Seaside variety shows have been facing the final curtain for a number of years now, so what happened to something which was as much a fixture as fish and chips and candyfloss?

A combination of events caused the demise of variety at the seaside. Not least of them was television which brought with it a changing audience, but equally to blame was the growth of hotels who began to provide their own “in house” entertainment. And let’s not forget the changing audience.

Supposedly more subtle tastes meant that the appetite for anything from Punch and Judy to Pierrot turned more to Super Nintendo and tribute acts over the last 20 years. Certainly the fading theatre facades and limited publicity posters for what is often second rate entertainment suggest so.

There are so very few of the old troupers left. The greatest and longest lasting is probably Ken Dodd, who, even at 81, is still playing several shows a week and is a regular at seaside resorts, particularly The Grand Theatre, Blackpool. The man’s energy and professionalism seem to know no bounds. You still don’t have much chance of getting out of his shows before midnight, or as he jokes: “One thing about a Ken Dodd show, you always go home in the daylight.” He’s not far wrong.

Or as a fellow performer once observed: “It’s the only show I know where the audience could get deep vein thrombosis.”

But I must not forget another comic here who is a little older than even Doddy. Norman Collier, 84 this year, on Christmas Day in fact, is an institution, and many who have seen his act agree that he should be in one. From a working class family in Hull, Norman gained a reputation for making his workmates laugh during tea breaks, and very often beyond them, with his improvised comic routines. If you’ve never laughed at his chicken routine you’ve never lived, and his take off of a working men’s club chairman with a faulty microphone is hilarious, complete with outsized flat hat.

Norman can truly claim to be unique. He never appeared on The Comedians programme, although he was admired by all of them, and has probably never told a blue joke in his career.

Norman’s main success came in the working men’s clubs which he so often took the fun out of and, despite his age, can still be found there and at seaside resorts today. His take on absurd, situational monologues will probably never be seen again.

Yorkshireman Johnny Casson is earning a similar reputation for longevity in the “make ‘em laugh” stakes and is one of the remaining seaside regulars. His unique delivery, exceptional warmth and original material make him a firm favourite.

Not the TV regulars that they once were, who is, no seaside line up would be complete without Cannon and Ball, the most successful British comedy duo still performing. Hits in pantomime and at several Royal Variety shows, they still crop up in the occasional seaside show.

It’s the way he tells them that has kept Irish comic Frank Carson at the funny end of the pier for a lifetime. 84 now, he was almost written off after heart surgery over 30 years ago but still works tirelessly in cabaret, variety shows and pantomime. For his sterling work he holds a Papal Knighthood. It’s pointless to try and resist Frank when he’s in full flow, so just give in and laugh.

Again from Ireland, and last but not least, a doyen of performing and charity work long after everyone’s TV career has given way to reality madness, Jimmy Cricket is still urging us to, “Come ‘ere” because there’s more. Jimmy loves seaside performing and takes the family along these days in the form of his wife, Maid Marian, a great singer, and son Frankie Doodle, a budding comedian.

These are performers who have given years to perfecting their craft, we hope to see them for many more years, and the tribute acts of today would do well to learn from their examples.