BCG Daily Saturday 22nd April 2023

Barry Humphries: The satirist and comedian whose life was dominated by Dame Edna Everage

Barry Humphries was described as one of the greatest raconteurs and stand-up comedians of his age.

Barry Humphries: A life in pictures

In a purple wig, garish outfits and outrageous spectacles, Barry Humphries was instantly recognisable as Dame Edna Everage.

Kathy Lette on Barry Humphries: 'His charm was more disarming than a UN peacekeeping force'

We spoke to the author Kathy Lette, a close friend of Barry Humphries for more than 40 years. She visited him in hospital recently, and he was still cracking jokes. We asked how special he was to her, and to the comedy world.

Barry Humphries - a life in pictures

The Australian actor and comedian has died aged 89. Here are some of the best pictures from his long career.

Barry Humphries was a master of provocation and glorious grotesquerie

Despite a legacy tainted by PC-baiting provocation, many will remember Humphries with affection as the carnivalesque Dame Edna and foul-mouthed Sir Les Patterson.

Barry Humphries obituary

Entertainer whose outrageous caricatures Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson took the one-man show to new heights.

Farewell, Barry Humphries and Dame Edna - an unrepeatable, mischievous one-off

Edna's greeting of "Hello Possums" became as famous as the gladioli that she would throw into the audience at her live shows.

No BBC Radio 4 show is 'safe from the axe' as bosses warn of 'difficult decisions' after listener complaints over comedy output

The future of much-loved Radio 4 comedy shows such as Just A Minute is not guaranteed - as one BBC executive warned no programme is 'sacrosanct'. Julia McKenzie, who oversees comedy on the station, said she 'will occasionally have to make difficult decisions' about bringing shows to an end.

RIP Barry Humphries

It was not just Barry Humphries who died on Saturday.

It was that towering skewerer of pomposity and humbug, and gate-crasher of Royal boxes, Dame Edna Everage. It was Australia's roving cultural attaché and Australian Minister for the Yartz, Sir Les Patterson. It was pathetic Melbourne suburban pensioner, Sandy Stone. It was colonial hellraiser Barry McKenzie. It was a host of other characters, who burst forth from Humphries's determination to be different in a world that worshipped conformity, and his witheringly sharp eye for the absurdities of the human condition.