And that was him

[Guy Profumo]

Impressionist Mike Yarwood dies aged 82


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66758400

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

RIP. For my generation in the UK he was *the* impressionist. I learnt to hate “and this is me”, mind.

Edit: I see from his wiki page that he was treated for depression in the late 90s. Unsurprising, the come down from stardom to obscurity must have been tough.

[Benjm]

I don't remember enough of his act to be able to say whether he was cruelly undone by the political shift in 1979 or whether he had squeezed a good run from a limited repertoire by then. He was, as EEG says, the impressionist before that though.

[Toby Gymshorts]

RIP to the UK's foremost proponent of Denis Healey impersonations.

[Benjm]

RIP to the UK's foremost proponent of Denis Healey impersonations.

You silly billy!

[Sits]

And Robin Day. That's the other one I remember best.

[Sean of the Shed]

I don't remember enough of his act to be able to say whether he was cruelly undone by the political shift in 1979 or whether he had squeezed a good run from a limited repertoire by then. He was, as EEG says, the impressionist before that though.

To be honest I would say he was the architect of his own downfall. By the time ITV took him on in 1982 he was already out of touch. You can't keep building your act around Ted Heath, Harold Wilson and Frank Spencer when they stopped being relevant in the mid seventies.
Also comedy itself shifted in the early eighties and the arrival of Spitting Image in 84 meant satire had become a tool to push back against the rich and powerful rather than the matey dig in the ribs Yarwood was doing.
He wasn't a bad impressionist, he just dropped down the leagues because he never built on what he had. He could have been Ryan Giggs, but he preferred being Lee Sharpe.

[Sean of the Shed]

Obviously we're talking playing careers, not what followed.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Sounds about right to me. Well done to Guy on the thread title btw.

[Capybara]

If you'd asked me two days ago what he was like I'd have probably said he wasn't very good, but someone directed me to a clip of his work and he was much better than I remembered. I think Sean of the Shed has got it about right. I remember he did a very good Vic Feather but when Len Murray took over Yarwood said he couldn't "do the new one." I also recall an article in the Football League Review which revealed that he was a Stockport County fan.

[Jah Womble]

I don't remember enough of his act to be able to say whether he was cruelly undone by the political shift in 1979 or whether he had squeezed a good run from a limited repertoire by then. He was, as EEG says, the impressionist before that though.

I think it’s the latter. Because he had no real competition in his field at the time (one cannot really count the elsewhere-mentioned Who Do You Do?), Yarwood soared to unimaginable heights between 1971 and 1977. Looking back, his was a limited portfolio - and the writing itself, pretty perfunctory.

Whatever his individual abilities, Alistair MacGowan’s series rather highlighted the limitations of the form several decades later. Impressions are just party-pieces, not for extended entertainment: to his credit, the far-more-versatile Steve Coogan spotted this very early on in his career.

Anyway, just my opinion. RIP, Mike Yarwood. I used to watch his show just as everyone else did.

[Gangster Octopus]

I remember he did a very good Vic Feather

Ah, the days when folk didn't actually know who the TUC General Secretary was, but knew what he sounded like...