Product Description

Everett's TV show spawned a cast of outrageous characters, including Sid Snot and drag queen Cupid Stunt, and the catchphrase "All in the best possible taste!". But as a private individual Kenny Everett was a sad and sometimes desperate man with a bizarre and often contradictory life which ultimately ended in tragedy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #580984 in Books
• Published on: 1997-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 212 pages

Customer Reviews

The Story Of A Comedy Legend
There are two sorts of showbiz biography; those which tell you everything, and those which tell you enough. Lister's book on the wonderful and much-missed Kenny Everett is among the latter.

The story begins on Christmas Day 1944, when Maurice Cole was born in Liverpool. He was a strange child who spent so much time talking to himself that he developed a unique line in patter.

As the '60's began to swing, he got a job as D.J. for the pirate radio station Radio London where his off-the-wall humour and zaniness made him a cult figure. Even the Beatles sang his praises by recording a jingle specially for him. Cuddly Ken progressed to Radio 1 where he - as he loved to recount in interviews years later - was sacked for telling a joke at the expense of a politician's wife.

Television beckoned; in 1968 he teamed with Jonathan Routh and Germaine Greer for the I.T.V. show 'Nice Time', before going on to star in 'Making Whoopee', 'The Kenny Everett Explosion' and 'Ev'. But the medium did not seem to know what to do with him. For years he was the voice-over man on Bob Monkhouse's 'Celebrity Squares' as well as 'Charley the cat' in a well-remembered series of public information films.

Kenny's big chance came in 1978 when Thames commissioned him to replace the hopelessly outdated 'Opportunity Knocks!' with 'The Kenny Everett Video Show'. It was 'Monty Python' with music, combined with the sexy gyrations of Mrs.Whitehouse's favourite dance troupe 'Hot Gossip'. A piece of television history was born. Kenny was now mainstream.

In 1981 he returned in triumph to the B.B.C. His new show pushed up the comedy levels, and became unmissable Thursday ( later Saturday ) night evening for the next few years.

Then tragedy struck. In 1993, Kenny was diagnosed with full-blown AIDS. He quietly retired from television, and returned to radio ( his first love ). He died two years later.

Kenny was a complex man whose zany persona masked a sad and desperate figure. His fourteen year marriage to Lee ended in divorce, as his homosexuality became increasingly apparent. However, his friendship with actress Cleo Rocos ( the 'Miss Whiplash' of Kenny's shows ) suggested that he was an incurable romantic at heart.

Lister paints his story in broad brush strokes but manages to be both witty and intelligent - rather like its subject matter. A lesser writer might have condemned Kenny's gay lifestyle. Personally, I found Kenny offensive on only one occasion - when he appeared at a Conservative Party rally.

The pirate radio years are fascinatingly recounted. Few D.J.'s have graduated to become leading comedy figures of the age. Kenny Everett was indeed a one-off, a Spike Milligan for the post-Vietnam generation. Its a cliche, but yes, we will never see his like again.