Broadway production of the Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn musical comedy Walking Happy based on the play Hobson's Choice by Harold Brighouse.

This led to Wisdom's being cast in his first Hollywood film, The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and in the US Television musical of George Bernard Shaw's Androcles and The Lion (1967) with songs by Richard Rodgers and co-starring Noël Coward.

The creator of the series Raymond Allen later stated "Norman Wisdom was offered the role but turned it down because he didn't find it funny".

He appeared as a half-time guest at the England vs Albania 2002 World Cup qualifier at St James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, and scored a penalty at the Leazes End.

According to Hoxha's dialectical materialist viewpoint, proletarian Norman's ultimately victorious struggles against capitalism, personified by Mr Grimsdale and the effete aristocratic characters played by Jerry Desmonde, were a Communist parable on the class war.

[39] On a visit in 2001, which coincided with the England football team playing Albania in the city of Tirana,[40] his appearance at the training ground overshadowed that of David Beckham.

[42] In his book and TV series One Hit Wonderland, Tony Hawks united with Wisdom and, along with Tim Rice, released a single, "Big in Albania", in an attempt to enter the Albanian pop charts.

Producer Nigel Martin Davey gave him only a visual role so that he would not have to remember any lines, but on the day, Wisdom was alert and had his performance changed to add more laughs.

By 1944 they had separated when Doreen gave birth to a son, Michael (born 1944), fathered by Albert Gerald Hardwick, a telephone engineer.

[citation needed] Popular in the Isle of Man, he lived for 27 years in a house in Andreas named Ballalough (Manx for "lake farm", also a humorous corruption of the English "belly laugh").

[48] In 2005, Wisdom starred in a video for the Manx girl group Twisted Angels, for their single "LA", in support of the local charity Project 21.

[49] During the 1960s, he was involved in a famous legal case (Wisdom v Chamberlain, 1968) in which he was pursued by the Inland Revenue for tax on profits made from the sale of silver bullion he had bought when concerned about the further devaluation of sterling.

Until his age and declining mental health meant he failed a Department of Transport fitness-to-drive test, he owned and drove a 1987 Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit and a Jaguar S-Type, which were sold in September 2005.

[56] On the release of Expresso to DVD in the same month, BBC News confirmed that Wisdom lived in a care home, because of his suffering from vascular dementia.

[45] It was also reported that he had granted his children power of attorney over his affairs and, having sold off his flat in Epsom, Surrey, they were now in the process of selling his Isle of Man home to raise money to fund his longer-term care.

[62] The funeral was attended by a large number of showbusiness personalities and, at Wisdom's request, Moira Anderson sang "Who Can I Turn To",[62] which was specially arranged for the occasion by Gordon Cree.