Ronnie and Rikki were a great act and always value for money and always genuine,something that you don't get much of nowadays.they grew up in tough clubland where the audience would let you live if they liked you.it was,as they say,character building!
Thanks for this, brings back memories. I used to work for Jack Harper a friend of Ronnie's. Whoever we went to see with Jack he would always say do you want to meet them backstage, and we always did. Miss Jack n Pat. Dukes n Lee were amazing.
The best act ever to be on at Batley Variety Club. Ronnie was a non stop comedian and amazing tap dancer and Rikki has a lovely voice. Brilliant and should have been better known nationally.
A club act really from the days of the working men's clubs that elevated to variety venues with the best finding work on television.where in the 70s there were slots for there kind of high energy cabaret acts...very good at at what they did but and here is the but .. ..only really works in front of a live audience it's flat on TV
Well, I was only a little girl when they became famous on the TV and they really hit it big. They were on The Royal Variety Show, in those days of REAL variety acts, the very summit of showbiz. They were on Wheeltapper's and Shunter's Social Club, a uniquely British TV show which really helped catapult them to fame. As I seem to recall, Ronnie had a heart attack which definitely derailed things and though they came back, he fell and had another heart attack and died. I think the lovely Ricki died a few years later. In a way, although I well imagine they were best seen live, Ronnie's health kind of skewered things for them. They were big stars in the 70s and I remember them with great affection - I ltruly ovedthem as a little girl!!
I can remember a show called ''The comedians'' and a clip was shown of Dukes and Lee from when they appeared on 321 and it was announced that poor old Ronnie died, but I can't remember when this was, can you please tell me sirDukestheHazard, thank you.
The family lived on my road when I a child before moving to Cawthorne in Derbyshire, Ronnie drove a big American cadillac at the time, Dean, Perry and I were best mates as kids. If Dean or Perry are reading this do you remember the musical gates on your driveway?, well they're still there now today all these years later in 2014, if ever you are in the Rotherham area have drive round there and see them!!. Great act and so sad what happened to Ronnie and Ricki.
I too was inspired to Google Ronnie Dukes and Ricki Lee after seeing them on `Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club' series 3 on DVD. Id never heard of them before, but their act was excellent, one of my favourites from that series.
@ELVISCHEVY3 Thank you for your kind comments. I am Ronnie and Ricky's grandson and would be very interested in getting a copy of anything that you have. I have very little footage of live performances and would like to get everything together on the Facebook page that we have. I would be extremely greatlful of any help you could provide.
