Keith Chegwin & some of his “best” jokes

I cannot claim to have known Keith Chegwin very well, but I worked with him quite a few times during my days in TV.  I reconnected with him more recently through Twitter.
Yet, when asked “who was the nicest presenter you ever worked with?” my answer was, invariably, “Cheggers”.  I was sad to learn of his death today, aged only 60.  (I knew he had not been well, but was nowhere near close enough to him to know the details.)

The thing about Keith was that he seemed entirely happy with his position in the celebrity pecking order,  He was the eternal idiot, a byword for naffness,  His jokes were cheesy, punning atrocities, with an old-fashioned flavour.  There were frequent references to “the missus” and “the mother in law.”   He’d post them on Twitter (sometimes nicking them, without attribution to their writers, which aroused the occasional bite-back).

Some examples:

If you’re here for yodelling lessons, please form an orderly, orderly, orderly queue.

After winning the match, I threw the ball into the crowd .  Apparenty, it’s not the thing to to do in crown green bowls

Mother in law was struggling to open the freezer.  She gave up eventually.  Froze to death, bless ‘er.

Missus got a ladder in her tights.  Her shoplifting’s getting better.

I know – groan.  But one or two of those a week livened up Twitter for me.

I’m pretty certain that almost everyone he worked with will be saying the same today.  He was “well-behaved” – that is, he turned up on time, he didn’t complain, he wasn’t grand or demanding. If he thought a script or a line could be improved, he would suggest it, but wouldn’t push the point; and most of all he was good at what he did: being daft, cheery “Cheggers”.  He knew that that was what he had been hired for, and he was happy to deliver.

RIP Keith.