Trivia / George Formby

• The Danza: In his films, he invariably played a character called 'George'.
• Dawson Casting: Referenced in "When I'm Cleaning Windows":
  I know a famous talkie queen,
  She looks a flapper on the screen,
  She's more like eighty than eighteen!
  When I'm cleaning windows!
• Referenced by...: Given that George Formby is still the person most Brits automatically think of when ukuleles are mentioned, it's not surprising that he gets referenced here and there...
  • The Beatles's song "Her Majesty" on Abbey Road is done in the style of George Formby. At the end of the reunion song "Free As A Bird", listeners are treated to George Harrison playing the ukulele and a backwards recording of John Lennon uttering Formby's catchphrase "Turned out nice again".
  • He's mentioned several times in Goodnight Sweetheart; Gary is definitely not a fan. That said, when he appears in the episode "Turned Out Nice Again" (played by Phil Nice), he does sing some of the Beatles songs that Gary is trying to pass off as his own work.
  • Hector in The History Boys teaches the boys the lyrics to "When I'm Cleaning Windows".
  • "Mr Wu's A Window Cleaner Now" is played on the radio during a scene in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
  • A rare non-British example occurs in the American Dad! episode "Failure is not a Factory-Installed Option". After throwing Stan out of his office, CIA Deputy Director Bullock picks up a ukulele and starts singing "When I'm Cleaning Windows". Patrick Stewart even does this in his native Yorkshire accent. Which must really bemuse Americans.
  • In Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson includes him in a list of "certain things that you have to be British or at least older than me, or possibly both, to appreciate". Other things on that list include Sooty, HP Sauce, allotments, milky tea, "making sanwiches from bread you've sliced yourself", skiffle music, steam trains and "the belief that household wiring is an interesting topic of conversation".
  • In the Hi-de-Hi! episode "Only the Brave", the Maplins staff go to see an old war film and Peggy asks if George Formby is in it. When Gladys falls asleep during the film, she has a dream she and all the staff are in a war film of their own, wherein Peggy is George Formby. She sings a few of his songs and uses his Author Catchphrase, "Turned out nice again".

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