Born and brought up in Yorkshire (and attending university in Durham), Jake came to mass public attention through his weekly appearances on BBC Television in the shows of David Frost, Bernard Braden and Esther Rantzen, with such hilarious songs as The Bantam Cock, The Gorilla, The Lodger, Lah-di-Dah, Leopold Alcocks, The Blacksmith and the Toffeemaker, On Again, Miss World, The Widow of Bridlington and, of course, Sister Josephine.  

These were songs, amongst 80 others which he wrote, which he sang regularly at his solo concerts in large halls (including the Queen Elizabeth Hall) and in virtually every theatre, arts centre and folk club in the UK in a career lasting more than 25 years, mainly through the 1970s and 1980s.

When Jake retired from touring in the early 1990s, he continued to write, contributing more than 200 weekly columns in his uniquely idiosyncratic style to the Yorkshire Post newspaper. Sadly, Jake died on Christmas Eve 2002.