Jimmy Wheeler was a British variety theatre comedian and pioneer of radio and television.

Born Ernest Remnant in Battersea

Battersea

Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...

, he acquired the name Jimmy from George Formby (Senior), who introduced him on stage early in his career as 'Lucky Jim'. The Wheeler part of his name came from his father's double act 'Wheeler and Wilson', after he took over the role of Wheeler to his father's Wilson.

A burly man with a moustache, he used a violin as part of his stage act in the style of Jack Benny

Jack Benny

Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...

. His catchphrase 'Aye Aye That's Your Lot' took on a new life after his career was over, in the act of a great fan, rock musician and fellow Londoner Ian Dury

Ian Dury

Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...

. Wheeler was popular in London and the South of England

Southern England

Southern England, the South and the South of England are imprecise terms used to refer to the southern counties of England bordering the English Midlands. It has a number of different interpretations of its geographic extents. The South is considered by many to be a cultural region with a distinct...

, but his act was sometimes less well-received in Northern England

Northern England

Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...

 and Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

Wheeler appeared on radio from 1928 and on TV from 1932 when it was in its experimental stage, right through to the 1960s. He took great care in tailoring his delivery to the new media so that he still came across in the same style as his stage act.

Some of his stage and radio acts were humorous résumés of well-known operas, which he entitled 'Hopra for the higgerant', (Opera for the ignorant - with typical added Cockney-type aitches).