They were Music Hall aristocracy. George Formby Snr was the first Northern comedian to gain a national reputation. The great Marie Lloyd maintained there were only two performers she would turn out to see – and he was one of them. His story of rags to respectability hid a secret he took with him to the grave.

An international star of stage, film, music and radio in the mid-twentieth century, his ukulele-playing son, also George, entertained three million troops in every theatre of war except Russia during the Second World War and raised tens of thousands of pounds for charity. His role in boosting British morale was second only to that of Churchill himself. In short, the nation, and the Royal Family, loved him. He and his wife Beryl had style and charisma, but they always retained the common touch. Struck down by ill-health in the 1950s, George spent more and more time on his boat on the Norfolk Broads, always with Beryl, making friends wherever he went.

Both the George Formbys wove myths around themselves and have had myths created for them. Here, through new research and a wealth of previously unpublished photos, the real men emerge for the first time. It certainly has, as young George might have said himself, ‘turned out nice again’.

Richard Bothway Howard and Sue Smart were colleagues on the staff of Gresham’s School in Holt when the idea of this book was suggested to them. Richard was infected at an early age by his father Norman’s (also born in 1904!) obsession with George Formby. In 2004, to mark his centenary, Richard researched a programme for BBC Radio, George Formby’s Norfolk. Sue read Modern History at St Anne’s College, Oxford, and is interested in social history and writing, so they put their resources together to fulfil a dream of Ted Formby’s. He asked them to ‘put the record straight’ about his elder brother George. They have been delighted, with the help of the family archive, to do just that. And they thought they might tell George Formby senior’s story while they were about it.

The book It’s Turned Out Nice Again!: A biography of George Formby will be on sale at this weekend’s show FORMBY on Saturday 5th May at 8.00pm. Tickets £12 or £10 concessions available from the Box Office on 01603 598 598