Fan-Dabi-Dozi! Heysham man rescues The Krankies

A Good Samaritan was shocked to discover the couple he’d rescued from floods in Lancaster was comedy duo The Krankies.
Lee and Debbie Maguire with The Krankies, Ian and Janette Tough, after Lee rescued them from 3ft of water on Caton Road on Saturday night.Lee and Debbie Maguire with The Krankies, Ian and Janette Tough, after Lee rescued them from 3ft of water on Caton Road on Saturday night.
Lee and Debbie Maguire with The Krankies, Ian and Janette Tough, after Lee rescued them from 3ft of water on Caton Road on Saturday night.

Lee Maguire towed the 80s TV stars to safety from waist-deep water on Caton Road on Saturday night.

“I got them out but I didn’t recognise them until my wife said ‘That’s The Krankies!’ said Lee, from Heysham.

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Lee and his wife Debbie were returning home from Christmas shopping in Manchester on Saturday during the bad weather.

“We came off at Junction 34 of the M6 at around 9pm and we thought Caton Road was open,” said Lee, who runs a drain unblocking firm and a scaffold business.

“Just as we got close to the Brewers Fayre we saw the traffic lights were off and there was this car in the middle of the flooded road. I said to my wife I’ve got to help them.

“I had to wade into the water to reach them and I shouted to them to make sure they were OK.

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“Then I backed my van up and hooked a towbar to their car and got them out. It took me 45 minutes because I couldn’t see for all the water.”

The Krankies - husband and wife Ian and Janette Tough – were about to stop for the night at Lancaster’s Premier Inn hotel en route to appear in pantomime in Glasgow with David Hasselhoff.

Their S-Type Jaguar had broken down and was stuck in the water as Storm Desmond struck.

Ian, 68, said: “We were doing all right until a fire engine coming the other way sent a huge bow wave over the top of us and the car cut out.

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“I phoned the AA and they said it would be at least five hours before they could help.”

The duo were so grateful to Lee they asked he and Debbie to have a drink with them in the nearby Cottams Field pub-restaurant.

The couple obliged and took a selfie with The Krankies.

“They were two genuinely nice people,” said Lee, 41.

“Ian rang me the next day. He said if we’re ever in Torquay, where they live, we should look them up and we’re welcome to go and watch the show in Glasgow.

“It was surreal. I remember watching them as a kid.”

When the Toughs got to the hotel, the power went off across Lancaster and they stayed there until the AA got them started again on Sunday.

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Janette, 68, is famed for portraying the role of naughty schoolboy Wee Jimmy Krankie while Ian plays her paternal sidekick.

Known for the catchphrase Fan-Dabi-Dozi, they had their own TV show in the 1980s and were also regulars on Crackerjack.

They are appearing in Peter Pan at the SECC in Glasgow from December 12 to January 3.

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