Kenny Everett BBC

Mark Lamarr used that on Never Mind The Buzzcocks about a member of the band Big Country. I hadn't realised it had older origins

Apparently it had been used even earlier in the Australian Parliament, where there is/was a Country Party.

It's not really quality satire though, but rather blunt abuse. Bearing in mind Kenny was one of the Tory's celebrity supporters in the 80s, perhps he made the comment as some attempt to appear impartial 😎

Indeed, although it's now been accepted that the joke itself was fairly harmless and it was just a convenient last straw for the Beeb, as they were finding him increasingly unmanagable. It wasn't really Ken's fault, he says in his autobiography that he would just happily talk to anyone who asked him, which meant he kept finding himself in trouble. He says that he always used to complain about the Beeb's music policy and things like needletime which limited the number of commercial records they could play, and when he was told that they didn't want him to discuss BBC policy in public, told the next interviewer who asked "I'm sorry, I've been told I can't talk any more about how awful the BBC's music policy is".



Yes, but not the case with shows like Ken's, which all exist in the archives, even if they're not available to watch at the moment. The 1993 kids' show wipings were unfortunate, but it was considered at the time they were of absolutely no commercial value whatsoever. Unfortunately about five seconds later kids TV nostalgia exploded.



Ken always said that he wasn't really very political, but that he leaned towards the Tories because he really didn't like Arthur Scargill - and also in the sixties, the Tories were more supportive of pirate radio than Labour. But that was about it, really, and he always said he only went to the famous Tory conference because his mates Tim Rice and Michael Winner asked him if he would.

Even though as has been said, UK Gold were actually airing the episodes of Rentaghost that got wiped at the time of the wipings (and therefore the BBC were thankfully able to recover their copies) which shows that it did have commercial value and makes you wonder if Adam Lee had the slightest idea what he was doing. The slightest bit of research would surely have shown him they'd been sold to UK Gold a matter of months earlier and therefore still of value.

I think he was being interviewed by Mavis Nicholson when he referred to each party as a "bunch of ba***rds" so I doubt he had any explicit political favourites, especially when you compare how Bob Monkhouse wanted to be seen with her because he wanted to be associated with a winner. Kenny's stunt at the Tory conference was more a result of his friendship with Michael Winner rather than any true support for Thatcher.

I've met very few people in real life who have any particular political passion, and generally treat any politician with caution and suspicion, so Kenny was nothing out of the ordinary there, in fact quite the opposite

Yes, and it's funny you should mention Bob Monkhouse because while he was indeed a Conservative supporter, I think you'd struggle to find evidence of that in his stand-up as he happily sent up politicans of all kinds, including the memorable line "An anagram of Michael Portillo is 'I talk bollocks' - of course, that's give or take a letter".

I think Ken was fundamentally a silly man who just wanted everyone to be happy, rather than anyone with any great political convictions, and he'd do a lot on the spur of the moment rather than thinking too hard about it. There's an interesting bit on his Wiki page about how he was challenged by Sinead O'Connor on The Late Late Show as to whether he would campaign for gay rights, especially in light of the Conservative policy at the time, and he said he might if it was "a jolly occasion" but thought he could do more for gay rights by being a high profile and popular entertainer who happened to be gay.

It’s interesting how some comedians and celebrities even back in the day were quite vocal about their politics but others tread quite carefully.

Endorsing the very people who want to deny you your rights does nothing for gay rights No matter how high profile and popular you are. It's the entertainers like Ian McKellen who came out because of Thatcher's Section 28 who did more for Gay rights.

I think Bob epitomises why I personally don't enjoy comedy and biased politics in the same field. Comedians like Nish Kumar polarise their audience instantly by being vocal about their political leanings or their views on Brexit. Regardless of your own beliefs, I find it bewildering why you'd want to insult half your potential audience.

Bob got a bit of stick when it was very popular for comedians to attack Thatcher and started to reinforce his position as someone from the "old guard". But he still managed to find a new, younger audience through appearances on HIGNFY and The Big Breakfast. I can't say I've ever heard anyone attack Bob for being a Tory supporter in recent years. Something that can't be said for "liberal snowflakes" like Adam Hills or "right wing fascists" like Geoff Norcott.

This is how shows like Mrs Brown's Boys end up being the "show for everybody".

Anyway, back on topic...

But they're just different kinds of comedians/entertainers, surely? Nish Kumar is probably not going to be presenting Saturday night light entertainment like Michael McIntyre's Big Show, because he's vocal about his political leanings, has strong views and wants to talk about them and incorporate them into his comedy. Michael McIntyre might also have strong political views but doesn't want to be vocal about them or include them in his routine. And that's fine.