Andy Richardson: Jasper's still 24 Carrott comedy gold

But the comic-cum-actor decided at an early age to deviate from the script. Along with his schoolmate Bev Bevan – the erstwhile big-haired, bespectacled sticksman with Brummie rockers ELO – he decided on a career in entertainment. After ditching a job as a trainee buyer at a Birmingham City Centre department store not dissimilar to Grace Bros in Are You Being Served? – suits you, sir – he started earning a living by singing and making people laugh.

And 48 years on from his earliest gigs at The Boggery, near Solihull, the man who gave us The Nutter On The Bus, who told us there was only one way to get rid of a mole and who later gave the world the funniest sketches ever about car insurance, is still doing what he does best – making people laugh.

Jasper has done it with bagfuls of charm. He avoids the crass punchline or the blue routine. He manages to keep it light and family-friendly while still delivering a killer punchline. He emerged at the time of Billy Connolly and Max Boyce, when comedy was defined by jokes about mothers-in-law.

Like his peers, however, he took us in a different direction. The observational comedy that is commonplace today was pioneered by Jasper, Billy and co.

So if he was telling gags about appalling local DJs, he'd say stuff like this: "I am amazed at radio DJs today. I am firmly convinced that AM on my radio stands for Absolute Moron. I will not begin to tell you what FM stands for."

Nothing crass. Nothing blue. But laughing all the way to the encore.

Remarkably, he's managed to stay in the game for almost half a century without a sniff of controversy. Jasper has enjoyed a 45-year marriage to his wife, Hazel, a former local journalist, and puts family first, doting on his adult kids. His daughter, Lucy, is a chip off the old block, and is best known for playing Dawn Tinsley in The Office. Invovled in local charities, specifically a school that helps the autistic, he's a thoroughly decent bloke, by all accounts.

He's not the only local hero who's still drawing huge crowds long after collecting his free bus pass. Prince of Darkness, Godfather of Metal and all-round rock loon Ozzy Osbourne remains as popular now as he did when he sent Black Sabbath's Paranoid to number one in 1970. A month ago, Ozzy was packing them into arenas back home in Brum when his band bade farewell after a 47-year career. Appearing on Sabbath's last tour – no, honestly, it really was, it wasn't just a promoter's ruse, that was definitely, definitely it – the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee was triumphant as he enjoyed a swansong with bandmates Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler.

Blasting out hits one last time as purple ticker tape rained down, Ozzy carved out his own career. Like Jasper, he wasn't the productive of some string-pulling mogul. He was one of four West Midlands guys who had a dream and were brave enough to live it beyond their wildest expectations.

There was something in the water when Sabbath formed. They, like fellow Midlanders Led Zeppelin and Slade, became some of rock music's biggest stars. Zeppelin's Robert Plant never forsook his Black Country roots, after being born in West Bromwich. After shifting somewhere in the region of 200-300 million records, securing eight consecutive number-one albums and earning universal acclaim for being arguably the most successful, innovative and influential rock group of all time, he decided to treat himself to a new gaff. And while London, New York, Los Angeles or Nashville might have been options, he travelled all the way to, erm, Kidderminster. Like the man says, you can take the boy out of the Black Country but you can't take the Black Country out of the boy.

These days, Noddy Holder is a sausage ambassador, MBE and enjoys the Freedom of Walsall. The man who started out by ferrying fellow rock star Robert about the Wolverhampton scene in his dad's window-cleaning van when Planty was playing in the Tennessee Teens, still owns his famous mirrored hat. He bought it from a guy in Kensington market who told him: "One day I'll be a pop star." It was Freddie Mercury.

He secured his pension plan by co-writing Merry Xmas Everybody and though his Freedom of Walsall grants him unusual rights, he's yet to lead a herd of sheep through the town. But there's still time.

The Black Country and Birmingham have been blessed with a galaxy of rockers and comics who've stood the test of time.

Age is no barrier to them. Keep on rockin'.