The new alternatives

William Cook goes to Skegness and watches Cannon & Ball attract an adoring audience

It’s August and Edinburgh is full of fashionable young comedians, but here in Skegness the Festival Fringe seems a million miles away. With its amusement arcades and fish and chip shops, this unpretentious place feels forgotten by the metropolitan arts establishment. There are no TV producers on the windswept promenade, no theatre critics in the bingo halls. Yet Skegness boasts a theatrical heritage far older than the Edinburgh Festival — traditional seaside entertainment. And this summer it’s playing host to Britain’s most seasoned seaside entertainers, Cannon & Ball.

Throughout the 1980s Cannon & Ball were one of the biggest acts in Britain. Eric Morecambe called them the next Morecambe & Wise. Between 1979 and 1990 they starred in ten series on ITV, playing to audiences of 15 million. But then television lost interest, and Cannon & Ball disappeared.