Heroes of Comedy
Heroes of Comedy is a British television series, produced by Thames Television, and broadcast on Channel 4, which devotes each episode to a legend of British comedy. It was produced by John Fisher. Beginning in 1995, it followed a 2½ hour more general programme from 1992.
Episodes
[edit]Series one
[edit]| Episode number | Subject | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot | Frankie Howerd | 1 January 1995 |
| 1 | Tommy Cooper | 13 October 1995 |
| 2 | Joyce Grenfell | 20 October 1995 |
| 3 | Max Miller* | 27 October 1995 |
| 4 | Arthur Haynes | 3 November 1995 |
| 5 | Terry-Thomas | 17 November 1995 |
- Contributions from Roy Hudd and Bob Monkhouse. An animatronic Miller was created for the programme and performed by David Barclay, Dave Chapman and Mike Quinn.
Series two
[edit]| Episode number | Subject | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Les Dawson | 16 April 1997 |
| 2 | Kenny Everett | 23 April 1997 |
| 3 | Alastair Sim | 30 April 1997 |
| 4 | The Goons* | 7 May 1997 |
- The first group subject, and the first where two of the performers covered (Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe) were alive at the time of broadcast.
Series three
[edit]| Episode number | Subject | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Benny Hill | 12 January 1998 |
| 2 | Peter Cook | 19 January 1998 |
| 3 | Arthur Askey | 26 January 1998 |
| 4 | Tony Hancock | 2 February 1998 |
This series examined dead performers.
Series four
[edit]| Episode number | Subject | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norman Wisdom | 25 September 1999 |
| 2 | Ken Dodd | 2 October 1999 |
| 3 | Eric Sykes | 9 October 1999 |
| 4 | Thora Hird | 16 October 1999 |
| 5 | Barry Humphries | 30 October 1999 |
All subjects in this series were living at the time of broadcast.
Series five
[edit]| Episode number | Subject | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenneth Williams | 7 October 2000 |
| 2 | Bernard Manning | 11 November 2000 |
| 3 | Ronnie Barker | 28 December 2000 |
| 4 | Leonard Rossiter | 27 December 2001 |
This series examined living and dead performers.
Series six
[edit]| Episode number | Subject | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Yarwood | 16 February 2002 |
| 2 | Sid James | 23 February 2002 |
| 3 | Spike Milligan* | 2 March 2002 |
| 4 | Hattie Jacques | 9 March 2002 |
| 5 | Ronnie Corbett | 16 March 2002 |
| 6 | Dick Emery | 13 April 2002 |
- Previously covered as part of the Goons episode. Aired three days after Milligan's death.
Series seven
[edit]| Episode number | Subject | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Wall | 2 January 2003 |
External links
[edit]- Heroes of Comedy at IMDb.