The Stanley Baxter Story

Radio review: The Stanley Baxter Show

Eddie Izzard is all over the airwaves, says Elisabeth Mahoney.

Second of four specials, great comics of yesteryear presented by stars of today. Last week it was Frankie Howerd and Clive Anderson, tonight it's Stanley Baxter and Eddie Izzard. To those who remembers Baxter's parodies of Hollywood (and royalty and showbiz), presented in TV shows so lavish they looked as good as the originals, Izzard seems an odd choice to appraise his talents. But this is about Baxter's comedy, a kind of showbiz cartooning that was all his own, and how he learned to perfect it. And he's still here to tell the tale himself.

"This man seems to have spent his entire career dressed in women's clothing," declares Eddie Izzard at the start of this enlightening biography of Stanley Baxter. That's rich coming from a man not averse to a full-on flirtation with frockery himself, but it is said with nothing but admiration. In fact the warmth with which Stanley Baxter is described by the likes of Maureen Lipman, Barry Cryer, Billy Connolly and Julia McKenzie would keep the 82-year-old comic actor comfortable for years if it was converted into central heating. What they all recognise is that beneath the multiplicity of funny faces, extraordinary voices and relentless costume changes, Baxter has never shied away from humour that requires a bit of intelligence and cultural awareness from his audience.

Even when I was growing up in the 1970s, Stanley Baxter seemed to be slowing down his comedic output, with his TV appearances to Christmas specials. That single show every year was so finely crafted, though, that it was an inevitable festive highlight. That Baxter is still producing great work (though mainly on radio these days) is a blessing, and this exploration of his life's work, presented by Eddie Izzard and with contributions from Julia McKenzie, Maureen Lipman, Denise Coffey and many others, promises to be rather special.