"You Lucky People" was Tommy Trinder's catchphrase, though if you ask people now to identify it they'd probably pick Max Miller as its owner. His screen career was relatively brief yet he managed to appear in a better standard of film than his rival comics and crossed over into drama much more successfully.
Trinder was born in Streatham and started his career as a singer. Gradually his asides between songs took over the act and he moved into standup. By the time war broke out he was appearing at the Palladium and on radio and he had already had bit parts in a couple of films.
The war years were his golden period as far as films were concerned. He was less gormless than Formby, less weird than Askey and younger than Hay and Miller. He was young enough to play Cockney Everyman figures - a working-class cheeky chappy in uniform; if not exactly the boy next door, certainly the bloke down the pub.
When the war ended, so effectively did his British film career. He had a lengthy stay in Australia following the production of Outback drama Bitter Springs and on his return to Britain found work harder to come by. However, he was chosen to present Sunday Night at the London Palladium on the new ITV service which brought him a new audience - or at least his old one now safely tucked up at home with the kids.
He got a CBE in 1975.
| 1938 | Almost a Honeymoon |
| 1938 | Save a Little Sunshine |
| 1940 | Laugh it Off |
| 1940 | She Couldn't Say No |
| 1940 | Sailors Three |
| 1942 | The Foreman Went to France |
| 1943 | The Bells Go Down |
| 1944 | Fiddlers Three |
| 1944 | Champaign Charlie |
| 1950 | Bitter Springs |
| 1955 | You Lucky People |
| 1963 | The Damned |
| 1964 | The Beauty Jungle |
| 1974 | Barry McKenzie Holds His Own |
