Dave Allen - Ghost Story

No one will ever take his place. Dave Allen was way ahead of his time. RIP Dave, an absolute legend.

I absolutely adore Dave Allen. I remember as a young kid sitting down to watch his show with mum,dad and my siblings. When he was telling his stories, you wouldn’t here a peep out of us kids, as we were held mesmerised on every word, until the punchline and we’d all roar with laughter. Thank you Dave Allen for all your stories and comedy. You will be forever in my heart.

And all his humour was clean. No unnecessary swear words that so many comedians feel they have to litter their jokes with. Just good, clean funny material.

Dave Allen was the best story teller I've ever seen. Inspired by this, in the early 80s I told a ghost story like this (not the same one) to a group of students late at night on a study trip to a remote house on the Yorkshire Moors. I used very similar techniques to Dave Allen (lights off, torch between my knees, gradual lowering of the voice to a whisper) in a very intimate environment and, at the climax of the joke, almost all the students came close to soiling their underwear. Unfortunately, word got back to my department and I was advised (under pain of the removal of my academic tenure) not to do it again. But it was funny.

He was absolutely the best. I remember watching all his shows, the whole family did. He was/still is so funny. He remains, to my mind, the best ever.

A great comedian. Story teller. His sketches. Was amazing Loved watching this mans pure wit. Both myself and my husband thought he was a comic genius.

One of those jokes you wish you could tell but can't. Class😂

He could tell a tale. Used to scare the bejesus out of me when I was a kid.

After all these years I still remember that joke told so masterfully by Dave. Could anyone else have made it work so well. A classic.

I would have loved to hear him read classic horror stories. He has an amazing voice. Brilliant!

I miss Dave Allen so much, he was the funniest man ever born.

Best of all is, he makes you forget it is a joke.

What a wonderful comedian. Well missed. We need more "Dave Allens".

That's how you sell a horror story.

I've been looking for this for decades, I'm not kidding! All I remembered from my boyhood was the punchline. And just found out, after all these years... it was a 9 and not a 4. With Mr. Allen, it was all in the delivery.

He's irish and they tell the best stories. Mu dad was Irish and used to tell us such wonderful stories. I thought Dave Allen was the handsomest man I'd ever seen. And the funniest. Don't make them like him anymore

The master, no other word for him, loved watching him since I was a kid

Dave Allen and Billy Connolly were in their different ways, masters of telling a comedic story. We miss you Dave, and Billy, I hope you are well.

Many years ago, I'd taken a group of students on a retreat to do some in depth study. We were staying in an old farmhouse and late in the evening, somebody asked if it was haunted and the conversation turned to ghosts. I'd seen Dave do this on TV and decided to tell a different story in the same style, pretending it was true. After 10 minutes, they were all on edge and I delivered the punch line. The punch line of mine was (in a weird unearthly voice) "I'm not a little girl, I'm a ...at which point I shouted at the top of my voice and leapt towards the students. They all jumped about 4 feet in the air. None of them would sleep that night. Two had to go back to the campus. And I was banned from ever telling any more ghost stories. Dave Allen was an utter comic genius and the best story teller of all time.

I remember watching this on TV, can’t remember when... 80s? The punchline was burned in my memory!