HE WAS the surreal comic in the tartan bunnet, whose deadpan delivery brought grown men and women to tears.

“So there I was lying in the gutter. A man stopped and asked, ‘what’s the matter? Did you fall over?’ and I said, ‘no, I’ve a bar of toffee in my back pocket and I was just trying to break it….’”

“I went to the butchers and asked ‘have you got any wild duck?’. ‘No,’ he responded, ‘but I’ve got one I could aggravate for you..’

Chic Murray was a founding father of Scottish comedy, who greatly influenced the likes of Billy Connolly.

Glasgow Times:

Like Connolly, Murray began his working life as an apprentice on the shipyards - the Kincaid Shipyard in his native Greenock - before trying his hand as a performer.

In 1944, he met his wife and fellow performer Maidie when she was appearing at the Greenock Empire. She needed a place to stay and Murray’s mother Isabella, who was the local welfare officer, put her up.

The couple fell in love and were married in Edinburgh in 1945.

For the next 20 years, Chic and Maidie, affectionately known as ‘The Tall Droll and the Small Doll’ toured Scotland's music halls and variety theatres.

Glasgow Times:

Madie sang and played the accordion, while Chic interrupted with jokes and off-beat patter. They were a huge hit, and performed latterly on stage in London and on TV and radio. In 1956, Chic and Maidie were chosen to perform at The Royal Command Performance before The Queen at the London Palladium. The star-studded bill included Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, Liberace, Bob Monkhouse, Gracie Fields and Tommy Cooper, but the show was scrapped because Britain was in the grip of The Suez Crisis.

Chic and Maidie made the front page of the Evening Times in May 1955 when he signed a year’s contract for £6500 with Billy Marsh, director of the Bernard Delfonte Agency, the same agency that had given such high-profile entertainers as Norman Wisdom, Frankie Vaughan, Joan Regan and the Beverley Sisters their first big chance.

Read more: Jiving with the GIs in George Square - VE day memories from 1945

Maidie and Chic had been appearing in the Spring Show at the Pavilion. He was the first Scottish act to sign for the agency, which, according to the report, would “arrange engagements for Chic in halls throughout the provinces and in London.”

Madie retired in the late 1960s and Chic continued as a solo act with his trademark tartan "bunnet".

Glasgow Times:

In later years he portrayed Bill Shankly, the legendary Scots boss of Liverpool FC, in the stage play You’ll Never Walk Alone and he appeared in several films including Bond spoof, Casino Royale in 1967 and, most famously, as the piano-playing headmaster in Bill Forsyth's Gregory's Girl in 1981.

Chic and Maidie were divorced in 1972 but they remained firm friends after the split.

Read more: More than 13 million people came to see Glasgow's greatest show

Our archives are full of great images from his shows here in the city, at the Alhambra, the Metropole and more, and around the country.

In April 1983, he was photographed in Sauchiehall Street, with Sir Harry Lauder’s old pipe. Chic was in the process of making a play for Scottish Televison, called Do You Get Paid for Doing This?

Glasgow Times:

He had just returned from Morocco, where he had been filming with Judi Dench.

When asked how long it had been since he last worked in Glasgow, he replied: “Too long. I’d forgotten just how warm it was.”

Chic died in 1985 from a perforated ulcer

*Did you see Chic and Madie perform in Glasgow? Email your memories and photos to ann.fotheringham@glasgowtimes.co.uk