Dr. Crock and His Crackpots

Dr. Crock and His Crackpots were a British comedy band popular between the 1940s and 1960s. They were led by saxophone and clarinet player Harry Hines.

Henry Albert "Harry" Hines (born Henrick James Albert Rudolph Hinz; 9 June 1903 – 14 May 1971) was a jazz musician, born in Tottenham, London.^[1] He learned clarinet when in the Royal Navy, later learned the saxophone, and became a professional musician in 1933. In the 1930s and early 1940s, he played in various dance bands, including those of Ambrose, Ray Noble, Teddy Brown, and Maurice Winnick, and wrote arrangements.^[2]

In 1947, Winnick persuaded Hines to take over the musical interludes in the popular radio programme Ignorance Is Bliss, after Sid Millward and His Nitwits left the show. Though Hines, as a serious musician, was initially reluctant, he formed a band, which was given the name Dr Crock and His Crackpots by Winnick. They typically played classical themes at breakneck speed, interspersed with noises such as cowbells and hooters; writer Richard Anthony Baker described them as sounding "like a cross between a small symphony orchestra and a Dixieland jazz band".^[2]

Soon afterwards, when Hines wanted to leave the radio show, he took a successful legal action against Winnick, who claimed he had the legal right to use the band name.^[1] In the 1950s and early 1960s, Dr Crock and His Crackpots, with a line-up comprising both musicians and comedians, toured successfully, often topping the bill at variety shows and performing in a style similar to Spike Jones and His City Slickers.^[3]

Harry Hines died in London in 1971, aged 67.^[1][4]