Celebrating jazz player Colin Burleigh's 92nd birthday

He is a musician, singer, comedian, radio presenter, actor, TV extra and advisor, writer, and he talks the Norfolk way…he is the one and only Colin Burleigh.

Our county has produced some talented characters over the years, the boy Burleigh is up there with the best of them.

Dereham-born Colin has just celebrated his 92th birthday and looking back on his life he says: “To use a well-worn phrase – I’ve had a ball.”

A family gathering to celebrate Colin's 92nd birthday. From the top: Terence Burleigh and Sarah Burleigh, Ellie Burleigh and Lucy Burleigh, Marcus Rowland and Lisa Rowland with June and Colin Burleigh (Image: Burleigh Family Photos)He started life as a performer at the age of 12 when, together with his two younger sisters, he was a member of a juvenile concert party. They put on shows at Dereham and surrounding villages to raise money for the war effort.

When the town held fund-raising weekends he’d sing Jerusalem on the Market Place to collect money to go towards helping to buy a Spitfire, a submarine and some tanks,” recalled Colin.

He also fancied himself as a mimic in his teens and made it to the semi-finals of the Eastern Region Carroll Levis Discoveries.

And when he got his call-up for National Service he was in the concert party at RAF Compton Bassett and then, in Germany, had an audition at British Forces Network, finishing his act with a song and Bill Crozier  (Two Way Family Favourites) suggested he dropped the comedy and tried singing jazz.

Press Gang at North Creake Village Hall, March 2008. Pictured (Left to Right) Ian Prettyman, Pat Nearney, Danny Platton, Colin Burleigh, Liza Austrin and Keith Skipper (Image: Newsquest Archive)

Back in Norfolk he was offered the job of singing with the popular Collegians Jazz Band, led by Eric Vernon, and in 1958 they won the National Jazz Band Contest and hit the big time. He turned a jazz session into a jazz show.

“On occasions I got the chance to sing with Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball and Terry Lightfoot. We played on radio, TV and over in Holland and France,” said Colin.

Within a few months of the Collegians packing up in 1988, aided by a drum kit of bits and pieces and a lesson from Kenny Ball’s drummer, he joined the Vintage Hot Orchestra and played with them for 26 years as drummer/vocalist.

“Playing Children in Need and at Knebworth and Burghley House alongside a symphony orchestra with laser show and fireworks were highlights,” he said.

Soon after BBC Radio Norfolk went on air Keith Skipper invited him to do a few jazz “Specials” and in 1986 was offered him the job as Dereham and District news reporter which he did for "ten happy years".

“I learned a lot about the art of broadcasting from Skip and I’m forever grateful to him. From watching him work I picked up enough to be able to ‘drive a desk’ on Dereham Hospital Radio for a couple of years,” said Colin.

Colin Burleigh at The Norfolk Dialect Trocher Writing Competition, January 2015 (Image: Newsquest Archive)

He also did some dialect programmes with Roy Waller and then had his own All That Jazz programme and served on the BBC Radio Advisory Council.

By the 1990s he had joined the Jaclyn Agency to work as a TV “extra” working with the likes of Ian McShane, Martin Shaw and John Thaw. He played a footman for four days in the BBC film All the Kings Men working with David Jason and Maggie Smith.

He loved being part of the Norfolk-based TV series Kingdom as an extra and dialect coach. “Working with Stephen Fry, the lovely Celia Imrie and Trevor Peacock was sheer heaven,” added Colin.

Colin Burleigh on stage with the Press Gang at North Creake Village Hall, March 2008 (Image: Newsquest Archive)

Keith Skipper then asked him to help out as a comedian on one of his great Press Gang shows – the start of a 17-year stint as a gang member playing across the county. Cromer Pier was a special venue.

That led to many dates speaking about his life as an entertainer and, don’t tell the children, he worked at a Christmas grotto in a well-known Norwich store for 13 years. “I had a lot of fun,” he laughs.

Colin Burleigh as Father Christmas at Jarrolds in 2004 (Image: Newsquest Archive)

As a lifelong member of the Friends of Norfolk Dialect he appeared on television and received an invitation to a garden party at Buckingham Palace where he had a chat with the Queen Elizabeth about the Norfolk way of talking.

Colin has written four pantomime scripts for FOND and has appeared in every panto they have put on for about 20 years and of course he is a regular letter writer to the EDP. “It’s an easy way to let folks know I’m still alive,” he laughs.

Colin Burleigh and his wife June met the Queen at a garden party in June 2010. Colin, a member of Friends of Norfolk Dialect, spoke to the Queen about the Norfolk dialect and June spoke to Her Majesty about her volunteer work at Wayland Prison (Image: Newsquest Archive)He met his wife June at the Green Turtle Jazz Club in Norwich back in 1961. They married three years later. “She has encouraged me in everything I have done, for which I am extremely grateful.

“We have a son and a daughter and two grandchildren all doing well in their chosen careers and I’m very proud of them all,” says Colin.

“If I had the chance to live my life over again there’s very little I’d want to change. I don’t want for much – a pint of real ale, a steak pie or a good chicken curry, some traditional jazz playing in the background and to have my family around me.”

Thanks Colin. Norfolk is proud of you.