A POPULAR comedian who spent 25 years producing shows for the elderly with a former MP has died.
Jack Seaton suffered a heart attack at his home in Grange Road, Ealing, on February 13. He managed to dial 999 but died on the way to hospital at the age of 81.
The comedian is best known locally for producing variety shows with Harry Greenway, former MP for Ealing North. The pair met 28 years ago when they set up the annual concert for pensioners at Greenford Hall, in Ruislip Road, after the council stopped funding a similar project.
Mr Greenway said: "He
really was famous, a tremendous man. I was so lucky to work with him for these 25 years. Between us we produced the very best shows we could. Jack got the programme together. He was hugely professional. He was the compere and told stories between the acts, he was terribly funny."
The last show was in March 2008, with acts including a ventriloquist, magician Josh Miller and 1950s singer Joan Regan.
Mr Seaton was born in Soho, he moved to Harrow to live with his grandparents at the beginning of the Second World War and then to Ealing about 30 years ago. In the 1950s he began
doing his own variety act in Brighton and Eastbourne, and helped Ralph Reader produce the famous Gang Shows for the scouts. He became chairman of the British Music Hall Society in 1984, giving lectures on the business, and was invited to the Grand Order of the Water Rats in 1993, an exclusive group of entertainers including Bruce Forsythe and Paul Daniels. He was a bachelor with no family except one cousin.
The funeral is today (Friday) at 2.30pm in Harrow Weald where Mr Greenway will be giving a tribute to his old friend.
