Douglas Adams

Best known as the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, English author Douglas Adams, sadl died 11 May 2001. He was born in 11th March 1952 in Cambridge, England, and attended Primrose Hill Primary School in Brentwood. At nine, he passed the entrance exam for Brentwood School, an independent school whose alumni include Robin Day, Jack Straw, Noel Edmonds, and David Irving. Griff Rhys Jones was also a year below him. He attended the prep school from 1959 to 1964, then the main school until December 1970. He became the only student ever to be awarded a ten out of ten by Halford for creative writing, Some of his earliest writing was published at the school, such as reports or spoof reviews in the school magazine Broadsheet He also designed the cover of one issue of the Broadsheet, and had a letter and short story published nationally in The Eagle. in 1965, he was awarded a place at St John’s College, Cambridge to read English, Which he attended from 1971, though the main reason he applied to Cambridge was to join the Footlights, an invitation-only student comedy club that has acted as a hothouse for some of the most notable comic talent in England. he graduated from St. John’s in 1974 with a B.A. in English literature.

After university Adams moved back to London, determined to break into TV and radio as a writer. The Footlights Revue appeared on BBC2 television in 1974 and also performed live in London’s West End which led to Adams being discovered by Monty Python’s Graham Chapman. The two formed a brief writing partnership, earning Adams a writing credit in episode 45 of Monty Python for a sketch called “Patient Abuse”, which plays on the idea of mind-boggling paper work in an emergency, a joke later incorporated into the Vogons’ obsession with paperwork. Adams also contributed to a sketch on the album for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. During this time Adams also continued to write and submit other sketches elesewhere, though few were accepted. In 1976 his career had a brief improvement when he wrote and performed, to good review, Unpleasantness at Brodie’s Close at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.Some of Adams’s early radio work included sketches for The Burkiss Way in 1977 and The News Huddlines. He also wrote the 20 February 1977 episode of the Doctor on the Go,television comedy series, with Graham Chapman, and later became the script editor for Doctor Who.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a concept for a science-fiction comedy radio series pitched by Adams and radio producer Simon Brett to BBC Radio 4 in 1977. Adams came up with an outline for a pilot episode, as well as a few other stories (reprinted in Neil Gaiman’s book Don’t Panic: The Official Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion) that could potentially be used in the series. It started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy and a after the first radio series became successful, Adams was made a BBC radio producer, working on Week Ending and a pantomime called Black Cinderella Two Goes East. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was also developed into a series of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and in 2005 a feature film. Adams’s contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy’s Hall of Fame.

Adams also wrote Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988), and co-wrote The Meaning of Liff (1983), Last Chance to See (1990), and three stories for the television series Doctor Who. A posthumous collection of his work, including an unfinished novel, was published as The Salmon of Doubt in 2002. Adams sent the script for the HHGG pilot radio programme to the Doctor Who production office in 1978, and was commissioned to write The Pirate Planet . He had also previously attempted to submit a potential movie script, which later became his novel Life, the Universe and Everything (which in turn became the third Hitchhiker’s Guide radio series). Adams then went on to serve as script editor on the show for its seventeenth season in 1979. Altogether, he wrote three Doctor Who serials starring Tom Baker as the Doctor: The Pirate Planet, City of Death and Shada Adams also allowed in-jokes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to appear in the Doctor Who stories he wrote and other stories on which he served as Script Editor. Elements of Shada and City of Death were also reused in Adams’s later novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Adams is also credited with introducing a fan and later friend of his, the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, to Dawkins’s future wife, Lalla Ward, who had played the part of Romana in Doctor Who.

Adams also played the guitar left-handed and had a collection of twenty-four guitars when he died in 2001 and also studied piano in the 1960s with the same teacher as Paul Wickens, the pianist who plays in Paul McCartney’s band (and composed the music for the 2004–2005 editions of the Hitchhiker’s Guide radio series). The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Procol Harum all had important influence on Adams’s work. Adams included a direct reference to Pink Floyd in the original radio version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, in which he describes the main characters surveying the landscape of an alien planet while Marvin, their android companion, hums Pink Floyd’s “Shine on You Crazy Diamond”. This was cut out of the CD version. Adams also compared the various noises that the kakapo makes to “Pink Floyd studio out-takes” in his nonfiction book on endangered species, Last Chance to See.

Adams’s official biography shares its name with the song “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd. Adams was friends with Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and, on the occasion of Adams’s 42nd birthday (the number 42 having special significance, being the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything and also Adams’s age when his daughter Polly was born), he was invited to make a guest appearance at Pink Floyd’s 28 October 1994 concert at Earls Court in London, playing guitar on the songs “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse”. Adams chose the name for Pink Floyd’s 1994 album, The Division Bell, by picking the words from the lyrics to one of its tracks, namely “High Hopes”.

Gilmour also performed at Adams’s memorial service following his death in 2001, and what would have been Adams’ 60th birthday party in 2012. Douglas Adams was also a friend of Gary Brooker, the lead singer, pianist and songwriter of the progressive rock band Procol Harum. Adams also appeared on stage with Brooker to perform “In Held Twas in I” at Redhill when the band’s lyricist Keith Reid was not available. Adams was also an advocate for environmental and conservation causes, and a lover of fast cars, cameras, and the Apple Macintosh, and was a staunch atheist. Biologist Richard Dawkins also dedicated his book, The God Delusion, to Adams, writing on his death that, “Science has lost a friend, literature has lost a luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender

Michael Palin CBE FRGS

English Telvision presenter, broadcaster and comedian Michael Palin CBE FRGS was born 5th May 1943. He is Best known for starring in the British Comedy television series MontyPythons Fying circus alongside Graham Chapman , John Cleese, Terry Jones and Eric Idle.The members of Monty Python were all highly educated. Terry Jones and Michael Palin are Oxford University graduates; Eric Idle, John Cleese, and Graham Chapman attended Cambridge University; and American-born member Terry Gilliam is an Occidental College graduate Before Joining Monty Python. Palin wrote comedic material with Terry Jones on other shows such as the Ken Dodd Show, The Frost Report and Do Not Adjust Your Set. Palin appeared in some of the most famous Python sketches, including “Argument Clinic”, “Dead Parrot”, “The Lumberjack Song”, “The Spanish Inquisition”, and “The Fish-Slapping Dance”.

The first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired on BBC One on the 5th October 1969 and there were 45 Episodes spread over four seasons until December 1974 on BBC Television. The comedy was often pointedly intellectual, with numerous erudite references to philosophers and literary figures. The series followed and elaborated upon the style used by Spike Milligan in his groundbreaking series Q5. The team intended their humour to be impossible to categorise, and succeeded so completely that the adjective “Pythonesque” was invented to define it.The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines. They also featured Terry Gilliam’s wonderful and imaginatively bizarre animations, often sequenced or merged with live action.

Broadcast by the BBC. with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, The show often targets the idiosyncrasies of British life, especially that of professionals, and is at times politically charged. Over the years many of the sketches have attained classic status including The Lumberjack Song, Ministry of Silly Walks, Upper class twit of the Year, Spam song, The Dead Parrot Sketch and Bicycle Repair Man. Graham Chapman also played the lead roles in two of the Python’s Films – Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Life of Brian. Eric Idle also appeared in the the children’s series Do Not Adjust Your Set, alongside Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam’s surreal animations which linked the show’s sketches together, and defined Monty Python’s visual language in other media (such as LP and book covers, and the title sequences of their films).

Since Monty Python split Michael Palin continued to work with Jones co-writing Ripping Yarns. He has also appeared in several films directed by fellow Python Terry Gilliam and made notable appearances in other films such as A Fish Called Wanda, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedians’ Comedian, he was voted the 30th favourite by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. After Python, he began a new career as a travel writer and travel documentarian. His journeys have taken him across the world, including the North and South Poles, the Sahara Desert, the Himalayas, Eastern Europe and Brazil. In 2000 Palin was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to television. From 2009 to 2012 Palin was also the president of the Royal Geographical Society

Sir Terry Pratchett OBE

English novelist Sir Terry Pratchett OBE, was born 28th April in 1948. He is best known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre In particular the popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels. Pratchett’s first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971, and his first Discworld novel The Colour of Magic was published in 1983. he was a very prolific writer, writing on average, two books a year . After finishing the fourth Discworld novel, Mort, he decided to focus fully on hs novels and make his living through writing and published his fifth book Equal Rites soon after.

Since then He has written many other discworld Novels including , wyrd sisters, pyramids, Guards Guards, Eric, Moving Pictures, Reaper Man, Witches Abroad, Lords and ladies, Men at arms, Maskerade, Feet of Clay, Hogfather, Jingo, Small Gods, The Last Continent, Interesting Times, the Fifth Elephant, The Truth, Thief of Time, Maurice & his Educated Rodents, Carpe Jugulum, Monstrous Regiment, the Last Hero, Night Watch, Wee Free Men, Hatful of Sky, Going Postal, Dodger, Making Money, Wintersmith, Thud!, Night Watch, Unseen Academicals, Raising Steam, The Shepherds Crown and I shall Wear Midnight. The Discoworld novel Snuff became the then third-fastest-selling novel since records began in the United Kingdom selling 55,000 copies in the first three days (and I bought one of them). The novels all had distinctive cover art by Josh Kirby and, Since Kirby’s death in October 2001, Paul Kidby. Pratchett has also co-written The Long Earth, The Long Mars and The Long Cosmos with Stephen Baxter and Good Omens with Neil Gaiman.

Many of Pratchett’s books have also been adapted for Radio and Television, the BBC’s Woman’s Hour broadcast The Colour of Magic as a serial in six parts and Truckers was adapted as a stop motion animation series for Thames Television by Cosgrove Hall Films in 1992. Johnny and the Dead was also made into a TV serial for Children’s ITV on ITV, and in 1995. Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music were adapted as animated cartoon series by Cosgrove Hall for Channel 4 in 1996. In January 2006, BBC One also aired a three-part adaptation of Johnny and the Bomb. A two-part, feature-length version of Hogfather starring Michelle Dockery, David Jason and featuring the voices of Christopher Lee and Ian Richardson, was first aired on Sky One in the United Kingdom in December 2006, and on ION Television in the U.S. in 2007. A two-part, feature-length adaptation of The Colour of Magic and its sequel The Light Fantastic aired during Easter 2008 on Sky One. A third adaptation, Going Postal was aired at the end of May 2010. The Sky adaptations are notable also for the author’s presence in cameo roles. An animated version of The Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents, has also been made.

He remains a hugely popular author to this day and many of his books have occupied top places on the best-seller list. According to the Bookseller’s Pocket Yearbook from 2005, in 2003 Pratchett’s UK sales put him in 2nd place behind J. K. Rowling and in the paperback sales list Pratchett came 5th, behind James Patterson, Alexander McCall Smith, John Grisham and J. R. R. Tolkien). His sales in the UK alone are more than 2.5 million copies a year. In 1998 Pratchett was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to literature” . In addition, he was knighted in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the Carnegie Medal for his children’s novel The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. 

In December 2007, Pratchett publicly announced that he was suffering from posterior cortical atrophy, a variation of Alzheimer’s disease and, subsequently, made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, and filmed a programme chronicling his experiences with the disease for the BBC. Sadly though Sir Terry Pratchett OBE, passed away on Thursday, 12 March 2015 at the age of 66 after a lengthy battle with the disease at his home surrounded by his family and with his cat sleeping on his bed. His last novel “The Shepherd’s Crown” was published posthumously in 2015. Rob Wilkins has also written a biography “A life With footnotes which was also published posthumously.

Dudley Moore CBE

er Cook and Dudley Moore, The late great English actor, comedian and composer Dudley Moore CBE, was Born 19th April in 1935, He first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television double-act he formed with Peter Cook. His fame as a comedy film actor was later heightened by success in hit Hollywood films such as 10 with Bo Derek and Arthur in the late 1970s and early 1980s, respectively. He received an Oscar nomination for the latter role. He was frequently referred to in the media as “Cuddly Dudley” or “The Sex Thimble”, a reference to his short stature and reputation as a “ladies’ man”.

AN AUDIENCE with Dudley MOORE http://youtu.be/bRShQGG5zDo

He had a prolific film career and appeared in many films including The Wrong Box, Bedazzled, 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia, The Bed-Sitting Room, Monte Carlo or Bust, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Foul Play, 10, Derek and Clive Get the Horn, Wholly Moses! Arthur, Six Weeks, Lovesick, Romantic Comedy, Unfaithfully Yours, Micki + Maude, Best Defense, Santa Claus: The Movie, Like Father Like Son, Arthur 2: On the Rocks, The Adventures of Milo and Otis, Crazy People, Blame It on the Bellboy, Really Wild Animals, Dudley Daddy’s Girls, Parallel Lives, The Disappearance of Kevin Johnson and The Mighty Kong. 

Sadly In 1999, Moore announced that he was suffering from the terminal degenerative brain disorder progressive supranuclear palsy, some of whose early symptoms were so similar to intoxication that he had been accused of being drunk, before the illness had been diagnosed earlier in the year.

In June 2001, Moore was appointed a Commander of the Order of The British Empire (CBE) and Despite his deteriorating condition, he attended the ceremony, mute and wheelchair-bound, at Buckingham Palace to collect his honour. He died on 27 March 2002, as a result of pneumonia, secondary to immobility caused by the palsy, in Plainfield, New Jersey. Rena Fruchter was holding his hand when he died, and she reported his final words were, “I can hear the music all around me.” Moore was interred in Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Fruchter later wrote a memoir of their relationship (Dudley Moore, Ebury Press, 2004). In December 2004, the Channel 4 television station in the United Kingdom broadcast Not Only But Always, a TV movie dramatising the relationship between Moore and Cook, although the principal focus of the production was on Cook. Around the same time the relationship between the two was also the subject of a stage play called Pete and Dud: Come Again.

Charlie Chaplin

English Comic actor and filmmaker Sir Charles Spencer “Charlie” Chaplin, KBE was born 16 April 1889. He rose to fame in the silent film era, he became a worldwide icon through his screen persona “the Tramp” and is considered one of the most important figures of the film industry. Chaplin’s had an impoverished childhood in London ; his father left and his mother struggled financially, he was sent to a workhouse twice before the age of nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19 he was signed to the prestigious Fred Karno company, which took him to America. Chaplin was scouted for the film industry, and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon developed the Tramp persona and formed a large fan base. Chaplin directed his films from an early stage, and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual, and First National corporations. By 1918, he was one of the best known figures in the world.

In 1919, Chaplin co-founded the distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature-length was The Kid (1921), followed by A Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), and The Circus (1928). He refused to move to sound films in the 1930s, instead producing City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) without dialogue. Chaplin became increasingly political and his next film, The Great Dictator (1940), satirised Adolf Hitler. The 1940s were a decade marked with controversy for Chaplin, and his popularity declined rapidly. He was accused of communist sympathies, while his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women caused scandal. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the United States and settle in Switzerland. He abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952), A King in New York (1957), and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967).

Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a picture. His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, typified in the Tramp’s struggles against adversity. Many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. In 1972, as part of a renewed appreciation for his work, Chaplin received an Honorary Academy Award for “the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century”. He sadly passed away 25 December 1977 although he continues to be held in high regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator often ranked among industry lists of the greatest films of all time.

Spike Milligan

The late, great Comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor Sir Terence Alan “Spike” Milligan KBE was born 16 April 1918. He was of Irish and English parentage and Irish nationality. His early life was spent in India where he was born. The majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He disliked his first name and began to call himself “Spike” after hearing the band Spike Jones and his City Slickers.

Milligan was the co-creator, main writer and a principal cast member of the popular British radio comedy programme The Goon Show, performing a range of roles including the popular Eccles and Minnie Bannister characters. The Goon Show was originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series was entitled Crazy People; subsequent series had the title The Goon Show, a title inspired, according to Spike Milligan, by a Popeye character. The scripts mixed ludicrous plots with surreal humour, puns, catchphrases and an array of bizarre sound effects. Some of the later episodes feature electronic effects devised by the fledgling BBC Radiophonic Workshop, many of which were reused by other shows for decades. Many elements of the show satirised contemporary life in Britain, parodying aspects of show business, commerce, industry, art, politics, diplomacy, the police, the military, education, class structure, literature and film.

The show was released internationally through the BBC Transcription Services. It was heard regularly from the 1950s in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India and Canada, although these TS versions were frequently edited to avoid controversial subjects. NBC began broadcasting the programme on its radio network from the mid-1950s.The programme exercised a considerable influence on the development of British and American comedy and popular culture. It was cited as a major influence by The Beatles and the American comedy team The Firesign Theatre as well as Monty Python and many others.

Milligan also wrote and edited many satirical books, including Puckoon and his seven-volume autobiographical account of his time serving during the Second World War, beginning with Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall. He is also noted as a popular writer of comical verse; much of his poetry was written for children, including Silly Verse for Kids (1959). After success with the groundbreaking British radio programme, The Goon Show, Milligan translated this success to television with Q5, a surreal sketch show which is credited as a major influence on the members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Milligan also appears briefly in the Mony Python film “The Life of Brian”. Spike Milligan claimed a right to Irish citizenship (as a child of an Irish citizen) after the British government declared him stateless. Milligan sadly passed away 27 February 2002 but his work remains popular.

Eric Idle (Monty Python’s flying circus)

Best known for his parts in the Monty Python Television Series and Films, the actor, writer and composer Eric Idle was born 29th March 1943. Eric Idle joined British sketch comedy series Monty Python alongside Graham Chapman , John Cleese, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The first episode of British sketch comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired on BBC One on the 5th October 1969 and there were 45 Episodes spread over four seasons until December 1974 on BBC Television. The comedy was often pointedly intellectual, with numerous erudite references to philosophers and literary figures. The series followed and elaborated upon the style used by Spike Milligan in his groundbreaking series Q5. The team intended their humour to be impossible to categorise, and succeeded so completely that the adjective “Pythonesque” was invented to define it.

The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines. They also featured Terry Gilliam’s wonderful and imaginatively bizarre animations, often sequenced or merged with live action. Broadcast by the BBC. with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, The show often targets the idiosyncrasies of British life, especially that of professionals, and is at times politically charged, and over the years many of the sketches have attained classic status including The Lumberjack Song, Ministry of Silly Walks, Upper class twit of the Year, Spam song, The Dead Parrot Sketch (Bleedin’ demised, Joined the choir invisible 😀 and Bicycle Repair Man.

The members of Monty Python are all highly educated. Terry Jones and Michael Palin are Oxford University graduates; Eric Idle, John Cleese, and Graham Chapman attended Cambridge University; and American-born member Terry Gilliam is an Occidental College graduate. Chapman also played the lead roles in two of the Python’s Films – Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Life of Brian. In addition to mo Python Eric Idle also appeared in the the children’s series Do Not Adjust Your Set, alongside Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam’s surreal animations which linked the show’s sketches together, and defined Monty Python’s visual language in other media (such as LP and book covers, and the title sequences of their films). Since Monty Python split Idle has also appeared in Many films including Nuns on the Run and National Lampoons European Vacation.

Dudley Moore CBE

Best known as being one half of classic comedy duo Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, The late great English actor, comedian and composer Dudley Moore CBE, sadly passed away 27th March 2002. Born 19th April in 1935, He first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television double-act he formed with Peter Cook. His fame as a comedy film actor was later heightened by success in hit Hollywood films such as 10 with Bo Derek and Arthur in the late 1970s and early 1980s, respectively. He received an Oscar nomination for the latter role. He was frequently referred to in the media as “Cuddly Dudley” or “The Sex Thimble”, a reference to his short stature and reputation as a “ladies’ man”.

AN AUDIENCE with Dudley MOORE http://youtu.be/bRShQGG5zDo

He had a prolific film career and appeared in many other films too including The Wrong Box, Bedazzled, 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia, The Bed-Sitting Room, Monte Carlo or Bust, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Foul Play, 10, Derek and Clive Get the Horn, Wholly Moses! Arthur, Six Weeks, Lovesick, Romantic Comedy, Unfaithfully Yours, Micki + Maude, Best Defense, Santa Claus: The Movie, Like Father Like Son, Arthur 2: On the Rocks, The Adventures of Milo and Otis, Crazy People, Blame It on the Bellboy, Really Wild Animals, Dudley Daddy’s Girls, Parallel Lives, The Disappearance of Kevin Johnson and The Mighty Kong. 

Sadly In 1999, Moore announced that he was suffering from the terminal degenerative brain disorder progressive supranuclear palsy, some of whose early symptoms were so similar to intoxication that he had been accused of being drunk, and that the illness had been diagnosed earlier in the year.

In June 2001, Moore was appointed a Commander of the Order of The British Empire (CBE) and Despite his deteriorating condition, he attended the ceremony, mute and wheelchair-bound, at Buckingham Palace to collect his honour. He died on 27 March 2002, as a result of pneumonia, secondary to immobility caused by the palsy, in Plainfield, New Jersey. Rena Fruchter was holding his hand when he died, and she reported his final words were, “I can hear the music all around me.” Moore was interred in Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Fruchter later wrote a memoir of their relationship (Dudley Moore, Ebury Press, 2004). In December 2004, the Channel 4 television station in the United Kingdom broadcast Not Only But Always, a TV movie dramatising the relationship between Moore and Cook, although the principal focus of the production was on Cook. Around the same time the relationship between the two was also the subject of a stage play called Pete and Dud: Come Again.

Barry Cryer

English writer,  comedian, and actor Barry Cryer was born 23 March 1935. In Leeds, Yorkshire. England. Educated at Leeds Grammar School, he studied English literature at the University of Leeds Cryer was a writer for Leeds-based Proscenium Players, the first Jewish amateur stage group, which was founded in 1948. After appearing in University revue, Cryer was offered a week’s work at the Leeds City Varieties theatre, home of The Good Old Days, which became the longest-running television entertainment show in the world. Cryer left university after learning his first-year results and travelled to London. After impressing impresario Vivian Van Damm, Cryer began as the bottom billing act at the Windmill Theatre in London, a theatre which showed comedy acts in between nude tableau shows. However, Cryer suffered severely from eczema and, after several periods in hospital, was released from his contract by Van Damm. Concluding that a performing career was untenable because of his skin condition, so Cryer chose to focus mainly on writing for the next eight years

Cryer joined the cast of Expresso Bongo (1957) with Susan Hampshire, Millicent Martin and Paul Scofield, during which he recorded the song “The Purple People Eater”, Which reached number one in Finland. Cryer’s first writing credits were four sketches for The Jimmy Logan Show, co-written with Douglas Camfield. Cryer became head writer with an occasional stage role for Danny La Rue’s London nightclub, where he was spotted by David Frost. This led to a writing role on the variety special A Degree of Frost, which led to Cryer joining the writing team, which also included John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman, on The Frost Report from 1966–67. Frost used Cryer on a number of subsequent shows, which established Cryer as a star writer in the 1970s. Cryer is seen serving the wine in the original performance of the Four Yorkshiremen sketch on At Last the 1948 Show, first broadcast in 1967

Cryer always preferred to write in partnership, so that should he dry up he was never left to deliver material. His regular partner during the 1970s was John Junkin, and with Junkin performing as Eric Morecambe and Cryer most often the role of Ernie Wise, the pair wrote some of The Morecambe and Wise Show in its BBC period (the 1972 and 1976 Christmas shows) when regular writer Eddie Braben was unavailable. Cryer still enjoyed performing, appearing with Tim Brooke-Taylor and Junkin in the BBC radio series Hello, Cheeky!, in which the three performers bounced jokes off each other. He also appeared in the comedy television series The Steam Video Company and provided the voice of the judge in the 1975 animated comedy musical Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done. He hosted the ITV comedy panel game Jokers Wild (1969–74) and had a role in All You Need Is Cash, a 1978 spoof documentary about the Beatles parody band the Rutles, as well as a cameo as a police inspector in Kenny Everett’s 1984 horror spoof Bloodbath at the House of Death.

With new comedians coming forward who wrote their own material, Cryer refocused his career to include more performance, touring with Willie Rushton in Two Old Farts in the Nightand, after Rushton’s death, That Reminds Me. After a brief early stint as chairman, Cryer was one of the panellists on the BBC radio comedy programme I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, which began in 1972. He also wrote and starred in You’ll Have Had Your Tea with Graeme Garden.

He wrote an autobiography, You Won’t Believe This But…, as well as a book of miscellaneous anecdotes, Pigs Can Fly. In 2005 he toured the UK “Barry Cryer: The First Farewell Tour,” and in 2008 he toured with “Barry Cryer: Still Alive”. He remained a popular after-dinner speaker. He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1995 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel.

As well as performing on stage, radio and television, Cryer wrote for many performers including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie Howerd, Richard Pryor, Spike Milligan, Mike Yarwood, The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise. Cryer also wrote episodes for the television comedy series Doctor in the House.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2001. Cryer was a member of the entertainment charity the Grand Order of Water Rats. In 2013, Leeds Metropolitan University made Cryer an honorary Doctor of Arts. Four years later, in July 2017, Cryer received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Leeds. Since 2018, his clip show Comedy Legends with Barry Cryer has been broadcast by Sky Arts, a programme paying tribute to a number of comedians such as Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd and Bob Hope with ‘comedy experts’ Tony Hawks, Steve Punt and critic Stephen Armstrong giving their opinions. Barry Cryer tragically died at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow on 25 January 2022, at the age of 86 however the many comedy programs he contributed to are still often broadcast on Television.

Jasper Carrott OBE

English comedian, actor, television presenter and personality Jasper Carrott OBE (Robert Norman Davis was born in Acocks Green, Birmingham, England on 14 March 1945. In February 1969 he started his own folk club, “The Boggery”, in nearby Solihull with his friend Les Ward. Here, Carrott performed folk songs and MC duties. Before long, his banter with the audience overtook the actual songs; he became known more as a comedian than a singer. He toured the UK, appearing in rugby clubs. He independently recorded an album, financed by himself, called Jasper Carrot – In the Club, which he sold from the back of his van. It was this album that contained the original “Magic Roundabout”. Released in 1973, the LP is quite rare, although it mainly consists of material later used in his first three official LPs (such as “Hare Krishna”, “Car Insurance”, “Bastity Chelt”, and “Hava Nagila”) plus the Fred Wedlock song “The Folker”.

He had a surprise UK Top 5 chart hit in August 1975 with the novelty record “Funky Moped”, written by Chris Rohmann and produced by Jeff Lynne. The B-side of this single was a risqué monologue parodying the animated children’s TV series The Magic Roundabout. This track was banned by the BBC, which is widely believed to have contributed to the single’s commercial success, which in turn, ironically, led to his appearance on the BBC’s Top of the Pops. By the late 1970s, Carrott had developed a number of anecdotal sketches which he still performs in similar form some thirty years on. Often these sketches purported to be auto-biographical; many of them celebrate Birmingham accent and culture, including his support of his beloved Birmingham City.

His sketches were captured on records such as Jasper Carrott Rabbitts on and on and on… and Carrott in Notts which were recordings of live performances. Notable hits were “Bastity Chelt” a complete song in Spoonerism, “The Football Match” describing a visit to Old Trafford, “The Nutter on the Bus” including the well known cry of “Has anybody seen my camel?”), “The Mole” (“There’s only one way to get rid of a mole – blow its bloody head off!”) and “Zits” – an explanation of an American slang word for spots that brought the word into use in England In 1979 he published A Little Zit on the Side, which purported to be a humorous autobiography.

The follow-up, Sweet and Sour Labrador, mixed sections of his stand-up routines with similar autobiographical material, much of it related to his world travels. His first appearance on television was a half hour show for BBC Midlands on August 11th 1975 in a programme about local football called “The Golden Game”. Then in 1976, A Half Hour Mislaid with Jasper Carrott recorded at Pebble Mill. His big break came two years later when he was invited by Michael Grade to make a pilot for LWT. It was well liked by Grade; a five further shows were recorded and became his first TV series, An Audience with Jasper Carrott, in 1978, this successful partnership with LWT lasted until 1981, The Unrecorded Jasper Carrott (1979) and Beat the Carrott (1981) are the two best known live stand-up performances from his time with LWT. This was followed by a move to the BBC and Carrott’s Lib – a Saturday night comedy show broadcast live – and then by a string of BBC shows. The most notable of these were Carrott’s Commercial Breakdown, which broadcast weird and wonderful adverts from around the world, and the sketch and stand-up shows Carrott Confidential, 24 Carrott Gold, The Jasper Carrott Trial and Canned Carrott, some of which also gave TV exposure to the comedy partnership of Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis.

In addition to his television work, Carrott made a foray into cinema, when he played Heinrich in the 1987 British comedy Jane and the Lost City.Canned Carrott also featured a regular police drama spoof called The Detectives, co-starring Robert Powell, which was spun off into its own series. In 2002–2004, he starred in the sitcom All About Me. He performed in several of the Secret Policeman’s Ball charity concerts for Amnesty International, and returned to the stage in 2004 for several sell out shows at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham featuring classic routines from his career. He returned to a singing role for the musical Go Play Up Your Own End (written by Malcolm Stent, songs by Harvey Andrews).

In 2005, he appeared in and put on the first of Jasper Carrott’s Rock With Laughter concerts. He appeared alongside performers such as Bill Bailey, Bonnie Tyler, Lenny Henry, Bobby Davro, the Lord of the Dance troupe and Bev Bevan. This has become a regular event at the NEC in Birmingham, usually staged in December and some times alternating with his “Jasper Carrott’s Christmas Crackers” events, but there have also been a few summer shows too. Jasper also was one of the comperes for the Birmingham Heart Beat Charity Concert 1986, which featured many local bands such as Electric Light Orchestra and the Moody Blues, with a finale that included George Harrison from the Beatles.

In 2007 he was inducted into the Birmingham Walk of Stars at a presentation as part of the Arts Fest 2007 celebrations. The award was presented by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham. Carrott is the second inductee, following Ozzy Osbourne.Jasper Carrott was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the British Comedy Awards on 6 December 2008. In the summer of 2007, Jasper hosted the Endemol-produced game show Golden Balls for ITV1. Promising ratings led to a recommission, and the second series began in January 2008. A third series began in April 2008, and a fourth series started in October 2008. A fifth and six series were shown in 2009.He was the host of the Sunday night interactive national pub quiz, Cash Inn, and also an investor in the company, operated by Innterplay. This company has since entered administration.He was 20th in Channel 4′s 100 Greatest Stand-Up Comedians show.