1
00:00:02,680 --> 00:00:06,480
This programme contains some
strong language.

2
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:10,400
And now you're going to meet a very
funny man. Welcome Dave Allen.

3
00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:13,960
Your host for the evening,
Mr Dave Allen.

4
00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:16,080
The other
fellow going across the road

5
00:00:16,080 --> 00:00:18,400
and every time
he puts his foot down...eeek...cars,

6
00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:21,200
eeek.. cars and the fellow goes up
and he says, "There's a zebra

7
00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:25,880
"crossing up there," and he says,
"Well, I hope he's having better
luck than me."

8
00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:28,360
Watson,
if the poison from this dart is not

9
00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:32,800
sucked from your posterior within
the next 15 seconds, you shall die.

10
00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:34,880
So what's going to happen?

11
00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:36,040
You're going to die.

12
00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:41,560
Before the show, probably outwardly,
I am very

13
00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:45,840
calm and very quiet, but inside it's
like a train terminal at rush hour -

14
00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:48,040
things all zinging and zinging

15
00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:51,040
and my words and what I'm going to
talk about.

16
00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:00,640
I often wonder whether God has
got a sense of humour.

17
00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:04,680
I hope he has.
I'm in trouble if he hasn't.

18
00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:05,920
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

19
00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:17,280
When you hear the name Dave Allen,
what do you think of first of all?

20
00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:19,560
Finger, alcohol, smoking.

21
00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:26,000
Very good-looking,
very Irish-looking.

22
00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:28,880
Sitting on a stool,
telling stories.

23
00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:32,120
Glass in his hand making people
laugh. You know.

24
00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:34,680
Priests, they want to get
married. I feel that if a priest

25
00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:37,360
meets another priest and they like
one another...

26
00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:40,240
For me, Dave Allen was constantly
full of mischief and outrage.

27
00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:43,520
You look
at the controversy that he sparked.

28
00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:45,720
I'm an atheist, thank God.

29
00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:49,160
I think that's how important he is,
as a comedian and a comic.

30
00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:50,920
He had a genuinely serious side

31
00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:53,440
and thought he could say
something important.

32
00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:54,920
My mum likes you.

33
00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,640
I meet people now and if they find
out I'm Dave Allen's son,

34
00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:01,160
they kind of grab me and they
go, "You don't understand.

35
00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:05,400
"Your dad made such a massive impact
on my parents' life, we loved him."

36
00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:10,280
As you know, my name is Dave Allen.

37
00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:13,080
I'd also like to tell you I come from
a little country in the world

38
00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:16,600
called Ireland, and, like most
Irishmen, I live in England.

39
00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:18,760
LAUGHTER

40
00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:21,200
And in Ireland we have a very old
saying in which we say,

41
00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:23,320
"When you can see the mountains
it's going to rain,

42
00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:26,600
"and when you can't see the
mountains, it's raining."

43
00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:30,000
Davey's grandmother
was a journalist, poet

44
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:34,200
and her sister, his great aunt
was the poet Katharine Tynan.

45
00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:36,920
I was born in the country.

46
00:02:36,920 --> 00:02:39,400
We lived in a kind of
big rambly house

47
00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:41,760
about five or six miles
outside Dublin.

48
00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:44,800
I know he and his brothers
liked to get up to mischief,

49
00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:47,520
playing and getting into trouble
and getting grubby.

50
00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:50,520
I was five years of age
when I started to smoke.

51
00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:54,640
My brothers, they smoked so I smoked
because I wanted to be like them.

52
00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:57,240
My parents would spend all
their time going, "Come on, come in,

53
00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:01,480
"Come on, in, in," and like a pack of
dogs, woof-woof, in we'd come,

54
00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:03,720
and we'd all sit there
and say, "What'll we do?"

55
00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:05,120
"Well, let's go out again"

56
00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:14,680
My father was known as the clown
prince of Irish journalism.

57
00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:19,080
He was a great character in
Dublin journalism.

58
00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:22,280
People say to me,
"Oh, your dad was a wonderful man."

59
00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:27,400
School was a huge
influence for Davey.

60
00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:30,520
He found the schools
he went to very authoritarian.

61
00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:36,640
Of course, there was, you know,
huge emphasis on Catholicism.

62
00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:39,120
It's extraordinary, I mean,
when you're seven years of age

63
00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,520
and you've got to go confess.

64
00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:45,280
And you get into this little dark box
and confess. I used to make them up.

65
00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:47,160
Kids were evil, weren't they?

66
00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:49,960
Had terrible impure thoughts
and had to be moulded into

67
00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:53,680
what the Church wanted them to be,
or teachers thought they should be.

68
00:03:56,880 --> 00:04:01,000
They hit me, they pulled my hair,
they punched me, they demeaned me

69
00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:05,640
and, I mean, now I kind of think
about it and I'm quite angry

70
00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:09,040
because none of them were qualified
teachers. None of them.

71
00:04:09,040 --> 00:04:12,200
Luckily enough, he was bright
enough to question it,

72
00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:15,800
and he continued to question it
and he always questioned it.

73
00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:19,240
I was educated by the Carmelite Nuns,
the Gestapo in drag.

74
00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:21,720
LAUGHTER

75
00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:23,520
'Have you ever burnt yourself?'

76
00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:25,720
Yeah, I burnt myself on the candle.

77
00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:26,880
'What was it like?'

78
00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:28,560
Very sore.

79
00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:31,200
'Can you imagine that pain
all over your body?

80
00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:33,400
'That's what will happen to you
if you do not love God.

81
00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:34,720
'What do you think of that?'

82
00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:36,520
I love him. I love him!

83
00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:38,160
LAUGHTER

84
00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:41,040
I think what was going on with
Davey at school was completely

85
00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:44,040
the opposite of what was
going on in his home life.

86
00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:47,120
It was very open hearted
and open minded.

87
00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,160
My father was quite a story teller.

88
00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:54,000
One of our great joys on a cold
night was to have a big fire

89
00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:57,080
and for him to tell stories,
and at the end of the story we were

90
00:04:57,080 --> 00:05:00,480
sent off into this rattling house -
frightened the shit out of you.

91
00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:09,320
I have extraordinary dreams too about
my father, where I find him.

92
00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:13,800
And he is now younger than I,

93
00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:16,360
because I'm past him now,

94
00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:19,720
and I always ask him why he went
away, why did he go away?

95
00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:22,000
And he has some sort of reason
that he had to go.

96
00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:23,840
He couldn't tell anybody
but he had to go.

97
00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:27,920
Losing Cullie, I mean, couldn't
have been more momentous.

98
00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:31,600
The effect for the family was huge,
and their life became very insecure

99
00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:33,720
financially
and in every other way.

100
00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:36,840
When Davey was about 16,
the family came to England.

101
00:05:39,840 --> 00:05:43,800
I think as he grew up it was almost
taken for granted that he'd follow

102
00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:46,400
in his father's footsteps
and be a journalist.

103
00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:50,880
I came to England,
hoping that within six months

104
00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:55,360
I would be the top of the pile on
Fleet Street and have my own by-line

105
00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:58,240
and would be the great reporter.

106
00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:03,240
But the gentlemen who sit
at the editorials table

107
00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:06,280
didn't quite agree with me
so I went to Butlins.

108
00:06:06,280 --> 00:06:08,760
# Butlins, Butlins

109
00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:10,960
# Butlins by the sea

110
00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:15,240
# There's a holiday that's full
of fun for Mum and Dad and everyone

111
00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:16,880
# At Butlins by the sea. #

112
00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:19,920
for the summer.

113
00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:21,760
# See a show if you want to. #

114
00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:24,720
The Red Coats used to
put a show on themselves.

115
00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:26,640
Kind of a review type thing.

116
00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:29,200
# At Butlins by the sea. #

117
00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:32,920
They stole bits here
and sketches there and odd songs

118
00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:35,760
and we wrote a little song
and things like that.

119
00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:39,000
And I was in it.
I was in some of the sketches.

120
00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:43,560
And one night I ran on stage to
get into this sketch and I caught

121
00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:47,760
my arm in the tab or the
curtain pull, the rope on the side

122
00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:51,240
which pulls the rope without knowing
it and I ran straight on stage

123
00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:55,880
and this thing came to an end and
just threw me right up in the air.

124
00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:58,880
I mean, I did a total flip
and landed on my face

125
00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:04,040
and the audience laughed for two
minutes solid and everybody on stage

126
00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:08,280
laughed for two minutes and everyone
backstage laughed for two minutes.

127
00:07:08,280 --> 00:07:10,720
And I didn't feel any pain
because of the laughter,

128
00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:13,680
but once the laughter was over
I felt enormous pain,

129
00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:16,360
and people were saying to me,
"You've got to keep that in"

130
00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:19,520
and week after week I would try
and do it and it never worked.

131
00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:25,560
Then they gave me a kind of five or
six minutes spot on the Red Coat Show

132
00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:27,760
and that was really
where it developed.

133
00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:35,480
I suppose there was a kind of
dormant fool lying in me,

134
00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:39,360
and then when the summer season came
to an end I decided that

135
00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:44,240
I would go to working men's clubs
which they have in England

136
00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:48,080
and try and earn a living at it

137
00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:51,440
and I starved for about two years
but I was learning.

138
00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:08,400
My surname is Tynan O'Mahony
and I'd arrive at places

139
00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:12,520
and it would be
Dave O'Malley or Maloney.

140
00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:14,680
I, by then, had an agent,
Richard Stone,

141
00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:17,960
and I was sitting
looking at his list of clients

142
00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:21,160
and there was nobody with an A
so I thought, well, if I had

143
00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:24,240
a surname beginning with A
I'd be top of the list.

144
00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:28,720
So I changed my name to Allen,
so I'm stuck with it now.

145
00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:30,760
# Walking back to happiness

146
00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:32,880
# Whoop-ah, oh, yeah-yeah

147
00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:35,480
# Said goodbye to loneliness

148
00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:38,280
# Whoop-ah, oh, yeah-yeah

149
00:08:38,280 --> 00:08:41,160
# I never knew I'd miss you. #

150
00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:43,240
He had a real affinity
with the Beatles.

151
00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:45,160
Coming from Liverpool,

152
00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:49,320
they had an affinity with Irish
culture and Irish wit anyway,

153
00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:51,360
and so there was
a natural connection.

154
00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:52,840
That was an amazing experience

155
00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:56,520
and it drew him into the pop culture
of the 1960s.

156
00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:03,280
I worked with
Sophie Tucker in South Africa.

157
00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:11,320
I meet this amazing woman.
She was absolutely extraordinary...

158
00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:14,400
# I'm the last of
the red-hot mamas. #

159
00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:17,640
..and she advised me
to go to Australia.

160
00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:21,240
Without me knowing, she wrote to the
agent in Australia and said,

161
00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:26,000
"I've seen a young comic and I think
he's quite good and if you ever have

162
00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:28,840
"a chance to offer some work give
him a chance. I think he's worth it."

163
00:09:33,280 --> 00:09:35,920
He's just completed a tour
with Sophie Tucker

164
00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:37,560
and he's a very funny man.

165
00:09:37,560 --> 00:09:39,680
Welcome, Dave Allen!

166
00:09:39,680 --> 00:09:41,040
APPLAUSE

167
00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:44,080
Thank you very much. Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen.

168
00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:49,760
Morning, chaps.

169
00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:52,800
LAUGHTER

170
00:09:56,040 --> 00:10:00,120
Some of us are going to lose limbs,
some of us are going to lose life

171
00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:03,360
but I am not afraid.

172
00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:06,200
One of the soldiers stepped out
and he said, "Why is that, sir?"

173
00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:07,480
He said, "I'm not going."

174
00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:14,120
Stop, stop, don't.

175
00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:15,120
Don't stop.

176
00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:19,200
'The company or A television
company offered me

177
00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:21,640
'a pilot show for a chat show.'

178
00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:28,120
Ladies and gentlemen,
how about a great big warm welcome,
please, for Miss Rose Takali.

179
00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:31,400
'And they wanted to do
a kind of Tonight type show

180
00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:34,400
'like a Jack Paar
American-type chat show.

181
00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:39,280
'They gave me a pilot
and it took off.'

182
00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:42,560
Is there any story
behind the missing finger?

183
00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:43,760
Oh, yes!

184
00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:46,840
There is a little. Shouldn't put your
fingers where they oughtn't to be.

185
00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:48,880
'It had an open end so it meant that

186
00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:52,520
'if it was going well at 90 minutes,
you didn't chop into it,

187
00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:55,200
'you finished maybe 10 or 15
minutes longer

188
00:10:55,200 --> 00:11:01,880
'but it was, it was great
because it was live
and you had to learn quickly.'

189
00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:04,720
He was an iconoclast,
and he was an individual,

190
00:11:04,720 --> 00:11:07,120
and he had his own view
of the world.

191
00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:09,200
The Australians are iconoclastic,

192
00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:11,280
they don't take rules from
anybody very much

193
00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:14,640
and so Dave, of course,
of all things, they loved him.

194
00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:15,720
Where were you born?

195
00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:17,560
In Ireland. Whereabouts in Ireland?

196
00:11:17,560 --> 00:11:19,160
A little place called Dublin.

197
00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:22,360
What colour pyjamas do you wear?

198
00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:23,800
None.

199
00:11:23,800 --> 00:11:26,040
Oh, I don't know!

200
00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:30,480
'There was always games going on,

201
00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:35,400
'the crew had a rubber python

202
00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:37,840
'and suddenly this thing
comes from nowhere.

203
00:11:40,280 --> 00:11:42,440
'A four-letter word
came out, everything,

204
00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:44,520
'it's as close as I ever came
to shitting myself.'

205
00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:50,840
I went to Australia

206
00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:54,480
and we played,
we played all the theatres

207
00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:55,880
that Dave had played

208
00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:57,880
and I used to say rather garishly

209
00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:00,360
he's a great friend of mine,
you know.

210
00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:02,320
Well, then they all went raving mad.

211
00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:04,200
I didn't know what he was,

212
00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:07,000
who he was or why there was...
I was only six.

213
00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:29,680
My first memory of him was

214
00:12:29,680 --> 00:12:32,240
seeing both my mother
who I adored...

215
00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:37,080
..and David embracing

216
00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:40,200
and seeing my mother happy for
the first time in a couple of years.

217
00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:44,840
For as long as he was there
making my mother happy I was happy.

218
00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:47,520
Looking back it was obvious

219
00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:50,880
that they were a sort of mini Airfix
golden couple.

220
00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:57,480
He books into a hotel,
comes down to see the desk clerk.

221
00:12:57,480 --> 00:13:00,000
He said, "I'd like to change my room"
and the fella said, "Why?"

222
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:02,720
He said, "I don't like it."
He said, "Well what's wrong with it?"

223
00:13:02,720 --> 00:13:03,920
He said, "It's on fire."

224
00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:07,600
Thank you.

225
00:13:13,720 --> 00:13:17,960
'The BBC offered me a series with
Val Doonican as a resident comedian,

226
00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:20,600
'which was exactly what I needed.'

227
00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:23,240
And I remember as a kid watching him
on the Val Doonican show.

228
00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:25,880
He had about five minutes a week
and he made an instant impact,

229
00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:28,560
people talking about him because
he wasn't like anything else.

230
00:13:28,560 --> 00:13:31,240
If it wasn't for the fact
that you wear different clothes

231
00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:34,160
and you are obviously about
ten years older I would have...

232
00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:35,960
I would have sworn you were
Dave Allen.

233
00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:38,480
Now, you're not, you're not related
to him in any way are you?

234
00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:39,880
No. No not at all.

235
00:13:44,560 --> 00:13:48,400
'I would say that would be the break
in English television for me.'

236
00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:09,880
# Tiptoe through the window

237
00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:12,040
# By the window... #

238
00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:13,000
Mr Henry Cooper.

239
00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:23,960
All the way around!

240
00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:28,200
And they pay you money for that?

241
00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:36,280
They say that the only way
to get out of a car under water

242
00:14:36,280 --> 00:14:39,240
is to allow the pressure on
the inside of the car

243
00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:41,520
to be exactly the same
as the outside, is that right?

244
00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:42,880
That's absolutely true, yes.

245
00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:47,320
'The car thing was actually quite
an interesting piece of television,

246
00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:49,360
'it was experimentation,

247
00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:50,760
'it was live television,

248
00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:53,160
'it was necessary
to do things like that.

249
00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:56,680
'So we got a big tank,
we got a glass tank,

250
00:14:56,680 --> 00:14:58,200
'we got underwater cameras

251
00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:01,240
'but we couldn't get a cameraman
so we had to strap them in the back

252
00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:05,040
'and we dropped this car
into the tank.

253
00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:11,760
'And we had two air tanks
just in case something happened

254
00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:12,920
'so we could breathe.

255
00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:21,640
'And the car is filling up with water
and I tapped one of the tanks

256
00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:23,760
'and one went "bong"

257
00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:26,320
'and the other one went "bing"!

258
00:15:26,320 --> 00:15:28,320
'They'd only put one full tank in

259
00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:32,280
and I thought, "Jesus,
if this goes wrong you're going
to see the real underwater fight."'

260
00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:38,520
OK, there's quite
a bit of water coming in now.

261
00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:44,200
OK, I think we'll start to see them
get out in just a few moments.

262
00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:02,280
'I got quite a lot of letters

263
00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:04,600
'and I still keep in touch
with somebody in Glasgow.

264
00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:08,480
'They'd taken their son to Ayr one
day and they'd parked on the harbour

265
00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:10,800
'and they'd gone out
to get an ice cream

266
00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,960
'and they turned around,
the car had gone into the harbour

267
00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:16,840
'and there were people diving in
left right and centre

268
00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:19,560
'and suddenly the kid popped up
and they said, you know,

269
00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:21,160
' "How did you manage to do that?

270
00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:23,600
'And he said,
"I've seen Dave Allen do it." '

271
00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:26,360
Well, ladies and gentlemen,
that does complete the show,

272
00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:28,280
I hope you have learned
something tonight,

273
00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:31,800
I don't mean that you're all going
to go driving off and go into a river

274
00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:33,960
but if you do ever, by chance,
go into a river

275
00:16:33,960 --> 00:16:37,400
allow the car to fill up with water

276
00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:39,080
and stay there for a long time.

277
00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:41,760
Goodnight and may God be with you.

278
00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:01,840
There was Morecambe and Wise,
there was The Two Ronnies.

279
00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:04,240
And they were the big vehicles,
I suppose, at the time.

280
00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:07,280
The Morecambe and Wise shows,
The Two Ronnies shows,

281
00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:10,720
they were sort of quite traditional
entertainment structured shows.

282
00:17:13,200 --> 00:17:15,400
But Dave Allen at Large
was a little bit different.

283
00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:17,240
Because of the nature of his comedy

284
00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:19,880
you had to construct
a different shape of show.

285
00:17:22,120 --> 00:17:24,480
There was a special thing,
"Dave Allen's on tonight",

286
00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:27,760
"Dave Allen, oh, I love Dave Allen",
"Oh, Dave Allen's on tonight."

287
00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:29,480
He just sat there.

288
00:17:30,720 --> 00:17:33,680
Attractive, beautifully Irish,

289
00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:35,640
and told the most outrageous jokes.

290
00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:39,240
Two Irish fellas open a bar
and nobody ever comes in.

291
00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:42,640
Nobody comes in to drink

292
00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:44,840
and one says,
"I think we'll open a brothel."

293
00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:49,040
He said, "Ah, that'll be no good,
if you can't get them to drink beer

294
00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:51,360
"how the hell are we going
to get them to drink broth?"

295
00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:53,600
You enjoyed seeing how
much your parents enjoyed it

296
00:17:53,600 --> 00:17:55,680
because as a kid you
didn't understand a lot of it,

297
00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:58,880
you wouldn't get the bits
your parents were howling
with laughter about.

298
00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:00,520
You'd say,
"What's funny about that?"

299
00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:02,320
They said,
"I'll tell you when you're older."

300
00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:04,880
I'd sit there laughing, my
English dad would sit there laughing

301
00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:06,880
and my Irish mum was
crossing herself furiously.

302
00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:15,480
It would start with the gentle
slow one at the start

303
00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:18,400
but by the end it was like
you could power small farms

304
00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:20,640
with the energy created
by my mum crossing herself.

305
00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:26,760
I think Dave Allen at Large
was a fairly simple format really,

306
00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:30,560
it was about half Dave chatting
and half sketches

307
00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:33,400
and I think that was the basic idea

308
00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:38,000
and the linking of the sketches
was very sketchy.

309
00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:41,480
Oh, for God's sake, don't do it!

310
00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:43,680
ORGAN MUSIC PLAYS

311
00:18:55,360 --> 00:18:57,800
I think when you are a kid
you used to enjoy the stupidness

312
00:18:57,800 --> 00:19:00,280
of his sketches and bits of comedy,
the slapstickness.

313
00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:01,920
Have you got a last request?

314
00:19:05,120 --> 00:19:07,760
Si, I see I would like
my brother to go,

315
00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:09,960
he had nothing to do with the crime.

316
00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:12,800
Oh, I believe you. He may go then.

317
00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:18,880
He had this obsession with Mexican
firing squads for some reason.

318
00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:20,520
Fire!

319
00:19:24,160 --> 00:19:27,080
One of Dave's classic jokes,
I think,

320
00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:29,320
was he was going to be shot at dawn.

321
00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:32,960
You are entitled to
one last request.

322
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:36,640
And of course we all know what it's
going to be, he asks for the girl.

323
00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:40,400
Caramba!

324
00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:43,480
The rest of the soldiers

325
00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:46,320
are smoking a cigarette,
looking, eating.

326
00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:51,560
Then you get dusk, you get nightfall

327
00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:56,200
and suddenly then you get, you know,
early in the morning sun rising

328
00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:58,160
and they're all tired,
they wake up,

329
00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:03,440
and of course eventually the officer
goes up and bangs on the bunker
door.

330
00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:04,800
Senora?

331
00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:09,640
You're too late.

332
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:10,560
He's dead.

333
00:20:12,360 --> 00:20:15,160
It was very simple joke
and I wish I'd written it.

334
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:20,440
'A lot of gags, sketch gags
can come from observation,

335
00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:23,120
'I did a sketch gag
of a street cleaner

336
00:20:23,120 --> 00:20:24,880
sweeping up and I was watching

337
00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:27,040
when I was sitting again
in a traffic jam

338
00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:29,160
and watching this man
sweeping the streets

339
00:20:29,160 --> 00:20:31,240
and he came to the edge of the kerb

340
00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:34,520
and I really wanted him, in my own
mind physically,

341
00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:37,000
I wanted him to bend down
and pick up the edge of the kerb

342
00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:39,560
and sweep the dirt underneath.

343
00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:44,440
Most of his notes were written
on the back of disused envelopes,

344
00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:47,080
dry cleaning bills, and receipts.

345
00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:49,880
And you'd pick up
a piece of paper and it would say

346
00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:54,240
"hypnotised chickens"

347
00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:56,640
or "nuns farting next to lilies"

348
00:20:56,640 --> 00:20:57,720
and that would turn into

349
00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:01,480
some material typed up
on PV's manual typewriter.

350
00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:02,480
Spies again?

351
00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:05,040
He had an enormous

352
00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:07,120
number of writers
sending in material

353
00:21:07,120 --> 00:21:12,840
and I was editing and so we were
filming quickies all over the place.

354
00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:14,080
5, 4, 3, take 1.

355
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:17,480
Try it again.

356
00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:28,480
520, take 2.

357
00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:29,480
Action!

358
00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:30,720
Your Majesty!

359
00:21:33,040 --> 00:21:35,800
The original team that started was

360
00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:39,840
Ronnie Brody,
Michael Sharvell-Martin,

361
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:43,320
Ian Burford and myself
and we were the four.

362
00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:45,000
327 take 2.

363
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,160
What game do these knights play,
Merlin?

364
00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:49,920
'Tis said he who...
"He who?!" I'm sorry!

365
00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:54,080
'Tis said that he who draws..

366
00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:56,680
'Tis said that he
who draws the stop...

367
00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:02,160
I did nuns, I did sleeping beauty
I was always old ladies,

368
00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:04,240
and one of
the very first sketches I did

369
00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:08,160
he was standing there, natch,
as a priest! The whole idea was

370
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,480
that the flames of Satan came

371
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:13,480
spewing out from the grave
at a vast rate.

372
00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:18,560
Well, it didn't work on the first
take so some prop boy went off,

373
00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:22,960
came back
and went into the grave hole

374
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:27,200
and we all...
OK, get ready, take two.

375
00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:36,520
The prop boy threw a match

376
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:39,600
into the grave.

377
00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:47,720
He'd filled it with petrol.

378
00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:50,560
All I can say is
I then saw a Mr Allen

379
00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:56,440
with singed eyebrows, singed hair,
luckily he kept his face.

380
00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:02,160
The gags, they had to have
a flavour of realism.

381
00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:05,600
You know, from a designer's
point of view that's
what made it really interesting.

382
00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:10,240
You couldn't just cod up a church,
because it didn't work with Dave.

383
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,600
One day we built Stonehenge

384
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:16,960
and it was very nearly full sized.

385
00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:19,240
I mean, it was absolutely enormous.

386
00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:21,240
And it was all made of polystyrene.

387
00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:35,440
The sketches were fun
but actually, for me,

388
00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:38,720
the monologues
were the iconic moments.

389
00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:43,160
And I walked into a pub the other
day where a dog had done something.

390
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:46,200
And I stood on it and skidded
right across the room, boom!

391
00:23:50,320 --> 00:23:52,920
Nearly broke my head on the wall.

392
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:54,720
I get my booze
and I'm sitting in the corner

393
00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:56,840
and a fella comes in and
he does exactly what I did,

394
00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:58,840
he went phew, schoom!
Straight into the wall.

395
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:02,280
And I ran over and picked him up
and said, "I just did that,
he nearly murdered me!"

396
00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:05,760
When we first started he actually
had the script in front of him

397
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:08,960
and you could see him
looking down which wasn't very good.

398
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:13,440
And later on we had the script
or the ideas for the script

399
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:14,680
on idiot cards.

400
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,920
We sat in the front row with these
big boards in front of our knees.

401
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:24,000
The way Dave remembered paragraphs
or pages or material was very often

402
00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:30,280
by a single phrase and some of these
single phrases were outrageous!

403
00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:32,720
There is a really intriguing
thing about Dave Allen

404
00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:35,400
when he talks to the audience,
he's brilliant,

405
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:40,000
he's very much a bar room
raconteur in some ways.

406
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:42,960
And we were in a bar
and we'd had a couple of drinks

407
00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:48,400
and somebody started to talk
about the unknown, the spirit world.

408
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:51,600
And he had a way
of going sideways at jokes,

409
00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:53,640
it was never sort of full on.

410
00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:55,880
It was that
I accepted a dare or a bet

411
00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:58,840
that I would stay the night
in the cottage beside the graveyard.

412
00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:00,560
He sat down, he was relaxed,

413
00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:02,800
he'd have his arm
on this little table,

414
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:05,240
he'd pause and have a whiskey,

415
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:08,840
blow on his fag, and he'd
just talk down the lens at you.

416
00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:13,040
And I felt something on my chest
beginning to move.

417
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:20,480
It crept slowly up my chest.

418
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,320
It came closer, nearer,

419
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:24,920
and I grabbed it,

420
00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:27,880
and it was wet and cold and
I bit it.

421
00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:29,600
Aargh, screamed with pain!

422
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,120
And that is how I lost my finger.

423
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:39,320
And now for all the people
who had nothing to complain about

424
00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:42,120
in last week's show

425
00:25:42,120 --> 00:25:44,640
get your pens out
because it's complaint time.

426
00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:56,080
I wish to protest most
strongly about The Dave Allen Show,

427
00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:58,040
last night's show was disgraceful.

428
00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:06,400
The sight of Dave Allen
getting cheap laughs to his mixture

429
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:09,680
of smut and profanity
is to say the least nauseating.

430
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:13,080
I think they got it wrong,
the Church is dangerous
and the politicians,

431
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:15,280
he was just showing you how
ridiculous they were.

432
00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:21,600
How the BBC censors could allow
such blasphemous rubbish

433
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:25,200
to be shown at Easter time
or any other time
is beyond my comprehension.

434
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:28,280
I think it's
a very difficult thing, censorship,

435
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:32,160
because what you are doing
is you are putting your code

436
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:35,480
on millions of viewers
which is a very difficult thing to do

437
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:37,640
and with the BBC,
they've been very good to me.

438
00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:39,520
I mean, I do get away with
a lot of things

439
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:43,560
that other comedians
wouldn't even attempt,

440
00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:46,440
but that is me.

441
00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:50,600
And if I'm... If they put reins on me
it's not me,

442
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:53,640
it would be a shadow of what I am.

443
00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:57,040
Dave Allen was far more
subversive

444
00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:00,880
than just about
any other comic on TV.

445
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:04,640
He did a sketch about apartheid.

446
00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:05,840
Hey, you boy.

447
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:07,120
Yes, sir.

448
00:27:07,120 --> 00:27:08,360
What are you doing in this church?

449
00:27:08,360 --> 00:27:10,240
You know blacks are not
allowed in this church?

450
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:12,800
Oh, yes, Father,
but I am cleaning the floor.

451
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:14,680
Ah, cleaning the floor, eh?

452
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,000
Good,
but don't let me catch you praying.

453
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:19,360
I remember turning to my dad
and saying what's that about

454
00:27:19,360 --> 00:27:22,760
and my dad explained apartheid to me
on the back of a Dave Allen sketch.

455
00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:25,960
He had a huge
sort of personal integrity

456
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,000
about what he wanted to say.

457
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:31,080
I even had a telegram from Rome.

458
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:34,560
From the boss himself!

459
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:36,520
Hey, what's the matter, David baby?

460
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:43,280
I could understand why he was
considered dangerous
by the Catholic Church,

461
00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:46,840
why he wasn't popular
in Ireland because of it.

462
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:51,160
Ireland in the '60s and '70s was a
very deeply conservative country,

463
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,400
in any rural Irish village,
the priest is pretty much

464
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:56,600
the most important person in there.

465
00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:58,080
The usual, Father.

466
00:27:58,080 --> 00:27:59,120
God bless you.

467
00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:01,720
The sketches, they were just silly,

468
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:04,000
but they undermine
the authority of priests.

469
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:11,960
If somebody is saying
I am going to blow you up,

470
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:14,920
you don't kind of take
too many chances about it.

471
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:16,640
Was it because of your gags?

472
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:18,200
Yes, I think so, I suppose so.

473
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:20,640
What type of gag
would they have objected to?

474
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:21,840
Most of them.

475
00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:25,120
Dave said what he wanted to say,

476
00:28:25,120 --> 00:28:27,120
he was an adult,
he was a professional,

477
00:28:27,120 --> 00:28:28,520
he worked out a way to say it,

478
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:32,280
but you didn't get very far
saying to David, I don't think
we should do a joke about the Pope.

479
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,360
The concept at that time of the Pope
in anything less than

480
00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:54,280
15 layers of linen stuff
and a gold thing over the top,

481
00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:56,320
that's how you saw the Pope,

482
00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:58,000
and suddenly you could
see his naked leg.

483
00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:05,720
It was shocking,
I mean it genuinely was shocking.

484
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:09,000
It upset people.

485
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:11,560
I mean teachers at school
would tell us off for watching it

486
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,600
and my mum was horrified by it.

487
00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:16,080
And she would sit there
telling me and my dad

488
00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:18,600
that we would go
to hell for laughing.

489
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:26,040
How do you become Jewish quickly?

490
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:28,480
Some people think Davey
was anti-religion

491
00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:31,880
and actually he wasn't,
he had huge respect for religions,

492
00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:34,680
but what he didn't like was being
told what to think,

493
00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:37,120
he didn't like brain washing,

494
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:43,040
and he didn't like a sort
of prescribed guilt.

495
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:45,160
Goodnight
and may your God go with you.

496
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:50,400
With my family and my children,

497
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:53,520
I mean they know that I have
something to do with show business

498
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,000
but they're not all that
sure what I do,

499
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:57,960
except that I'm not a real daddy,

500
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:00,480
because real daddies
go to work on trains.

501
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:06,880
You know, certainly when I was young
I didn't really know who
he was anyway but you just wouldn't.

502
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:10,120
You know we weren't allowed to watch
that when we were little.

503
00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:11,720
Too rude, Mummy said.

504
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:14,560
I think I really wanted
to be like him.

505
00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:16,440
I do remember
being out with him sometimes

506
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:19,080
and people would say, you know,
"Hi, Dave" and I'd be going,

507
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:22,720
"No, he's my daddy" you know,
not kind of getting that,
I don't want to share him, you know.

508
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,560
When he started out
I was a bit young,

509
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:29,200
I was probably five or six when
he started doing Dave Allen at Large

510
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:30,560
so I got friends of mine

511
00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:34,120
who are kind of a bit older and they
are like five years older than me

512
00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:38,760
and they said to me, "Ed,
you don't know, like, there would
be no-one on the streets.

513
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,200
"Everyone would be
watching your dad."

514
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:45,240
They said, "You don't get it."

515
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:47,920
We had a house in Devon,
it was set in a valley

516
00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:51,080
with a stream going through it
and all of us adored it.

517
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:53,120
Lots of people would come
and join us, cousins

518
00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:55,360
and, like, friends of
my big brothers from school,

519
00:30:55,360 --> 00:31:00,000
it was a house full of people,
people that were all, you know,
quite close which was lovely.

520
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,920
It would always be
like loads of children down there

521
00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:06,160
and all the adults chip in
and have a laugh like kids as well.

522
00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:12,760
The children loved it,
they just, they just loved him.

523
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:15,360
He was like,
he'd be like the Pied Piper

524
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:17,720
and they'd all sort of
trail after him.

525
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:20,800
Well, he found them
fascinating and funny

526
00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:26,080
and he kind of discussed things
very seriously with them,

527
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:28,720
they had great respect for him.

528
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:30,760
Jane and Ed and Toby and I,
you know,

529
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:34,400
we kind of all of us grew up
together, we were all the same age.

530
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:38,320
My memories of Dave
were usually very scruffy.

531
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:43,960
The person I remember had absolutely
nothing to do with the persona
of the man sitting in the chair

532
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:46,600
with the cigarette and the drink.

533
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:48,040
Completely different.

534
00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:50,680
I mean, the cigarette
and the drink were there

535
00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:54,400
but where he got the suits from
I certainly never saw them.

536
00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:58,360
It gives me great pleasure tonight...

537
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:02,560
..to present to you
ladies and gentlemen...

538
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,960
..the curse of the werewolf.

539
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:11,800
We used to turn the lights off and
he used to just have a candle going

540
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:15,680
and he would spend half an hour
telling a ghost story.

541
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:19,280
It was just another excuse for him
to put the crappers up us

542
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:21,960
because it was usually something
around a fire

543
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:23,760
and it was usually terrifying

544
00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:26,840
and my brother, Toby, being
absolutely kind of, you know...

545
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:30,720
"Ah, yes, and then, you know,
they came and they ate the child"

546
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:33,120
and my poor brother going,
"Oh, my God!"

547
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:37,680
Just this mass of sort of kids
in like one bunk bed, frightened,

548
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:40,440
jumping at every
kind of creek in the house.

549
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:48,120
All through the time,
he was known as a comedian

550
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:50,240
performing on BBC,
he made these documentary shows.

551
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:53,400
Without a doubt in my mind

552
00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:56,920
the most enchanting place
that I have ever been.

553
00:32:56,920 --> 00:32:59,160
They came seeking
the great American dream,

554
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:04,000
equality, tolerance,
religious freedom, money.

555
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:08,800
Hi, nice to meet you,
my name is Dave Allen. Oh.

556
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:10,920
I think people are marvellous,

557
00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:13,880
I would probably draw the line
with politicians,

558
00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:15,400
I don't consider them as people,

559
00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:19,840
but in general, I mean,
I am very fond of people.

560
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:22,120
Anyone usually fighting
against each other,

561
00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:25,520
I mean, right here in Williamsburg
we can all live together.

562
00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:27,640
Eccentricity is in the air
we breathe,

563
00:33:27,640 --> 00:33:30,600
it's part of the English tradition,

564
00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:31,960
it's been that way for so long

565
00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:36,480
we've created a special
sanctuary for eccentrics.

566
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:40,360
Dave had spoken to Lew Grade,
of fond memory,

567
00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:44,400
about doing what he called
a more serious programme.

568
00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:51,960
It all began with
a one-hour documentary

569
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:54,160
in search of
the great English eccentric.

570
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,160
For ten years it was
the highest rated documentary

571
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:00,280
on British television.

572
00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:03,920
I've had a bit of a job finding you,
I didn't realise you lived in
a little house like this.

573
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:05,360
Yes, try to live here.

574
00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:07,600
How long have you been
living in here?

575
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:10,480
Well, I should imagine 25 years.

576
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,480
It's not a very big bed.
I mean, how do you lie down there?

577
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:14,920
Oh, I can't really lay down,

578
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:17,120
I put on an extension
for the feet as you see.

579
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:18,760
Can I see then? Yes.

580
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:22,920
And you put your feet
in there, do you? Yes.

581
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:26,240
The first rule we made
was that we weren't going to put

582
00:34:26,240 --> 00:34:28,360
mad people on television.

583
00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:33,160
Now that immediately created
the world's most difficult
defining line.

584
00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:38,720
Bring your mice to Snowy, all bring
your mice to Snowy one at a time.

585
00:34:38,720 --> 00:34:41,560
What we learnt eccentricity was,
was passion.

586
00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:43,720
That's nice, isn't it?

587
00:34:43,720 --> 00:34:46,880
And to live your life as you saw it

588
00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:51,640
with complete commitment
and complete attention to detail

589
00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:56,320
but not giving a hell
as to what other people thought.

590
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:57,920
Snowy, tell me, how do you live?

591
00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:01,800
I live off my land, yes, I've got
two pieces of allotment, you see.

592
00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:05,280
I grow potatoes
and also greens, most of them,

593
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:08,360
January King which are
very nice and Brussels and carrots,

594
00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:10,520
whichever the case,
so I live off my land, you see.

595
00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:11,720
That's all you eat.

596
00:35:11,720 --> 00:35:15,200
That's all I eat,
I eat like a rabbit, you see,
vegetables, you see,

597
00:35:15,200 --> 00:35:17,640
and I don't drink nothing no
stronger than water.

598
00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:20,520
He loved eccentricity,
he was an eccentric himself, really,

599
00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:24,000
and he loved slightly mad people
and he loved stories.

600
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:27,240
If somebody could tell him
a story or somebody could show him
something crazy,

601
00:35:27,240 --> 00:35:31,240
you know, if a man could suck
a ha'penny up his nose Dave would be
there watching him, that was Dave.

602
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:34,520
That's handed over to me now,

603
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:37,880
is there any kind of words
said or anything? No.

604
00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:41,040
Dave never ever giggled.

605
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:46,680
I mean, he really just thought,
you know, how can you...
how happy all these people were.

606
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:50,960
He was capable of suspending
judgement entirely.

607
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:53,640
In fact even that is not quite
the right phrase

608
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:57,640
because he wasn't suspending it,
it was as if
he had no judgemental thing.

609
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:03,240
This block here is white,
Hispanics, the Negro,

610
00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:04,760
and everybody is together,

611
00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:07,640
but you go up the next block
and you've got just Jews.

612
00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:10,600
You don't see nobody else up there,
just Jewish people.

613
00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:12,880
They own practically everything
around here

614
00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:16,560
and they got us as workers
and they don't want to pay us
nothing, you know.

615
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:20,800
In America we, there was an entirely
different breed of people

616
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:22,680
that we found.

617
00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:28,320
Half of them were showmen, which is
a characteristic I am sure
is built into a load of Americans,

618
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:31,280
The other half
were demonstrating something.

619
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:36,920
We are out to show that Jewish
rights are no less than
those of other people.

620
00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:40,920
And that the Jew is not the easy
market certain people think it is.

621
00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:45,200
We are tired
of having to be the victims.

622
00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:48,600
What you are actually teaching here
is a kind of form of militancy.

623
00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:50,080
Yes, yes.

624
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:52,920
But if you teach this here
surely other groups,

625
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:55,360
say anti-Semitic groups,
are going to teach it as well.

626
00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:58,400
Unless this force stands up now
and says that's it...

627
00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:05,280
..then what happens in Germany
will happen here.

628
00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:07,320
I think the heartbeat of Dave Allen

629
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:11,400
was really curiosity, that he always
asked the question why.

630
00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:14,840
It was just going out
and finding people

631
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:16,960
and spending time with them
and talking to them

632
00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:18,560
and showing them as they were.

633
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:22,800
In his reporting one of the things
that stands out was the fact that

634
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:25,480
he approached it almost like
he was by your side

635
00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:27,960
rather than standing above you
telling you things,

636
00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:32,320
that he made you a fellow observer
and that was something

637
00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:36,880
that made his work so intimate
and so engaging and so real.

638
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:41,120
He again really pioneered a way of
doing documentaries that went on

639
00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:43,880
to inspire the likes of
Louis Theroux and many other people.

640
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:46,920
'At Speakers Corner in London

641
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:48,560
'anyone can stand up

642
00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:50,800
'and say exactly what they like.'

643
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:54,200
A minister has to mind
his Ps and Qs,

644
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,200
well, I am the world's
greatest dictator.

645
00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:01,000
Great Britain is the most
beautiful country in the world.

646
00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:05,200
There is only one thing wrong
with it, the English.

647
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:11,560
There are days obviously that people,
you don't want people,

648
00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:15,360
but there are days
that you adore the world,

649
00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:18,640
you love people to a great extent.

650
00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:24,280
I think people are people.

651
00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:25,680
I am a people person. I'm people

652
00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:29,600
and I would hope
that I would treat people

653
00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:32,160
as they in turn would treat me.

654
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:34,320
I know this sounds a bit farfetched

655
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:36,280
but my feeling was that Dave

656
00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:38,720
was looking for the meaning of life.

657
00:38:38,720 --> 00:38:40,600
You have a philosophy in life.

658
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:44,920
Well, I don't, I don't call it
philosophy, you know,
there is too much of a loss in that,

659
00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:47,480
I like to be
on the gaining side of things.

660
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:49,120
No matter how weird they were

661
00:38:49,120 --> 00:38:53,960
there was something that he was
learning from people in that way.

662
00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:01,080
I recently became legitimate.

663
00:39:04,720 --> 00:39:07,040
You've got filthy minds!

664
00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:10,840
By that I mean
I became a straight actor.

665
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:12,480
As far back as late November

666
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:15,560
I played a part of a straight actor
in a straight play.

667
00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:17,920
It was a very important part
of his persona,

668
00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:22,120
he was an artist
and he saw what he did
as one branch of being an artist

669
00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:25,240
and so when he was offered
the opportunity to play some

670
00:39:25,240 --> 00:39:26,680
pretty substantial roles

671
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:28,640
he jumped at it
and he was very good in them.

672
00:39:28,640 --> 00:39:30,480
Who's the father?

673
00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:32,360
Fathers. You shut up.

674
00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:35,040
'I remember going to see him

675
00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:37,480
'in the Edna O'Brien play
at Royal Court Theatre.'

676
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:39,480
I wouldn't mind a chaser.

677
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:41,640
'I knew that he had been offered'

678
00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:43,120
the lead role in it.

679
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:45,120
To which he had refused

680
00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:48,040
because he had never actually done
much straight theatre

681
00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:52,480
and he took a part,
which was the part of a doctor,
it was a wonderful performance.

682
00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:57,280
Doctor, can I have a word
with you in private?

683
00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:59,240
Look all the private shite is over,

684
00:39:59,240 --> 00:40:01,000
it's now in the public domain.

685
00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:04,480
I suggest we set out in the morning,

686
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:09,320
yourself the boss, your mother
and me, and find your Romeo.

687
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:11,440
There was a few punch-ups

688
00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:14,040
outside the theatre
when the show was on you know.

689
00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:17,120
He enjoyed championing events
and being involved in them

690
00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:20,320
if they were going to challenge
people's conceptions

691
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:23,360
and also challenge
the authority and the establishment.

692
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:25,520
Is that your
homemade blackberry wine?

693
00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:26,800
It is.

694
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:29,440
Do you have any gin,
any dry Satin Gin?

695
00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:33,120
I think he appreciated
the art of performance

696
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:38,160
and that made him,
for me, someone special.

697
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:45,560
Dave always wanted to stretch
himself as an actor

698
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:50,800
and he really admired playwrights
like Alan Bennett

699
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,200
and so when One Fine Day
came along as a project

700
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:54,920
he was very keen to do it.

701
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:58,880
He's threatening to take me
to a topless steak house.

702
00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:04,960
Cheer up.

703
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:10,520
I always got the impression
he was quite choosy,

704
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:15,760
and, you know, it was, you know,
good for us that he picked us up,

705
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:17,480
that he agreed to do it.

706
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:20,680
How is your good lady?

707
00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:24,480
How is the carpentry?
Has she put up any more shelves?

708
00:41:25,720 --> 00:41:29,360
No, I think we're well
catered for in the shelf department.

709
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:31,360
She's a remarkable woman.

710
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:34,480
She's in Colchester for a few days
looking after her father.

711
00:41:34,480 --> 00:41:38,000
Colchester, really?
I once had a Chinese meal there.

712
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:41,440
It was comic so you wanted someone
with a sense of humour

713
00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:44,200
and you wanted someone
who was thoughtful, you know,

714
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:48,040
where there was more going on inside
behind his eyes, inside his brain.

715
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:50,520
So you are playing somebody
who was thinking a lot.

716
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:52,560
Well, Dave never stopped
thinking, you know,

717
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:55,560
if you are a stand-up comic
I guess that's what you do.

718
00:41:56,960 --> 00:42:00,360
It was untypical of Alan's writing,
normally Alan wrote about these

719
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:01,680
northern comic characters

720
00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:04,080
like Thora Herd
and Patricia Routledge,

721
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:09,360
and this was a much more
sort of impressionistic piece.

722
00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:10,480
HE WHISTLE

723
00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:12,080
He could hold the camera,

724
00:42:12,080 --> 00:42:16,080
if you'd start a shot
he could keep it interesting,
that's what movie stars...

725
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:18,280
You start watching them
and then you follow them

726
00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:21,800
and there's no need to cut the
camera because they're inherently
interesting.

727
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:23,720
You just believed in him,
he was in front of you,

728
00:42:23,720 --> 00:42:25,680
you believed in him
that was all you needed.

729
00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:46,160
My name's Richard Dangerous

730
00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:48,200
and this is Adrian Dangerous.

731
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:52,400
People often say to me, "Alexei,

732
00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:55,480
"what is alternative new wave
Marxist comedy?"

733
00:42:55,480 --> 00:42:59,160
And I say, "Sod off,
you nosey bastard!"

734
00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:02,200
When alternative comedy
came along

735
00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:09,720
Dave had a sufficient field of his
own which they didn't impinge upon.

736
00:43:09,720 --> 00:43:12,560
He had the ethos of alternative
comedy before we did

737
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:16,800
in that comedy could be
not only funny but challenging.

738
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:22,320
Before alternative comedy he was
a man who went out there and said,

739
00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:26,360
"I don't give a fuck about what they
are saying. This is the truth, this
is what I want to say, I'll say it."

740
00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:35,360
He did the Strand Theatre

741
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:38,360
and on the first night it was
who's who of the young comedians.

742
00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:40,000
They all turned up to see Dave.

743
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:44,600
I know comics who would say that man
inspired me to get up on stage,

744
00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:47,920
he was inspiring people like us
to get up and to do it.

745
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:50,960
I did a load of photographs
in the dressing room

746
00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:53,960
cos at Fairfield Hall in Croydon,
not many people see this, you know.

747
00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:56,840
The intimacy of the dressing
room before he goes on stage

748
00:43:56,840 --> 00:43:58,480
and, you know, he's getting ready,

749
00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:00,880
and got DJ on
and looking in the mirror,

750
00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:04,920
and he's very quiet,
you know, not much talking,

751
00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:06,760
and just before he goes on stage

752
00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:10,600
he was standing in the doorway
of his dressing room.

753
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:14,080
Took a couple of shots
and he's standing there
with a glass of champagne

754
00:44:14,080 --> 00:44:15,960
just looking away from the camera.

755
00:44:15,960 --> 00:44:18,960
Very, you know,
just the moment before he has a sip
and then walks on.

756
00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:25,080
You're offering yourself up
in a way.

757
00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:29,160
You're not actually
placing your head down on a plate,

758
00:44:29,160 --> 00:44:32,120
but you're saying this is it,
this is me,

759
00:44:32,120 --> 00:44:35,600
we're going to be here
for the next two and a half hours.

760
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:37,840
All of us, and we're either going
to have a good time

761
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:39,680
or we're going to have a rotten time.

762
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:42,520
When Dave confronted
a real live audience

763
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:45,520
you could see the change
that came over him,

764
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:48,040
he sort of flowed out
to the audience

765
00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:51,200
and, you know, he was
a master of a situation.

766
00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:55,520
He commanded that hall,
which was sometimes
quite a big theatre, immediately.

767
00:44:55,520 --> 00:45:01,040
And you can feel the audience,
a sort of wave of love coming back.

768
00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:04,120
There's a funny thing
that goes on with that audience

769
00:45:04,120 --> 00:45:08,120
and that audience
wants Dave to like them.

770
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:12,080
I get tremendous pleasure
from watching people

771
00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:18,360
physically bend forward and laugh
and people wiping their eyes.

772
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:22,120
I'm bubbling inside.

773
00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:25,440
I mean, there's the other side,
I'm a performer,

774
00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:27,640
but inside I'm looking at something

775
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:30,280
and I say,
isn't that marvellous, look at her.

776
00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:33,120
She is, her mascara
is running all over the place.

777
00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:50,320
Thank you.
Thank you very much indeed.

778
00:45:50,320 --> 00:45:54,000
Thank you, good evening,
and welcome to the show.

779
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:59,960
As you can see this show
has no music, no titles, no actors,

780
00:45:59,960 --> 00:46:03,360
no costumes, no sketches,
let's be honest,

781
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:04,760
it's cheap.

782
00:46:06,640 --> 00:46:09,680
There is something about him,
which was eternally young.

783
00:46:09,680 --> 00:46:12,320
Even when he got
into his 50s, 55, 60s,

784
00:46:12,320 --> 00:46:14,560
he was a vital comedian.

785
00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:20,280
And a great disappearing lavatory
paper act, have you come across that?

786
00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:22,480
No adult when you go
to the lavatory,

787
00:46:22,480 --> 00:46:24,840
you don't check to see
that the paper is there, do you?

788
00:46:24,840 --> 00:46:26,960
He became much more observational.

789
00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:30,400
Maybe because he had said all
he needed to say about the church,

790
00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:33,480
you know, there is only so much
hypocrisy you can expose.

791
00:46:33,480 --> 00:46:37,320
The first time I saw him
I was quite a bit older,
you know, I was late teens.

792
00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:39,840
My daughter Jane, I would take her
to school in the morning,

793
00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:41,960
not only would
I take her to school in the morning

794
00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:44,440
but I'd take all her friends
to school in the morning as well.

795
00:46:44,440 --> 00:46:45,640
He was talking about Jane,

796
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:48,400
about being at school

797
00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,400
and talking all the time and being
in the back of the car and...

798
00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:53,320
HE MUTTERS

799
00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:56,600
Verbal diarrhoea
pouring in torrents...

800
00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:00,040
And finding that hilarious

801
00:47:00,040 --> 00:47:03,800
because I know that person
and it's absolutely true.

802
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:06,120
I drop them off,
goodbye, Belinda, bye Jean,

803
00:47:06,120 --> 00:47:08,520
bye Alexander, bye Vanessa.

804
00:47:10,400 --> 00:47:11,720
Jane would go in to the house,

805
00:47:11,720 --> 00:47:14,600
I'd park the car, I'd go into the
house and she's on the phone.

806
00:47:14,600 --> 00:47:15,960
Who are you talking to? Belinda.

807
00:47:15,960 --> 00:47:18,120
Belinda lives next door!

808
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:23,040
He got a lot of laughs out of me,
a lot of laughs you know.

809
00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:25,880
Edward's friends are always ringing.

810
00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:27,480
I pick up the phone.

811
00:47:27,480 --> 00:47:29,800
GRUNTS

812
00:47:29,800 --> 00:47:31,960
He used to do an impression of me
opening a fridge.

813
00:47:31,960 --> 00:47:34,600
I remember I went to watch the show
with a great friend of mine

814
00:47:34,600 --> 00:47:37,800
who used to spend a lot of
time around our house
and he was pissing himself.

815
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:39,640
I was sitting there going,
"It's not me."

816
00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:41,880
He was like, "It's you, man,
I promise you that's you."

817
00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:43,720
GRUNTS

818
00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:46,560
What?

819
00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:49,040
GRUNTS

820
00:47:49,040 --> 00:47:54,120
My son's name is Edward, maybe
they call him Ed? I don't know?

821
00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:55,280
Maybe...

822
00:47:55,280 --> 00:47:56,520
GRUNTS

823
00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:00,520
Maybe he is saying,

824
00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:02,000
"Is Ed in?"

825
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:04,360
You can't kind of ignore
that teenage behaviour.

826
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:06,720
I mean it's a great source of humour

827
00:48:06,720 --> 00:48:11,640
and also lots of people
in the audience got it as well.

828
00:48:11,640 --> 00:48:14,400
Did you say, "Is Ed in?"

829
00:48:14,400 --> 00:48:16,200
GRUNTS

830
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:23,120
No, you didn't say, "Is Ed in?"
dickhead, you said...

831
00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:24,920
GRUNTS

832
00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:26,960
No, he's not.

833
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:29,680
You wake to the clock.

834
00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:33,800
You go to work to the clock,
you clock in to the clock.

835
00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:36,960
You clock out to the clock.
You come home to the clock.

836
00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:39,160
You eat to the clock.
You drink to the clock.

837
00:48:39,160 --> 00:48:40,400
You go to bed to the clock.

838
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:41,760
You get up to the clock.

839
00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:43,240
You go back to work to the clock.

840
00:48:43,240 --> 00:48:45,440
You do that for 40 years
of your life, you retire,

841
00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:46,880
what do they fucking give you?

842
00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:48,120
A clock!

843
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:52,920
DIALLING TONE

844
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:56,240
I would just like to basically
say how utterly disgusted I was.

845
00:48:56,240 --> 00:49:00,120
Dave Allen had to ruin
a very good show...

846
00:49:00,120 --> 00:49:02,320
Disgraceful, foul language,

847
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:06,360
Oh he used the fuck word, you're
damn right he used the fuck word.

848
00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:08,320
You take a very libertarian line
on language.

849
00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:11,000
Yeah, I think it's necessary,
language is language.

850
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:12,520
I mean, language is just sounds,

851
00:49:12,520 --> 00:49:15,200
it's only what somebody
says that's not a good sound

852
00:49:15,200 --> 00:49:18,160
or that's a bad sound
or that's a rude sound, it's nothing,

853
00:49:18,160 --> 00:49:22,160
it's only emphasis, it's only erm,

854
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:26,680
it's gut, I think.

855
00:49:26,680 --> 00:49:29,760
We were both rather surprised
at the level of the controversy

856
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:31,800
that happened
after that show went out.

857
00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:35,040
Moir who is head of BBC's light
entertainment group

858
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:38,720
has, erm, sent us a statement
and he says that,

859
00:49:38,720 --> 00:49:43,160
"Clearly we are sorry if
we have given unnecessary offence".

860
00:49:43,160 --> 00:49:46,760
Unfortunately, although the BBC
knew it was in the programme,

861
00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:50,680
when the questions
were asked they didn't really feel
able to support him,

862
00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:53,520
he felt disappointed by that,

863
00:49:53,520 --> 00:49:58,200
and, erm, perhaps a bit abandoned,

864
00:49:58,200 --> 00:49:59,840
and it took him a long time

865
00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:03,200
to feel that he wanted to go back
on television after that incident.

866
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:07,320
We were looking, you know
noisy shows, big signings.

867
00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:09,200
And Dave hadn't worked for a time

868
00:50:09,200 --> 00:50:12,000
for the BBC, he hadn't worked for
anybody. He'd stopped doing telly,

869
00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:14,280
and we had endless meetings
at his house

870
00:50:14,280 --> 00:50:18,720
and I'm sure there was
a Chinese meal involved somewhere
because there always was,

871
00:50:18,720 --> 00:50:22,040
and we eventually persuaded him
to come and do these six shows.

872
00:50:22,040 --> 00:50:25,840
We got a very good team of writers,
people like Kevin Day wrote for him,

873
00:50:25,840 --> 00:50:29,640
he enjoyed that interaction
with young up and coming writers.

874
00:50:31,160 --> 00:50:36,400
I think the big difference
was the ITV show he was standing up
and he was angry,

875
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:40,360
he had more energy than
he had in the '70s and '60s shows,
far more energy.

876
00:50:40,360 --> 00:50:41,440
Grannies.

877
00:50:43,920 --> 00:50:45,920
Do you ever
get behind a granny in a queue?

878
00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:48,720
He was looking for something
to get his teeth into,

879
00:50:48,720 --> 00:50:51,880
to argue with almost,
as part of that creative process,

880
00:50:51,880 --> 00:50:54,160
it was really fascinating,
I loved it.

881
00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:56,880
And I'm sending them
the birthday presents because...

882
00:50:56,880 --> 00:50:59,640
and I'm standing behind her thinking,
you old geriatric!

883
00:50:59,640 --> 00:51:03,120
For Christ sake, die
and let me buy my stamps!

884
00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:06,720
My abiding memory very early on
in the process of working with Dave

885
00:51:06,720 --> 00:51:09,600
is him telling me
that he was working on this routine

886
00:51:09,600 --> 00:51:12,640
about teaching children
to tell the time,

887
00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:16,440
and I distinctly remember,
"Well, that's not going to change
the world, Granddad, is it?"

888
00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:18,640
Teach you to read the time.

889
00:51:18,640 --> 00:51:21,800
Why? Because it's important
that you know the time.

890
00:51:21,800 --> 00:51:24,040
He does this routine
and it was about 15 minutes live

891
00:51:24,040 --> 00:51:26,680
and it got edited down on the show,
and he does the entire routine

892
00:51:26,680 --> 00:51:30,000
as an imaginary conversation
with a small child.

893
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:31,800
I mean
who else could do a routine

894
00:51:31,800 --> 00:51:34,760
about the second hand
and the minute hand on a watch?

895
00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:39,240
There's the hour hand, that's
the first hand. The hour hand.

896
00:51:39,240 --> 00:51:41,520
The second hand is the minute hand,

897
00:51:41,520 --> 00:51:43,400
and the third hand
is the second hand.

898
00:51:45,720 --> 00:51:48,560
For him to point this out
and bring the house down

899
00:51:48,560 --> 00:51:52,640
on the extraordinary contradiction
just between how they're named.

900
00:51:52,640 --> 00:51:54,800
So it moves away from the fat hand,

901
00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:57,200
leaving the fat hand
at the 1 and the 2

902
00:51:57,200 --> 00:52:00,680
and then it comes over to
the 1 here by itself, see the 1?

903
00:52:00,680 --> 00:52:02,520
To the right of the 1 and the 2?

904
00:52:02,520 --> 00:52:05,120
Now, that one is 5.

905
00:52:08,600 --> 00:52:11,840
Because it is, it's 5, 2 is 10,

906
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:15,880
3 is 15, 4 is 20, 5 is 25,
6 is a half.

907
00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:21,880
Now I know what I can do
for Dave Allen,

908
00:52:21,880 --> 00:52:25,880
I can make him the best darn cup
of tea he's ever had,

909
00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:29,520
because there's not much I can bring
to him in terms of writing

910
00:52:29,520 --> 00:52:32,560
and that, that telling the time
routine just summed him up.

911
00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:34,600
It is now what time?

912
00:52:34,600 --> 00:52:39,440
It is not five o'clock,
it's one o'clock.

913
00:52:39,440 --> 00:52:42,120
For me the man is a comic genius
he's a stand-up genius,

914
00:52:42,120 --> 00:52:43,120
that's what he does.

915
00:52:43,120 --> 00:52:45,160
Shut up!

916
00:52:50,840 --> 00:52:52,080
He really enjoyed working

917
00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:55,560
and put himself absolutely
into it with great heart,

918
00:52:55,560 --> 00:53:01,800
but he loved being at home and
domestic life and family life too.

919
00:53:03,920 --> 00:53:07,200
Well, Davey and I
got together in 1986,

920
00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:10,920
some might have said
it was an unexpected coupling,

921
00:53:10,920 --> 00:53:14,200
he was much older than me,
although the age gap,

922
00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:16,440
never mattered, certainly not to me.

923
00:53:16,440 --> 00:53:22,360
He was extraordinary
and extremely easy to love.

924
00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:25,760
Davey was a very private person
and his work was his work

925
00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:29,040
and that was very separate from
family life and our life together.

926
00:53:29,040 --> 00:53:31,720
We never courted publicity,

927
00:53:31,720 --> 00:53:37,200
and it was important for him
to protect us from that.

928
00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:44,160
In his latter years,

929
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:46,680
he didn't feel the need to
constantly be chasing work,

930
00:53:46,680 --> 00:53:48,320
he used to get offered
a lot of work.

931
00:53:48,320 --> 00:53:51,160
I mean, I think there
wasn't a film made in Ireland

932
00:53:51,160 --> 00:53:54,040
without him being offered a
part in it.

933
00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:57,680
You know,
he got offered a lot of television,
most of which he turned down.

934
00:53:57,680 --> 00:54:00,440
For the people who will be
watching this show

935
00:54:00,440 --> 00:54:04,360
when it is a repeat, good evening,
welcome to the show, it is a repeat.

936
00:54:04,360 --> 00:54:07,040
He hated repeats,

937
00:54:07,040 --> 00:54:10,280
I think there was
a clause in his contract
that they could show one repeat,

938
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:12,360
one series repeat,
OK, and that was it.

939
00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:15,600
Everything is repeated now
apart from Dave Allen stuff,

940
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:20,800
I've got a videotape of Dave,
right, I've got a videotape of him.

941
00:54:20,800 --> 00:54:25,520
It's nuts, he's my comedic idol
and I've got a bloody videotape.

942
00:54:32,600 --> 00:54:35,120
He was never somebody
that seemed, you know,

943
00:54:35,120 --> 00:54:36,680
he had regrets,

944
00:54:36,680 --> 00:54:38,520
or, well, if only I was, you know.

945
00:54:38,520 --> 00:54:40,800
He was really happy,
he worked hard, he lived full,

946
00:54:40,800 --> 00:54:44,080
he had a family that,
you know, adored him,

947
00:54:44,080 --> 00:54:47,640
and who he loved
and, you know, he had passion.

948
00:54:47,640 --> 00:54:52,720
Life was very important to Davey,
he had a huge appetite for life,

949
00:54:52,720 --> 00:54:57,080
and he loved his work

950
00:54:57,080 --> 00:55:02,160
but he didn't, he didn't define
himself by what he did, you know.

951
00:55:02,160 --> 00:55:06,000
He did his work but he did
lots of other things as well.

952
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:08,480
He loved his painting
and his drawing

953
00:55:08,480 --> 00:55:11,200
and being at home
and gardening and cooking.

954
00:55:11,200 --> 00:55:15,040
He was disarmingly modest
and quiet about his many talents

955
00:55:15,040 --> 00:55:19,080
and I always think
he was ordinary and extraordinary.

956
00:55:19,080 --> 00:55:22,360
He was normal and grounded,
he was always gracious with people

957
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:24,600
when they stopped him
or recognised him,

958
00:55:24,600 --> 00:55:31,080
and yet he had these many, many
abilities, but he held them quietly.

959
00:55:50,800 --> 00:55:55,560
When I think of Davey, I mean,
I really do just think of love

960
00:55:55,560 --> 00:55:59,320
and I feel that love
is the most extraordinary thing,

961
00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:03,360
for two people
to meet and fall in love,

962
00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:06,640
with each other at the same time
seems extraordinary.

963
00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:13,760
For that to last for decades
seems miraculous,

964
00:56:13,760 --> 00:56:19,440
and for it to only get better
seems sort of impossibly lucky.

965
00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:25,840
So losing Davey as I did was,

966
00:56:30,040 --> 00:56:31,920
I mean, hard beyond description,

967
00:56:35,080 --> 00:56:41,080
and it's sort of like being
a long way from home all the time,

968
00:56:41,080 --> 00:56:44,400
but three weeks after I lost Davey
I had our son Cully,

969
00:56:45,760 --> 00:56:47,560
our beautiful boy.

970
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:52,960
And I think Davey
would be very proud of him.

971
00:56:58,240 --> 00:57:02,080
Death is inevitable,
I mean, erm,

972
00:57:02,080 --> 00:57:04,400
life is what you are anyhow,

973
00:57:04,400 --> 00:57:05,960
what you experience now,

974
00:57:05,960 --> 00:57:09,040
and death is going to happen
to us anyhow

975
00:57:09,040 --> 00:57:13,480
so there's no sense in spending
70 years worrying about dying,

976
00:57:13,480 --> 00:57:17,120
because if you do,
you won't even get to 40 I think.

977
00:57:17,120 --> 00:57:21,920
But, you know, I really do,
I, as an Irishman,

978
00:57:21,920 --> 00:57:24,840
I've been,
not laughing about my own death,

979
00:57:24,840 --> 00:57:32,360
but laughing about death as a subject
for years, coffins and wakes, erm,

980
00:57:32,360 --> 00:57:36,520
and I, it doesn't bother me.

981
00:57:36,520 --> 00:57:40,520
I mean, I know that some people
get a bit upset but it's there,

982
00:57:40,520 --> 00:57:45,400
you might as well
not laugh at the moon or
not accept the existence of the sun.

983
00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:48,000
I wonder what my epitaph will be.

984
00:57:50,720 --> 00:57:54,320
Here lies Dave Allen,
a comedy fool

985
00:57:54,320 --> 00:57:59,000
who drank and told gags
as he sat on his stool,

986
00:57:59,000 --> 00:58:02,840
his last words on earth
the atheist wretch,

987
00:58:02,840 --> 00:58:06,040
time for religion, here's a sketch.

988
00:58:11,840 --> 00:58:13,400
There's the church.

989
00:58:16,880 --> 00:58:19,320
The big question everybody asks me
about Dave Allen

990
00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:22,240
is always,
"How did he lose the finger?"

991
00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:24,000
I've got time to ask you
one more thing

992
00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:27,160
and that's about your famous,
the missing joint on your finger.

993
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:29,240
I've asked him that so many times
and he's given me

994
00:58:29,240 --> 00:58:32,120
about five different stories,
none of which I believe to be true.

995
00:58:32,120 --> 00:58:34,920
I was about nine,
nine years of age...

996
00:58:34,920 --> 00:58:36,360
What did he tell you?

997
00:58:36,360 --> 00:58:39,440
Oh, all sorts of thing starting
from nose picking accidents.

998
00:58:39,440 --> 00:58:42,160
I was sitting there and I had
something in my back tooth...

999
00:58:42,160 --> 00:58:45,080
He picked his nose and he lost it,
how do you do that?

1000
00:58:45,080 --> 00:58:47,760
I was actually trying to pick it
out, with my finger,

1001
00:58:47,760 --> 00:58:49,600
I was trying to get
this little bit of meat.

1002
00:58:49,600 --> 00:58:52,240
Working up to knife fight
in a Paris brothel.

1003
00:58:52,240 --> 00:58:56,120
And my brother, John, came in
behind me and he just saw me there...

1004
00:58:58,200 --> 00:59:01,960
He lost it in a bet
with a priest in a pub.

1005
00:59:01,960 --> 00:59:04,880
We were wrestling or something
like that, he just came behind me

1006
00:59:04,880 --> 00:59:06,400
and went, boom, like that

1007
00:59:06,400 --> 00:59:07,640
and my jaw closed

1008
00:59:07,640 --> 00:59:10,280
and I bit my finger right through.

1009
00:59:15,360 --> 00:59:18,000
The final gag,
is everyone always asks me that

1010
00:59:18,000 --> 00:59:20,240
and they don't believe me
when I say I don't know,

1011
00:59:20,240 --> 00:59:23,080
but to this day I have no idea,
and I think that's fantastic.

1012
00:59:23,080 --> 00:59:25,520
Thank you goodnight
and may your God go with you.