Founding member of comedy institution the Grumbleweeds
Graham Walker, who has died of cancer aged 69, was a comic and musician whose inspired ad-libbing helped to make the Grumbleweeds a comedy institution for half a century. He was "the bald one" – albeit often disguised by unlikely wigs – in a partnership with Robin Colvill which lasted from ropey beginnings in 1962, flourished nationally as a five-strong group on radio and television between the 1970s and 1990s, and revived as a duo with full bookings; Colvill will go on stage alone at Skegness this summer to honour the pair's seaside holiday contract.
Their hold over audiences has had an element of the cult in recent years, but an ability to dream up surreal exchanges into their late 60s meant that Walker and Colvill never relied on their past reputation. This reached its height with The Grumbleweeds Radio Show on BBC Radio 2 – 15 series from 1979 to 1988, a Sony Gold award and a successful transfer to Granada Television (1983-88) where, typically, it retained the title "radio show" for the first two series.
The band was originally a classic northern lads' initiative, formed in the same era as the Beatles and following the Liverpool foursome on stage at Hamburg, where dodgy equipment and naivety over booking fees saw their dreams come to an abrupt end. With their van impounded and gear sold to meet debts, they headed back to everyday life in Leeds, Graham returning to the counter in his father's butcher's shop in the suburb of Meanwood.
The debacle had a good side to it, however, which led to a second and successful reincarnation that turned the technical havoc into comedy rather than rock and ballads. Electric guitars that gave minor shocks and drums that worked loose and rolled into the audience created an impression of barely controlled chaos on stage. Walker and his colleagues – Maurice Lee and the brothers Albert and Carl Sutcliffe along with Colvill – augmented this with their quick-thinking wit.
As in much comedy and cabaret, the Grumbleweed formula saw a predictable situation spiral into lunacy, a progression that worked on the air as well as it did in clubs, and in pantomime where exotic eastern scenes in Aladdin would suddenly transfer to Bradford or Blackpool and some complicated muddle in a fictional working men's club. Practice saw the group develop superb timing and lose all fear of taking risks; Walker and Colvill were among the most adept students of Ken Dodd's advice: "Don't be afraid of silence." Their skill has been much-studied by younger comedians and cabaret stars.
Like that other son of a Leeds butcher, Alan Bennett, (whose father's shop was in Headingley, the next suburb to Meanwood), Walker was also observant and quick to pick up on phrases and ways of putting things that were funny – often unintentionally – and satisfyingly familiar to audiences. This applied to the group's name which was one of many words invented to replace conventional swearing by Colvill's sister Trudy. They might as easily have been called "Prannick" or "Winklewod".
The Grumbleweeds' rise benefited from an appearance in 1967 on Opportunity Knocks, precursor of today's audience-voting TV shows with the same democratic ability to find fresh talent. They were runners-up but attracted plenty of commissioning interest, including producers at Philips, who made some recordings including an album, In a Teknikolor Dreem (1972), which showed their ability at serious music and song. They did not take that path, but copies of the record have become expensive collector's items.
Walker enjoyed good health until 1998 when he suffered serious heart problems and underwent a triple bypass operation. He later developed throat cancer, which did not stop him working, joking about the nasal tube that remained in place on stage, but later returned and spread. In the music-hall tradition of performing right up to to the end, he was joking with staff at St James's University hospital, in Leeds, last month; asked if he had got everything he wanted for his birthday, he unclipped his breathing mask and replied: "I've got everything I don't want."
He is survived by his wife Susan and their four daughters and son, who were raised in Bramhope on the northern edge of Leeds. He was an active member of the village community and a long-standing fundraiser for charities.
• Graham Walker, comedian and musician, born 17 May 1944; died 2 June 2013