Cannon and Ball started out as singers but switched to comedy – for an extra £3 a night, Tommy Cannon reveals

Tommy Cannon, the comedian, actor and singer, is best known as one half of the double act Cannon and Ball, writes York Membery.

He first found fame on the TV talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1968 with fellow Lancastrian Bobby Ball (tagline ‘Rock on, Tommy’, who died in 2020 aged 76).

The duo starred in the ITV show Cannon And Ball from 1979 to 1988, when they reportedly earned £50,000 a week.

But father-of-five Tommy, a former chairman of Rochdale Football Club, was declared bankrupt after being hit with an £800,000 tax bill in 2017.

The 86-year-old and his second wife Hazel live in Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, with their dogs Lola and Dexter.

What did your parents teach you about money?

Not much, because we didn’t have much money. I was born in 1938 and was one of five. I had two stepbrothers and two stepsisters – and grew up in a council house in Oldham. My father Tom was a miner before he joined the army and became a regiment sergeant major, and my mother Edith looked after us children.

It took us a few hours to fill our tin bath with hot water from a kettle on the stove, and money was so tight that Mama always bought a cow’s heart to eat, and that would last a week. Everyone was an aunt and uncle, and sometimes I would ask ‘Aunt Florrie’ down the street for a cup of sugar and tell her we would give her some in return the next week.

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

I left school at 15 without a degree and did everything from working in a bedding factory to delivering groceries. I married my first wife, Margaret, at age 21 and we had two daughters, Jeanette and Julie. I then got a job as a welder, on £20 a week, earning enough to put food on the table, but with nothing left for splurges like holidays. Bobby and I were a double act when we were both welders.

Have you ever been given stupid money?

Not really, because Bobby and I have always worked hard. We started out as singers in the 1960s but switched to comedy after hearing that comics were making an extra £3 a night.

Within a few years we were being paid £6 a night to play working men’s clubs, but we had to split the money between us. When we had our own TV show, we had to learn and remember our scripts – there were no autocue boards – but we were paid well enough to buy matching gold Rolls-Royces.

What was the best year of your financial life?

It was probably in the eighties when we attracted twenty million viewers on Saturday nights and made good money for it.

But the best years of my life were the almost 60 years that Bobby and I worked together. We were good friends for most of that time, although a lot of nonsense has been said about our ‘feud’ – but show me a married couple who has been together that long and hasn’t had a disagreement. I’m still working and did three shows last weekend. Luckily I’m in good shape; I have always stayed fit and still exercise three times a week.

The most expensive thing you bought for fun?

A beautiful four-door Mercedes car from the 1980s that I drove across the country. It cost a few quid, but it looked beautiful and has never let me down. Driving was still a pleasure back then. Highways are a nightmare now.

What is your biggest money mistake?

A cabin cruiser I bought during a summer season with Bobby in Torquay in the 1980s. Don’t ask me what I paid for it, but it was too much. Every time I got on the boat I got sick, I couldn’t dock the boat and didn’t even know how to put down the anchor. I was done with it before the end of the season.

How did you feel when you were declared bankrupt in 2017?

It’s embarrassing, but just one of those things.

Best money decision you’ve made?

When I started with Bobby in the 1960s, I bought a dark gray suit. Audiences at the time expected performers to dress reasonably decently, if not outlandishly. I didn’t have much money and it took some effort, but it was hard-earned money well spent. I made sure that first suit lasted a few years.

Do you have a pension?

I have no private pension and I still work in show business, although I am now old enough to receive the state pension. But the £1,700 or so I recently made selling some of my Cannon and Ball memorabilia on the TV show Celebrity Yorkshire Auction House will come in handy, especially as Christmas is fast approaching.

Do you have property?

Hazel and I downsized from our family home and moved to the town of Boroughbridge, where we rent a lovely two-storey house.

If you were Chancellor, what would you do?

I’m the last person you’d want to name – I’m dyslexic, have never been good with numbers and was put in the back of my class by my teacher.

What is your number one financial priority?

To ensure that I am not a financial burden on my family later in life.

• Series 4 of Celebrity Yorkshire Auction House is available to stream on Discovery+