A box set of 12 Norman Wisdom classics. In 'On the Beat' Wisdom stars as a bumbling Scotland Yard car park attendant who gets his chance to be a real policeman after he accidentally catches some crooks. His advantage lies in the fact that he physically resembles one of the ringleaders. In 'Man of the Moment' the bumbling Norman (Wisdom) accidentally becomes the British delegate to an important international conference in Geneva. Hilarious chaos and amusing misunderstandings ensue. In 'Trouble in Store' Wisdom is taken on as a shop assistant in a department store. His ambition is to become a window dresser, and he falls in love at first sight with his dream-girl, Sally. After a disastrous start (chasing a bus on roller skates, entering a shop girl's hostel, the usual sort of thing), events conspire to make Norman an unlikely hero. In 'Up in the World' Wisdom stars as the bumbling window cleaner to Lady Banderville. He has to cope with the pranks of her son, Sir Reggie, but cleans up when he confounds a gang of kidnappers. In 'The Square Peg' Norman Pitkin (Wisdom) is keen to help the war effort, and turns out to be a dead ringer for an enemy general. Joining up with his colleague, Mr Grimsdale, he is posted to France as part of a team repairing the damaged roads. Captured by the enemy, he turns his uncanny resemblance to his own advantage and comes home a hero. In 'Follow a Star' Wisdom plays a shop worker (imaginatively also named Norman, as indeed is every character he has ever portrayed) who dreams of becoming a famous singer. His attempts are, of course, disastrous, until he is encouraged by music teacher Miss Dobson, and a crippled girl named Judy. In 'The Bulldog Breed' Norman Puckle (Wisdom) is a grocer who joins the Navy and finds himself chosen to man a rocket flight into outer space. After Norman brings his own brand of madcap mayhem to the training process, his superiors begin to suspect that they might have picked the wrong person for the mission. Also starring Ian Hunter and Edward Chapman. Whilst in 'One Good Turn' Norman (Wisdom) works at the orphanage, and promises that he will buy one of its charges a model car. But how can he get the money? Proving himself equally incompetent at all jobs, he manages to raise a few laughs along the way in his attempts to earn the cash and not disappoint the little sprite. In 'A Stitch in Time' Star Wisdom plays an apprentice butcher trying to help a sick child. His bumbling efforts end up with him being banned from visiting little orphan Lindy, but Norman will go to any lengths to keep in touch with his young charge. Whilst in 'Just My Tuck', determined to win the heart of his beautiful neighbour, Norman (Wisdom) decides he wants to buy her a diamond necklace - but how can he possibly afford it? A solution offers itself when he goes to a bookmaker's, learns the intricacies of the accumulator bet, and sets out on a major winning streak. However, whenever Norman is involved things are never quite that simple, and soon enough our hapless hero finds himself in deep trouble, creating havoc at the local racetrack. In 'The Early Bird' Wisdom plays a milkman caught up in a feud between the small, traditional company that employs him and a large, modern dairy planning a hostile takeover. Will Norman, in his typically inept fashion, manage to save his company from the onset of modernity? Finally in 'Press For Time' Norman Shields (Wisdom) is an accident-prone young reporter, who only got the job because his grandfather (also played by Wisdom) happens to be the Prime Minister. Hilarious chaos ensues when Norman is sent to cover a beauty contest. Wisdom also appears in drag as a Suffragette called Emily.

Originally published in 1954, this was the first factual history of comedy films and the men and women who had since 1894 kept us laughing in the cinema. It traces the beginning of comic motion pictures and the pioneer work of Paul, Gaumont, Hepworth, Pathe and Zecca. Then comes the picture palace craze and the success of the early Italian and French comedies and trick films. The work of Al Christie and Mack Sennett in America, and the rise of American films, is fully described, as knockabout gives way to slapstick, and salaries and box-office receipts soar. Now come Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and all the other bright figures of the Roaring Twenties, with favourites like Buster Keaton and Will Rogers to the fore. The development of sound and its effect on the comedians is explained, and the story comes up to date through the thirties and forties to 1954. Some of the hundreds of names to whom tribute is paid include Mabel Normand, Larry Semon, Roscoe Arbuckle, Monty Banks, Max Linder, Harry Langdon, Will Hay, the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, Fernandel and Alec Guinness. These are only a few of the many whose careers are traced. The book is illustrated by a number of carefully selected photographs, many of which are unique. This edition, first published in 1968 has been revised but the period it covers remains the same, 1894-1954, sixty years of film humour.

This film adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse's novel is something of a departure for Norman Wisdom, starring as one of two Englishmen on a transatlantic liner who fall in love with the same woman. He has described the film as one of his proudest achievements. Familiar British faces also on show include Richard Briers and Bernard Cribbins.

Norman Wisdom's early years could easily have come straight from the pages of a Dickens novel.

Left by their frightened mother, ill-treated by a brutal father, Norman and his brother were forced to fend for themselves, sleeping rough in London and stealing food to survive. This is a rags to riches tale of the man Charlie Chaplin said would take his mantle and who went on to make millions laugh around the world for over five decades. Here are the hardships, tragedies and triumphs that gave him his inspiration. From the days working the seasons at Scarborough, to the unforgettable and endearing character Norman Pitkin - the little man in a tight fitting suit, read of his rapid climb up the showbiz ladder.