#mr humphries

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Are You Being Served

Art by Quinlyn Nixon

[rebecca2525]

Are You Being Served? — Episode "Top Hats and Tails"

"You have a very positive lead, Captain Peacock!"

[johnthestitcher]

Mr. Humphries - Gay Icon of the 1970s

RIP John Inman!

Happy Pride!

[ewanspence]

In my ‘five podcast episodes you should consider listening to’ I talked about the joy of finding and listening to podcasts that help me explore new areas. I’m working through a backlog of episodes - I think everyone has a backlog of podcast episodes that they need to listen to  - and I want to highlight my latest 'Sewers of Paris' episode.

'Sewers of Paris' talks about "the books, movies, tv, music and more that have changed the lives of gay men." Each week, a guest plucks a piece of entertainment from their past, and answers the question: how did it change your life?

Host Matt Baume’s interview with Professor Paul Baker touches on Polari, Are You Being Served, and Section 28 as the headline beats; but there’s a lot of camp, sitcoms, drag, and a dash of Diana Rigg.

You can listen to the episode here, and follow Sewers of Paris here.

[alwayseclecticobject]

my "hear me out" cake

there's like. 3 rollercoasters on here

[horrorsequel]

Are You Being Served? (28 Mar, 1974) unisex or bisexual?

[marypickfords]

The Stalls of Barchester (Lawrence Gordon Clark, 1971)

“James had a genius for imbuing objects from the past with implacable malignity. The bronze whistle in “Whistle and I’ll Come to You”, the Saxon Crown in “A Warning to the Curious”, the Mappa Mundi in “Mr. Humphry’s Inheritance” and so on. Hitchcock claimed that his “Macguffin” could be anything or nothing so long as people were prepared to kill for it, and perhaps that’s why some of his films are compelling but ultimately empty constructs. James’ objects are truly frightening because they resonate with our deepest and oldest fears about what lurks in the darkness outside the comfort and light of the tribal campfire. A whistle blown could summon who knows what fears, or perhaps a terrifying storm, a crown buried in a coastal barrow was a sacred guardian against invasion and to remove it earns the ultimate punishment, and when Haynes sits in the Archdeacon’s throne in the choir stalls for the first time he puts his hand on the carved figure of a crouching cat that adorns his armrest, and his fate is sealed.” — Lawrence Gordon Clark, quoted in Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television (2017), edited by Kier-La Janisse.

[carrymelikeimcute]

I'm so emotional about the Ghosts finale/xmas special guys.

Button House not only restored to all its glory, but FULL of people. Full of televisions, music, conversations to spy on, audiobooks, people to watch. An endless stream of entertainment and company for the ghosts. So much LIFE for them to witness.

And people are going to die there, you just know it. So there will be new ghosts, potentially, for them to meet and get to know.

Kitty joining in the sing-a-longs in the on-site nursery and dancing at 50th wedding anniversaries, discos and kids parties.

Robin getting to do his zumba classes and hang out with the lads on stag-dos, tagging along on pheasant shoots and playing giant chess with Julian in the garden.

Julian having real life golfers to follow around, not to mention the hen parties and dirty weekends (cheeky!). Also, his family might visit, or a party conference!

Fanny meeting all the dogs people bring along, attending all the big events and rating the decorations and the outfits like Joan Rivers with The Captain. Seeing female CEOs and innovators treat themselves to a weekend of pampering and being glad that they get to be independent and clever as she never got to be.

Pat seeing the successive generations of boys running riot in the grounds while their parents are on the course/in the spa. Watching them build camps and play soldiers - his family visiting the hotel for their milestones, even little Pat's wedding.

Thomas watching the night receptionist work on his novel, being there for the launch when it gets published. Watching the soap operas of other people's love affairs and developing crushes and head-canons for the staff.

The Captain attending staff briefings and chasing the manager around so he can give orders and see people follow them. Kicking it into overdrive for weddings and big events. Losing his mind when the weather man from TV comes to stay for a week and chokes on a piece of steak.

Humphry's head balanced on the reception desk so he can do his 'Mr Cheese' roleplay and keep an eye on the lobby, listening to all the staff gossip and practicing his French on foreign guests.

[rebecca2525]

[johnthestitcher]

Pride Month is Coming!

Ten Minutes of Mr. Humphries Being a Gay Icon of the 70s

R.I.P. John Inman

[woodelf68]

Not sure if I saw every single one, but it was on every weeknight on PBS for years, I saw a LOT. And then there was the sequel where they go live in the country.

[cool-person-yey]

you know the rules and so do I, tmagp notes 24!

• only got home now. I'm worried abt the double meaning in the titler. and the cannibalism too ig.

• * ominous music* my beloved. that's just what I needed after a long day of doing things

• Lena!!!!

• Gwen!!

• girl no. you are not ready.

• ok Lena must be feeling atleast a bit satisfied at hearing Gwen admit that

• that hummf lmaoo

• Norris!!! I missed u bbg

• oh a recording!

• orbs,,,,,

• there was demonic possession in the tws so um.

• that's not how a baby's tongue is supposed to be ma'am

• strange sounds huh

• I sure do wonder who's doing that.

• Celia!! our Celia?!?

• I sure do wonder why the demonic baby likes her.

• hm. maybe he's feeding in another way. yk just a thought

• girl sleep please

• haha what

• what do you mean blood

• the shadow was wrong huh

• haha what is that

• that is not the sound a baby makes

• [IT IS NOT A BABY.] you don't say

• well that's disconcerting

• Celia! for real this time

• Sam!

• shaking answers out of people hmm

• Alice! oh things are complicated

• she looks actually pretty shaken

• good god im not used to actual good communication

• hmmm tape recorders

• hah of course you believe her Celia

• yes watch each other's backs please

• keep an eye huh. keep an eye.

• Hey Basira!

• would be a bigger surprise but I saw her name on the appearances things lol

• Mr and Mrs fisher ?

• oh a school

• oh Sam I love you and your awkwardness at social interactions so much

• another academic institution hmmm

• pfffft

• SAM COME ON MAN

• don't ask her about the spooky institute right off the bat

• CELIA NOT YOU TOO

• mrs banks huh. like my dear friend, Oliver banks?

• ah yes Humphry

• * ominous music*

Bye bye gamers, see y'all next week!

[kakusu-shipping]

Emile Hides - He/She

Agender - Fray/Panromantic - Asexual - Polyam

24 years old

Autistic - OCD - Anxiety

Age Regressor - Permakid - Age Locked

Proship - Self Ship - Fudanshi

Art Tag: Emile’s Arts

Writing Tag: Emile’s Writing

Edit Tag: Emile's Edits

This is my Ship and Let Ship blog where I post about ships I like, Self Ship as loudly as possible, write X Readers curated to me and me alone, and ramble about my F/Os in the tags of other people’s posts.

Full F/O list under the cut (Very Long)

Romantic F/Os

Koro-Sensei - Assassination Classroom

Toshinori Yagi (All Might) - My Hero Academia

Nezu - My Hero Academia

Mashirao Ojiro + Neito Monoma + Hitoshi Shinso - My Hero Academia

Taishiro Toyomitsu (Fatgum) + Kendo Rappa - My Hero Academia

Atsuhiro Sako (Mr. Compress) + Jin Bubaigawa (Twice) - My Hero Academia

All For One - My Hero Academia

Makarov Dreyar - Fairy Tail

Toma E. Fiore + Mako - Fairy Tail

Jackpot - Fairy Tail/OC

Zanoba Shirone - Jobless Reincarnation

Leuvis - The Promised Neverland

Kyube - Madoka Magica

Ginko - Mushishi

Takashi Morinozuka - Ouran Highschool Host Club

Kometani Chushaku + Naruse Shisuto - Komi Can't Communicate

Masato Hanzawa - Sasaki and Miyano/Hirano and Kagiura

Gonzaburo Taishiro - Sasaki and Miyano/Hirano and Kagiura

Franky Franklin - Spy X Family

Riri - Romantic Killer

Junta Hayami - Romantic Killer

Harunobu Nikaidou - March comes in like a Lion

Otsu + Minegishi - Manly Appetites

Muta - The Cat Returns

Scorpia - She-Ra

Bismuth + Peridot + Lapis - Steven Universe

Eda Clawthorn + Raine Whispers - The Owl House

Hieronymus Bump - The Owl House

Good Billions + Bad Billions - Kipo and the age of the Wonderbeasts

Tad Mullholand - Kipo and the age of the Wonderbeasts

Ruby Gloom + Skull Boy - Ruby Gloom

The Snork - Moominvalley 2019

Lynn Angel + Nick Hoult - All Saints Street

Teddy - Bob's Burgers

Cecil Heimerdinger - Arcane

Sisu - Raya and the Last Dragon

Zack Binspin - Moshi Monsters

Allhands - Drawga

Gyorik Rogdul + Grendan Highforge + Rosé - Drawtectives

James - Pokemon Anime

N - Pokemon Black/White

Lillie - Pokemon Sun/Moon

Molayne + Sophocles - Pokemon Sun/Moon

Guzma - Pokemon Masters

Milo + Gordie - Pokemon Sword/Shield

Jacq + Saguaro + Salvatore + Hassel - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Kieran + Drayton - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Hydreigon - Pokemon Black/White2

Chesnaught - Pokemon XY

Inteleon - Pokemon Sword/Shield

Armarouge (Charlos) - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Sirfetch'd - Pokemon Journeys

Captain Pikachu - Pokemon Horizons

Heracross - Monster Mind

Smeargle + Kecleon - Monster Mind

Mario + Luigi - Super Mario

C.Q. Cumber - Splatoon 2

Mr. Grizz - Splatoon 3

Jel La Fleur - Splatoon 3

Isabelle + Tom Nook + Redd + Brewster - Animal Crossing

Papyrus - Undertale

Vulkin - Undertale

Swatchlings - Deltarune

Viktor Humphries - Slime Rancher

Dick Gumshoe - Ace Attorney

Raymond Sheilds - Ace Attorney

Phineas Flilch - Ace Attorney

Hifumi Yamada + Celestia Ludenburgh - Danganronpa 1

Teruteru Hanamura - Danganronpa 2

Toko Fukawa + Genocide Jack - Danganronpa UDG

Ryoma Hoshi + Gonta Gokuhara - Danganronpa V3

Monokuma - Danganronpa series

Shirokuma - Danganronpa series

Kyle Klim (K) + Luna - Virtue's Last Reward

GTM-CM-G-OLM - Virtue's Last Reward

Kazuaki Nanaki + Hitori Uzune - Hatoful Boyfriend

The King - Hatoful Boyfriend

Zenyatta - Overwatch

Ramattra - Overwatch

B.O.B. + Bars - Overwatch

Maximillien - Overwatch

Lynx17 - Overwatch

Iggy - Overwatch

Toy Freddy + Funtime Freddy - Five Nights at Freddy's AU

Nightmare Fredbear - Five Nights at Freddy's 4

Sun - Five Nights at Freddy's Security Breach

Leshy - Inscryption

Magnificus - Inscryption

Theodore DaCabe (The New Prince) - Chzo Mythos

Anna (The Huntress) - Dead by Daylight

Al-An - Subnautica Below Zero

Candyman - Lethal League

Gabocha - Suikoden 2

Richmond - Suikoden 2

Neclord - Suikoden 2

Luca Blight - Suikoden 2

Andras - Hell's Library

Jill Wolcott - Wayward Children

Reed + Leigh - Middlegame

Queerplatonics+

Aguri Yukimura - Assassination Classroom - Queerplatonic

Mei Hatsume - My Hero Academia - Queerplatonic

Reedus Jonah - Fairy Tail - Queerplatonic

Pantherlily - Fairy Tail - Queerplatonic

Peridot - Steven Universe - Queerplatonic

Nemona - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Queerplatonic

Raifort - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Queerplatonic

Bowser - Super Mario - Queerplatonic

Cobb - Animal Crossing - Queerplatonic

Genocider Syo (Genocide Jack/Jill) - Danganronpa UDG - Queerplatonic

Winston - Overwatch - Queerplatonic

Goobert - Inscryption - Queerplatonic

Neito Monoma + Hitoshi Shinso - My Hero Academia - Metamours

Naruse Shisuto - Komi Can't Communicate - Metamour

Minegishi - Manly Appetites - Metamour

Baron Humbert Gon Gikkingen - The Cat Returns - Metamour

Nick Hoult - All Saints Street - Metamour

Brassius - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Metamour

Princess Peach + Princess Daisy + Prince Peasely - Super Mario - Metamours

Shuu Iwamine - Hatoful Boyfriend - Metamour

Maugaloa Malosi - Overwatch - Friends with Benefits

Abra - Monster Mind - Friends with Benefits

Grovyle - Monster Mind - Friends with Benefits

Buizel - Monster Mind - Friends with Benefits

Rhydon - Monster Mind - Friends with Benefits

Sandslash - Monster Mind - Friends with Benefits

Lucario - Monster Mind - Friends with Benefits

Drayden - Pokemon Black/White - Trainer

Wilkstrom - Pokemon X/Y - Trainer

Salvatore - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Trainer

Clefairy - Pokemon Anime - Partner

Shiintonic - Pokemon Anime - Partner

Stoutland (Rusty) - Pokemon Horizons - Partner

Zweilious - Pokemon Horizons - Partner

Victini - Pokemon Black/White - Partner

Porygon - Pokemon Moon/Platinum - Partner

Mincinno (Nezu) - Pokemon Sword/Shield - Partner

Armarouge (Charlos) - Pokemon Scarlet - Partner

Koraidon - Pokemon Scarlet - Partner

Ogerpon (Clementine) - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Partner

Weavile - Pokemon - Partner

Pumpkinmon + Noblepumpmon - Digimon - Partner

Demidevimon + Devimon - Digimon - Partner

Pompompurin - Sanrio - Emotional Support Animal

Familials

Heatran + Entei - Pokemon - Parents

Marlo + Dora - Animal Crossing - Parents

Ginko + Adashino - Mushishi - Parents

Tony Mario - Mario Movie - Father

Mr. Grizz - Splatoon 3 - Father

William Afton - FNaF Series - Father

Ridley Wizen - Suikoden 2 - Father

Bumi - Avatar: The Last Airbender - Father

Singed - Arcane - Father

Frank Columbo - Columbo - Father

Opal - Pokemon Sword/Shield - Mother

Briar - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Mother

Beware - Pokemon Anime - Mother

Toriel - Undertale - Mother

Reaper Leviathan - Subnautica - Mother

Alder - Pokemon Black/White - Parental Figure

Toadsworth - Super Mario - Parental Figure

Mondatta - Overwatch - Parental Figure

Nezu - My Hero Academia - Parental Figure

Clavell - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Grandfather

Rizzo - Animal Crossing - Grandfather

Craig Cuttlefish - Splatoon - Grandfather

Kaoru Toudou - Baka and Test - Grandmother

Drayden - Pokemon Black/White - Uncle

Aang - Avatar: The Last Airbender - Uncle

Petri - Animal Crossing - Aunt

Elizabeth Afton - FNaF Series - Big Sister

Mitsuki Bakugo - My Hero Academia - Big Sister

Sekijiro Kan - My Hero Academia - Big Brother

Boris Wizen - Suikoden 2 - Big Brother

Micheal Afton - FNaF Series - Big Brother

Molayne - Pokemon Sun/Moon - Big Brother

Jelonzo - Splatoon - Big Brother

James Ratari - The Promised Neverland - Big Brother

Peter Ratari - The Promised Neverland - Little Brother

Victini - Pokemon Black/White - Little Brother

Arven - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Little Brother

Mirai Sasaki (Sir Nighteye) - My Hero Academia - Twin Brother

Kyoya Ootori - Ouran Highschool Host Club - Found Sibling

Cyrus - Pokemon Platinum - Found Sibling

Genji Shimada - Overwatch - Found Sibling

Ramattra - Overwatch - Found Sibling

Micheal Bleak - Wayward Children - Found Sibling

Mario + Luigi - Super Mario - Cousins

Ingo + Emmet - Pokemon Black/White - Cousins

Callie + Marie - Splatoon - Cousins

Sophocles - Pokemon Sun/Moon - Cousin

Samson - Animal Crossing - Cousin

Ira Blood - All Saints Street - Cousin

Cosmog (Nebby) - Pokemon Sun/Moon - Daughter

Amy Rose - Sonic Series - Daughter

Berdly - Deltarune - Daughter

Akito Sohma - Fruits Basket - Daughter

Julie - Jobless Reincarnation - Daughter

Jack + Jill Wolcott - Wayward Children - Daughters

Bede + Allister - Pokemon Sword/Shield - Sons

Pecharunt (Momotaro) - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet - Son

Joe Kido - Digimon - Son

Rabbid Luigi (Louis) - Mario + Rabbids - Son

Espio - Sonic Series - Son

Neito Monoma - My Hero Academia - Son

Inasa Yoarashi - My Hero Academia - Son

Ichiban Natsuno - Mix; Meisei Story - Son

Black Hat - Villainous - Son

The Collector - The Owl House - Son

Hastur - The Baby in Yellow - Son

Sam - Trick R' Treat - Child

Luz + King + Hunter - Kids

Bowser Jr. + Koopalings - Super Mario - Kids

The Lab Kids - Animal Crossing - Kids

Boss Salmonids - Splatoon 3 - Kids

Warriors of Hope - Danganronpa UDG - Kids

The Monokubs - Danganronpa V3 - Kids

Rosalina - Super Mario - Niece

Sonic + Tails - Sonic Series - Nephews

Jelfonzo - Splatoon - Nephew

Katsuki Bakugo - My Hero Academia - Nephew

Snufkin - Moominvalley 2019 - Nephew

Laxus Dreyar - Fairy Tail - Grandson

505 - Villainous - Grandson

Zanoba Shirone - Jobless Reincarnation - Student

The Squidbeak Splatoon - Splatoon - Family

The Rising Volt Tacklers - Pokemon Horizons - Family

Wonderworld Inhabitants - Balan Wonderworld - Family

Danganronpa V3 Cast - Danganronpa UDG - Family

The Fairy Tail Guild - Fairy Tail - Family

Class 3-E - Assassination Classroom - Family

Fatfam - My Hero Academia - Family

League of Villains - My Hero Academia - Family

The Sohmas - Fruits Basket - Family

The Evil Slasher Orphanage - Various - Family

Besties

Toshimitsu Kubo - Baka and Test

Shoko Kirishima - Baka and Test

Irina Jelavic + Tadaomi Karasuma - Assassination Classroom

UA Teachers - My Hero Academia

Lucy's Celestial Spirits - Fairy Tail

Samuel - Fairy Tail

Yuuko Ichihara + Kimihiro Watanuki + Shizuka Domeki - XXXHolic

The Host Club - Ouran Highschool Host Club

Ritsu Sohma - Fruits Basket

Makoto Katai - Komi Can't Communicate

Miyano Yoshikazu + Sasaki Shuumei - Sasaki and Miyano

Hanazawa Masato - Sasaki and Miyano

Kuei - Avatar: The Last Airbender

Entrapta + Hordak - She-Ra

Grime + Sasha - Amphibia

Iris + Misery + Frank and Len - Ruby Gloom

The Joxter - Moominvalley

Flug Syls - Villainous

Jessie + Meowth + Wobbuffet - Pokemon Anime

Cheren + Bianca - Pokemon Black/White

Hau + Gladion - Pokemon Sun/Moon

Dendra + Miriam - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Team Star - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

The Leauge Club - Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Grimer - Monster Mind

Elvin Gadd - Super Mario

Metal Mario + Gooigi - Super Mario AU

Doctor Mario + Mr. L - Super Mario AU

Pearl + Marina - Splatoon

Spyke - Splatoon

The Mad Scientist Team - Animal Crossing

Chara - Undertale

Kris - Deltarune

Chihiro Fujisaki + Kiyotaka Ishimaru + Mondo Owada - Danganronpa 1

Kazuichi Soda - Danganropa 2

Ultimate Imposter + Ryoma Mitarai - Danganronpa 3

Hiroko Hagakura + Yuta Asahina + Taichi Fujisaki - Danganronpa UDG

The Nightmare Animatronics - Five Nights at Freddy's 4

Bonbon - Five Nights at Freddy's; Sister Location

Moon - Five Nights at Freddy's; Security Breach

Helpi - Five Nights at Freddy's; Security Breach RUIN

Huggy Wuggy + Mommy Long Legs - Poppy Playtime

Jamison Fawks (Junkrat) + Mako Rutledge (Roadhog) - Overwatch

Youngster Squad (All heroes in their early 20's) - Overwatch

Team Talon - Overwatch

Nina - Suikoden 2

Klaus Windmier + Sierra Mikain - Suikoden 2

Claire + Brevity + Hero + Ramiel - Hell's Library

Thankyou very much for Reading

Crush List - Fictonal Foe List - Agere List - Ship Lists - Kin List - Koro-Sensei's F/O List - All Dark Selfships

[honourablejester]

I know! I've just found it! Fantastic!

I've been watching a channel on youtube from a guy called Luke Humphris, and he does a lot of really amazing post-apocalyptic shorts and fantasy things, but then you find something in particular and it makes you just stop, you know?

This is such a fantastic sci-fi short. Yes, there's the cool horror of the things he sees out there, but then the last line hits and the deeper, underlying, mundane horror hits like sixteen times harder.

Also, I would watch that show.

[justforbooks]

In a spoof obituary written while he was still in his 40s, Barry Humphries, who has died aged 89, described himself as “an ancient comic” who had long since become “a self-indulgent and inaudible has-been” with no sense of progressive social relevance.

The Republic of Australia’s Art Squad had, he said, banned Humphries’ work in his native land. He had endured his last years of “exile and obloquy” in the tarnished splendour of “a Lusitanian spa”, where he occasionally gave clandestine performances to his dwindling, reactionary and hard-of-hearing followers. He was survived, the obituary concluded, “by innumerable wives, great-grandchildren and creditors”. It was a generally appropriate death notice of a satirist who delighted in guying both himself and his critics.

Never a genial humorist, there was always a whiff of sulphur in his comedy. “What is there to say about me?” he would gull his interviewers. “I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I am Church of England – I wash my car on Sundays. There must be some way you can jazz me up.” This was Humphries disguised as a candid interviewee. Being oneself, he would add, is a form of disguise.

There were many other disguises. One minute he would be a monocled Edwardian dandy or a mad scientist or a sad, sexless suburbanite. The next he would assume the mask of a beach bum or a shady art dealer or an embittered intellectual. But the most famous masks of all were his hellcat, the housewife megastar Dame Edna Everage, and his alcoholic political freeloader, professional adulterer and family man Sir Les Patterson.

Humphries grew up in suburban Melbourne, the son of Louisa (nee Brown) and Eric Humphries, a prosperous builder. He was an old boy of an exclusive school (or as he put it: “self-educated; attended Melbourne grammar”) and was briefly a student at Melbourne University. He began his extraordinary career on the back of an arts council bus touring the country towns of Victoria in 1954. It was his first professional role – the lovesick Duke Orsino to Zoe Caldwell’s Viola in Twelfth Night.

At each town, a patron of the arts, often the lady mayoress, would welcome the company over refreshments. Later, to help pass the time on the bus, Humphries invented a character to lampoon these municipal occasions. She was a drab, mousey and relentless hostess, simply named Edna.

The character was thought amusing enough to try out on stage in a Christmas revue in Melbourne. So it came about, on 13 December 1955, that Mrs (as she then was) Edna Everage made her stage debut – a volunteer hostess for the Melbourne Olympics, six feet tall, with brown basilisk eyes and a large chartreuse cabbage rose pinned on her charcoal suit. Her family – husband Norm, son Kenny, daughter Valmai, and mother (in a twilight home) – were given honourable mention, although their miserable fates in Edna’s triumphal backwash were not yet evident. Humphries, then as always, wrote the script.

The sketch was only a moderate success, but enough to point Humphries away from dramatic acting and towards the revue, music hall or cabaret. Also in 1955 he married Brenda Wright, and the following year they moved to Sydney to join a London-inspired theatre of “intimate revue”. He had found his metier, although Sydney satire was still too bland and self-congratulatory to satisfy his dandiacal rage. What Australia still needed, he said, was not mild satire, but a heroic act of espionage.

He finally found it playing the anguished Estragon in a 1958 production of Waiting for Godot. Humphries tramped the streets of Sydney in a sandwich board advertising the play, stuck Godot stickers on posts and windows, and scoured the scrap yards for trash with which he designed the stage sets. The audiences received the play with overwhelming indifference, but Humphries said it changed his life.

When he returned to revue, it was a new Humphries and a new Edna. She became at last a fully ad-libbing monologuiste, teasing if not insulting her audience. This was Edna’s breakthrough. She never looked back.

Australian theatre, however, remained in the doldrums. One critic said there was better theatre in a march-past of lifesavers on Bondi beach. In London, meanwhile, Beckett, Brecht, Osborne and Pinter were leading “the great uprising” from Sloane Square to Stratford East. Humphries found it irresistible.

His first marriage having come to an end after a couple of years, in 1959 Humphries married the ballet dancer Rosalind Tong, took a steamer to London – and into a decade of obscurity (and deepening alcoholism). He found some small parts, notably the undertaker in the original production of Lionel Bart’s Oliver! (1960). But his future fame lay with the one-man shows which at that point only his faithful Australian audiences would even contemplate. Three years after arriving in London, he returned to Melbourne and staged, in mid-1962, A Nice Night’s Entertainment, in which he again paraded Edna and her family, along with some of his other creations, from a tortured, expatriate-hating journalist to a nose-picking, guitar-toting beatnik.

The popular success of the show emboldened Humphries to try out his characters in London – at the Establishment Club in May 1963. It was a flop (or as he put it, “a highly successful five-minute season”). He returned to small roles, notably in Frank Norman’s A Kayf Up West, at Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Royal, Stratford East (1964). He also created for Private Eye the randy hobbledehoy Barry (“Bazza”) McKenzie, whose boozing, vomiting, urinating adventures, narrated in comic-strip form in a largely invented vernacular, reflected and mocked Humphries’ life in the swinging 60s. A film based on the character, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, was released in 1972, and a sequel, Barry McKenzie Holds His Own, two years later, with Humphries taking several small roles in each; in the latter, the Australian prime minister of the time, Gough Whitlam, apparently invests Edna as a dame.

Humphries did two more Australian tours before testing the water in London again. The first – in 1965 – was the triumphant Excuse I, which filled huge Australian theatres for weeks on end. No one-man show had ever done such business in Australia. It was on this tour that Humphries introduced the gladioli-hurling finale. The next tour – the 1968 Just a Show – introduced further variations. Edna now abandoned her dowdy appearance and came on stage smiling like a shark in a red Thai silk coat over a green dress. (“Am I overdressed?” she asked, looking around. “No, I don’t think so.”) She also began entering from the stalls chatting to her “possums”.

The enormous success of Just a Show encouraged him to try again in London – at the Fortune theatre. Once again the show was a flop. Harold Hobson dismissed it in one devastating sentence: “Most of Barry Humphries’ Just a Show will give pleasure to most Australians in London.”

The great turning point in Humphries’ career came in 1970 when he collapsed, an alcoholic wreck. That June, he was arrested in the streets of Melbourne’s leafy, affluent Camberwell and charged with being drunk and disorderly. A sensible magistrate adjourned the case for six months, ordering that charges be withdrawn if there were no further “incidents”. Humphries booked into a private hospital specialising in alcoholism. The man who for more than 10 years had started the day with a “grappling hook” (brandy and port) became an abstainer – and one of the great comedians of his age.

Still he had not yet conquered London. His Australian shows of the early 1970s (A Load of Old Stuffe, in 1971, and At Least You Can Say You’ve Seen It, in 1974) further refined Edna. She was now a name-dropping predator of radical views and treacly-trendy sentimentality, wearing glittering scarlet hotpants split to the groin. Soon critics were ransacking the dictionary for adjectives to describe her: psychotic, hysteric, Dionysiac, Amazonian, crypto-fascist, anally obsessed, a piranha, a hectoring Medusa, a blue-rinsed beast of Belsen, the Australian daughter of Torquemada.

As her curtain raiser, and to incarnate his disgust with alcoholism, Humphries also created a new character, half Sir Toby Belch, half Apeneck Sweeney – exuberant clown and revolting drunk, the cultural attache Sir Les Patterson. Staggering down the aisle, whisky in hand, he would invite his audience to give Edna the clap she so richly deserved.

In 1976 had come yet another assault on the West End, this time succeeding sensationally when Housewife-Superstar opened at the Apollo. It ran to packed houses for four months and almost 500,000 people saw it.

This was the first of Humphries’ enormously popular one-man shows in London, which included A Night With Dame Edna (1978-79) and Back With a Vengeance (for a number of seasons 1987-89 and 2005-07). Critics now acclaimed him as the greatest one-man showman since Charles Dickens and perhaps in the history of theatre.

He reached an even wider audience on British television, including two series of The Dame Edna Experience (1987-89) for LWT, a highly successful comedy chatshow in which Dame Edna interviewed celebrities – or delivered monologues interrupted by total strangers, as she herself described it. On both stage and screen a silent, doleful background presence was provided by her “New Zealand bridesmaid” Madge Allsop, played from 1987 to 2003 by Emily Perry.

The US took longer to conquer. In 1977, Humphries presented Housewife-Superstar at West 55th Street, off Broadway, where the critics dismissed it as “abysmal”, “pointless” and “like the litter on 42nd Street, something worth missing”. It was to be 20 years before the New York critics submitted to the Humphriesian tornado. In 2000, he was awarded a special Tony for the “theatrical event” of the year – a category invented for the occasion since his show, Dame Edna: The Royal Tour, was neither play nor musical. His success led to subsequent US tours, and a role in the TV comedy drama Ally McBeal in 2002.

In March 2012, Humphries announced a farewell stage show, Eat Pray Laugh!, which toured Australia, the UK and the US. It featured his best-known characters – Dame Edna, the stoic old convalescent Sandy Stone, and Sir Les Patterson (with a bit part for his brother, Gerard, a paedophile priest). But in an eerie finale, there were glimpses of other unforgettable creations: among them Lance Boyle, the trade union racketeer; Brian Graham, the 1960s Sydney executive and closet homosexual in navy blue shorts and long white socks; and Phil Philby, the lefty experimental film-maker.

Before the final curtain, Humphries himself took the stage, thanked the packed house, and ambiguously urged them to come to his final “farewell”. In a wave of emotion while the band belted out “Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye”, his tearful fans delivered a standing ovation.

In 2015, Humphries was artistic director of the Adelaide Cabaret festival, where, with characteristic panache, he announced that he had banned the use of the word “fuck”, which too many comedians, including some good ones, use in a desperate attempt to get a laugh. (Humphries himself had often done so.) The patrons, he said, would be relieved and delighted by his new espousal of censorship.

As intended, the resulting controversy generated enormous publicity for the festival, but nonetheless he continued “to defend to the ultimate my right to give deep and profound offence”. Remarks of his on transgenderism – including dismissing it as a fashion – led in 2019 to the Melbourne international comedy festival dropping his name from its major prize, the Barry award.

Perceptions of what was considered either cutting edge or decadent in the jazz-infused music of Germany of the 1920s and 30s had fascinated him since finding a bundle of sheet music in Melbourne. In Australia in 2013 and in London seasons in 2016 and 2018, he explored it in the show Weimar Cabaret, with the chanteuse Meow Meow.

Humphries was based permanently in London from the late 1960s, although he visited Australia frequently, maintaining good relations with fans, friends and family. “To live permanently in Australia,” he would say, “is rather like going to a party and dancing all night with one’s mother.” He collected art and books, describing himself as a “compulsive bibliomaniac”, and owned 25,000 volumes.

Over the years, he made recordings, wrote books, a novel and a volume of verse, and in 2007 he held an exhibition of his paintings in Melbourne. He had roles in several films, including Finding Nemo (2003) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012). He dismissed most his books as trifles and promotions, but not his autobiography More Please (1992), which is less a comic story of an actor’s life than a de profundis or an alcoholic’s almanac; it is also noteworthy for its piety towards his family. It won the JR Ackerley prize for autobiography in 1993. Humphries was the subject of several biographies, including John Lahr’s Dame Edna Everage and the Rise of Western Civilisation (1991), One Man Show (2010), by Anne Pender, and my own book, published in 1991, The Real Barry Humphries.

He was appointed OA in 1982 and CBE in 2007.

From his marriage to Rosalind, Humphries had two daughters, Tessa and Emily. In 1979, he married the artist Diane Millstead, and they had two sons, Rupert and Oscar. Following his third divorce, in 1990 he married Lizzie Spender, daughter of the poet Stephen Spender. She survives him, along with his four children.

🔔 John Barry Humphries, comic actor and scriptwriter, born 17 February 1934; died 22 April 2023

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