Whatever happened to Mike Hope & Alby Keen?!

Whatever happened to Mike Hope & Alby Keen?

Does anybody else remember them?

6 days ago
As in Hope and Keen's crazy Bus on the Television.

Hope And Keen
UK, ITV (ATV), Sketch, B/W, 1965
Starring: Mike Hope, Albie Keen
Nine programmes in which the humorous and physically dextrous Scottish double-act Mike Hope and Albie Keen - they were cousins - located themselves in curious foreign climes (Gold Nugget Creek, Old Pekin, Casablanca, Tropicsville, Zieto Tierra, Greece, Moonaboola, on board the SS Bounty and in Ballyduro) for comic effect. It was the pairing's first TV series, and Sid Green and Dick Hills - of The Morecambe And Wise Show fame - wrote the scripts.

The sons of comedians Syd and Max Harrison - Hope and Keen, hardly surprisingly, were stage names - Mike and Albie were stationed together in the RAF, where they so enjoyed its physical training that they became Olympic gymnastic coaches. After demobilisation they decided to remain together and tour an acrobatic act around provincial theatres, but when the premise wore thin they focused on comic routines and became a success, appearing on Val Parnell's Sunday Night At The London Palladium and in the 1965 Royal Variety Show.

HOPE AND KEEN'S CRAZY HOUSE/BUS (1970-72)
BBC

DRIVELLY SCOTTISH funsters MIKE HOPE and ALBIE KEEN preside over wacky slapstickian behaviour in eponymous House in which was situated the 'Coal-Hole Club', various poppermost musicians, PETER "WHO DO YOU DO?" GOODWRIGHT as the (as always) senile butler and RUTH KETTLEWELL as barmy cook. Pair then decide to hit the road Kerouac-style, enlisting titular Bus to tour Britain in order to locate (as always) lost treasure. Quest heralded as follows: "In Uncle Ebenezer's chest/we found a funny map/We blew the dust off/and saw a treasure trail/We're feeling brave/so we followed all the clues he gave/and we'll be on our way/(Chorus) Crazy bus/you're taking us away/Crazy bus/I wonder where we're going today."



In 1985 they played the Palladium pantomine "Cinderella" with Des O'Conner, Anna Neagle, Paul Nicholas and John Junkin.