Whatever Happened to Tommy Gander...?

detailing

Entry posted by Ray Von in Detailing February 14, 2021

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For anyone who doesn't know, Tommy Gander was a fictional Music Hall comic, a character that featured in the 1941 British film "The Ghost Train" portrayed by real life comic, Arthur Askey.

On his way down to Newquay to start a new sixteen week season of his act at The Pier Pavillion ("Well, we'll see how I go Monday night...") Tommy gets caught up in the events that unfold in the film (or was he instrumental in causing them...?)

Years later, Tommy Gander finds himself performing regularly at the increasingly popular "Holiday Camps" that have sprung up all over post war Britain.

It's while doing a season at Dent-de-Lion's "Smuggler's View" Holiday Camp, on the North Kent Seaside Circuit - that Tommy decides that there's money to be made in this game, and eventually buys up the camp - lock, stock and barrel.

Renaming it "Gander's" and trading on his popularity as an entertainer, Tommy "runs the show" as it were - headlining in the nightly cabaret, as well as booking new acts, looking after the guests, and taking charge of the day to day running of the park.

At its peak, the camp was full to the rafters - train-loads of guests from London, the North of England and beyond would regularly disgorge at Dent-de-Lion station and spend a week-long summer break in the sun at "Gander's Holiday Camp" - many returning year after year.

But it's "now" the late seventies, and package holidays to the Costa Brava have taken their toll on the holiday camps.

"Gander's" is still in business, and maybe a little less glamorous than in its heyday, but Tommy still takes to the stage nightly during the summer season, to entertain the appreciative (but dwindling) crowd.