Roy Rolland

[1] Rolland was born in Oldham in Lancashire in 1921; as a teenager he appeared in a number of concert parties and seaside summer shows in the North of England without much success until he met Lucan in about 1950 and who saw his comedic potential.

[1] Following Lucan's death in 1954, Kitty McShane, his on-stage daughter and real-life ex-wife, hired Rolland to appear with her as Old Mother Riley.

[1] After McShane's death in 1964, Rolland moved to Rhyl where every Christmas he played the pantomime dame at the Gaiety Theatre.

For this, Rolland and La Rue played Mother Riley and her daughter Kitty in a recreation of the Lucan and McShane sketch "Bridget's Night Out" from the 1930s.

[3][4] Rolland retired to Rhyl in Denbighshire where he lived with his male partner, a former supermarket manager.