During his time at Capital Radio, Everett was given a copy of a new single (which record companies felt was too long to be successful) from Queen by the group's lead singer, Freddie Mercury, a good friend, with the proviso that it was not to be played on the air. As expected, Mercury's reverse psychology worked – Everett loved the song and began to play it several times a night on his show (once claiming that "his finger slipped"), helping the song — "Bohemian Rhapsody" — to go quickly to number one in the UK. So greatly did Everett love this song he played it 14 times in one day when it was released. It went on to become a world-wide hit.

BBC Radio & back to Capital

In October 1981, Everett returned to BBC Radio, albeit this time on Radio 2, on Saturday lunchtime from 11am-1pm. This lasted until 1983, when he was once again dismissed after making a rude joke about Margaret Thatcher. He then returned to Capital Radio, presenting the same slot as he did on Radio 2.

After Capital split its frequencies in 1988 he was heard on Capital Gold, with a line-up that included people like Tony Blackburn and David Hamilton. Everett presented the afternoon show and then moved to the mid-morning show. He left in 1994 when his health deteriorated to the point that he was unable to continue.

TV career

Early television work

Besides the radio programmes, he appeared in several television series. The first, in 1968, was a production for Granada Television called Nice Time, co-presented by Germaine Greer and Jonathan Routh. In 1970 he made three series for London Weekend Television (LWT): The Kenny Everett Explosion, Making Whoopee and Ev; and he also took part (along with such talents as Willie Rushton and John Wells) in the 1972 BBC TV series Up Sunday.

(It is not currently clear to which of these efforts Everett was referring when, years later, he spoke dimissively of some early TV work: "We just used to turn up at the studio and try to be wacky". However in interviews, co-presenter Greer spoke of him as "a televisual genius".)

The Kenny Everett Video Show (ITV Thames, 1978-1980) and The Kenny Everett Video Cassette (ITV Thames, 1981)

In 1978, London's Thames Television offered him a new venture, which became the very successful and ground-breaking Kenny Everett Video Show. This was a vehicle for Everett's characters and sketches (his fellow writers were Ray Cameron, Barry Cryer and Dick Vosburgh), interspersed with the latest pop hits, either performed by the artists themselves, or as backing tracks to dance routines by the supposedly risqué (for the time) dance troupe Hot Gossip (see also Sarah Brightman and Arlene Phillips).

In the pre-MTV era, this mixture of pop bands and comic sketches was a new format for television. It was so successful that pop and TV stars queued up to make cameo appearances, including Rod Stewart, Billy Connolly, Kate Bush, Cliff Richard, Freddie Mercury, Terry Wogan and Suzi Quatro (see also "Friends" section below) and classical musicians such as Julian Lloyd Webber(clip).

These shows were also unusual in that there was no studio audience or laughter track. The only reaction sounds were those of the writers, staff and crew (given this small audience the shows were recorded at Thames Television House in small studios normally used for current affairs programmes, rather than at Thames's main site at Teddington).

Everett would often ad lib and deviate from the script; his bloopers were sometimes left in the final cut and on several occasions he would pull the camera around the studio revealing the crew not quite sure what was going to happen next. Quite often the crew were victims of his humour - on one occasion Everett encouraged the crew to sing Happy Birthday to a cameraman, presenting to him a cake which he duly pushed in the cameraman's face.

There were also the stories of Captain Kremmen, a science fiction hero voiced by Everett and originally developed for his Capital Radio shows, who travelled the galaxy battling fictional alien menaces, along with his assistant Dr Gitfinger and his voluptuous sidekick Carla. In the first three series these segments were animations created by the Cosgrove-Hall partnership (responsible for the successful children's cartoon series Dangermouse, among many others). In the fourth series ("Video Cassette") Kremmen was featured as live action, with Anna Dawson playing Carla; the segments were comedy shorts, rather than the erstwhile stories.

Other characters included aging biker Sid Snot (remembered by fans for unsuccessfully attempting to flip cigarettes into his mouth - at one point Everett managed to catch one in his mouth, to the amusement of the studio crew); Marcel Wave, a lecherous Frenchman played by Everett wearing an absurdly false latex chin; and Angry of Mayfair, a middle-class City gent complaining of the risqué content of the show, banging the camera with his umbrella, only then to be revealed as actually wearing women's underwear.

He also created the never-seen character of Lord Thames, supposedly the owner of Thames Television (the company was actually owned by two conglomerates). The character was often the butt of Everett's rants and was said to symbolise his contempt for senior management at the company (see below).

Everett's interest in (then primitive) video processing technology and electronic effects showed itself in such features as the appearances of a bobbing 'alien' entirely composed of a distorted video image of his own head ("Hello. I'm Spod, from Planet Thfnnnn. And this is all I do... Pathetic, isn't it?").

The series ran for four seasons on ITV, and was a big ratings hit, being required viewing for teenagers of the time. The last episode ended on a rather sour note (after Everett had locked horns with Thames management over his show and its scheduling) with Everett giving a rather restrained farewell speech as the set and scenery was being stripped down by the crew. The final shot before the closing credits was Everett himself being picked up and placed inside an oversized garbage can.

The Kenny Everett Television Show (BBC 1981-1988)

In 1981, Everett fell out with Thames regarding the management of his show, including the scheduling of the programme against the BBC's Top of the Pops on Thursday evenings (in one skit on his Thames show, he depicted the Thames management as being behind an ancient, cobweb-covered door marked "Office Of Saying 'No'". In fairness to Thames, Everett was never disciplined for his outbursts, something which had occurred at his previous employers).

TOTP was a ratings powerhouse at the time, and was effectively unbeatable in the days of three-channel television in the UK. The BBC offered Everett a contract for a live audience sketch-format comedy programme, and this partnership came to fruition at Christmas 1981 with a one-off special, followed by five series.

The writing team was bolstered by the addition of Andrew Marshall, David Renwick and Neil Shand, and the production standards were raised by the heavier investment from the corporation.

There were legal concerns when Thames attempted to block the transfer of Everett's characters to the BBC, claiming them as their copyright. This led to the creation of new characters such as the spooneristically named Cupid Stunt, a bearded American B-movie actress with pneumatic breasts (Everett made no attempt to cover his beard) who told (usually to a rapt cardboard cutout of Michael Parkinson) lurid and incredible tales of life on set with Burt Reynolds and other male stars of the era.

Cupid was originally to have been named Mary Hinge (another spoonerism referring to a hirsute intimate female body part), but this was vetoed by the BBC as too obvious. It remains uncertain as to how Cupid Stunt was then approved. Announcers were often encouraged to simply refer to her as Cupid, to prevent the possibility of mispronounciation. A new punk character known as Gizzard Puke was developed, as Thames were trying to prevent Sid Snot from moving to the BBC. In the event, Thames's action failed, and all the characters from the Video Show were released for use. Inept TV handyman Reg Prescott became another firm viewers' favourite, as each week he managed graphically and bloodily to injure himself with tools whilst attempting to demonstrate DIY tips.

Brazilian-born Cleo Rocos, a glamorously curvaceous co-star, featured heavily in all the BBC series and became one of Everett's closest friends. She was often portrayed wearing little more than frilly underwear and high heels, and her figure was used to great comic effect as a focus for drooling, lascivious men.

Some fans feel that the move to the more traditional BBC watered down the anarchic spirit of his previous work. The corporation assumed much tighter control over both content and production, and it is felt that this removed some of the spontaneity which had become a hallmark of the Thames series. However, the series performed equally well in the ratings, and the characters and their catchphrases endure 20 years later.

Quiz shows

Everett hosted two short lived quiz shows late in his career, Brainstorm [1], and Gibberish [2].

Friends and guests

Everett was very popular with his peers, and many major stars of television, radio, and pop music counted him as a friend. This led to many celebrity guest appearances across all his television work. Cliff Richard happily lampooned his clean image many times, as did Lionel Blair. Terry Wogan - a long-time colleague from the early days at Radio 1 - made numerous appearances on both Thames and the BBC shows, as did Billy Connolly. Other stars who parodied themselves included Rod Stewart, ABBA, The Police and Freddie Mercury.

Political controversy

In the 1983 election campaign, the Young Conservatives invited Kenny to their conference in an attempt to attract the youth vote. Egged on by film director Michael Winner, Kenny bounded onto the stage, wearing the enormously oversized foam rubber hands familiar from his mock-evangelical character Brother Lee Love. He shouted slogans like "Let's bomb Russia!" and "Let's kick Michael Foot's stick away!" (Michael Foot was the elderly leader of the Labour party.)

His support for the Conservatives dated back to the late 1960s when the Conservatives, then in opposition, criticised the Labour government's treatment of the 'pirate' stations.

Bloodbath at the House of Death

Everett made one foray into film with 1984's Bloodbath at the House of Death, a spoof of Hammer horror films penned by Everett's usual writing partners Barry Cryer and Ray Cameron (who also directed the film). Vincent Price featured as the villain, credited only as the "Sinister Man", and a number of other popular comedians and actors also appeared, most notably Pamela Stephenson Connolly, Gareth Hunt and Don Warrington. Several regulars from Everett's television series also appeared.

The film was not a great success, despite winning "Best Science-Fiction Film" at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film (tied with Videodrome), and Everett did not make a successful transition to film star.

Later career and death

The radio shows continued in the same vein and were as popular as ever, but by the late 1980s the TV show format had run its course, and Everett's personal life was becoming increasingly complicated. He had married the singer Lee 'Lady Lee' Middleton (Billy Fury's former girlfriend) in 1966 ("Kenny proposed to me under a magnolia tree in Fulham", she later recalled); but by 1979 they had separated, and Everett came out as gay. He launched himself into the London gay club scene, and could often be seen in London club Heaven (then a very popular clubbing destination) on Saturday nights. He was an active campaigner for gay rights ("I...FOUGHT...for people like you, and I never got one!" he said in 1979 to David Bowie, who was guesting on Everett's show.) He seemed never to fully come to terms with his sexuality, however, and suffered bouts of severe depression.

By the 1990s Everett's health was declining. He died of an AIDS-related illness on 4 April 1995, at the age of only 50.

Miscellany

• Everett was the announcer on the original version of ATV's "big box game" Celebrity Squares which ran on ITV from 1976 to 1979.
• Everett is often cited as having coined the term 'Beeb' to refer to the BBC, although in point of fact the corporation was occasionally referred to as the "Beeb Beeb Ceeb" in the seminal 1950s radio comedy series The Goon Show, and it is possible that Everett borrowed the expression from there. The term is still in popular use; the BBC have used 'the Beeb' themselves (previously using beeb.com and named their digital channel for young children CBeebies).
• In 1973, Everett provided the voice of the cat 'Charley' in the Charley Says animated series of public information films.
• In 1982, he said "When England was a kingdom, we had a king. When we were an empire, we had an emperor. Now we're a country ... and we have Margaret Thatcher." This remark reportedly led to the non-renewal of his contract with BBC Radio 2.
• In 1980, the band Fox regrouped to record the theme music for Everett's show, "Electro People".

Quotes and catchphrases

• "It's all done in the best PAH-SIBBLE taste!" -- regular punchline uttered by character 'Cupid Stunt', accompanied by her swapping her crossed legs over in the most vigorous way possible.
• "'Ello my leetle chickadees" (and variations, in heavy French accent) -- introductory remark uttered by character 'Marcel Wave'.
• "Round 'em up, put 'em in a field, and BOMB THE BASTARDS!" -- all-purpose solution to any perceived social problem, declared by 'Marvin Bombthebastards', a handgun-waving US General with immense shoulders (equipped with retractable cannon) and chest to support many medals.
• "Brother, Brother, Brother Lee Love!" -- gospel-style sung introduction to huge-handed US minister 'Brother Lee Love', whose frenetic sermons called for the 'congregation' to echo the last two syllables of some sentences, with amusing (and occasionally very rude) results.
• "I hate pornography ... I haven't even got a pornograph!" -- 'Angry of Mayfair'.
• 'This morning, I spilled coffee all over my wife's dressing gown! Serves me right for wearing it! -- 'Angry of Mayfair'.
• "Colonel Muriel Kleen here, of the Campaign for Nice Things on Television!' (A couple of bars of 'Hallelujah!' from the 'Hallelujah Chorus'.) 'We believe in goodness, truth and beauty! We believe that Julie Andrews should get her own series, and that Joan Collins should get her own breakfast! And remember: you don't have to watch this endless display of perversitude and fleshybollery! You've all got a knob there! SO USE IT!" -- 'Angry of Mayfair.'
• (Electronic rendition of Bach's choral prelude Wachet Auf) -- (possibly performed by transsexual Walter/Wendy Carlos) musical accompaniment to all sketches featuring 'Maurice Minor', parody of French mime artist Marcel Marceau.
• "Ello, I'm Gizzard Puke, mugger to the gentry, and anyone who says punk's dead, will be."
• "Some people think these soles are crêpe. I don't think they're that bad."
• "Me faddah ust'a yell at me so much when I was a kid, I ust'a think me name was 'Shaddup!" - 'Sid Snot'
• "Great(Grate)!... doesn't it?"
• "It's a cock up at the OK Corral"

Shows hosted

The following is a list of the main shows Everett has presented:

Television

• Nice Time Granada Television - (1968)
• The Kenny Everett Explosion LWT - (1970)
• The Kenny Everett Video Show Thames Television - (1978-1980)
• The Kenny Everett Video Cassette Thames Television - (1981)
• The Kenny Everett Television Show BBC - (1981 - 1987)
• Brainstorm BBC -(1988)
• Gibberish BBC - (1992)

Radio

• Kenny & Cash Show Radio London - (1964-1965)
• Kenny Everett Show Radio Luxembourg - (1966)
• Midday Spin BBC Radio 1 - (1967)
• Everett is Here BBC Radio 1 Saturdays 10am-12midday (1968-1970)
• Kenny Everett Show BBC Local Radio (1971)
• Kenny Everett Show BBC Radio 1 Sundays 1-3pm (1972)
• Kenny Everett Show Capital Radio (1973)
• Breakfast Show Capital Radio (1974-1980)
• Kenny Everett Show BBC Radio 2 Saturdays 11am-1pm (1981-1983)
• Kenny Everett Show Capital Radio Saturdays 11am-1pm (1983-1988)
• Weekday Afternoons Capital Gold 1-4pm (1988-1991)
• Weekday mid-mornings Capital Gold 9am-12midday (1991-1994)

External links

General links

• Kenny Everett at the Internet Movie Database
• Screenonline - Kenny Everett
• Everettweb tribute site
• Extract from 'The Custard Stops at Hatfield'
• Kenny Everett at findagrave
• Kenny Everett's World's Worst Wireless Show

Radio links

• Radio Rewind - Kenny Everett
• The Radio Academy Hall of Fame - Kenny Everett
• Pirate Radio Hall of Fame E to G
• Aircheck Legends - Kenny Everett
• kennyeverett.co.uk tribute site
• Radio London Kenny Everett Tribute Pages
• Kenny Everett's World's Worst Wireless Show, complete details of these famous shows
• Kenny Everett's Radio Days on BBC 7 Listen Again

Television links

• Television Heaven - The Kenny Everett Video Show
• Nostalgia Central - The Kennny Everett Video Show
• BBC Everett Cult TV site