The funeral has taken place of Carol Sarler, who was the first regular newspaper comedy critic in the UK.
Sarler died in April. Her death was not Covid19-related, but because of restrictions only eight people were allowed at the funeral and had to socially distance.
In a long and varied career in which she wrote about a number of diverse subjects for a number of newspapers, Sarler wrote about comedy for the Guardian and other publications in the 1980s when she was an early, passionate champion of the alternative comedy scene. She was the first London-based critic to travel regularly to Scotland every year for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
She first attended the Fringe in 1985 - the first show she saw was Rik Mayall, Andy de la Tour and Ben Elton sharing an hour's slot at the Assembly Rooms of George Street. She was immediately hooked.
Until Sarler started to promote comedy as a valid and vibrant art form in the press it was mostly only really major comedy shows that were reviewed and they were often covered by theatre critics.
While she was a huge fan of the new wave of stand-up comedy she was famously outspoken and would not hold back when she had an opinion about an act, which made her quite scary to young acts at times.
Comedian John Dowie wrote on Facebook: "It was Carol who persuaded the Guardian to accept reviews of "alternative comedy", in the same way that Robin Denselow, about ten years before, persuaded the same newspaper to accept reviews of rock bands. Such reviews are commonplace now, but they were unprecedented then. Carol helped create an audience and a livelihood for very many people. She was justifiably proud of that accomplishment and I admire her for it. She earned her place at the comedy table."
Critic Kate Copstick wrote on Facebook: "Huge huge hole left in the world today."
Picture: BBC
