The "about" section speculates that it is Malcolm McFee and has a couple of specific details. Did he ever appear on a show like Looks Familiar?
Morrissey
A reference to Morrissey’s love of 1960s kitchen sink drama. The song details the fall of a minor celebrity from a TV star in the 1960s to an unknown in the 1970s. With the… Read More
Produced by
Stephen Street
Release Date
March 14, 1988
View All Credits
1122
[Verse 1]
An afternoon nostalgia
Television show
You spoke in silhouette
(But they couldn't name you)
Although the panel were
Very polite to you
Oh, but I remembered you
From Friday nights 1969
ATV - you murdered every line
Too old to be a child star
Too young to take leads
Four seasons passed
And they axed you
Nervously juvenile
(Won't smile!)
What became of you?
Did that swift eclipse torture you?
A star at eighteen
And then—suddenly gone
Down to a few lines
In the back page of a teenage annual
Oh but I remembered you
I remembered you
About
2 Contributors
A reference to Morrissey’s love of 1960s kitchen sink drama. The song details the fall of a minor celebrity from a TV star in the 1960s to an unknown in the 1970s. With the title originating from the 1932 book,
Kleiner Mann, was nun? (Little Man, What Now?) by Hans Fallada, based upon German social problems, and lyric themes borrowed from the old Judy Garland song “I’m Just an In-Between,” about being at once too young and too old. There are contrasting theories of who the titular “little man” is, with the two most common names mentioned being Roger Tonge of Crossroads and Jack Wild who appeared as the Artful Dodger in the musical film,
Oliver!, and later on ATV’s
Look Familiar. However, more recent opinion has swung towards the actual subject being actor Malcolm McFee (d. 2001, Braintree, Essex) who, unlike Wild or Tong, did star in the song’s cited ATV series that ran for four seasons (“Please Sir!”} which was followed by the sequel series
The Fenn Street Gang) and did largely disappear from public view after this initial run of TV success.