Geoffrey Perkins - 1953-2008

On the 29th August 2008, we lost one of the most important voices in British comedy, past and present. Geoffrey Perkins was a major creative force, variously as an actor, a writer, and producer, in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Radio Active, The HeeBeeGeeBees, The Uncyclopedia Of Rock, Spitting Image, Saturday Live, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, The Man From Auntie, Harry Enfield's Television Programme and Chums (as well as Norbert Smith A Life and Smashie And Nicey: End Of An Era), KYTV, Father Ted, The Fast Show, The Thin Blue Line, Game On, Hippies, Swiss Toni, The Catherine Tate Show, Benidorm, and most recently BBC1's Harry And Paul. This is a page set up to celebrate his memory.

Here, people can leave tributes and messages, both fans and those who have met and worked with him. One single collective web presence where we can show just how many people admired the hell out of him, and commemorate his many achievements in style. If you want to leave a message, email us with your contribution at any point and I will add it to the page. Whether you were a huge follower of his work or just a casual fan of Hitchhikers - it doesn't matter even if it's just a copy-and-paste of something you've already posted on a forum or written in an email, or just a single line, or a whole bloody essay if you want. Anything is appreciated.

Let's give this great man the sendoff he deserves - and take five minutes to put some words together in memory of a man who has provided you with more hours of pleasure than you could possibly hope to calculate. This is merely the beginning - we can make this page the mile long it deserves to be.

Ben
Baker

"It sounds ridiculous but I always assumed I’d meet Geoffrey Perkins. I write and perform comedy myself and sooner or later, I was going to get up the courage to contact him. I'd already done this of course a thousand times in my daydreams where it would always follow the same pattern - I would be invited in to meet with the great man and he would like my stuff, so we would inevitably work together and eventually become great mates - a truth not even tarred by the fact I was constantly repeating Mike Flex lines from Radio Active or the English For Aliens narrator (Tree! Shop Shop Shop Shop! Baby Jeeeesus!) from the joyful second series of Harry Enfield’s Television Programme, which he co-wrote and co-produced. Hell, I’ve even memorised the impeccably translated lines of Father Jose Fernandez from the "Passion Of St Tibulus" episode of Father Ted, which I remember being ridiculously excited at recognising as a invariably-indoors budding comedy obsessive.

Of course, not all dreams come true and the fact that I won’t now meet the man who frequently brought me to tears as the continually bewildered Oivind Vindstra and hosted the ineffably crooked Mike Flex’s Masterquiz, the man who suggested to Linehan and Mathews that they choose "Songs Of Love" over "Woman Of The World" as the theme tune to their new sitcom about some priests on a remote island, not to mention producing some of the most important programmes on TV during my formative years and took a chance on people like Lee and Herring, despite being far from fashionable….well, it utterly breaks my heart. A lot of great people have died recently, but Perkins' death has hit me in the same way Douglas Adams (whose "Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy", Perkins of course produced on the radio from episode two onwards) - a genuine talent gone far, far too soon.

For anyone who feels as winded as I have this weekend, I’ve uploaded my old encode of the Radio Active album (culled from series one and two I believe) which is one of the most beautifully honed pieces of comedy vinyl (or moderately priced cassette) ever to be released by the Beeb. Or indeed anywhere.

RIP Geoffrey Perkins. One of the last flickering lights of quality in an increasingly bleak television landscape. But more importantly, thanks for the laughs."

Darrell
Jones

"It's been two days now and I am still in crippling shock. Like the majority here I never met Geoffrey Perkins, but I lived in hope that one day I would. So much he has been involved with has enriched my life in countless and important ways, and at many difficult times, that I feel I owe him more than most. With no exaggeration, he was my hero.

Whether it was the CD box set of the Hitchhiker's Guide radio series getting me through the stress of my GCSEs; The Fast Show and the videotapes of Harry Enfield's Television Programme shaping my sense of humour and fascination with comedy in my formative years; discovering Radio Active and spending two whole years hunting down the back catalogue, trawling the pits of the earth for records and merchandise and spending silly money on original Deayton and Perkins scripts; or simply innumerable shows from Father Ted to Swiss Toni that have made me laugh uncontrollably on occasions so numerous as to be regular - without Geoffrey Perkins and his life's work spent giving his all simply in order to make the entire population laugh, I would be a much, much lesser man. I even went on an intensive course in Radio Production last year all purely because of him and his inspiring work.

In order to collate the pictures for this page, I watched through a lot of the material I had where he appears on camera. Every word I heard him utter put me on the brink of tears. Most importantly though, there also wasn't a second where I didn't look at him and smile. And I don't think that will ever change."

Tim
Worthington

"The first time that I heard Radio Active, it was blaring unnoticed out of the radio in the family kitchen as if it was any other Radio 4 programme. And indeed, it took until the very definite 'This Is Comedy!' music behind the end titles for me to realise - after several minutes of bafflement over why the presenters were saying strange things and there was an audience laughing - that it wasn't just any other Radio 4 programme. How much of the regular audience was made up of listeners well below the station's target age demographic is open to question, but it soon became a firm favourite of this one, and perhaps its greatest attraction was the audible smile in Geoffrey Perkins' voice as he gleefully read out yet another ridiculously contrived verbal gag. Perhaps it was a fitting end of an era when this obsessive Housemartins fan listened to Radio Active bowing out with their own sublime Housemartins parody Mobile Home Of Love, but weekends with the radio were somehow never quite as exciting again. That said, there was still KYTV to look forward to; thanks to 2|Entertain's curious failure to release the third series on DVD, there's a corresponding gap on the shelf opposite me, and today it seems just that little bit larger..."

Justin Lewis

"So much of Geoffrey's extraordinary career has dictated how fascinated I am with British comedy. I could land on Father Ted, or Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, or of course Hitch-Hikers many years before that. But I'll focus on Radio Active. Radio Active was my Goon Show. Having been given my own clock radio at the age of nine, I'd happily twiddle the dial at night and delight in a whole new world of sound. I'd enjoy happening on Radio 2 variety shows and panel games in the early 80s. But when I heard Radio Active, I suddenly realised this was for me.

I really can pinpoint where I was when I first heard it. It was lunchtime on Monday 16 August 1982. I was on school holidays, and we were at the home of one of my mum's friends, Irene (who, like Geoffrey Perkins, died far far too early). Irene had her radio jammed to Radio 4. I had assumed it mainly did the news, plus some plays and schools programmes. I'd heard Hitch-Hikers' Guide at some point but Radio Active was a real surprise: a comedy show, quite a raucous one at that, at lunchtime, with some surprisingly racy content? Was this really Radio 4?

The episode broadcast that day was The History of Radio Active, and I was delighted not only to discover that a) it was repeated the following evening but also that b) it was the first in a six-part series. (I didn't know then there'd been a series the year before.) So began a regular ritual on Tuesday nights of listening after lights out to a gloriously modern radio comedy show, after which I'd carry on half-listening to Radio 4, would fall asleep, and would be woken by some Today programme report the following morning.

Radio Active became a teenage obsession for me. I recently discovered that the Radio 4 controller of the time, Monica Sims, was fully aware of how the station needed younger listeners. Audience research showed that programmes like Hitch-Hikers and Radio Active were hugely popular with listeners as young as 12. (I was 12.) And had it not been for such things, would there have been the live late-night series In One Ear (which Perkins also wrote for, incidentally), Son of Cliche, Bodgers, and leaping a few years on, The Mary Whitehouse Experience and On the Hour?

Had Perkins just been a performer in Radio Active, this loss would be bad enough - given he co-wrote fifty shows with Angus Deayton, it's a devastating passing. His Mike Flex character was unctuous, ambitious, crass and, in the time-honoured tradition of broadcasting overachievers flourishing, successful. At least in Radio Active terms, where he booted Mike Channel (Angus Deayton) from the morning show on to the 3am slot, and became the anchorman on many of the station's shows. One habit that grew in the later years (under producers David Tyler and Paul Mayhew-Archer), which the rest of the cast also did well, but which Perkins as Flex perfected, was reacting to Philip Pope's bombastic and often ridiculous jingles, with a sarcastic, baffled or smarmy comment. Hard to narrow this down to one example, but it's hard to beat the "Stop That Crime! UK" jingle (1986), which ended with a Thatcher approximator solemnly intoning the title. To which Flex audibly shivered, and grovelled. "Thank you, your Majesty."

By 1985's series five, Perkins was also voicing Norwegian DJ Oivind Vindstra ("And on with the music.."), and he played a range of supporting characters too. But Flex was his enduring persona, flexible(!) enough to front any Radio Active programme, be it an intense debate on a nuclear holocaust, a health special on the flu virus, or a parody of TVS's Ultra Quiz, but sufficiently insensitive to not really know anything about the subject. And of course, there was Mike Flex's Masterquiz, in which he compiled and presided over contests for listeners that were impossible to win. With questions like "Where was the Battle of Britain fought?", but with answers like "In the sky", it's hardly surprising that the much-feted 'Radio Active Chateau in the Loire' remained unwon.

Radio Active was so important to me that even on Live Aid day, taping the repeat of Nuclear Mass Debate (say it aloud) was more important than the simulcast of what Radio 1 and BBC2 were doing. After all, I was at school on Friday lunchtime when the first broadcast of the episode went out. After the seventh and final series finished on 17 October 1987, I felt a part of my adolescence peter out. It had followed me through my secondary school years in a way no telly comedy had. I had, after all, given up on Hi-De-Hi! (It was never the same after Simon Cadell jumped ship.)

Due to illness, I never made it to the 21st anniversary Radio Active special, recorded at the Duke of York Theatre at the end of 2002. At the time, Angus Deayton had just been dumped as host of Have I Got News For You, and much was made by people who should have known better of how he was a mere autocue-reader with no talent. The special was no let-down, with Deayton and Perkins' scripts as sharp as ever, and all five cast members - yes, let's name the other three: Helen Atkinson Wood, Philip Pope and of course Michael Fenton-Stevens - on blistering form, I hoped after its broadcast that there might be further reunion specials. I was reminded of that tonight just after hearing the news of Geoffrey Perkins' death, realised how impossible that now was, and felt even emptier as a result.

Still, at least Radio Active gets remembered. It's been joyous to find younger people discovering the series through BBC7 repeats, who don't let the obscure 80s reference get in the way of their enjoyment of the programmes. Although why doesn't series seven get repeated? Here's hoping the next repeat run gives it an airing. Indeed, in the meantime, time to dig out the MP3s again. I'll soon be in hysterics again.

RIP Geoffrey Perkins. I wish I'd met you."

Ian
Greaves

"Radio Active is an obvious cornerstone for many contributors of a certain age, but the later TV series KYTV was immensely good fun as a kid - a gleeful comedy with a deeply seedy undercurrent, and a resonance not lost on someone whose father had subscribed to both BSB and early Sky TV. It was Perkins, Deayton and that very show which brought old guard talents such as Frank Middlemass and Richard Vernon to my attention. In fact, I would argue that Vernon's interpretation of the lyrics to Tutti Frutti (originating on Uncyclopaedia of Rock) is every bit the equal of Not Only But Also's Bo Dudley. "Neopolitan ice cream on the way..."

I had the great pleasure of interviewing Anne P Ling last year. She was Geoffrey's first secretary on his arrival at BBC Radio Light Entertainment, and witnessed his fast rise via Hitchhikers. The stories of its production are well known but what it reveals is not just the faith that people had in Douglas Adams (people higher up in the department were less kind) but Perkins' own flexibility in the face of such massive inconsistency. It was he who faced up to a cast left hanging around as the Christmas script was written in another room on the day of taping. Yet he was capable of a radicalism of his own, taping contributions for the show in pub toilets with Anne having to explain to him later that this was not the done thing. He would adapt to her advice but it's a marvellous thought to imagine Perkins and Adams in collaboration: two young men operating within a staid radio comedy system, yet thrilled to be playing with all of the toys. One must never forget that the quality of the guest cast on Hitchhikers' is a further debt we all owe to Perkins. They were lucky to have such a wealth of experienced actors available to them, but it was a mark of the producer's good sense of judgement that he employed them so well.

Perkins' skills as a writer have been rightly lauded this week, but his particular ability to galvanise and develop other creatives is a less recognised aspect. In his very first week as co-producer of Week Ending in October 1976, he hired Andy Hamilton. A year later the writer dominated the show as key writer, and had been given a considerable space to develop. And from that? A whole strand of comedy in itself. In a microcosm, this is what a good producer is there to do: act as the great oak from which many wonderful branches emerge. Geoffrey Perkins was undoubtedly one of the sturdiest.

Shalom, Mike."

Phil Catterall		"Anyone who doesn't like Radio Active really needs to go back and listen to it again. Several times. In fact they should continue to listen to it until they start to like it because there's really no excuse whatsoever. A particular highlight for me was always the interplay between Geoffrey Perkins' young and popular Mike Flex and Angus Deayton's older and more crotchetty Mike Channel, shunted to the graveyard shift to make way for Flex. Rarely has there been quite so much fun to be had from two characters that very clearly utterly loathe each other and yet have to keep it civil while on air. One of my fondest early memories of broadband was finding a (now utterly demolished) site that hosted various radio comedy shows broken up into about eight parts per episode. Alongside episodes of the 99p Challenge was about three seriesof Radio Active. Having hazy memories of it from when I was much, much younger, I grabbed a few. Then a few more. Then all the ones I could get before my housemates started shouting at me that they would quite like to use some of the bandwidth as well. Despite all the other utterly excellent work that Geoffrey Perkins has done, it will be Radio Active that remains the high point for me, and the fact that the sound of new Flex and Channel bickering will not grace my speakers again is a tremendously sad one."
Nick Mellish		"I never met Geoffrey Perkins, and I am willing to bet that many, if not most, of the people posting here will be in the same position as myself. But having not met the person does not equate to having not been affected in some way by them over the years, and this is most certainly true in this instance. From 'KYTV' to 'Father Ted' and, of course, 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy', Perkins's input into some of the greatest comedy of all times simply cannot be ignored. It takes a talented person indeed to pull off a couple of successes, but to have a whole string of them-- a string of them that at no sign showed a hint of weakening-- is quite frankly impossible. I don't believe it. That one person could be so good... it simply cannot be true. And yet it was. And that's fantastic albeit impossibly so; it's inspirational in its own way, too, as it gives those entering the world of production encouragement: that such a task can be pulled off. You just have to be an impossible sort of person, and in this respect I suppose Geoffrey Perkins was. My thoughts go out to all who knew him. Rest In Peace Geoffrey Perkins, the man who made the impossible look easy."

Tanya Jones		"Geoffrey was the driving force behind so many productions that I adored, and I can confidently say that my life wouldn't have been as rich without his influence. I can't believe his life was taken away when he still had so much to give British comedy. May he rest in peace. I'm still shocked, and I didn't even have the priviledge of knowing him."
Anon		"I first heard him in (I think) 1984 on Radio Active. It was the “Buy British Exhibition” episode and I still have it on audio-tape. He has created, written, performed in or produced such a parade of outstanding British comedy that listing them almost seems redundant – he had the Midas touch. This is a terrible, terrible loss."
Laura King		"I was greatly saddened to hear the tragic news, having admired Geoffrey's work since KYTV. Was also startled to find he was a graduate at Lincoln College in Oxford, where I now work! As a comedy fan of many years standing, I have blogged my own tribute here."
Suze Norman		"I think Father Ted is the best sitcom not just of the 90s like a lot of people ascertain, but the greatest one. I still marvel at it now and it takes smart, unassuming producers to hone a programme, to make it something extra special and to realise that sometimes too much insanity needs tempering slightly. His say in the nature of the characters, location and even the music, is on one level subtle, but it seems hard to imagine what it would have been otherwise..."

Walter Dunlop		""Tell you what, there's a quiz show about wallpaper going begging. How soon can we expect you?" "Erm...phooooof. When do Hedgehogs stop hibernating? "Hang on... Maureen, when do Hedgehogs stop hibernating? No, that's bats... Uh-huh? Really? Sometime in Spring, we think. Probably." Geoffrey Perkins, quiet and unassuming. The great facilitator. The man who simply by doing his job, gently, with care and infinite wisdom, caused many of us to laugh longer and harder than we probably deserve...no longer with us. And in such a stupid, pointless way. Christ, life is terribly unfair. How can some idiot mow you down and take you away? Geoffrey, I never met you, but I'll miss you more than I can say. I'll mourn you, not only for what you gave us (which is surely more than enough for one lifetime) but for what we can't have any more - that is, exciting, innovative, and above all funny Comedy shows. You know. The ones you laugh at. Loudly, inordinately and with a total lack of self-consciousness. Sleep well, Geoffrey. And thank you. You'll be remembered long after your time. We'll make sure of that."
Marco Lietner		"KYTV was one of the first British comedy series I've had the pleasure to watch and which along with Monty Python & Black Adder started one of my biggest hobbies.In those early days I asked myself why Geoffrey Perkins unlike the rest of the KYTV cast didn't do more performing only to find out over the years in how many important television and comedy he was creatively and supportingly involved. It was only three years ago that I at last got to listen to the original Radio Active and was pleasantly surprised to hear so much more good material and funny scripts. "A man who is known as Mister Wimbledon... Dan Wimbledon" had me laughing till the day after.Time and again in my everyday life Perkins' memorable catchphrases and funny quotes rush through my head, "the first one who gets it - gets it", "and on with the music", or just "mmmh...smashing" - perhaps from now on more than before."

Steve
Williams

"I first knew of Geoffrey thanks to his appearances on KYTV, where I thought he was a great performer. It was only later I realised it was the same Geoffrey Perkins who also produced various other shows, specifically those of Harry Enfield. One of my all-time favourite comedy sketches is English For Aliens on Harry Enfield's Television Programme, and I would suggest that at least half the fun in that brilliant sketch is thanks to Geoffrey's wonderfully po-faced narration. The same is also true of his voice of Father Hernandez in Father Ted - he just had the perfect voice for comedy. In fact I'd suggest that the second series of Harry Enfield's Television Programme, co-written and produced by Geoffrey, is an absolutely fantastic series, there's not one bad sketch in there, and that's why I was so pleased to see he was working with Enfield and Whitehouse again for their new series. Geoffrey was a wonderful performer, producer and writer."

Janette
Taylor

""Humour is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him." -Romain Gary

Thank you for the many years of joy, Geoffrey.

Janette Taylor. Nederland, Colorado, U.S."

Paul
Perkins

"I am extremely sad - there is not enough laughter in the world and for one person to have been associated with such gems as The Fast Show, Radio Active, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Harry Enfield's shows and Father Ted proves that Geoffrey knew how to tickle millions of funny bones. Just like Harry Thompson a few years ago Geoffrey's talents and his comedy legacy will be remembered for years to come. As someone has said before me on the tributes page he had the Midas touch.
My thoughts go out to his family."

Jem Roberts

"I've been writing the official history of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue for two years now, and in that time we have lost the greatest radio producer of all time, David Hatch and, tragically, dear Humph. But this loss of another major architect of the funniest radio show ever made was completely impossible to imagine, and – like the sudden and random loss of Douglas Adams – will take a long time to process, seeming such an obvious mistake.

The reasons for being grateful for everything Perkins did in his legendary career are exhaustive and no doubt detailed gloriously elsewhere on here, but it was for his association with ISIHAC that I interviewed him back in the spring of 2008. He was helpful and friendly beyond the call of duty, and even offered to send me his own copy of the 1982 ISIHAC book.

As the producer of the show, inheriting the role from Simon Brett and giving it up to Paul Mayhew-Archer, Perkins was in many ways the real forerunner to Jon Naismith, being a young buck who made 'Clue' twice the show it was when he started his job, and his period on the programme from 1978-1981 still contain many classic moments, such as the regular non-playing of the game 'Wobbling Bunnies', the rules of which nobody yet understands.

But Mornington Crescent has been the subject of controversy over the years, with Perkins usually credited with the creation of the game (even though, as we know, the game is thousands of years old...). However, when I interviewed Geoffrey, he made it clear that he was not responsible for the form of the game at all. Perkins' idea for 'Clue' was to have a non-game, that everyone could pretend was incredibly complex and could be a sort of 'Clue' in miniature, confusing all and sundry. It just so happens that John Junkin had already introduced just such a game to his drinking sessions with Barry Cryer, Tim Brooke-Taylor and co. Like 'Clue' itself, 'Mornington Crescent' is a mongrel game, the result of many years of collaboration and silliness. It was Perkins who gave the game the go-ahead, and as the boss at the time he defined how it was to be played, and how it was to be firmly believed in by the entire nation. So although he would never claim ownership, we do definitely have Perkins to thank for 30 years of top class Mornington Crescent.

That alone would make him a true comedy giant. The miles of further credits and creations with which he enriched British Comedy make his contribution unimaginably.... there is no word. So I will just say 'Perkins'. Perkins."