Gerald Ward Cottle
April 7, 1945 - January 13, 2021
Showman and entrepreneur
Gerry Cottle with members of his circus troupe in Southsea, Hampshire, 2012.
Photograph: Heathcliff O’Malley/Rex/Shutterstock
Dea Birkett
For half a century from 1970 onwards, the circus impresario and showman Gerry Cottle, who has died aged 75 of Covid-19, took a big top across Britain and beyond, bringing the circus to small towns and television screens. Gerry Cottle’s Circus was the biggest in the country, seating 1,500 and broadcasting the BBC’s Seaside Special from the tent on Saturday nights (1975-78). When that ended, in the 1990s, he took the Moscow State and Chinese State circuses to local parks.
Read full article in The Guardian
