For some time now, the televisual highlight of my Friday evenings has been More 4's repeats of 'Heroes Of Comedy', originally broadcast on Channel 4 from 1995-2003. It was basically a series of profiles of popular British comedians, using archive interviews, choice film/television clips, radio extracts and comments from people who either knew the subject in question or, like Roy Hudd, was simply an admirer. The show was the creation of John Fisher, a former 'Parkinson' ( arguably the best chat-show ever to come out of Britain ) producer who has since penned books on Tommy Cooper and Tony Hancock, both of whom were covered in the series. Unlike recent retro programmes, there were no 'celebs' of the June Sarpong and Jimmy Carr variety to detract from the proceedings with inane chatter.
A wide range of comics were covered, from the wartime Arthur Askey to the Satire Boom Era Peter Cook. Frankie Howerd was the subject of the first edition, with Tommy Cooper a week later. Particularly gratifying were the editions devoted to comics whose work I was unfamiliar with, such as Joyce Grenfell and Max Miller. The Arthur Haynes one was welcome as precious little of his work is available on D.V.D. ( although it is rumoured that Network will release some of it later in the year ). The only edition I could not stand was the one about Bernard Manning. I just did not like the guy. And not because he did racist gags. He could have recited old 'Beano' material and I still would not have laughed.
There was a change of format to Season 4 as the programme switched to 'The Living Legends', such as Ronnie Barker, Eric Sykes, Thora Hird, and Norman Wisdom. The Spike Milligan edition was transmitted only three days after the great man's death, meaning it had to be amended slightly before broadcast.
We must give thanks the show was made when it was, as sadly, a lot of the contributors have since passed on, such as Bob Monkhouse, John Junkin, Henry McGee, and Barry Took.
Curiously overlooked though as subjects were Marty Feldman, Harry Worth, Graham Chapman, Dudley Moore, Dave Allen, Beryl Reid, Will Hay and Ted Ray. All are heroes of comedy in my book.
'H.o.C.' must have fallen out of favour with Channel 4 bosses because after enjoying a decent time-slot on Wednesday nights for many years, the very last edition - featuring Max Wall - was unceremoniously dumped ( with no publicity ) in a Saturday afternoon slot, a time when few would have been likely to have been watching. Fisher then claimed in an edition of 'The Stage' newspaper that he'd wanted to include the Danish comic pianist Victor Borge, but the suits had never heard of him and did not commission the programme. Very sad.
The 'Heroes Of Comedy' format was more successful at covering a comedian's life than B.B.C.-4's 'The Curse Of Comedy' plays. After the excellent Victoria Wood-produced 'Eric & Ernie', the station then descended into the gutter with a shameful attack on the life of dear Hattie Jacques. I will stick to the 'H.o.C' edition from now on.
