Stu Francis
Biography
Bolton-born comic who featured on ITV's The Comedians in the 1970s, but is best known for fronting Crackerjack and threatening to crush grapes. Still does the club circuit and appears in panto every year.
Trivia
As well as his main catchphrase, "Ooh, I could crush a grape!" Stu used to come out with a number of similarly crazy phrases, such as, "Ooh, I could wrestle an Action Man!" "Ooh, I could test-drive a Tonka!" "Ooh, I could jump off a dolls' house!" "Ooh, I could duff a daffodil!" and "Ooh, I could rip a tissue!"
It was during Stu's time on Crackerjack that the game 'Take A Chance' was introduced, whereby Stu and the celebrity guests would compete against each other to answer questions and thus avoid being gunged from above. However, Stu and the male celebrities were always gunged no matter who got the answer right! The gunge was always given a name relating to the celebrities themselves or to some random theme, such as planets, farmyards, food or things found in a bathroom (not bleach, thankfully!)
