{"id":3849,"date":"2024-09-06T08:57:52","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T08:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history\/?p=3849"},"modified":"2025-02-04T16:31:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T16:31:54","slug":"syd-little-of-little-and-large","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/syd-little-of-little-and-large\/","title":{"rendered":"Syd Little of Little and Large"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Syd Little, born Cyril John Mead on 19 December 1942 in <strong>Blackpool<\/strong> and raised in Manchester, is a renowned British comedian, famed as the straight man in the comedy duo Little and Large alongside Eddie Large. Educated at Yew Tree Secondary Modern School in Wythenshawe, Little initially worked as an interior decorator while performing as a singer and guitarist in Manchester pubs. It was during these gigs that he teamed up with Eddie Large, forming a partnership that began as <em>Cyril Mead and Friend<\/em> and later became <em>Mead and McGinnis<\/em>. Their rebranding to <em>Little and Large<\/em> cemented their place in British comedy history. The duo achieved national recognition in 1971 after winning the talent show <em>Opportunity Knocks<\/em>, which launched a television career spanning two decades. Their first pilot for <em>The Little and Large Show<\/em> aired in 1976, and the series became a mainstay of British TV from 1977. Following a move to the BBC, the show continued until 1991. After its cancellation, Little&#8217;s TV appearances became more sporadic, but he featured on programmes like <em>Shooting Stars<\/em>, <em>The Bob Monkhouse Show<\/em>, and <em>Comedy Map of Britain<\/em>. In 2005, he ventured into reality TV on <em>Trust Me I\u2019m A Holiday Rep<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Little&#8217;s career remained vibrant into the 2010s. In 2015, he appeared on <em>Celebrity MasterChef<\/em>, advancing to the third round, and in 2018, he starred in the fly-on-the-wall documentary <em>The Real Marigold Hotel<\/em>, returning for its Vietnam-based sequel in 2019. He also celebrated British comedy through appearances on <em>Ant and Dec&#8217;s Saturday Night Takeaway<\/em> and <em>Britain\u2019s Great Double Acts<\/em>. Little and Large reunited for a Specsavers radio advert and headlined the 2019 Slapstick comedy festival in Bristol, reminiscing about their careers to a packed audience. In April 2020, Eddie Large\u2019s death marked the end of their iconic partnership. Little shared his grief through his agent, Alan Hamilton, saying, &#8220;I am devastated to have lost not just my comedy partner of 60 years, but my friend of 60 years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, Little participated in <em>Celebrity Auction House<\/em> on Sky UK, raising over \u00a31,000 for charity by auctioning personal items, including a signed electric guitar. He now lives in Fleetwood with his wife and son, where they run <em>The Steamer Pub and Little Restaurant<\/em>, remaining an active and cherished figure in the local community.<\/p>\n<p>The image below was taken on 3 March 1986 and features the lead singer of The Who, Roger Daltrey pulling a punch on Eddie Large with the help of Syd Little. The featured image was taken on 21 March 2010 in London.<\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3854\" src=\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Little-Large-with-Roger-Daltrey-1000.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"633\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Syd Little, born Cyril John Mead on 19 December 1942 in Blackpool and raised in Manchester, is a renowned British comedian, famed as the straight man in the comedy duo Little and Large alongside Eddie Large. Educated at Yew Tree Secondary Modern School in Wythenshawe, Little initially worked as an interior decorator while performing as a singer and guitarist in Manchester pubs. It was during these gigs that he teamed up with Eddie Large, forming a partnership that began as Cyril Mead and Friend and later became Mead and McGinnis. Their rebranding to Little and Large cemented their place in&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/syd-little-of-little-and-large\/\" title=\"Read Syd Little of Little and Large\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[121,246,282,346],"class_list":["post-3849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-281","tag-celebrities","tag-shows","tag-282","tag-born"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v25.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Syd Little of Little and Large<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Syd Little, born Cyril John Mead in 1942, is best known as one half of the iconic British comedy duo Little and Large alongside Eddie Large. 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The duo rose to fame after winning Opportunity Knocks in 1971 and became a mainstay of British television with The Little and Large Show from 1977 to 1991.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/syd-little-of-little-and-large\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blackpool History\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-06T08:57:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-04T16:31:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Little-Large.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"975\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ed\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ed\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/syd-little-of-little-and-large\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/syd-little-of-little-and-large\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ed\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/#\/schema\/person\/6ba254dbcdf45d011efc9363cd4c2295\"},\"headline\":\"Syd Little of Little and Large\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-06T08:57:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-04T16:31:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/syd-little-of-little-and-large\/\"},\"wordCount\":414,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/syd-little-of-little-and-large\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Little-Large.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Celebrities\",\"Shows\",\"1971\",\"Born\"],\"articleSection\":[\"1971\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/syd-little-of-little-and-large\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/syd-little-of-little-and-large\/\",\"name\":\"Syd Little of Little and Large\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/syd-little-of-little-and-large\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/syd-little-of-little-and-large\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dev.wearedeeperblue.co.uk\/history-clone\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Little-Large.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-06T08:57:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-04T16:31:54+00:00\",\"description\":\"Syd Little, born Cyril John Mead in 1942, is best known as one half of the iconic British comedy duo Little and Large alongside Eddie Large. 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