My letters from comedy greats are lasting reminders of laughs

C'mere, there's more from the Post's funniest columnist

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Although it was 1966, I can still remember it to this day.

A letter arrived from Butlins offering me a job as a Redcoat at their holiday camp in Mosney, County Meath, not far from Dublin. I was to get the princely sum of six pounds a week plus full bed and board. It was my first tiny steps into the entertainment profession.

It's hard to imagine, in these days of instant electronic communication, how vital a role letters played in all our lives.

After I'd been interviewed for the job of Redcoat, I spent the next few weeks in eager anticipation looking out for the postman. I can still remember the trembling hands as I opened the letter and the unbridled joy when I was offered the job!

Letters are like love. The more you send out the more you get back.

When I first broke into television in the 1980s, there was a variety programme called The Good Old Days in which both the acts and the audience dressed up in Edwardian clothes, recreating the halcyon days of music hall entertainment.

It was filmed at the beautiful City Varieties Theatre in Leeds and the atmosphere was electric in the audience, while at home viewers tuned in in their millions.