Marty Feldman
- English
- Actor, writer and comedian
Press clippings
Picture of Marty Feldman unveiled in his old drinking haunt
A portrait of Marty Feldman is being unveiled today - on what would have been his 90th birthday - in one of his regular haunts. The canvas is to take pride of place in the Uxbridge Arms pub in Notting Hill, West London, where he used to regularly lunch in his early writing career.
Chortle, 8th July 2024Why, 60 years on, Spike Milligan's Bed Sitting Room is as relevant as ever
Spike Milligan's post-apocalyptic dark comedy The Bed Sitting Room has not been performed on stage for almost 40 years. Now, ahead of a rehearsed reading of the script that the former Goon wrote with John Antrobus, producer John Hewer recalls what drew him to the project...
John Hewer, Chortle, 13th June 2022Round The Horne repeat 'broke BBC standards'
A 52-year-old episode of radio comedy Round The Horne has broken current BBC standards because of its potentially racist stereotypes, the broadcaster's complaints department has ruled. The episode, from 1967, featured white stars such as Hugh Paddick and Betty Marsden mimicking black characters in an extended parody of the 1950 movie Young Man With A Horn. However, in its newly released findings, the unit stopped short of a ban because of Round The Horne's status as a comedy classic, with the show recently voted best radio comedy of all time.
Chortle, 27th July 2020From the archive: Round the Horne reviewed, June 1965
This show's air of maverick, matey rudeness provides a perfect formula for mockery without tears.
Norman Shrapnel, The Guardian, 19th June 2020Do Not Adjust Your Set / At Last The 1948 Show review
Reviews of pre-Monty Python sketch series Do Not Adjust Your Set (*****) and At Last The 1948 Show. (***)
Graham Rickson, The Arts Desk, 8th October 2019DVD review: At Last the 1948 Show
You've all heard this one: four Yorkshiremen sit round a restaurant table and try to outdo each other with tales of how they had it tough when they were but lads. It's one of the most famous sketches to come from the Monty Python team, and has been restaged several times, including the album Monty Python Live at Drury Lane and the Amnesty International charity show and film The Secret Policeman's Ball. But in fact it's not a Python sketch at all. It first appeared on TV on At Last the 1948 Show.
Gary Couzens, The Digital Fix, 16th September 2019BBC releases some historic comedy moments
The BBC is making hundreds of clips from its archive available to watch on a new website. Comics featured include Spike Milligan, Pete and Dud, Kenny Everett and Billy Connolly.
Chortle, 10th September 2019The original Igor: remembering Marty Feldman
You hear him before you see him. A thudding presence getting ever closer on an almost deserted railway platform in deepest, fog-shrouded Transylvania. Scrape-thud-click, scrape-thud-click, scrape-thud-click. And then, as lightning throws up his frighteningly grotesque face into greater relief, he introduces himself to his new master, "Doctor Frankenstein..." The camera lingers in close-up as both Dr Frankenstein and the audience take in the full-screen vision. "It's Fronkensteen," says Gene Wilder. Pause. "You're having me on," says Marty Feldman, breaking the spell. "No... it's pronounced 'Fronkenstein'." The rest is comedy history.
Bill Borrows, The Telegraph, 16th October 2017Every Home Should Have One: DVD review
The humour is adolescent throughout. A movie that ought to have given the increasingly tired-looking Carry On series a run for its money is a curious period piece that captures the ad game well it has it has its brighter moments like the take-offs of Ken Russell, Benny Hill, a Swedish nudist picture and a hell-for-leather Buster Keaton-like fight sequence in the BBC props room. It was ad guru David Ogilvy who said that advertising was 'the best fun you can have with your clothes on'. Every Home Should Have One proves him wrong.
Ken Wilson, TV Bomb, 30th June 2016Terry Jones: How I met Marty Feldman
​Monty Python's Terry Jones writes about his new West End play, which celebrates one of his inspirations and idols.
Terry Jones, The Independent, 13th January 2016