Keith Harris dies at 67

Keith Harris dies at 67

C/O: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32495447

His agent Robert C Kelly confirmed the news on Twitter.

"Sad to announce death from cancer of my client, dear friend and great talent, Keith Harris," he wrote.

Harris had his own BBC One Saturday night programme The Keith Harris Show and had a top 10 hit with Orville's Song, popularly known as I Wish I Could Fly, in 1982.

Orville was his most famous creation - an innocent green duck in an oversized nappy, who was relentlessly taunted by Harris's other character, Cuddles the monkey.

The Keith Harris Show ran for eight years from 1982 to 1990, and the entertainer appeared on a total of five Royal, and Children's Royal Variety Performances.

At the personal request of Diana, Princess of Wales, Keith gave private performances at Highgrove House for Prince William's third birthday and then at Kensington Palace for Prince Harry's third birthday.

In the 2000s, he reinvented himself as an X-rated ventriloquist, touring student unions with his adult show, Duck Off.

He appeared in the 2002 documentary When Louis met Keith Harris; and won the Channel Five reality show The Farm in 2005.

But he turned down the chance to appear in Ricky Gervais's comedy series Extras.

"I read the script and thought, 'This isn't clever writing, it's pure filth,'" he told The Independent in 2006.

"I turned it down. I'm not desperate."

He continued to appear in pantomime and holiday camps, but was diagnosed with cancer of the spleen in 2013.

After having the spleen removed, he endured four months of chemotherapy and was given the all-clear, allowing him to return to the stage.

But last summer, he told an audience in Great Yarmouth the illness had returned and he needed further treatment. He was moved to tears when they gave him a standing ovation.

The entertainer leaves behind his fourth wife Sarah, and his children Kitty and Shenton; as well as a daughter, Skye, from his first marriage to singer Jacqui Scott and his mother Lila and brother Colin.

Carry On Special

  
FULL TRIVIA:

CAMPING

• Bernard Bresslaw uses his famous catchphrase "I Only Arsked" for the first time on screen since leaving The Army Game behind.
   
• Jim Dale was originally considered for the coach driver, but he was unavailable, and so the part was cut back and given to Julian Holloway.
   
• Barbara Windsor wanted to play the school girl 'Babs' with a public School accent, but the first day of filming, the shower where she looks through the knot hole and sees Sid's beady eye, she blurts her line out in typical Cockney style.  Gerald Thomas didn't want to do another take, so she was stuck with it for the rest of the film.
   
• The famous bra flying scene when Babs and the girls are doing the exercises caused some problems for Barbara Windsor.  He bra was connected to a fishing line and an old stagehand was to pull it off at the given time, but he pulled her over in to the mud. When it was successfully done she was determined to keep covered up at all costs, but then Kenneth Williams says "Matron - take them away",  and so Matron grabs her arm, uncovering her for all to see.  The yell she lets out at this point is real.
   
• The film is set at the height of summer, but it was in fact filmed in October/November and so was wet and cold.  The grass was all mud, so they sprayed it green and laid down boards to walk on.  the leaves had to be stuck back on and sprayed green.
   
• Barbara Windsor was trudging through the mud and freezing weather, complaining to Kenneth Williams, calling Peter Rogers all the names she could think of, but she had forgotten to take off her throat mike, and so all what she was saying was being recorded.  The next day when Peter was looking at the rushes, he could hear her slagging him off. He decided to leave it all in for the showing the next day to the cast.  When Barbara heard it she has horrified and thought she would be sacked when Peter saw them.  It was only later in the day she found out he new all the time and he had been winding her up - apparently the air was blue again.
   
• Peter Rogers had registered the title Carry On Camping with the Film Producers Association as far back as May 1962 just after finishing work on the pioneering Carry On holiday film, Carry On Cruising. Still in mind, though on the back burner, during the Anglo Amalgamated years, the title�s registration was renewed in 1966 and initially considered for production after Don�t Lose Your Head. Uncertainty over resurrecting the Carry On title and scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell�s misunderstanding of what the producer wanted, resulted in the foreign lesion comedy, Follow That Camel, being put into production instead.
   
• The misunderstanding on Tolly Rothwell�s part had been down to a conceived desire, on the parts of the Rank Organisation and, to a lesser extent, Peter Rogers, to make the films more international. Tolly had drafted the first few scenes for the Camping film, taking the usual gang of British eccentrics abroad for their holiday. This, along with an unsolicited wartime Italy-based Commando comedy screenplay, Operation Kokkup, was rejected by the producer although, as Peter wrote on 23rd January 1967, �in fairness to Tolly, it was Gerald�s idea to make �Camping� a caravan subject�. A subject that would later be made, with a different scriptwriter Dave Freeman, under the title Carry On Behind.
   
• Once with the home-based, under canvas scenario firmly fixed, Talbot Rothwell wrote the script with ease. The title, with its double meaning of camp sites and camp comics, had not by-passed either Kenneth Williams �thinking it was an appropriate title for the fifteenth in the series� (discounting the first two Rank efforts in his 1985 memoirs Just Williams) or the writer. Tolly�s first draft for Carry On Camping features a sketched tent on the front cover with the cut-outs of the rear quarters of a cow protruding from the flaps. The two camp comics of the team are added, with a cut-out photo of Kenneth Williams�s head poking through the flaps of the other end of the test and a cut-out photo of Charles Hawtrey�s head sticking out from a hole in the top of the tent.
   
• Clearly Tolly Rothwell was firing on all cylinders during the revival and reshaping of Carry On Camping. Sid James, who had had the script sent to his Torquay base during his 1968 summer season in Wedding Fever at the Torquay Pavillion, wrote to producer Peter Rogers with glowing anticipation on 2nd September 1968. �Many thanks for the script. Very funny! I drove Val [his wife, Valerie James] potty laughing aloud. That doesn�t often happen when one reads! There are some wonderful moments. So clean too???�
   
• Despite all the positive feed-back, the Rank Organisation were concerned over the film�s potential budget. Naturally, with the fields and orchards in and around Pinewood Studios utilised for most of the location work, it was not a patch on the budget for the costume romp Carry On�Up The Khyber. However, Peter Rogers had to justify the escalating production cost since Carry On Doctor the previous year. A week longer on the shooting schedule and the need for more artistes were amongst his reasons in a letter dated 30th September 1968. Moreover he maintained that Rank �have five pictures�for a good deal less than one million pounds.�
  

• When Joan Sims tells Sid that they are already "soaking wet" after having put up the tent for the girls, their clothes look rather dry, not wet.
   
• If Bernie can poke his head through the canvas of the men's tent after they have put it up, it must be a flimsy one that should disintegrate at the first sign of rain.
   
• As they are about to leave in the car in front of the house, Mrs. Fussy is right behind Sid as he walks round the car. However, when you see the next shot she is far behind him.
   
• Dr Soper is already halfway out the back of his tent when the matron invades it, However, in the next shot he is wholly inside.
   
• As Mr Soper and the matron follow the truck on Potters' tandem, they wobble from side to side as if they would fall off any moment. In the next shot, however, they are sitting on the cycle as steady as a rock.
   
• With the noise in the next field Sid complains to Mr Fiddler that they wouldn't get any sleep with all that noise. Mr Fiddler replies that he believes Sid didn't intend to do much sleeping. If he has heard that onthe grapevine, it would certainly have come to the ears of the matron and Mr Soper, not to mention the two girls of Sid and Bernie.
  
  Doctor
  
  
  • The Rank Organisation were still reluctant to officially continue the Carry On series at this point although everybody involved knew it was a tribute to Carry On Nurse. The original title, subsequently one of Talbot Rothwell�s on-screen alternatives, was Nurse Carries On Again. Shortly afterwards that was adapted to Carry On Again Nurse, a title subsequently put into pre-production in 1979 and again in 1988 but never actually filmed.
     
  • With original distribution company Anglo Amalgamated threatening to put their own �Carry On� film into production in September 1967 Peter Rogers was keen to push forward with the new title Carry On Doctor. Seemingly sensing the end for both his series of films and the Doctor comedies produced by his wife Betty Box, Carry On Doctor was originally planned as the coda to both. Even before hinting at the idea with the head of Rank Peter had mentioned it to Kenneth Williams. His diary entry of 6th May reveals that the producer: �would like to do a Carry On Doctor as the last, and then �say goodbye to the Carry Ons� rather sad really.�
     
  • The double whammy closure was certainly evident in the film, with Rank�s other successful comedy series, the Doctor films, acknowledged in the Carry On. James Robertson Justice, the formidable Scots actor who had played Sir Lancelot Spratt in all six Doctor productions, agreed to his likeness being used for a portrait in the Carry On. The painting, suitably bearing the legend Sir J Robertson Justice, is situated in the hospital foyer between the lifts.
     
  • Eric Rogers had his usual classical and popular culture in-joke fun with the film�s musical score. On the first appearance of Charles Hawtrey as Mr Barron, a sufferer of a phantom pregnancy, a snatch of �The Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells� from Mussorgsky�s Pictures from an Exhibition is included. Later, during the makeshift operation on Kenneth Williams, Bernard Bresslaw relishes in revealing that he used to e a barber and is complemented by a snatch of Rossini�s The Barber of Seville.
     
  • Peter Rogers was wary of included two well known camp performers: Kenneth Williams and Frankie Howerd, in the same cast. Indeed their roles were seemingly interchangeable. Days after turning the film down, Kenneth was told that Frankie was out of the film and was now offered the leading role. Typically, Kenneth balked at accepting the responsibility and rejected the idea, ironically seeking solace in the role of Dr Tinkle, the part he had turned down days before. Although Peter maintained that he kept them apart on screen, in actual fact, Kenneth and Frankie do share a couple of brief scenes together and sparkle off each other perfectly.
     
  • When Peter Rogers was developing this film, he was concerned about using the Doctor title so he asked the head of Rank, John Davis. He told him to ask his wife, Betty Box, as she was still making the Doctor... series.  They came to an arrangement, Peter paid her a percentage of the takings.
     
  • Frankie Howerd was unsure whether to accept the role of Francis Bigger and so Kenneth Williams was given the part, but he became uneasy about it, and so was recast as Dr Tinkle.  Finally Frankie took the part of Mr Bigger.
     
  • If you look between the lifts in the foyer you will see a portrait of James Robertson Justice, who played Sir Lancelot Spratt in Doctor In Clover, produced by Peter Rogers wife Betty Box.
     
  • Sid James' part was reduced and they had him acting in bed due to a recent heart attack.

Again Doctor

• Jim Dale was very proud of doing his stunts in Again Doctor.  He went down the stairs on the trolley, and he jumped in to the hammock on the island.  These caused a him serious injury, and he suffered with back problems for years.  This was all good training for him as years later he took the role of P T Barnum on Broadway, and this is full of stunts.
   
• The newly thinned down Scrubba married Michael Caine.
   
• Eric Rogers who provided the music for most of the Carry Ons appears as the clarinet player at the hospital party.
   
• When Wilfred Brambell  appears in a small cameo as a 'dirty old man', a snatch of the Steptoe and Son theme can be heard.
   
• A hasty reappraisal of all things medical for the Carry Ons in reflection of the success of 1968�s Carry On Doctor, this script in fact began life as part of a rival film series. Talbot Rothwell had been commissioned to write Doctor In Clover for the producer Berry Box. In the event, Tolly�s screenplay was passed over in favour of an effort from Norman Wisdom scribe Jack Davies.
   
• However, when Peter Rogers resurrected the idea in November 1968, with Carry On Doctor still awaiting general release, the Rank Organisation�s legal advisor Hugh J Parton got nervous. He commented; �The medical mission and slimming cure provide most of the story, and I know I have read it all somewhere before it�s possible that the whole plot may have originated in one of Richard Gordon�s [Doctor] books. If it were a book in which we already own film rights, there could be no claim for copyright infringement but awkward questions would arise over credits.�
   
• Indeed, the character earmarked for Kenneth Williams in the original script also caused concern. Hugh Parton observed that: �The dialogue of Frederick Carver is so reminiscent of Sir Lancelot Spratt that I wonder whether there is any intention of parodying him and, if so, whether the character of Spratt was not originally created by Richard Gordon.� In fact the only concession to these concerns was to remove the Sir from Frederick Carver in the script. Kenneth�s haughty medical persona would have to wait until Carry On Matron for that deserved knighthood!
   
• Although nobody really left the Carry On series forever in the eyes of cast and crew, it is fitting hat Jim Dale�s final appearance for almost a quarter of a century features subtle references to earlier romps. During the Long Hampton Hospital Dance, filmed incidentally in Pinewood Studio�s canteen, composer Eric Rogers includes a snippet of his score from Jim�s debut film, Carry On Cabby. An orchestration of the Carry On Spying song, The Magic Of Love, is also included as Jim weaves in and out of the dancers with his hands full of buffet food.
   
• Moreover, Eric Rogers makes his second and final Carry on gag appearance as the Bandleader who intones the immortal line: �the next dance is a general excuse me�. The line was energetically circled in red ink in Eric�s shooting script.
   
• Musical reference is also included for the wordless and uncredited cameo appearance by Steptoe and Son�s eternal dirty old man, Wilfrid Brambell. As with Harry H Corbett�s appearance in Carry On Screaming!, Eric Rogers includes a burst of the familiar Ron Grainer theme for the classic BBC rag �n� bone situation comedy. Wilfrid�s lusty performance, suitably filmed on April Fool�s Day 1969, earned him a Special Rate fee of �100. It was well timed. Although the television series had come to an end in 1965 the BBC announced their intentions to resurrect Steptoe and Son in colour in June 1969. The show returned, better than ever, in March 1970.

 
  PHOTOS:

At the home of the Fussy's, before they go off camping

Barbara Windsor & Kenneth Williams Having a laugh on the set of Camping

Biker Barbara Windsor & Sid James share a giggle in Brighton on the set of Girls

Charles Hawtrey getting touched up on the set of Again Doctor

Charles Hawtrey in promo shot for At Your Convenience

Charles Hawtrey, Jim Dale, Phil Silvers, Bernard Bresslaw, Kenneth Williams, Peter Butterworth & Anita Harris in a promo shot for Follow That Camel

Dick Van Dyke pays a visit to the set of Up the Khyber, chatting to Joan Sims & Sid James

Hattie Jacques, Peter Roger (producer) & Kenneth Williams in Doctor

Jim Dale having a smoke on the set of Carry On Doctor

Jim Dale & Barbara Windsor on the set of Doctor

Jim Dale, Peter Butterworth, Phil Silvers, Bernard Bresslaw, Kenneth Williams celebrating Phils birthday on the set of Follow That Camel

Kenneth Williams & Frankie Howard On the set of Carry On Doctor

Kenneth Williams, Angela Douglas, Phil Silvers, Jim Dale A shot from the set of Follow That Camel

On the set of Again Doctor

Sid James & Kenneth Williams being directed by Gerald Thomas on the set of Don`t Lose Your Head

Sid James (left) & Gerald Thomas (right)(director) on the set of Henry

Sid James and Hattie Jacques With Sid's prized PEG1 cab

Sid James and Joan Sims from Abroad

Sid James, Bernard Bresslaw & Charles Hawtrey on the set of Doctor

Barbara Windsor & Sid James

Steptoe & Son - Behind The Scenes

Steptoe & Son - Behind The Scenes

BRIEF TRIVIA:

The "Steptoe and Son" on the junkyard gates are not Albert and Harold Steptoe: "Steptoe" is Albert's father and the "Son" is Albert (Old Man Steptoe).

Remade in Sweden as Albert & Herbert (1974). Also served as a "blueprint" for the long-running American series Sanford and Son (1972).

The Steptoes' fictitious residence is Mews Cottage, Oil Drum Lane, Shepherd's Bush, London.

Unlike most BBC sitcoms from the 1960s, all of the episodes exist. However 14 editions (one from the 1965 run and the remainder from the two colour 1970 seasons) only exist in the archives as relatively low-definition monochrome Shibaden copies dubbed from the master tapes, courtesy of the private collection of writers Galton and Simpson. In 2007 the opening fifteen minutes of Steptoe and Son: A Winter's Tale (1970) was recovered as a 16mm b/w film print, the only such telerecording known to be in existence.

Wilfrid Brambell planned to leave the series in 1965 because he had been offered a part in the Broadway musical "Kelly" by Eddie Lawrence and Moose Charlap. Realising that they would not be able to re-cast the part of Old Man Steptoe, Galton and Simpson wrote an episode showing Harold at Albert's grave, followed by the introduction of a new character, the illegitimate son of Harold whose existence he never knew about. However "Kelly" folded after only one performance, and Brambell asked for his old job back as Old Man 

Steptoe.

In real life Wilfred was only 13 years older than Harry, but yet played his dad in the series.

Wilfrid Brambell's character was often referred to as a dirty old man. In a little in-joke, his character in A Hard Day's Night (1964) was referred to as a very clean man.

The series began life as a 1962 segment of the BBC's "Comedy Playhouse" strand, in the episode Comedy Playhouse: The Offer (1962).

Oil Drum Lane was mentioned by Tony Hancock in Hancock episode Hancock's Half Hour: The Missing Page (1960) (broadcast 11 March 1960) as being the residence of the reader who borrowed the library book before him. This was also written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. Additionally, Steptoe and Son: Tea for Two (1970) makes mention of Harold's acquaintance Dolly Clackett, herself referenced several times in their East Cheam sitcom.

The title Steptoe and Son came from a real-life photographer's shop called Steptoe and Figge. As Alan Simpson later noted, "We didn't for one moment consider calling the series Figge and Son".

Brambell and Corbett reprised their rôles in the 52 BBC Radio adaptations which aired across six seasons on the Light Programme (July 1966-July 1967) and Radio 2 (March 1971-December 1976). 

PHOTOS:

VIDEOS:

                       RARE HARRY.H CORBETT INTERVIEW (1972)

                                         Harry H. Corbett Interview

             Wilfred Brambell pays tribute to Harry H. Corbett (incomplete)

On The Buses - Behind The Scenes

On The Buses - Behind The Scenes

BRIEF TRIVIA:

 Although the character Stan Butler was supposed to be in his mid-thirties, Reg Varney was already 52 when the series began. Varney wore heavy make-up so that he would appear younger.

 

There were plans to revive the series in 1990 as "Back on the Buses".

 

'Bob Grant, playing bus conductor Jack, had actually worked in real life as a bus driver in order to pay his way through RADA (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art). He mentions this in the TV interview he did on the Wogan show in 1990. The rest of the cast were also present talking about the planned new series which sadly never got made.

 

Reg Varney wouldn't sit out his part all the way. He left the series in the final season, after episode 69 (entitled "Goodbye Stan"). So Varney wasn't in the last six episodes of this series. His absence was explained by Stan moving to the Midlands, to work in a bus making factory. Inspector Blakey moved into the Butler household as a lodger, so he promoted from a bit-player to the show's primary character. Varney did feature in the third "On the Buses" movie later on in 1973, Holiday on the Buses (1973).

 

Michael Robbins (Arthur Rudge) left the series after season six to concentrate on his stage work again. The first episode of the final season is called "Olive's divorced", so Arthur and Olive finally get divorced.

 

Doris Hare was first choice for the role of Mum. However she was unavailable for the first series, and Cicely Courtneidge was signed for the first series only.

 

The series often attracted better ratings than the BBC's Dad's Army.

 

Stan and Jack's bus is the Luxton & District Traction Company's number 11 to the Cemetery Gates.

 

The buses were diesel-powered Eastern National Bristol Lodekka FLF6LXs with 70-seat bodies.

 

Due to a technicians' strike during season four, seven of the thirteen episodes were made in black and white rather than colour - "Christmas Duty", "The Anniversary", "Cover-Up", "Safety First", "The Lodger", "The Injury" and "Not Tonight". On some of these a voice is audible directing the audience's applause prior to the credits cutting off.

 

The nick-name of Inspector Blake (Stephen Lewis) was "Blakey" but he was also nick-named at times "Hitler".

 

Three cinema movie "On the Buses" pictures were made in consecutive years between 1971 and 1973 whilst this TV sitcom series On the Buses (1969) was still being broadcast on television.

 

The TV series' two creators were both called Ronald - Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney. As there was a TV series on TV from 1971 starring Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker called The Two Ronnies (1971) - the pair were nick-named both this and "The Two Ronalds".

 

PHOTOS:

 

 

Only Fools and Horses - Behind The Scenes

Only Fools and Horses - Behind The Scenes

Brief Trivia:

Kenneth MacDonald (who played Mike) died the same day as it was announced that a new trilogy would be made.

 

David Jason (Derek "Del" Trotter), Nicholas Lyndhurst (Rodney Trotter) and Roger Lloyd Pack (Trigger) are the only actors to appear in both the first and last episodes.

 

Trigger's real name in the series is Colin Ball. He was named Trigger because he "looks like a horse".

 

The original ending (in 1996) was that Del, Rodney and Uncle Albert become cartoon characters as they walked into the sunset. The director, however, decided against this idea.

 

Buster Merryfield had been a boxer and a bank manager for NatWest before he took up amateur dramatics after retiring.

 

Jim Broadbent was John Sullivan's first choice as Del Boy, but he had just started a show in London's West End and so had to turn it down. Second Choice was Enn Reitel, who was working as a voice artist. David Jason was only third choice. Broadbent was later cast as DCI Roy "The Slag" Slater, following a request from John Sullivan to still appear somewhere in the story lines.

 

Although Cassandra was supposed to be five years younger than Rodney, in real life Gwyneth Strong is actually two years older than Nicholas Lyndhurst.

 

Crew members would often find filming outside (often in Bristol, 130 miles from the Trotters' "home" in Peckham, south east London) a tough challenge due to the amount of people who would turn up just to watch and catch a glimpse of the actors.

 

Rodney's personality was based on the experiences of series creator John Sullivan, who also had an older sibling and, like Rodney, claimed to have been a dreamer and an idealist in his youth.

 

The series was criticised for depicting Peckham as a mostly white area.

 

Athough the show continued until 1996, and then between 2001-2003, the last actual series ended with the episode Only Fools and Horses....: Three Men, a Woman, and a Baby (1991) which aired on 3 February 1991. All episodes made since have been Christmas specials.

 

David Jason was cast as Del Boy after the producers saw him in Open All Hours (1976).

PHOTOS:

 

 VIDEOS:

 

             THE VIDEO CONTAINS ALL 4 REMAINING OUTTAKES (RARE)