The Clitheroe Kid was a BBC radio comedy show featuring diminutive Northern comedian Jimmy Clitheroe in the role of a cheeky schoolboy, who lived with his family at 33 Lilac Avenue in an unnamed town in the North of England. The pilot show, pilot series, and 16 subsequent series totalled 290 episodes in all, broadcast between April 1957 and 13 August 1972

In addition to Clitheroe himself, the show’s stars included Peter Sinclair playing his Scottish granddad, Patricia Burke as his mother (in some early shows the part was played by Renée Houston), and Diana Day as his long-suffering sister Susan (the part of the sister had been originally played by Judith Chalmers, when the character was called Judith Clitheroe). Jimmy’s father never appeared, his absence seldom really addressed.

Oldham comedian Danny Ross played Alfie Hall, Susan’s daft, tongue-tied boyfriend, who was often drawn into Jimmy’s reckless schemes and never learned to steer clear of him. And Tony Melody played Mr. (Horatio) Higginbottom (his first name was rarely used), a 6’4″ taxi driver, Granddad’s drinking buddy, and father of Jimmy’s pal Ozzie; Higginbottom was always threatening to give Jimmy a good hiding for things he had done to Ozzie. Ozzie himself was rarely heard, save as a muffled, indistinct background voice (for instance, as featured in the episode “The Trouble with Higginbottom” when he is ejected from a bus by the conductor).

In the pilot series, other actors who appeared in guest roles included John Broadbent, Violet Carson, Fred Fairclough, Fred Ferris, Tom Harrison, Jack Howarth, Shirley King, Eddie Leslie, Bob Monkhouse, Herbert Smith, Brian Trueman, Jack Watson, Patrick Wells, Leonard Williams and Rosalie Williams.