Mike Craig was born in Batley, Yorkshire, on 11th March 1935. Educated at Wheelwright Grammar School, Dewsbury, he was an audit clerk, a printer in the RAF, a sales rep for Huntley and Palmer's, and most famously a prolific comedy writer for television and radio. He started writing seriously in 1964, and during his career he was involved in writing or producing over 1200 comedy programmes. He became a BBC staff producer in 1977, going on to create several successful radio comedy series. After retiring from the BBC in 1993, Mike devoted his time to organising comedy cruises and performing his ABC of Comedy, in which he exploited his encyclopedic knowledge of British comedians and his talent for voices and comic timing. He died on 28th October 2010 from Pick's disease, a rare illness leading to dementia.
During his time at the BBC, Mike amassed a vast collection of audio recordings featuring legendary comedians such as Frank Randle, Harry Worth, Al Read and Morecambe and Wise. These consist of sketches, interviews and entire shows, which formed the basis for his radio programmes and performances on the history of comedy.
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University of Salford staff and students can access the recordings for educational use via the University's Repository: