On what would have been his 90th birthday, Australian comedy great Barry Humphries will be remembered by actor, comedian and lifelong fan Rob Brydon. Barry Humphries: Gloriously Uncut (an episode in the Archive on 4 strand), will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 17th February, featuring fresh insights, unheard archive recordings and interviews from those who knew and understood him the best.
Brydon says how overwhelmed he felt to become Barry’s friend and reflects on the comic anecdotes they shared. He was also with him three days before his death on April 22nd last year. The Archive on 4 episode will be delving deep, unpicking Barry’s more complicated side; the satirist with a compulsion to point out the absurd or pompous, no matter how raw or uncomfortable it was. The man whose real-life contradictions flowed through his creations.
Rob Brydon says “Barry was a comic great, a true inspiration and a friend. It has been such an honour to present this programme and join so many friends and admirers in paying tribute to a legendary man.”
Additional interviews include close friend and colleague Bruce Beresford who reveals the moment King Charles telephoned the hospital to speak to Humphries at the end; singer Michael Feinstein who took Broadway on with the Dame; co-writer of many years Ian Davidson and Humphries MD and confidante Andrew Ross - as well as many others including Barry’s sister, Barbara Johnson who speaks for the first time since his death. There is also the question of who invented The Private Eye Comic Strip Barry McKenzie, as cartoonist Nicholas Garland claims within this programme that he did - something Humphries firmly disagreed with.
According to drama critic John Lahr (and author of Backstage with Dame Edna) Humphries was all contradictions and we learn about the sometimes fine line between himself and the characters he portrayed, including the epitome of vulgarity, Sir Les Patterson. Could Humphries’ theatrical creations have been used as a tool to ridicule and tease the rest of the world to conceal his true self? He would admit to being an outsider, not quite fitting into society, and would early on, stage surreal performance art in the street – bemused when members of the public were unsure what was going on. Were the audience in on the joke or having fun poked at them? Barry used his characters to say the unsayable, be it on the stage, screen, radio or in print.
Humphries was rebellious and beloved by the people that he disdained. When asked how he might feel without Edna and Les in his life, he said that they were, ‘cathartic and God knows what might happen to me if they didn’t exist’.
In an email to producer Hayley Redmond in 2014 responding to her condolences following the death of his good friend Joan Rivers, Barry wrote “…yes very sad about Joan, and most of the people who have paid tribute didn’t even know her. When, long hence, I pop off, please make sure any little tributes come from people I actually know (if they are still alive!)”.
Full list of contributors: Bruce Beresford; Ian Davidson; Ben Dawson; Michael Feinstein; Nicholas Garland; Laurie Holloway, Barbara Johnson; John Lahr; Meow Meow; Harry Mount; Tim Olsen; Claudia Rosencrantz; Ian D Richardson; Andrew Ross and Arabella Weir.
Presenter: Rob Brydon
Producers: Hayley Redmond; David Prest
An HR Presents and Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4
Commissioning editor: Hugh Levinson
Archive on 4: Barry Humphries: Gloriously Uncut will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 17th February at 8pm. It will be available to catch up on BBC Sounds.
