Malcolm Hardee

[TJ]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news...

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/feb05/hardee020203.php

[Jemble Fred]

Blimey, three of us at once. Sorry, Teej, you were there first.

Like I said elsewhere, Jesus. He was nothing more to me than an occasional columnist in Deadpan magazine (and they'd print the iconic picture of him with his cock out every other issue, as well) and occasionally as a talking head on comedy documentaries. But that's only because I'm a comedy sprog, who should know better.

What a fucking shame. RIP.

[alan strang]

Shit!

[Partridge's Love Child]

Well, you've answered a question I've been pondering for some time.  Everytime he pops into my head, I always seem to recall something about him being dead.  I obviously made it up, or saw into the future (thought the prediction that "he will die one day" is hardly Derren Brown stuff now, is it).

Glastonbury without John Peel AND Malcolm Hardee's arse.  It truly is the end of an era.

[The Mumbler]

Very sad news, and rather awful circumstances too.  I shall dig out my copy of I Stole Freddie Mercury's Birthday Cake and enjoy.

RIP

[Clinton Morgan]

RIP.

[jutl]

Sad news.

from the Chortle obit:

And Robert Newman called him "a hilarious, anarchic legend; a millennial Falstaff."

from http://www.chortle.co.uk/comics/mhardee.html

Yes Rob - let's not let the solemnity of the occasion stop you waving your A Level certificates about.

[Jemble Fred]

Yes Rob - let's not let the solemnity of the occasion stop you waving your A Level certificates about.

No, that wasn't a tribute from after his death – it was a perfectly reasonable quote from a book published while Hardee was alive. What's wrong with calling someone Falstaffian? Never thought I'd hear you criticise someone for displaying a level of intelligence, old boy. Hey ho.

[jutl]

Yes Rob - let's not let the solemnity of the occasion stop you waving your A Level certificates about.

No, that wasn't a tribute from after his death – it was a perfectly reasonable quote from a book published while Hardee was alive. What's wrong with calling someone Falstaffian? Never thought I'd hear you criticise someone for displaying a level of intelligence, old boy. Hey ho.

There's displaying and there's flouncing. Newman is an inveterate flouncer and that remark is a classic example of it. It's a matter of taste I suppose, but it is so obviously supposed to be a marvellously witty epigrammatic poster-quote. It's a pointless elitist reference combined with the word 'Millennial', which is reserved entirely for the use of pretentious cunts, in my humble opinion.

[Purple Tentacle]

That's horrible news.

I met him while I was a student in Canterbury, he was doing the balloon dance, and I caught the balloon he used to cover his cock. I asked him to sign it for me, and we had a brief natter.

It was a horrible pub-cum-club with one of those fake money blackjack tables, and he went up and threw all the fake money from the upper floor onto the dance floor below, and all the stupid fucking students stuffed it into their pockets like it actually had value.

I still have the balloon knocking around somewhere, I'll find it and look after it.

[butnut]

Radio 4 Right now.

Arthur Smith is talking about him.

[SurferGhost]

Bloody hell, I thought this was a "Tell us what you think of..." thread. Blimey, that's horrible.

More happily, I fondly remember him bizarrely appearing on an BBC2  news/history-based quiz show (Today's The Day with Martyn Lewis), with either his mother or his aunt, around 1995. At first I thought it must have been a brilliant wind-up, but apparently it was for real. I think they won, as well...

[Jemble Fred]

Two interesting things from William "I'll have that, thank you" Cook's obit in The Guardian (apart from the fact that he neglects to mention that it was his name under which Hardee filed his infamous positive review) – I never realised that A) Hardee stood in an election for Rainbow George's party. and B) Hardee was in Blackadder? Anyone know which episode that was?

[rich byrne]

Jemble Fred
Two interesting things from William "I'll have that, thank you" Cook's obit in The Guardian (apart from the fact that he neglects to mention that it was his name under which Hardee filed his infamous positive review) – I never realised that A) Hardee stood in an election for Rainbow George's party. and B) Hardee was in Blackadder? Anyone know which episode that was?

"3rd Wooferoonie" in episode: "Born to Be King"

[Jemble Fred]

Ah, I guessed it'd be the first series.

Ta for that, Rich – and welcome, of course!

[Geej]

Crap.  He was one offensively funny man.

His autobiography was one of only about 3 books that I have genuinely laughed out loud so much that I cried, and had to stop reading in order to wipe tears from my eyes so that I could refocus on the page.

A true must read for comedy fans;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1857023854/qid%3D1107539368/202-6998221-4303814

or

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?imagefield.x=0&cm_re=A*Search+Box*Form&tn=i+stole+freddie+mercury&sortby=3&imagefield.y=0

[benthalo]

Tony Allen and Kevin Eldon guested on yesterday's edition of Simon Munnery's Weekly Chats (Resonance FM) which amounted to an extended tribute to Malcolm Hardee. Allen's contributions are invaluable. It might be on their very limited Listen Again service, but I have a recording if push comes to shove.

Terrible news of course. I'd heard a few years ago that he was homeless, but I'm glad that he'd settled to some degree since then.