Weary Willie

William James figured there as well as "Weary Willie," and pragmatists alternated with pugilists in the long procession of its portraits.

Perhaps they should also have been reminded of Holmfirth's heritage to the film industry as a major movie making town a century ago where those great comedy hits Weary Willie, Bumble's Blunder and Winky And The Cannibal Chief were made.

Their fearsome German soldier was really a dimwit whose only ambition was to grab another sausage, a bumbling buffoon no match for 10-year-olds like Patriotic Paul or loveable layabouts like Weary Willie and Tired Tim.

Skelton's star performer, however, was Freddie the Freeloader--a comedy cross between Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp and Emmett Kelly's Weary Willie. Freddie was a comedy diplomat from the dump of life, who mixed pathos with pratfalls--and the occasional custard pie.