'Utter rubbish:' Angry Chuckle Brothers blast feud claim as 'lies'

South Yorkshire comedy legends The Chuckle Brothers have launched an angry blast at claims the pair have drifted apart and no longer share dressing rooms as 'lies.'
The Chuckle BrothersThe Chuckle Brothers
The Chuckle Brothers

Brothers Barry and Paul Elliott both took to Twitter after a national newspaper report claimed the pair have separate hotel rooms and dressing rooms and travel apart when they are performing.

But the angry duo, who hail from Rotherham both ripped into the report in The Sun, blasting it as "absolutely disgusting," "utter rubbish" and "lies."

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Paul, 70, tweeted: "Absolutely disgusting - we are two grown men who do not share a hotel bedroom! If a theatre has enough dressing rooms of course we take one each, why not? Does that constitute a feud?

"The Mrs drives us BOTH everywhere, if not check with Hull Trains and Virgin Trains when we are BOTH regularly seen together!

"We have always both enjoyed the work we have been privileged to do. It's a sad state of affairs when after 55 yrs to read such rubbish!"

In further tweets and replies to fans, he added: "And it's not often I kick off .... why do they lie?"

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Meanwhile, Barry, 73, was equally furious and posted: "Don’t newspapers come up with some incredible, stupid, lying stories - from a ‘reliable’ source of course!

"Anyone who knows Paul and I knows we couldn’t be closer brothers, mates and partners and we’ve never stopped working. Utter rubbish - from a most angry loving ‘big’ brother!!"

The duo are returning to TV screens with a new series, Chuckle Time, which will be screened on Channel 5 later this year.

It will be their first full series since ChuckleVision ended in 2009 after 21 series.

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The newspaper quoted an unnamed source who said: “Paul and Barry will always be brothers but in reality they don’t see huge amounts of one another.

“In the last few years they’ve led increasingly separate lives and Barry in particular was quite happy to disappear into retirement until C5 came knocking.

“Paul says Barry is only doing it for the payday that a Saturday night TV show will bring.

“They’ll be consummate professionals as normal on camera.”

It also reported a 'source' close to the brothers who told the newspaper: “After all, even though they are brothers over a long season of two shows a day, they set the dressing rooms up differently if they can in order to have a rest in-between shows. They spend time together when they can.”

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The Rotherham born brothers first came to national fame in 1967 when they won TV talent show Opportunity Knocks, followed by success on New Faces in 1974.

Their most famous show, ChuckleVision, began in 1987.