Barry Chuckle didn’t tell his brother Paul he was suffering from cancer until two months before his death – because he wanted to "die on stage like Tommy Cooper".
The ‘ChuckleVision’ actor passed away earlier this month aged 73, and his sibling and co-star Paul has revealed Barry suffered from the disease for two years but didn’t tell him the full extent of his illness until a few months before he passed, for fear he would be forced to stop working and "making people laugh".
Paul said: "He had pains in his legs for round about two years. Before we went to pantomime a couple of years ago he had pains in his legs.
"He was telling me what it was like, and I’ve had sciatica before and it’s very, very painful. I said, ‘It sounds like sciatica,’ and that’s what he kept telling me it was for two years.
"He kept it from me and he kept it from our manager Phil. He didn’t want us to know because we would’ve said ‘no’, but he wanted to work until he died. He wanted to die on stage like Tommy Cooper. He just loved working, loved making people laugh. He was just a lovely guy.
"It was only a couple of months ago I find out he was even ill … that ill."
Paul has vowed to try to carry on in the industry alone after Barry told him to keep "entertaining people" just two months before he passed away.
The 70-year-old star – whose real name is Paul Elliott – explained: "He said, ‘You’ve got to carry on, don’t stop.’ We love entertaining people, making people laugh so I will hopefully carry on.
"I keep saying ‘we’ but it’s me on my own now.
"Talking about him in the past is still hard. It’s still hard. He’ll live on forever. I’m sure he will.
"He was great, we just had so many laughs over the years. We wrote a book a couple of years ago and writing that just brought back so many memories. I’m glad we did it then and not now because it just brought back so many memories of living together and growing up together.
"It’s good to talk about him. We were so close, not only have we been together ever since I was born, we worked together for 55 years."
Paul and Barry were known for their "to me, to you" catchphrase, and the late star was honoured by football fans at the Rotherham v Ipswich game on Saturday (11.08.18) when home and away supporters started chanting the famous saying between them.
Asked on ‘This Morning’ if the moment reduced him to tears, Rotherham fan Paul – who attended the game – said: "It did – it started with one end shouting ‘to me’ and the other end ‘to you’.
"We didn’t mean it as a catchphrase but it just caught on, and now everybody does it."
Barry will be laid to rest on Friday (17.08.18).
Barry Chuckle wanted to ‘die on stage like Tommy Cooper’
