National treasure, and without doubt one of Britain's most talented and best loved
comedians & performers, Billy Pearce emerged from the fertile talent fields of Butlins in the
mid 1980's. Multi Award winner Billy, has won just about every comedy award going,
including a British comedy award, Solo comedian of the year, and Best television comedy
newcomer at the London Palladium.
As a child, Billy was surrounded by the showbiz lifestyle, his late father Lesley Cookson was
an accomplished pianist, his mother Jean Pearce, 84, ran one of the biggest dancing schools
in the UK, the Pearce School of Dancing, which notably discovered Joe Longthorne and
Malandra Burrows.
The dance school were always short of boys, so Billy and his younger brother Andrew got
dragged in. The first time he went on stage was as a 6 yr old child at the Empire in Leeds,
and he was a Siamese twin in The King and I. He never for once imagined, he would still be
in the entertainment industry, more than half a century on....In fact, he thought he would
end up working in a foundry, until fate intervened and almost killed him...
Billy was working as an apprentice cutting cast iron glass bottle moulds. He hated it, and
then one fateful day, a man ran him over.
He was on his motorbike at the back of Yorkshire TV Studios when and a guy hit him
turning right. He didn't see Billy, and he flew right into the air and landed on his chest. The
seriousness of the accident resulted in Billy losing two-thirds of his liver, his entire spleen, a
rib and damaged kidneys. He still suffers today....But the accident changed his life. He
found himself befriending his surgeon – Geoffrey Wooler, known for his work during the
Second World War – and staying in his villa on Cordula in the Adriatic.
Billy, who was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, first came to National prominence when he
appeared in Central TV’s top talent show 'New Faces', winning his heat and qualifying for
the final. His impact was immediate and he was quickly snapped up for stage and TV
appearances, culminating with his first series for BBC television, 'You Gotta Be Joking'.
