How many of you remember Jonny Briggs? Do you even remember watching Jonny Briggs? Even if you do not remember the show, I know that once you remember the scene where Jonny was coming down a slide as the trombone theme started up. That scene is engraved into everyone’s memory.
The series was filmed for just two years in Bradford 1985 and 1986. It tells the story of a little boy and his dog Razzle and also his outlandish family members. The role of Jonny Briggs was played by Richard Holian.
The cast of Jonny Briggs were Jane Lowe who played the role of his Mam; Leslie Schofield played the role of his dad. He had a number of siblings and an older sister called Marilyn who was named in the show but never showed up.
What you might not know is that Jonny Briggs was based on a book that was written by author Joan Eadington, who has written a number of children’s book during the early 70’s. The book which brought about Jonny Briggs had already been in play before it was adapted to a movie. It was read by actor Bernard Holley. It was showed a lot of love and was known around the globe.
Let me test your knowledge on the series. How many of you remember Jonny’s best friend? She was a girl in his school named Pam. What was unique about her? We will always remember that she always started her sentences with “My mum, who’s a nurse…!.” We can’t also forget that Jonny’s main enemies were twin sisters who were always acting horrible to him and doing everything in their capacity to get him into trouble. Most importantly, we can’t forget the main character himself Jonny who was played by Richard Holian. I know most of you have wondered what became of our main actor. Don’t worry I am here to lift the curtain.
Richard Holian, our beloved Jonny, is unbelievably 44 years. Wow! How time flies. He was born in Leeds. Although what brought him to the limelight was Jonny Briggs, he played several other roles in various movies like “At home with the Braithwaites”, “Children’s ward”, “and Heartbeat”, “All creatures great and small”.
Holian gave up acting at a fairly young age but was still seen on TV on a game show called Pointless and competed alongside Sue Devaney who played the role of his senior sister in Jonny Briggs.
You won’t believe that after quitting acting, the career that Holian went into was banking and he is currently a stockbroker in London. The most important thing to Holian was following his passion and he can’t be blamed if he did so. We do want to see the cast of Jonny Briggs come back together after 30 years. All the fans around the world feel so. Why don’t you share the memories of Jonny Briggs you remember with your friends who are definitely 80’s kids too? We can all still remember the great joy and happiness that this series brought to our childhood.
