Nominate a Biography: the comics' quotes
George Formby
"Several people did storm out of the theatre, however, during George's second performance when, between 'Lamp Post' and 'Happy Go Lucky Me', he pointed to a young woman sitting in the front row and announced that he would like to dedicate a limerick to her:
- There was a young man called Vickers,
- Who took his girlfriend to the flickers,
- He saw some white wool and he started to pull,
George Formby: a troubled genius, by David Bret, 1999.
Dawn French
"In June, her position as a big-league player was well and truly cemented when she and Jennifer [Saunders] signed a record-breaking five-year contract with the BBC. The deal, worth an estimated £2 million, was the biggest of its kind in the history of television comedy, and elevated the duo to the television superleague. It was the first time the BBC had signed such a large 'golden handcuffs' deal with individual entertainers, and it was a clear indication of how highly they were rated by the corporation." p.238
Dawn French: the biography, by Alison Bowyer, 2000.
Kenny Everett
" Everett seemed to have a fairy godmother watching over him, or at least over his professional life. His television career was fantastically successful, like his radio career before it. Sackings and public rebukes served to enhance rather than detract from his prestige. Hints of his homosexuality, despite the best efforts of the tabloids, never bothered his legion of fans. His sexual excesses, depressions, suicide attempts and marital problems were unknown beyond a small circle. By 1983 this unpredictable and anarchic character had somehow almost reached his forties with his public profile as glittering as ever, and his street cred with the young as solid as it had been in 1965. He looked to be indestructible. And then Margaret Thatcher called a general election." p.165
In the best possible taste: the crazy life of Kenny Everett, by David Lister, 1996.
Benny Hill
"During Fine Fettle, the producers of television commercials for the fizzy-drinks company Schweppes persuaded Benny to appear in a series of adverts. Benny insisted on his 'team' - Dave Freeman as writer, Kenneth Carter as director. The fee astonished Benny. For just a few days' work, and no writing, he could earn thousands of pounds - £10,000 in the first year alone. One contract, for four fifteen-second spots, paid £3,000, well in excess of the average man's annual salary at this time. And all he had to do was turn up, get into whatever character Freeman had written for him - a gardener, an astronomer, a burglar, a shopper, a ship's commander - and work for a couple of hours. If earning money was this easy, Benny reasoned, why was he worrying his guts out on the stage?
He went on to appear in more than fifty Schweppes commercials over the coming five years, earning handsomely throughout. Moreover, the commercials were also advertisements for himself - all of them attracted plaudits and one of them won an award: the Grand Prix de la Télévision, won at the Cannes International Festival of Publicity Films in 1961. (It beat over 500 entries from twenty-one countries and was the first such award won by an English TV commercial.)." p.264-5
Funny, peculiar: the true story of Benny Hill, by Mark Lewisohn, 2002.
