Double-act that should have made it big

Eugene Byrne looks at the lives of Bristol comedy duo who were huge stars in the 1950s, but who are all but forgotten now.

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MAYBE read this bit out loud in one of those clipped 1940s newsreel or radio announcer voices:

Two young Bristolians, whose new double act has made them a hit on the air, first became friends through a common interest at the Cathedral School, where they used to open the innings for the 1st XI.

They are David Evans (27), whose parents live in High St., Han-ham, and Tony Fayne that is not his real name - formerly of Whitehall Rd., St George.

They do slick, sophisticated impersonations. They made their first appearance as a team last New Year's Eve at the Grand Spa Hotel. Now, less than four months later, they are getting “rave” notices from radio critics after a sensational first appearance in "Variety Bandbox.”

"As fresh as the east wind, as confident as chorus girls, as bitingly bitter as angostura,” is the way the critic of one national newspaper describes them."

That was the Post in April 1949, getting enthusiastic about a comedy double-act which, for a while, was very famous.

But because this was the days before television, hardly anyone remembers Fayne & Evans anymore. Had they stayed together, had they managed to stay at the top of their game, they would eventually have made it to the little screen.

As it was, only one of them stayed in showbiz. His later career included two decades as straightman to Norman Wisdom. The other one disappeared into obscurity.

Tony Fayne was born Anthony Terence Alfred Senington in Bristol in 1924, and befriended David Evans when they were pupils at the Cathedral School. Here, aside from a shared love of cricket, they also amused their schoolmates with their impersonations of the teachers.