In 1983 the strip resurfaced as a series on Radio 2, which Tidy co-wrote with John Junkin. He also adapted the strip for the stage with the playwright Alan Plater. He was generous with his time. At one CAMRA fund-raising event, he leapt around the room unveiling, sequence by sequence, an enormous strip illustrating the history of beer from Ancient Egypt to the present day. It must have taken him weeks to prepare and draw and all free of charge and for the cause. Kegbuster continued on his merry way until April 2020 when Bill decided to call it a day. Rosa, his wife of close to 60 years, died in December 2019 and Bill had a mild stroke and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. His one major regret in his long career was his failure to save Punch from closure, despite trying, with other artists and journalists, to buy it. He drew for the magazine from 1959 but in spite of his best efforts it folded in 1992. The Cloggies were undisputed champions of their ‘sport’, usually inflicting grave injuries before repairing to the nearest pub. Their capacity for beer was legendary; their home venue, the Clog & Bells, Blagdon, where Doris the barmaid was always in a welcoming mood. There were also unorthodox activities involving the use of ferrets.

Tidy’s other TV appearances included Watercolour Challenge, Through the Keyhole, Blankety Blank and Countryfile. His radio appearances include 1988 editions of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, when he stood in for Barry Cryer. He also wrote and presented Draw Me, a children’s television series in 13 parts. Victor, Terry; Dalzell, Tom (2007-12-01). The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Routledge. p.1979. ISBN 978-1-134-61533-9. His workload was phenomenal. At one time he was drawing six strips and he said he had to be careful not to mix them up and send them to the wrong newspapers or magazines. He also appeared regularly on television, in Countdown, Blankety Blank and Countryfile. In 1975 he was confronted by Eamonn Andrews with his famous red book when Bill was the subject of This Is Your Life. The dancers had a legendary capacity for beer and would repair to the nearest tavern for a gallon or two following every epic contest. Bill also enjoyed beer in moderation and in the 1970s he accepted an offer from the fledgling Campaign for Real Ale ( Camra) to draw a monthly strip called Kegbuster for its newspaper What’s Brewing. For more than 40 years Bill regaled Camra members with the battles between the ale-loving Kegbuster and such giant brewers as Grotnys and Twitbread that attempted to replace cask beer with keg. Tidy's many TV appearances have included Countdown, Watercolour Challenge, Through the Keyhole, Blankety Blank and Countryfile. His radio appearances included an accomplished performance on a 1989 edition of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, when he stood in for Barry Cryer and a 1991 Series where he stood in for Tim Brooke-Taylor. He wrote and presented Draw Me, a children's television series in 13 parts. He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1975 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. [ citation needed]

Avis Fawcitt

The actor and singer Chaim Topol (pictured), best known for his performances in the musical Fiddler on the Roof.

Even the Red Baron made it, turning up fresh from enjoying his WW1 aerial duels with Josh’s son Tom. So popular the Fosdyke Saga was that it became the subject of a BBC 42-part radio series from 1983.

Chaim Topol

The Grotny Hardmen were born, grim-faced keg salesmen who were determined to foist their fizzy brews on drinkers and publicans and were repulsed by Kegbuster. The Hardmen were followed by Twitbread, another giant keg brewery that attempted to phase out cask ale with inferior gassy products. The Cloggies appeared in Private Eye from 1967 to 1981. It was an affectionate send-up of the radio soap The Archers, billed as “an everyday story of country folk” whereas the Cloggies were “an everyday story of clog-dancing folk”. The strip followed the misadventures of a team of clog dancers who took on rival teams and developed such tactical foot manoeuvres as the Triple Arkwright. The dancers had a legendary capacity for beer and would repair to the nearest pub for a gallon or two after every epic contest. Bill was also very humble and he became embarrassed when people complimented him. However he would have been secretly absolutely over the moon with the flattering comments offered by so many. Piers Morgan, Tim Rice, Miriam Margoyles, Monty Don were just some of the folk who said lovely things about Bill. Avis Fawcitt, the Leicestershire music teacher who devoted her life to the Orphean Youth and Concert Orchestra. The series lampooned current sports culture and introduced an entire sub-culture of dance leagues, a governing body for the sport (characterised as officious, clumsy, bureaucratic, out-of-touch and based on the Football Association), an idiosyncratic cast of sociopaths and a yearning for earlier, gentler days of greater respect (such as the famous Policeman on a White Bicycle). As a reflection of the officious nature of league officials and umpires (who always had it in for the lads) the scoring system was deeply arcane and complex, with final scores such as 124.863 to 92 ​ 14⁄ 37 being recorded.

Neville Grundy said: “Bill Tidy was a neighbour in the early 1980s when our family lived in Birkdale. He used to enjoy a pint in the long-gone Berkeley on Queens Road where I occasionally saw him. A stage musical based on the series, entitled The Cloggies, ran at the Theatr Clwyd in Mold, Wales. [7] The production was given a limited run from 24 October until 12 November 1983. [8] [9] The Cloggies experienced several issues with special effects and sound during its opening performance, prompting complaints from the audience. [10] [11] The play was later described as a failure by the Evening Post in 1995. [12]He was generous with his time. At one CAMRA fundraising event, he leapt around the room unveiling, sequence by sequence, an enormous strip illustrating the history of beer from Ancient Egypt to the present day. It must have taken him weeks to prepare and draw and all free of charge and for the cause. The Daily Mail and the Guardian allong with many other papers covered his passing . Unfortunately The Times and the Telegraph stated incorrectly that Bill's late wife Rosa Tidy was still alive. She passed away on the 24th November 2019.

A lighthearted exploration of the world of football commentary, from that first touch onto the woodwork to getting a result and concentrating on the league. It includes a course of essential terms and phrases for the aspiring football commentator. Bill was in the headlines last year, not for good reasons, after he and his son Robert were faced to waited almost 24 hours in a hospital A&E department with a serious chest infection, to the dismay of his family. The Leicester Mercury reported how the 88-year-old was taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary in an ambulance on Wednesday 20th July and had to wait – becoming increasingly exhausted and distressed – until the next day before he was placed in a bed on a ward. Tidy, Bill. 1995. Is There Any News of the Iceberg? An illustrated Autobiography. London: Smith Gryphon.But in 1984 Robert Maxwell bought Mirror Group Newspapers, and the following year summarily axed the The Fosdyke Saga from the Daily Mirror. However Tidy refused to bring the strip to a tragic or untimely end and the last episode was non-committal about the clan’s future. Known as the PEOPLE’S PAPER, Euro Weekly News is the leading English language newspaper in Spain. And it’s FREE! In the May Blitz in 1940 we would retire to the cellar with our cousins, the Hughes family, who shared the house with us. It was there we founded the ‘Juanita Club’. Juanita was a cheap red wine which I discovered at the age of seven to have an excellent nose and delicious hints of strawberries and fish and chips. It saw us through the air raids and I was only scared once.