Enjoy Celebrity Radio’s Roy Walker Life Story Interview ~ Catchphrase……
Roy Walker is a television personality and comedian from Northern Ireland, who worked for many years as both a television presenter and comedy actor.
He is best known as the original host of the game show Catchphrase between 1986 and 1999, and as one of the stars of the stand-up comedy showcase, The Comedians.
Roy was the Star of ‘Car Park Catchphrase’ on the Chris Moyles Show @ BBC Radio 1 until 2012.
Here’s a rare interview about his life and career…..
Roy is a television personality and comedian from Northern Ireland, who worked for many years as both a television presenter and comedy actor.
He is best known as the original host of the game show Catchphrase between 1986 and 1999, and as one of the stars of the stand-up comedy showcase, The Comedians.
Born in Belfast, as a teenager Walker performed in the Francis Longford Choir, then worked as a riveter in the Harland and Wolff shipyard. He was the Northern Ireland champion hammer thrower for three years, and represented his country internationally.
He spent a short time as a comedy partner of James Young[citation needed] before serving seven years in the British Army.
Walker first started work aged 12. By the end of the 1960s, he was running a pawn shop whilst working in the evenings as the compère at the Talk of the Town club in Belfast.
The Troubles, a continuing threat of violence between political groups in Northern Ireland, was ongoing at this time.
Though Walker was a Protestant and a Unionist, he was confronted by two men claiming he supported Irish Independence, who threatened him at gunpoint and gave him 24 hours notice to close the shop.
Walker complied, and the shop was destroyed. He decided to leave Northern Ireland and work in mainland Britain, touring as a professional comedian, in working men’s clubs and cabaret
Recorded 2006 by Alex Belfield for Celebrity Radio and the BBC.
