Heritage Weekend TV News coverage from the BBC and ITV

BBC NORTH WEST      ITV GRANADA REPORTS

Welcome to the our NEW website for our Charlie

Thursday 18th December 2025

Well, my apologies — yesterday didn’t quite go to plan 😅

I went to my daughter’s carol concert 🎶 and she made me incredibly proud ❤️ Bless her.

Right in the middle of her part of the show, my phone rang 📱 I ignored it at the time (as you do), but when I rang back afterwards it turned out to be an urgent catering job for today (Thursday) 🍕🔥 That meant all my plans for yesterday went straight out of the window 🤦‍♂️

I won’t be doing much now until at least Tuesday next week, so my apologies for not uploading any new material as promised 🙏 However, Christmas is coming 🎄 and I’m not working again until the 4th of January, so I’ll have plenty of time ⏰ Expect a bit of carol overload 🎼, along with lots of photos 📸 and updates from what I’m up to in Blackpool this weekend 🎡🌊  We are staying at the Imperial, (my favourite hotel) I have booked a late check out, so Kim can have a lie in, and my ne Phoebe are off to the Sandcastle Swimming before we head to Liverpool, and if I am really lucky ill get an hour in the Ballroom, to people watch.

Have a great day ☀️😊



There are three additional pictures to share today.

The first shows Charlie Junior in pantomime during the 2018/19 season, performing a Slush act alongside Phil Walker— a lovely moment captured from the show.

The second is Kate Shane from the Tower and Blackpool Entertainment Limited, who has recently received her MBE from Princess Anne. Congratulations, Kate — thoroughly well deserved. We look forward to working closely with you going forward through the association.

Finally, we say goodbye (for now) to Caroline Hall, (far right in Red Dress) curator at Showtown and the Blackpool Heritage Service, who is moving on to new projects. Thank you, Caroline, for everything you have done for the association — your support has been greatly appreciated. As a small thank you from all of us, I’ve sent Caroline a bouquet of flowers today as a leaving gift 💐 Please do keep in touch.

Wednesday17th December 2025

Good morning! Hope this post finds everyone well.

Not a huge amount to report over the last few days – just the usual Christmas prep and me running around chasing my tail, as always… some say at about 1,000,000 miles an hour! 😄

This morning I’m off to see Phoebe in her carol concert, then it’s back home to concentrate on the website and hunt down some more goodies and exciting content to add.

We’re also heading off on a top-secret mission to Blackpool on Friday. Phoebe finishes school at 1 o’clock and we’ll be heading straight up. We’ll be in town Friday night and Saturday, then leaving on Sunday afternoon, travelling back via Liverpool to see Bippo in pantomime at the M&S Arena – so it’s going to be a busy few days!

If anyone is in Blackpool over the weekend, it would be lovely to catch up with friends.
More details on that secret mission to follow… 👀✨

Thursday, 11th December 2025

I’ve added another six images today and really need your help identifying and finding out more about them!

They include:
• Charlie in the Circus ring boxing!
• Jimmy Buchanan at the top of a ladder with a bucket (we all know what’s coming!)
• Three Circusettes I’d love to put names to
• And one of my favourite sketches of Charlie & Co.

As always, any information, memories, or clues you can share are hugely appreciated. Thank you!

Tuesday 9th December 2025

🎉 A Record Day for the Charlie Cairoli Website! 🎉
Yesterday, we had 70 visitors — the highest number to date! That’s absolutely fantastic — thank you so much to everyone who took the time to explore Charlie’s legacy. 🙌

But… did you know there’s a members-only area on the site?

🗂️ It’s packed with exclusive unseen footage, rare documents, personal archives, and content that’s not available anywhere else — and it’s growing every single week.

🌐 Membership helps keep the website online. It costs around £25 a month just to host the site, and every penny of your support goes directly into preserving and sharing Cairoli’s story.

The Charlie Cairoli Appreciation Society has always been non-profit, run with love and dedication. Any support, no matter how small, helps keep Charlie’s memory alive for generations to come. ❤️🎪

👉 Visit: www.charliecairoli.com
📘 Or find us on Facebook: Charlie Cairoli   OUR FACEBOOK PAGE

Thank you for keeping the legacy alive.
#CharlieCairoli #LegacyOfLaughter #CairoliForever #PreserveThePast

Mystery Items – Can You Help?

Every so often, while going through the collection, I uncover documents or photographs that I can’t date or fully identify. This page is dedicated to those mysteries.

If you recognise anything—people, places, events, or even small details—please get in touch.
Your knowledge could help piece together important parts of circus history.

If you can shed any light on these items, drop me an email.
All help is genuinely appreciated.

Follow this link to the "Mysteries"

Sunday Update – 7th December 2025

Well, it’s Sunday the 7th of December, and here I am sat in the office at 9:25am while the rain absolutely pours down! I’d planned to take Phoebe and Kim to Hayling Island today so they could finally ride their horses along the beach — something they’ve both dreamed of doing — but the tide times and the weather had other ideas. So, instead, I’m tucked away here, going through old editions of The Write Charlies. It’s incredible how many unfinished projects are still waiting to be brought to life!

You may have seen the picture I posted yesterday of a wall at Daishes Hotel, North Shore, Blackpool. Back in the summer, I was approached by mural artist Chris Moore — a Blackpool lad born and bred. His grandfather was Charlie Cairoli’s tailor, and Chris has wonderful memories of being in the shop with his mum while Charlie was there. He’s expressed a genuine wish to create a permanent mural of Charlie & Co. in Blackpool.

Well, we’ve found a potential location — and the new owners of Daishes Hotel are very keen to explore the idea and collaborate to make it a reality. All we need now is to raise the funds! Lots of ideas are bouncing around, including the possibility of applying for Lottery Heritage funding. If any of our members have suggestions or experience in this area, your thoughts would be hugely appreciated.

On another note, I’ll be in Blackpool on a secret mission on the 19th, 20th, and 21st of December. If you’re in town and fancy catching up for a drink, let me know — it would be great to see some familiar faces.

Do keep an eye on the website over the next few days — there’s plenty of new and exciting material on the way. While looking through the September 2003 issue of The Write Charlie (Issue No. 37), I noticed that editor Wilford Fitton mentioned that Daniel was working on two more descriptions of Slosh  entrées, as well as several of Charlie’s musical presentations. He also noted she’d started a massive task: transferring over 10,000 of his 35mm circus slides onto CD-ROMs! I would love to find those CDs — hopefully they’re tucked away somewhere in the heritage collection, but that’s another line of inquiry to follow up…

Have a great day everyone — rain or no rain — and thank you as always for your continued support.

It’s almost impossible to believe that 45 years have passed since we lost Charlie.

Forty-five years… yet for so many of us, his laughter, his music, his gentle magic, and that unmistakable warmth feel as alive today as they ever did.

I often find myself wondering what he would think if he could see everything that has happened since — the Charlie Cairoli Appreciation Society, the statue, the book, and now the blue heritage plaque. So much love, respect, and admiration continue to surround his name.

And whenever this anniversary comes around, I return to the same memory:

I was only 10 years old.

Just a child… yet I can still remember the moment the news came, John Craven on Newsround and then on the radio and BBC Teatime news . At ten, you don’t understand the world, not really — but you do understand when someone who made you laugh, someone who felt larger than life, is suddenly gone. I didn’t fully grasp the meaning of legacy then. I had no sense of how deeply he would shape my own life. But even at ten, I knew enough to feel the loss.

I could never have imagined that one day I would grow up and dedicate so many years to keeping his memory alive — through the society, through the statue, through the book, through every story collected and preserved. And now, through the heritage plaque that will mark his place in history forever. What began as childhood admiration has grown into a lifelong mission.

I often wonder what Charlie himself would think of all of this.

Would he ever have believed that, decades after his last performance, people would still speak his name with the same affection they did when he was the heart of the circus ring? That children not yet born in his lifetime would discover him and fall in love with that same timeless charm?

I think he’d be touched, Quietly proud, Perhaps even a little overwhelmed that the world has not forgotten him — that so many still care, still remember, still smile at the very mention of his name.

Forty-five years gone…but never forgotten, Not for a moment.  Now what can I do next?

My earliest memories of seeing Charlie Cairoli were on television — on the BBC’s The Right Charlie, and later in the magical Christmas and Easter circus specials. I was captivated from the start.

In 1979 my parents saved hard to take me to Blackpool, and they booked ringside seats at the Tower Circus so I could finally see Charlie perform in person. We took our seats, full of excitement… but then an announcement came over the loudspeaker:
Due to illness, Charlie would not be appearing.

I never did get to see him work live, or to meet him — something I’ve always regretted. And yet, out of all the photographs of Charlie, there’s one that has stayed with me as my absolute favourite. If only…

Blackpool Loved Charlie and Charlie loved Blackpool   Added 19th November 2025

Charlie's everything to everybody, a press cutting from 1956

NEW TO THE MEMBERS AREA

If you joined us in Blackpool for the weekend, you were probably at this event, an once in a lifetime Q&A with Charlie and friends, the presentation was written and presented by our friend Bev Carroll, it was a wonderful hour full of memories and stories.  Bev has allowed me to share it with you.  Enjoy.

Sadly you have to be a member to view this.

Join us here for full access

Find out how the Blue Heritage Weekend went here!

Write Charlie June 1996, Issue 8

Write Charlie September 1996, Issue 9

Write Charlie December 1996,  Issue 10

Write Charlie March 1997, Issue 11

Write Charlie September 1997, issue 13

Write Charlie December 1997, Issue 14

Write Charlie March 1998, issue 15

Write Charlie June 1998, Issue 16

Write Charlie September 1998, Issue 17

Write Charlie December 1998, Issue 18

Write Charlie March 2000, Issue 23

Write Charlie June 2000, Issue 24

Write Charlie December 2000, Issue 26

Write Charlie March 2001, Issue 27

Write Charlie June 2001, Issue 28

Write Charlie September 2001, Issue 29

Write Charlie December 2001, Issue 30

Write Charlie December 2002, Issue 34

Write Charlie, December 2002, issue 35

Write Charlie, Issue 36, June 2003

Write Charlie, Issue 37, September 2003

Write Charlie December 2003,  Issue 38

Write Charlie March 2006, Issue 47

Write Charlie March 2008, Issue 55

Write Charlie June 2008, Issue 56

Write Charlie September 2008, Issue 57

Write Charlie, December 2008, Issue 58

Write Charlie, March 2009, Issue 59

Steve Richley

Charlie the Statue - Brian Nicholson 

39 Years Under The Tower

Blackpool Loved Charlie and Charlie loved Blackpool 

Random Pictures from 1950

Blackpool Gazette Archives

ITV Granada Reports Coverage of Blue Plaque weekend

BBC Northwest Coverage of Blue Plaque Weekend

Medrano 1937

Cairoli, Porto and Carletto

Jimmy Buchanon (Little Jimmy)

Notable dates 1938 - 1980

London Palladium Pantomines

Pantomimes

1959

1970

1972

Ill Health, Retirement and Death

A little note for all our members:

As you enjoy re reading The Write Charlies newsletters from the late 1990s and early 2000s, please remember that the names, addresses, and merchandise offers printed in those editions are now out of date.
If you have any questions, need information, or wish to enquire about anything mentioned, please contact me directly and I’ll be more than happy to help

Inaugurated on 17th June 1994

This Society is dedicated to perpetuating the memory of our best-known and loved clown, Charlie Cairoli.

For 39 summer seasons, Charlie entertained and delighted audiences with his hilarious antics at the world-famous Blackpool Tower Circus. A celebrated and much-loved clown, his trademark bowler hat, red nose, and baggy trousers became synonymous with the Tower Circus. Sadly, he is no longer with us.

This site has been launched in his memory. Its purpose, like the Charlie Cairoli Appreciation Society, is to preserve the legacy of the king of slapstick and master of ad-lib.

Charlie Who Was He ?

Charlie Cairoli starred at the Blackpool Tower Circus for thirty nine years !!, undoubtedly creating a world record for any artiste appearing at the same venue.

He replaced another famous clown there, Scotsman Doodles, whose appearances totalled thirty. 

Born in Milan, on February 15th 1910, on his fathers only visit to Italy, Charlie made his performing debut at the age of seven. Jean-Marie Cairoli and his son, then known as Carletto, joined Auguste Porto to star at the Cirque Medrano in Paris from 1929 to 1937, Charlie's brother Filip replaced Porto. After travelling Europe they went to Blackpool Tower in 1939 and were so 

successful that Charlie remained there the rest of his career. Filip returned to France when war broke out, and Jean Marie retired at the end of the 1947 season.

From 1948 to 1979 Charlie was partnered by four different white face clowns, Paul Freeman, Paul King, Paul Conner and Charlie Cairoli Jnr. For many years Jimmy Buchanan was an important member of his company which also played in theatres, cabaret, pantomimes, ice shows and on television. A master of many musical instruments, Charlie became one of the most celebrated and popular clowns in the history of the circus. Ill health forced his retirement in November 1979 and he died on February 17, 1980

When in Blackpool next why not pop in and see our friends at Showtown, tell them we sent you!

Showtown