Doncaster stage and TV star who worked with Morecambe and Wise dies

Jacqueline Firman, who went by the stage name Jackie Firmani, died on September 1 in Doncaster Royal Infirmary, an obituary said.

Working alongside husband Peter and appearing professtionally as Peter and Jackie Firmani, the pair enjoyed a long career in music and theatre and also appeared on television and were dubbed ‘Britain`s leading vocal entertainers from opera to ballads to comedy.’

They also forged a partnership as theatre impresarios, staging a number of musical theatre shows, pantomimes and variety shows across the region and helping fledging performers hone their acts.

The pair also released a number of records of love duets and worked alongside UK comedy favourites Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise on the pair’s much-acclaimed TV show in 1983.

In 1989, the pair performed a show paying tribute to singer Anne Ziegler and her husband Webster Booth, one of Britain’s most successful vocal duos of the 1930s and 1940s and who were known as the ‘Sweethearts in Song,’ taking on the roles of the pair whose musical repetoire made them favourites of the BBC’s Light Programme.

An obituary described Mrs Firmani as the ‘beloved wife to Peter, in life and on stage and a loving mother to Nigel, Richard and Eleanor and devoted sister to Michael.”

The funeral service will take place at Rosehill Crematorium on Friday 25 September at 11:20am.

Enquiries to: Nigel Goodwin Funeral Directors, 1 St Martins Ave, Doncaster, DN5 8HZ. Telephone 01302 789788