Old Mother Riley

Old Mother Riley was a music hall act which originally ran from about 1934 to 1954 played by Arthur Lucan, then from 1954 to 1977 by Roy Rolland.

Old Mother Riley was an Irish washerwoman character, devised by Lucan (born Arthur Towle). His wife Kitty McShane played Old Mother Riley's daughter, Kitty. It was essentially a drag act but also a double act. They were hugely successful at the time, playing music halls, theatres, radio and films. They also gave Jimmy Clitheroe his big break in 1939 in an Old Mother Riley pantomime called The Old Woman who Lives in a Shoe, and then the following year a part in their film, Old Mother Riley in Society.

After Lucan's death, the Old Mother Riley character was played by Roy Rolland (1921–1977), although occasionally called Old Mother Kelly and, for pantomime, Old Mother Goose. Rolland's Old Mother Riley was a regular on the 1970s children's variety show Junior Showtime, and at the end of his life he performed with Danny La Rue, who played daughter Kitty.

Old Mother Riley is referenced in the Kinks song "The Village Green Preservation Society" from their 1968 album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.