The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse

0:00:07 > 0:00:09Bob Monkhouse.

0:00:12 > 0:00:13Comedian,

0:00:13 > 0:00:15writer,

0:00:15 > 0:00:17father.

0:00:18 > 0:00:21The king of the quiz shows.

0:00:21 > 0:00:24But this is only half the story.

0:00:24 > 0:00:26Bob Monkhouse spent a lifetime

0:00:26 > 0:00:29obsessively collecting films and video tapes,

0:00:29 > 0:00:33recordings of radio and television programmes

0:00:33 > 0:00:34which, until now,

0:00:34 > 0:00:35had been thought lost for ever.

0:00:37 > 0:00:38He recorded everything.

0:00:38 > 0:00:42He seemed to have taped audiovisually...

0:00:42 > 0:00:43He had everything!

0:00:43 > 0:00:47Shelves up to here, all surrounded,

0:00:47 > 0:00:49all with tapes, and all letters, and... Oh, God!

0:00:49 > 0:00:52Reams and reams and reams and reams and reams of stuff.

0:00:52 > 0:00:55He's like a magpie. He's got so much stuff.

0:00:55 > 0:00:59Films, books, records...

0:00:59 > 0:01:02And it's sort of almost compulsive behaviour, really.

0:01:02 > 0:01:03It was verging on obsession.

0:01:04 > 0:01:06Here, for the first time,

0:01:06 > 0:01:09we can see the material that so obsessed Bob Monkhouse.

0:01:09 > 0:01:13It opens a door into the mind of one of Britain's most complex

0:01:13 > 0:01:15and funniest comedians.

0:01:28 > 0:01:30Bob Monkhouse had been collecting all kinds of things

0:01:30 > 0:01:32since he was a child.

0:01:32 > 0:01:36It included thousands of tapes and films.

0:01:36 > 0:01:41But he also collected comics and records, matchboxes,

0:01:41 > 0:01:43and even tinned food.

0:01:46 > 0:01:48He kept everything related to his own career

0:01:48 > 0:01:49and threw away nothing.

0:01:49 > 0:01:53It was all good fun, until 1977,

0:01:53 > 0:01:55when Bob's serious collecting habit

0:01:55 > 0:01:57landed him in serious trouble.

0:01:58 > 0:02:00One evening I got a phone call,

0:02:00 > 0:02:04and he said, "Can't believe what's happened." I said, "Well, tell me."

0:02:04 > 0:02:08So he said, "Well, the house is full of policemen.

0:02:08 > 0:02:11"They've got a warrant to search the house,

0:02:11 > 0:02:13"and they're going to arrest me!"

0:02:13 > 0:02:15Mr Monkhouse had been accused of

0:02:15 > 0:02:17conspiracy to defraud film distributors of hiring fees.

0:02:18 > 0:02:20Two stressful years later,

0:02:20 > 0:02:23the case was heard at the Old Bailey.

0:02:23 > 0:02:25After the trial, and for the rest of his life,

0:02:25 > 0:02:29a traumatised Monkhouse became very secretive about

0:02:29 > 0:02:31the thousands of items he had at home.

0:02:33 > 0:02:36Even after his death in 2003, the secrecy continued.

0:02:38 > 0:02:41His vast collection of recordings, documents and objects

0:02:41 > 0:02:44lay undisturbed at the house for six years

0:02:44 > 0:02:46because Bob had left no instructions in his will

0:02:46 > 0:02:48about what to do with them.

0:02:50 > 0:02:53It was only when his wife, Jackie, died

0:02:53 > 0:02:56and the Monkhouse mansion was sold in 2009

0:02:56 > 0:02:59that the true extent of Bob's collecting habit became clear.

0:03:00 > 0:03:04In all, there were 3,000 audiotapes,

0:03:04 > 0:03:062,000 photographs,

0:03:06 > 0:03:09ten filing cabinets full of scripts,

0:03:09 > 0:03:1250,000 VHS tapes,

0:03:12 > 0:03:15400 film prints,

0:03:15 > 0:03:17one million jokes.

0:03:17 > 0:03:20- PETER COOK:- I was reading the Bible the other day, you know.

0:03:20 > 0:03:21LAUGHTER

0:03:21 > 0:03:23It's very good, innit?

0:03:24 > 0:03:27Amongst the thousands of tapes which filled several rooms of the house

0:03:27 > 0:03:30were lost episodes of classic comedies

0:03:30 > 0:03:33like Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's Not Only But Also.

0:03:34 > 0:03:36Do you believe in God, actually?

0:03:36 > 0:03:38- DUDLEY MOORE:- When I'm in a tight spot, you know.

0:03:38 > 0:03:42"If you do help me out, I'll believe in you. And, er...

0:03:42 > 0:03:43"Thank you very much.

0:03:43 > 0:03:44LAUGHTER

0:03:44 > 0:03:47"I know you're there for future reference."

0:03:47 > 0:03:48LAUGHTER

0:03:49 > 0:03:52There were hundreds of performances from comedy legends

0:03:52 > 0:03:54that the BBC had thrown away,

0:03:54 > 0:03:56amongst them Kenneth Horne,

0:03:56 > 0:03:57the Crazy Gang,

0:03:57 > 0:03:59and Frankie Howerd.

0:03:59 > 0:04:02I went to this pet shop, and there was the owner, a little old man,

0:04:02 > 0:04:03polishing a monkey.

0:04:03 > 0:04:05- I said, erm... - LAUGHTER

0:04:05 > 0:04:06I said, "Good morning."

0:04:06 > 0:04:08- Come along, now, please. - LAUGHTER

0:04:08 > 0:04:10Thank you, don't doze off.

0:04:11 > 0:04:15There were also 15 unique recordings of Tony Hancock.

0:04:16 > 0:04:17LAUGHTER

0:04:17 > 0:04:19And so it is with a song in my heart

0:04:19 > 0:04:21that I declare these Empire Games open,

0:04:21 > 0:04:22and bless all who jump in 'em.

0:04:22 > 0:04:24LAUGHTER

0:04:25 > 0:04:27It was an amazing discovery.

0:04:27 > 0:04:29An Aladdin's cave of television and comedy

0:04:29 > 0:04:33left behind by a man everyone thought they knew.

0:04:33 > 0:04:36The Golden Shot, the suntan,

0:04:36 > 0:04:39the bow tie and the jokes.

0:04:39 > 0:04:42I've had a lot of trouble ever since I arrived here tonight.

0:04:42 > 0:04:44There was the usual big crowd outside the stage door,

0:04:44 > 0:04:47and a shout went up. "Here's Bob Monkhouse!"

0:04:47 > 0:04:50And everyone stared at me. I was so embarrassed.

0:04:50 > 0:04:51I wished I hadn't shouted.

0:04:51 > 0:04:52LAUGHTER

0:04:53 > 0:04:56He was famous for 50 years.

0:04:56 > 0:04:58But there always seemed more to Bob Monkhouse

0:04:58 > 0:05:00than one-liners.

0:05:00 > 0:05:03- Who are you?- I am Bob Monkhouse!

0:05:04 > 0:05:07His collection tells us everything we need to know.

0:05:08 > 0:05:10This was every last detail of a career

0:05:10 > 0:05:14at the heart of British entertainment.

0:05:14 > 0:05:17This was the life of Bob Monkhouse.

0:05:24 > 0:05:27The very first sightings of Bob Monkhouse the comedian

0:05:27 > 0:05:29left everyone deeply impressed.

0:05:30 > 0:05:33He was brilliant! He was so quick.

0:05:33 > 0:05:35And he had this wonderful delivery,

0:05:35 > 0:05:39beautiful timing. Oh, dear.

0:05:39 > 0:05:41So I went up to him afterwards,

0:05:41 > 0:05:43and I said, "You don't know me.

0:05:43 > 0:05:46"I'm Dabber Davis. I'm an agent.

0:05:46 > 0:05:48"I thought you were absolutely brilliant."

0:05:48 > 0:05:52And bless his heart, he said, "Did you really? Thank you so much!"

0:05:53 > 0:05:5719-year-old Bob Monkhouse scored a big success here last week,

0:05:57 > 0:06:00and so let's have a really happy welcome for our young comedy find,

0:06:00 > 0:06:01Bob Monkhouse!

0:06:01 > 0:06:02APPLAUSE BRASS BAND

0:06:07 > 0:06:09At an early age, I fell in love with the girl next door,

0:06:09 > 0:06:11and one day, I plucked up my courage

0:06:11 > 0:06:13and I asked her if she was doing anything that night,

0:06:13 > 0:06:15and she said no.

0:06:15 > 0:06:17So I took her for a ride in the country

0:06:17 > 0:06:18and found out she wasn't kidding.

0:06:19 > 0:06:21LAUGHTER

0:06:23 > 0:06:24As a boy,

0:06:24 > 0:06:28Bob Monkhouse was entranced by the comedians of wartime radio.

0:06:28 > 0:06:31Ladies and gentlemen, Workers' Playtime!

0:06:31 > 0:06:33He had a short wave radio,

0:06:33 > 0:06:35and he used to listen to all the American broadcasts.

0:06:35 > 0:06:37And so he had the jump on all the comics here,

0:06:37 > 0:06:40because he knew the kind of things that people were talking about.

0:06:40 > 0:06:42To learn the secrets of comedy,

0:06:42 > 0:06:46Bob began to write down the jokes he heard on American Forces Network.

0:06:46 > 0:06:50He then took them apart, to see how they worked.

0:06:50 > 0:06:54Bob never did anything by half. If he recorded something, he would...

0:06:54 > 0:06:57type up the script, and it would be committed to paper as well.

0:06:57 > 0:07:00Everything had to be on COMPLETE record.

0:07:01 > 0:07:04Nothing offhand. It was 100% or nothing with Bob.

0:07:04 > 0:07:07And that's where he got a lot of his material from,

0:07:07 > 0:07:09cos he had this extra source.

0:07:09 > 0:07:12And everybody else had the same opportunity, by the way,

0:07:12 > 0:07:13of getting it.

0:07:13 > 0:07:16It just meant listening and writing and recording.

0:07:16 > 0:07:18But he was industrious.

0:07:18 > 0:07:21He was serious.

0:07:21 > 0:07:23He learned fast and he learned from the best.

0:07:24 > 0:07:28This was the era of the great American stand-up comedians

0:07:28 > 0:07:30like Bob's hero, Bob Hope.

0:07:30 > 0:07:33"Ladies and gentlemen, the top of the bill,

0:07:33 > 0:07:34"the one and only Mr Bob Hope!"

0:07:34 > 0:07:37SINGS MUSICAL INTRODUCTION

0:07:41 > 0:07:45I'm thrilled to be here. I really have nothing new to report from the States -

0:07:45 > 0:07:46that's where Churchill lives.

0:07:46 > 0:07:48LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

0:07:50 > 0:07:51Well, he doesn't live there.

0:07:51 > 0:07:54He goes back once in a while to deliver Mrs Roosevelt's laundry.

0:07:54 > 0:07:55LAUGHTER

0:07:55 > 0:07:58To write up the Bob Hope Show

0:07:58 > 0:08:01or, you know, the George Burns And Gracie Show,

0:08:01 > 0:08:04to write that up and to see how the jokes are made,

0:08:04 > 0:08:06what they look like on paper,

0:08:06 > 0:08:08that's a writer's obsession.

0:08:08 > 0:08:10And because he was a writer,

0:08:10 > 0:08:13he wanted to know how those jokes and what those jokes did.

0:08:13 > 0:08:15How did you make that happen in a joke?

0:08:15 > 0:08:17How do you get a turn like that?

0:08:17 > 0:08:19How do you get the surprise to work like that?

0:08:19 > 0:08:22How do you get away with being rude without being rude overtly?

0:08:22 > 0:08:24I know it's strange.

0:08:24 > 0:08:27When I was a teenager, I was going to be an athlete. Hard to believe.

0:08:27 > 0:08:30Any evening, you could see me striding over the sports fields

0:08:30 > 0:08:31with easy grace.

0:08:31 > 0:08:33I forget why we called her that.

0:08:33 > 0:08:34LAUGHTER

0:08:36 > 0:08:38The young Monkhouse was an instant hit.

0:08:38 > 0:08:42He then teamed up with the even younger writer and performer,

0:08:42 > 0:08:43Denis Goodwin.

0:08:43 > 0:08:47Bob and Denis shared a love of American comedy.

0:08:47 > 0:08:50They weren't looking back to the music hall for inspiration,

0:08:50 > 0:08:54they were looking west, to the wisecracks of New York and LA.

0:08:54 > 0:08:56- Hello, this is Bob. - And this is Denis.

0:08:56 > 0:08:59And this is the stage of the newly-decorated Playhouse theatre,

0:08:59 > 0:09:00with its classic statues

0:09:00 > 0:09:03of Bath Night with Elsie and Doris Waters.

0:09:03 > 0:09:04LAUGHTER

0:09:04 > 0:09:07Oh, you mean those gold figures there? Ain't the paint quaint?

0:09:07 > 0:09:10- Pardon?- I said ain't the paint quaint?- You mustn't say "ain't".

0:09:10 > 0:09:12You should say "isn't".

0:09:12 > 0:09:13All right, isn't the pisn't quisn't?

0:09:13 > 0:09:14LAUGHTER

0:09:14 > 0:09:15THEY BOTH CHUCKLE

0:09:17 > 0:09:21With Britain struggling to get back on its feet after the war years,

0:09:21 > 0:09:25the razor-sharp mid-Atlantic routines of Monkhouse and Goodwin

0:09:25 > 0:09:26were like a breath of fresh air.

0:09:29 > 0:09:31- Funny script, eh?- Oh, yeah.

0:09:31 > 0:09:34- Thought of some good lines?- Oh, I'm thinking of some beautiful lines.

0:09:34 > 0:09:36Really? Who's the script for?

0:09:36 > 0:09:38- Diana Dors.- Diana Dors?

0:09:38 > 0:09:40Can I make some suggestions?

0:09:40 > 0:09:42I'm sorry, all the suggestions are coming from me.

0:09:42 > 0:09:44I have a date with her to discuss it tonight.

0:09:44 > 0:09:46I've heard about your technique with women.

0:09:46 > 0:09:48- It's nothing, really. - That's what I heard.

0:09:50 > 0:09:54Every comedy show in town wanted a bit of Bob and Denis magic,

0:09:54 > 0:09:58and they were soon writing and performing with their heroes.

0:09:58 > 0:10:00For your enjoyment we present The Arthur Askey Show,

0:10:00 > 0:10:03written by and including Bob Monkhouse and Denis Goodwin...

0:10:03 > 0:10:06Writing for Arthur Askey was a great thrill,

0:10:06 > 0:10:10but they were in dreamland when American stars, visiting London,

0:10:10 > 0:10:12like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis,

0:10:12 > 0:10:14enlisted their help.

0:10:14 > 0:10:17It just kept getting better for Monkhouse and Goodwin.

0:10:17 > 0:10:20And then Bob Hope flew into their lives.

0:10:20 > 0:10:24When the boys were writing Calling All Forces, which was a forces show,

0:10:24 > 0:10:28and enormous figures... We had people like Petula Clark

0:10:28 > 0:10:30and Alma Cogan as resident singers,

0:10:30 > 0:10:33we had Geraldo and this enormous orchestra,

0:10:33 > 0:10:37and a lot of people who came from America would come in it.

0:10:37 > 0:10:40And Bob Hope came in once,

0:10:40 > 0:10:42and he liked the boys' style.

0:10:42 > 0:10:45So the next thing I heard from America

0:10:45 > 0:10:47was that he was coming to the Palladium

0:10:47 > 0:10:49and would they write some material for him?

0:10:49 > 0:10:52And it developed from there that he liked their material,

0:10:52 > 0:10:55and every time he came here and did anything,

0:10:55 > 0:10:56they would write it.

0:10:56 > 0:11:01That would be...heaven for Bob. The idea that someone like Bob Hope

0:11:01 > 0:11:04could say to Bob, "Could you write me some jokes?",

0:11:04 > 0:11:06that would be...

0:11:06 > 0:11:08that would be up here.

0:11:11 > 0:11:15The Monkhouse and Goodwin office was a scriptwriting factory,

0:11:15 > 0:11:17churning out endless comedy routines.

0:11:19 > 0:11:23They would often go days without sleep to meet deadlines.

0:11:25 > 0:11:27I used to go along,

0:11:27 > 0:11:31when they'd finished, and pick the scripts up.

0:11:31 > 0:11:34Well, you can imagine, 72 hours working nonstop.

0:11:34 > 0:11:36It's a good thing I was a comedian,

0:11:36 > 0:11:39because I'd read it and think, "They don't make sense."

0:11:39 > 0:11:43By that time, 72 hours, it didn't make sense.

0:11:43 > 0:11:46That's the way they worked.

0:11:46 > 0:11:48Bob would really overdo it,

0:11:48 > 0:11:49particularly writing with Denis,

0:11:49 > 0:11:51four or five shows a week, or whatever.

0:11:51 > 0:11:53He'd overdo it,

0:11:53 > 0:11:55and then he'd just...

0:11:55 > 0:11:56go away for two or three days

0:11:56 > 0:11:57and be intravenously fed!

0:11:57 > 0:12:01It'd be the drip, and he'd be out of it for three days,

0:12:01 > 0:12:05charging the batteries, and then... charging back!

0:12:07 > 0:12:08Exhausted and overworked,

0:12:08 > 0:12:11they embarked on their first television show,

0:12:11 > 0:12:12Fast and Loose.

0:12:14 > 0:12:17Bob only just about got through the first live episode.

0:12:17 > 0:12:18As the credits rolled,

0:12:18 > 0:12:21his hectic schedule caught up with him.

0:12:21 > 0:12:23He collapsed, Bob.

0:12:23 > 0:12:25So we had to cancel the series for about three months

0:12:25 > 0:12:26while he got better.

0:12:28 > 0:12:29He soon recovered,

0:12:29 > 0:12:32and they went on to make two successful series.

0:12:33 > 0:12:35The camera loved Bob more than it loved Denis.

0:12:37 > 0:12:39It was very clear who had star quality.

0:12:41 > 0:12:43Well, people were coming through.

0:12:43 > 0:12:46All the big...the BBC, everybody, wanting Bob.

0:12:46 > 0:12:47They didn't want Denis.

0:12:47 > 0:12:51So we had to try and let him down gently,

0:12:51 > 0:12:54but it was very difficult.

0:12:54 > 0:12:58Radio was OK, because he's reading a script,

0:12:58 > 0:13:01he's got it in front of him, doesn't have to remember the lines.

0:13:01 > 0:13:04He wrote it, as well, so this was good.

0:13:04 > 0:13:06But with television, I mean...

0:13:06 > 0:13:08he couldn't even read an autocue or anything.

0:13:08 > 0:13:10My partner gives renditions of popular records.

0:13:10 > 0:13:13He will now give you Debbie Reynolds' latest release.

0:13:13 > 0:13:14- Eddie Fisher.- Very good.

0:13:14 > 0:13:15LAUGHTER

0:13:15 > 0:13:18You see, we work as a team, and teamwork's a wonderful thing.

0:13:18 > 0:13:21It's terribly important in show business, ladies and gentlemen,

0:13:21 > 0:13:23for teams to stick together, to know each other's work,

0:13:23 > 0:13:25- and to be the best of friends. - Yes, it is.

0:13:25 > 0:13:28The next big project they did together

0:13:28 > 0:13:30would see Bob Monkhouse pushed to the front,

0:13:30 > 0:13:32and Denis, literally,

0:13:32 > 0:13:33pushed to one side.

0:13:33 > 0:13:35He's my pal Bob,

0:13:35 > 0:13:38and if you'll excuse me now,

0:13:38 > 0:13:39I have to make way for the credit titles.

0:13:39 > 0:13:40POP

0:13:42 > 0:13:45Discovered in Bob's attic were the film cans

0:13:45 > 0:13:47containing the only surviving copies

0:13:47 > 0:13:50of the 1958 situation comedy My Pal Bob,

0:13:50 > 0:13:54which shows how the pair were becoming less of a double act

0:13:54 > 0:13:55and more of a one-man show.

0:13:55 > 0:13:57- APPLAUSE - Thank you. Thank you so much.

0:13:57 > 0:14:00Not too much applause, please. Our producer has a headache.

0:14:00 > 0:14:02Bob would be doing the actual thing,

0:14:02 > 0:14:04and we'd put this little...

0:14:05 > 0:14:09..optic in here with Denis in it,

0:14:09 > 0:14:12which was good, because it got us out of any trouble

0:14:12 > 0:14:14that he couldn't read the script.

0:14:14 > 0:14:17And just supposing that you can stage this phoney divorce,

0:14:17 > 0:14:19how can you be sure that she'll want to marry you again?

0:14:19 > 0:14:23Please, can you think of anyone who wouldn't want to marry me again?

0:14:23 > 0:14:24- Yes.- Who?- Me.

0:14:24 > 0:14:26LAUGHTER

0:14:26 > 0:14:28So the three unwise monkeys started working on

0:14:28 > 0:14:30a plan to make Jill demand a divorce.

0:14:30 > 0:14:32He liked doing that, because it was easy.

0:14:32 > 0:14:34All he had to do was read the script

0:14:34 > 0:14:36with whatever was going on below with Bob.

0:14:36 > 0:14:39There's no doubt he supported Denis Goodwin,

0:14:39 > 0:14:41who was an unfortunate man.

0:14:41 > 0:14:42He developed certain addictions

0:14:42 > 0:14:44and things like that.

0:14:45 > 0:14:48Sadly, he wasn't too well, shall we say?

0:14:49 > 0:14:51He couldn't do it. And once or twice,

0:14:51 > 0:14:56we had some terrible times with Bob where the performance was ruined.

0:14:59 > 0:15:01Bob Monkhouse was now a star.

0:15:02 > 0:15:04He had the entertainment world at his feet,

0:15:04 > 0:15:06and the next step was the movies.

0:15:07 > 0:15:10I've had a very exciting experience since the last time I saw you.

0:15:10 > 0:15:12I've been making a film called Carry On Sergeant.

0:15:12 > 0:15:14And I'm an avid moviegoer, so it was very exciting.

0:15:14 > 0:15:17I love to go to the pictures. Don't you? I love it.

0:15:17 > 0:15:19You know when you go in and you see the adverts first of all,

0:15:19 > 0:15:21cos the cinema always advertises its own stuff.

0:15:21 > 0:15:24It says something like, "Ice cream!"

0:15:24 > 0:15:26"Flavour of the month - the usherette's thumb."

0:15:27 > 0:15:31Bob Monkhouse had the lead role in the first ever Carry On film,

0:15:31 > 0:15:33Carry On Sergeant.

0:15:33 > 0:15:35Oh, Mary! Oh, I'm so relieved to see you.

0:15:35 > 0:15:37Is everything all right, darling?

0:15:37 > 0:15:39No! No fire extinguishers.

0:15:39 > 0:15:41Fire extinguishers?

0:15:41 > 0:15:43Everything depends on them.

0:15:50 > 0:15:51Oh!

0:15:57 > 0:15:59Bob's increasing success as a performer

0:15:59 > 0:16:03led to the end of the 15-year partnership with Denis Goodwin,

0:16:03 > 0:16:06who left for America to write full-time for Bob Hope.

0:16:08 > 0:16:10The next few years without Denis

0:16:10 > 0:16:13saw Bob's own tilt at movie stardom fizzle out.

0:16:14 > 0:16:16He was searching for a new television job,

0:16:16 > 0:16:20when he had the brilliant idea of turning his film-collecting hobby

0:16:20 > 0:16:22into a long-running TV show.

0:16:22 > 0:16:25He called it Mad Movies.

0:16:27 > 0:16:30Mad Movies showed Bob's eye for business.

0:16:30 > 0:16:33He was a writer, presenter and producer,

0:16:33 > 0:16:35financing the series himself,

0:16:35 > 0:16:37and selling it to 38 countries.

0:16:38 > 0:16:40It was a labour of love,

0:16:40 > 0:16:42and Bob's chance to share his passion

0:16:42 > 0:16:44for the greats of silent-film comedy.

0:16:46 > 0:16:49Welcome to a wonderful world where comedy is king,

0:16:49 > 0:16:53the world of a thousand clowns, each with a magic power.

0:16:53 > 0:16:54Movie magic.

0:16:54 > 0:16:58They found this glorious new magic in the mechanism of a movie camera.

0:17:04 > 0:17:08Just at the time Bob was celebrating his comedy heroes in Mad Movies,

0:17:08 > 0:17:10he was having serious doubts

0:17:10 > 0:17:13about whether he himself belonged in the world of comedy.

0:17:15 > 0:17:19Found in Bob's attic is the only surviving copy of an interview

0:17:19 > 0:17:21he gave with Sid Green and Dick Hills,

0:17:21 > 0:17:24famous at the time as the writers of The Morecambe and Wise Show.

0:17:26 > 0:17:29- You basically gave up comedy, did you?- Yes.

0:17:29 > 0:17:32And now you're taking up straight acting?

0:17:32 > 0:17:33Yes.

0:17:33 > 0:17:36Why have you given up being a comedy performer full-time

0:17:36 > 0:17:38to become a straight actor?

0:17:38 > 0:17:39You've seen me in summer show,

0:17:39 > 0:17:42you'll realise it's not really a change of technique.

0:17:42 > 0:17:43He's too sexy.

0:17:44 > 0:17:45You have put your finger on it.

0:17:48 > 0:17:52Bob decided he was now a serious actor,

0:17:52 > 0:17:55and spent the next few years trying to get as far away as possible

0:17:55 > 0:18:00from the slick comedy Bob Monkhouse persona he had so carefully created.

0:18:03 > 0:18:07I directed him in one play when I was at Rediffusion.

0:18:08 > 0:18:10BELL RINGS

0:18:10 > 0:18:12And I was very, very surprised,

0:18:12 > 0:18:14cos he wasn't an obvious choice,

0:18:14 > 0:18:17he wasn't an established straight actor.

0:18:17 > 0:18:18In the drama Bug,

0:18:18 > 0:18:22he publicly dismantled the showbiz Bob Monkhouse,

0:18:22 > 0:18:23greying out the famous eyebrows,

0:18:23 > 0:18:27replacing the sharp suit with a tatty old cardigan

0:18:27 > 0:18:28and, more significantly,

0:18:28 > 0:18:30losing the gleaming smile.

0:18:30 > 0:18:33- Yes?- Mr QP Jakes?- Yes?

0:18:33 > 0:18:34I'm Mr RJ Smelley.

0:18:34 > 0:18:39I don't think he chose it. I think he accepted it, accepted the role.

0:18:39 > 0:18:44I mean, he hadn't done enough television drama to be choosy.

0:18:44 > 0:18:45Evidence, Mr Smelley?

0:18:46 > 0:18:48You're asking me for evidence?

0:18:48 > 0:18:50Cos evidence is one thing I have got.

0:18:50 > 0:18:52If you've come here for evidence, that's one thing I supply.

0:18:52 > 0:18:54I thought he was quite good in Bug.

0:18:54 > 0:18:56He pulled those rather strange faces,

0:18:56 > 0:18:58he had that rather strange hunched-up shoulders

0:18:58 > 0:19:00and that kind of... those mannerisms.

0:19:03 > 0:19:06In fact, this was an unhappy time for Monkhouse,

0:19:06 > 0:19:07both on screen and off.

0:19:08 > 0:19:10He was a lost soul, professionally,

0:19:10 > 0:19:13and at home, his marriage was falling apart.

0:19:14 > 0:19:16How are you?

0:19:16 > 0:19:17I'm all right, thank you.

0:19:23 > 0:19:26The dozens of home movies found at the house,

0:19:26 > 0:19:28and broadcast here for the first time,

0:19:28 > 0:19:30show the Monkhouse family in happier times.

0:19:34 > 0:19:38Beautiful wife, Elizabeth, sons, Gary and Simon,

0:19:38 > 0:19:40and daughter, Abigail.

0:19:41 > 0:19:44Bob and Elizabeth met when they were both in the RAF,

0:19:44 > 0:19:47and married in 1949.

0:19:48 > 0:19:50But the marriage seemed jinxed right from the start.

0:19:52 > 0:19:55Bob's mother disapproved of the marriage so much

0:19:55 > 0:19:58that she didn't speak to him for the next 20 years.

0:19:59 > 0:20:01She didn't go to the wedding, and that was it.

0:20:01 > 0:20:03He was very upset, obviously.

0:20:03 > 0:20:05The first time he'd been married,

0:20:05 > 0:20:08and he was upset about it.

0:20:08 > 0:20:11She didn't like Elizabeth. That was the basis of it,

0:20:11 > 0:20:16that he married beneath what she thought he should have done.

0:20:16 > 0:20:18She came in, and I said,

0:20:18 > 0:20:21"Hello, Mrs Monkhouse. I'm Dabber Davis."

0:20:21 > 0:20:23She said, "Dabber? What a stupid name!"

0:20:23 > 0:20:25I'd never met her before in my life!

0:20:25 > 0:20:27And she always called him Robert.

0:20:27 > 0:20:30Never Bob. If you said, "I was talking to Bob..."

0:20:30 > 0:20:32"Robert."

0:20:32 > 0:20:33Very strange lady!

0:20:35 > 0:20:39Bob and the new Mrs Monkhouse soldiered on,

0:20:39 > 0:20:40but their life changed dramatically

0:20:40 > 0:20:43with the birth of their first child in 1951.

0:20:46 > 0:20:49Gary Monkhouse was diagnosed with cerebral palsy

0:20:49 > 0:20:51shortly after he was born.

0:20:53 > 0:20:56Becoming a father to the sweet, good-looking,

0:20:56 > 0:20:57but physically disabled Gary

0:20:57 > 0:21:00was the defining relationship of Bob's life.

0:21:02 > 0:21:04Bob was...

0:21:04 > 0:21:07He was very sad, very sad about it.

0:21:07 > 0:21:09We all were. I mean, my wife,

0:21:09 > 0:21:15and Denis Goodwin, and Barbara, his wife, were all very upset.

0:21:15 > 0:21:20Bob had...some terrible things happen in his life,

0:21:20 > 0:21:21particularly with his children,

0:21:21 > 0:21:25and it just shows the mark of him as a professional

0:21:25 > 0:21:28that the mask that he put on to the public

0:21:28 > 0:21:31was completely different to the person he was at home,

0:21:31 > 0:21:32and the things he had to deal with.

0:21:32 > 0:21:37Well, yes, there was a lot of sadness in Bob's life,

0:21:37 > 0:21:40and typically him, you wouldn't know it most of the time. The mask...

0:21:41 > 0:21:42..was kept on.

0:21:44 > 0:21:46At home, the man behind the mask

0:21:46 > 0:21:48often turned the camera onto his family

0:21:48 > 0:21:51with his elaborate home movies.

0:21:51 > 0:21:53They have professionally-made titles,

0:21:53 > 0:21:56and a film made with his son Simon is more Gothic horror

0:21:56 > 0:21:58than light entertainment.

0:21:58 > 0:22:00MUSIC: Pictures of You by The Cure

0:22:04 > 0:22:08# I've been looking so long at these pictures of you... #

0:22:08 > 0:22:10In the early years of the marriage,

0:22:10 > 0:22:13the Monkhouses enjoyed a glamorous, showbiz lifestyle,

0:22:13 > 0:22:15and Bob took along his camera to events

0:22:15 > 0:22:17like this celebrity cricket match,

0:22:17 > 0:22:21and came away with unique colour film of comedian friends

0:22:21 > 0:22:23like Harry Secombe and Norman Wisdom.

0:22:23 > 0:22:27# The pictures are all I can feel... #

0:22:29 > 0:22:34The 1950s and early '60s were incredibly busy periods for Bob.

0:22:34 > 0:22:37Inevitably, family life suffered

0:22:37 > 0:22:39as Bob and Elizabeth drifted further apart.

0:22:42 > 0:22:46When you're a professional performer,

0:22:46 > 0:22:48it doesn't really chime with family life.

0:22:48 > 0:22:51You can either be a successful professional performer

0:22:51 > 0:22:52or you can be a family man.

0:22:52 > 0:22:54The two don't really mix.

0:22:54 > 0:22:57And I suppose I would have to confess,

0:22:57 > 0:23:00I probably saw more of Dad on television than in person,

0:23:00 > 0:23:02because he was on so much!

0:23:04 > 0:23:07Bob admitted later to a string of affairs during the marriage,

0:23:07 > 0:23:09including one with Diana Dors.

0:23:11 > 0:23:14By 1967, his marriage was over,

0:23:14 > 0:23:17and his television career looked like going the same way.

0:23:18 > 0:23:22The two years Bob had spent making drama had taught him one thing.

0:23:22 > 0:23:26More than anything else, more than money and fame,

0:23:26 > 0:23:28and sometimes more vital than family,

0:23:28 > 0:23:30was his need to hear laughter.

0:23:36 > 0:23:38In January 1967,

0:23:38 > 0:23:40his prayers were answered,

0:23:40 > 0:23:44when he was asked to host television's biggest variety show,

0:23:44 > 0:23:47Sunday Night at the London Palladium.

0:23:47 > 0:23:49..And your host, Bob Monkhouse!

0:23:51 > 0:23:53Bob Monkhouse had come home.

0:23:56 > 0:23:58Thank you.

0:23:58 > 0:23:59Thank you, thank you.

0:23:59 > 0:24:01Thank you, thank you.

0:24:01 > 0:24:03Well, so much for the ad-libs.

0:24:03 > 0:24:07May I say how welcome you are to the Palladium.

0:24:07 > 0:24:09Forgive my being dressed like this.

0:24:09 > 0:24:11We were expecting a party of bookmakers

0:24:11 > 0:24:12which would have been great for me

0:24:12 > 0:24:15cos they haven't stopped laughing since yesterday.

0:24:16 > 0:24:17I'm all dressed for the races.

0:24:17 > 0:24:20I was up in the northeast, and I went over to see the Grand National.

0:24:20 > 0:24:21I was playing some clubs.

0:24:21 > 0:24:24They have wonderful names, these clubs up in the north-east,

0:24:24 > 0:24:26like La Marimba, La Bamba,

0:24:26 > 0:24:28La Dolce Vita,

0:24:28 > 0:24:31Tito's. It sounds great. I played a club once in Spain,

0:24:31 > 0:24:33called Los Caballeros, for three nights,

0:24:33 > 0:24:35before I found out it was the gents'.

0:24:35 > 0:24:37LAUGHTER

0:24:37 > 0:24:39I liked it!

0:24:39 > 0:24:42They gave me a standing ovation. But nevertheless...

0:24:42 > 0:24:43LAUGHTER

0:24:44 > 0:24:47Bob's three-month stint as compere of the Palladium show

0:24:47 > 0:24:50was one of the biggest turning points of his career.

0:24:51 > 0:24:53He regained the sparkle he had lost

0:24:53 > 0:24:56in the years away from direct contact with his audience.

0:24:57 > 0:24:58His growing confidence, good looks

0:24:58 > 0:25:02and gift for joke telling came together like never before.

0:25:03 > 0:25:06The press described him as astonishing and mesmerising.

0:25:07 > 0:25:10Bob Monkhouse was back...

0:25:10 > 0:25:11big time.

0:25:13 > 0:25:18Sadly, every single one of these shows was thrown away by ATV.

0:25:19 > 0:25:23Luckily, Bob Monkhouse was, as usual, one step ahead of the pack.

0:25:25 > 0:25:27We're only able to watch these performances

0:25:27 > 0:25:30because Bob was one of the few people in Britain at this time

0:25:30 > 0:25:32with a video recorder at home.

0:25:37 > 0:25:40The Sony CV-2000

0:25:40 > 0:25:43was the first video recorder made for home use.

0:25:43 > 0:25:46It was more expensive than a car,

0:25:46 > 0:25:48but Bob Monkhouse just had to have one.

0:25:50 > 0:25:52This is Bob's first video recorder,

0:25:52 > 0:25:54and it still works.

0:25:55 > 0:25:57He bought it just in time to start

0:25:57 > 0:25:59recording some of his finest moments.

0:25:59 > 0:26:01The Palladium shows,

0:26:01 > 0:26:03and The Golden Shot.

0:26:03 > 0:26:04GUNSHOT

0:26:07 > 0:26:08APPLAUSE

0:26:08 > 0:26:09SQUEALS

0:26:09 > 0:26:11BANGS

0:26:11 > 0:26:12Hello!

0:26:21 > 0:26:25Der Goldene Schuss was a hit on German television.

0:26:26 > 0:26:28The game show with telephones and crossbows

0:26:28 > 0:26:30was perfect for Bob Monkhouse.

0:26:32 > 0:26:34When he saw the format for The Golden Shot,

0:26:34 > 0:26:36he could see its potential.

0:26:36 > 0:26:37And bear in mind,

0:26:37 > 0:26:40all his life he'd loved technology, and suddenly all this new stuff...

0:26:40 > 0:26:43Oh, it was a new playground to play in.

0:26:43 > 0:26:45RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES PLAYS

0:26:46 > 0:26:49Peter, I'm going to do a new series on television.

0:26:49 > 0:26:52I've read about it, congratulations. The Golden Shot.

0:26:52 > 0:26:55That's right. I'd like you to be my first target.

0:27:01 > 0:27:06People used to shoot at apples with a crossbow.

0:27:06 > 0:27:09- Fire.- It's a banger! You win a bonus prize.

0:27:09 > 0:27:11- And there it is. - APPLAUSE

0:27:11 > 0:27:14Up a bit, left a bit, right a bit, fire.

0:27:15 > 0:27:17In ten seconds...

0:27:19 > 0:27:22Can you imagine, with health and safety breathing down your neck,

0:27:22 > 0:27:24doing The Golden Shot now?

0:27:24 > 0:27:28Live crossbows, bolts flying through the air hitting targets...

0:27:28 > 0:27:30- Fire!- Well sized up!

0:27:30 > 0:27:32- Fire.- Yes, and a banger!

0:27:32 > 0:27:37..and inexperienced contestants handling this lethal equipment?

0:27:37 > 0:27:38It was quite astonishing.

0:27:38 > 0:27:40I'm not too sure where it went, but it didn't go in here.

0:27:40 > 0:27:43It's down here. It practically took me toe off!

0:27:43 > 0:27:44- It rebounded. - LAUGHTER

0:27:44 > 0:27:46Oh, it's very pretty indeed.

0:27:46 > 0:27:49They're trying to tell me it's safe, but I don't think it is.

0:27:49 > 0:27:51'No-one got hurt that I can remember...'

0:27:52 > 0:27:53..or that I know of.

0:27:56 > 0:28:00Bob Monkhouse reworked The Golden Shot to suit himself,

0:28:00 > 0:28:04and invented a new type of slick, colourful light entertainment.

0:28:06 > 0:28:10You'd have people singing or doing a comedy spot.

0:28:10 > 0:28:15It was really sort of a variety show, a game show...

0:28:15 > 0:28:17everything.

0:28:17 > 0:28:23# Whoa, whoa, jet plane flying high above me. #

0:28:23 > 0:28:26It's down here that on the 12th, that's last Monday,

0:28:26 > 0:28:29the grouse season started.

0:28:29 > 0:28:31Bang-bang-bang, all those grouse shooters,

0:28:31 > 0:28:33all banging away at those birds in the...

0:28:35 > 0:28:37Are you all right? Sorry.

0:28:37 > 0:28:39I must say, standing next to Cathy you very look boring.

0:28:39 > 0:28:41- Oh, thank you. - LAUGHTER

0:28:41 > 0:28:44He was so assured. He was so comfortable in that environment.

0:28:44 > 0:28:48You knew if the wheels fell off on a live show, Bob could cover it.

0:28:48 > 0:28:52And things were always going wrong, because it WAS a live programme.

0:28:52 > 0:28:56And this contestant has scored...

0:28:56 > 0:28:59- Hang on, 135...- 135.

0:28:59 > 0:29:02..less a penalty of 27,

0:29:02 > 0:29:04which is 135...

0:29:04 > 0:29:06130. A hundred and...

0:29:08 > 0:29:09138?

0:29:09 > 0:29:10Yes?

0:29:10 > 0:29:12I don't know what it is!

0:29:12 > 0:29:13LAUGHTER

0:29:13 > 0:29:16She's goofed with her sums, that thing hasn't worked,

0:29:16 > 0:29:19the crossbow's misfired, the contestant's not terribly good,

0:29:19 > 0:29:23but my God, he's still managing to polish some comedy gold

0:29:23 > 0:29:24from this awful situation

0:29:24 > 0:29:28where you knew that other performers would struggle and flounder.

0:29:28 > 0:29:30And now my golden telephone

0:29:30 > 0:29:31will make a noise like Rod...

0:29:31 > 0:29:33- PHONE RINGS - Not yet.

0:29:33 > 0:29:34..will make a noise...

0:29:34 > 0:29:36- I haven't finished the joke yet! - LAUGHTER

0:29:36 > 0:29:38He was clever enough to actually work through

0:29:38 > 0:29:43anything that happened and make jokes about it or make light of it.

0:29:43 > 0:29:46She's terrified, crouching in the corner, our Annie is,

0:29:46 > 0:29:49cos she's very scared of these fireworks.

0:29:49 > 0:29:51This is the only show on TV that has fireworks. Unheard of.

0:29:51 > 0:29:54It's no good going like that, George. How can I speed up

0:29:54 > 0:29:55- when I don't know the score? - LAUGHTER

0:29:55 > 0:29:57"Oh, dear. Oh, well."

0:29:57 > 0:30:00"Quickly, get something done about this!" You know.

0:30:00 > 0:30:01It was always like that.

0:30:01 > 0:30:05It was chaotic, and people used to watch the show

0:30:05 > 0:30:08because they used to hope that things would go wrong.

0:30:13 > 0:30:15A search through his filing cabinets revealed that

0:30:15 > 0:30:18Bob kept everything related to the show,

0:30:18 > 0:30:21every detail of every contestant...

0:30:21 > 0:30:25- AUDIENCE:- Here's Bobby!

0:30:25 > 0:30:27..long memos about the running of the studio...

0:30:29 > 0:30:32..the set designers' original plans for the targets...

0:30:35 > 0:30:37..and a letter from the show's German creator

0:30:37 > 0:30:41trying to sell another very similar idea.

0:30:41 > 0:30:43Sehr geehrte Herr Monkhouse.

0:30:43 > 0:30:46A space spectacular combining a musical game show

0:30:46 > 0:30:47with space education.

0:30:47 > 0:30:52Space objects like Geminis and spaceships in a studio orbit.

0:30:52 > 0:30:53Ich hoffe Ihnen gefaellt diese Idee,

0:30:53 > 0:30:55und freue mich um von Ihnen zu hoehren.

0:30:55 > 0:30:57Mit freundlichen Gruessen, Hannes Schmidt.

0:30:59 > 0:31:01Meanwhile, back on planet earth,

0:31:01 > 0:31:03The Golden Shot was a huge hit,

0:31:03 > 0:31:06and Bob Monkhouse was at the height of the fame

0:31:06 > 0:31:08he had worked so hard to achieve.

0:31:10 > 0:31:14But the wheels were about to fall off this golden gravy train.

0:31:16 > 0:31:20ATV bosses Lew Grade and Francis Essex

0:31:20 > 0:31:23had been told that Monkhouse was taking bribes

0:31:23 > 0:31:26to include brand-name products as prizes.

0:31:28 > 0:31:30Bob always denied it,

0:31:30 > 0:31:33but he was told that the next episode would be his last.

0:31:35 > 0:31:41When Francis Essex asked Bob to leave the show, it was devastating.

0:31:41 > 0:31:44In fact, he said to me,

0:31:44 > 0:31:49he said "I said to Francis, Well, Francis, this is a big deal.

0:31:49 > 0:31:54"Actually, it's an awful lot of money that I'm not going to get."

0:31:54 > 0:31:57And Francis said, "That's the way it is, old chum. You've got to go."

0:31:57 > 0:32:00He was very hurt and he was very bitter about it,

0:32:00 > 0:32:04because he thought Francis would have given him

0:32:04 > 0:32:06the benefit of the doubt.

0:32:06 > 0:32:09But Francis didn't, and that's history.

0:32:15 > 0:32:17The recording of that final show

0:32:17 > 0:32:19is one of the gems of the Monkhouse archive,

0:32:19 > 0:32:21and the only surviving copy.

0:32:22 > 0:32:25Today it's a time of mixed feelings for me,

0:32:25 > 0:32:29as you can imagine, mixed emotions, for this is my last Golden Shot.

0:32:29 > 0:32:33After 220-odd programmes and over four years,

0:32:33 > 0:32:35this is the last time on a Sunday afternoon

0:32:35 > 0:32:37I shall say any of these words,

0:32:37 > 0:32:39and that makes me very sad.

0:32:39 > 0:32:42It shows Bob unable to believe the show was over for him.

0:32:42 > 0:32:44For once, he's distracted,

0:32:44 > 0:32:47making a dozen references to his sacking,

0:32:47 > 0:32:51and his ad-libbed jokes have a darker edge than usual,

0:32:51 > 0:32:54with even a reference to the killing of his replacement, Norman Vaughan,

0:32:54 > 0:32:57all live on a Sunday afternoon.

0:33:00 > 0:33:03And Mrs Blamires, erm,

0:33:03 > 0:33:05well, I'm not too sure where it is.

0:33:05 > 0:33:08Her bolt went somewhere in the back of the studio.

0:33:08 > 0:33:10Wouldn't it be awful if it had killed Norman Vaughan?

0:33:10 > 0:33:12LAUGHTER

0:33:12 > 0:33:14What would happen next week? I can't imagine.

0:33:15 > 0:33:17Well, he shot one of the centuries.

0:33:17 > 0:33:19He was the first man to shoot a century at Lord's.

0:33:19 > 0:33:21To hit a century at Lord's.

0:33:21 > 0:33:22LAUGHTER

0:33:22 > 0:33:24It's better when you say "hit", isn't it?

0:33:24 > 0:33:26Well, well...

0:33:28 > 0:33:30This has got a lifetime guarantee, this watch.

0:33:30 > 0:33:33When the mainspring breaks, it slashes your wrist. And, erm...

0:33:33 > 0:33:34LAUGHTER

0:33:35 > 0:33:37Things could be worse. I could be here in person.

0:33:37 > 0:33:38LAUGHTER

0:33:39 > 0:33:41Last time I'll say that, too.

0:33:41 > 0:33:43We wanted targets that associated

0:33:43 > 0:33:46with sort of land, erm, milestones.

0:33:46 > 0:33:47I was about to say "land mines",

0:33:47 > 0:33:49and I'm not too far from the truth.

0:33:49 > 0:33:52Step back to that gold line. Don't you dare!

0:33:52 > 0:33:54I'm mad with power. Ha-ha! Bernie the Bolt!

0:33:54 > 0:33:58What can they do to me... if I mugged you even as you aimed?

0:34:00 > 0:34:02So, that's the last little topical routine

0:34:02 > 0:34:04that I'll have the pleasure of doing.

0:34:04 > 0:34:06He was angry on the show, and it does come out.

0:34:06 > 0:34:10The shackles are off, and he's at liberty

0:34:10 > 0:34:12and loose enough to say really what he wants,

0:34:12 > 0:34:16and at one point he does say, "What are you going to do? Sack me?"

0:34:16 > 0:34:19And you work for one of the companies, one of the airlines?

0:34:19 > 0:34:21- Yes.- Which one? You can say.

0:34:21 > 0:34:23- BEA.- Ah, you see? Isn't that grand?

0:34:23 > 0:34:26A lovely feeling for me. What can they do, fire me?

0:34:26 > 0:34:27LAUGHTER

0:34:27 > 0:34:29HE LAUGHS

0:34:29 > 0:34:31It's not Bob. It's not the way he was.

0:34:31 > 0:34:35It was a very sarky, it was a malcontented Bob, it was...

0:34:36 > 0:34:39And he just got on with it, I think,

0:34:39 > 0:34:42for the sake of getting on with it and moving on.

0:34:42 > 0:34:46Ladies and gentlemen, it's goodbye from us here, and goodbye from me.

0:34:45 > 0:34:48But I'd like to wish the very best of luck to Norman Vaughan next week

0:34:48 > 0:34:51and ask you all to be as kind to him as you've been to me.

0:34:51 > 0:34:53Bobby, we can't let you leave like that.

0:34:53 > 0:34:56Before you go, we've got a little presentation.

0:34:56 > 0:34:57- Are we all right for time?- Fine.

0:34:57 > 0:35:01- Yes, we're OK. You'll find this inscribed on the back there...- John!

0:35:01 > 0:35:03..from everybody in the studio.

0:35:03 > 0:35:04It's a watch.

0:35:04 > 0:35:07It's a little watch or a pen. Awful present!

0:35:09 > 0:35:11Bob was replaced on air with unseemly haste.

0:35:11 > 0:35:15Before the show was even over, he was yesterday's man.

0:35:15 > 0:35:18The Golden Shot now belonged to Norman Vaughan.

0:35:18 > 0:35:20- Ta-ra from Birmingham! - APPLAUSE

0:35:20 > 0:35:22See you next week, 4.45! Ta-ra!

0:35:23 > 0:35:28He rang me after the show, and he was in tears. And...

0:35:29 > 0:35:31It was nothing against Norman Vaughan.

0:35:31 > 0:35:36He was as upset as I ever knew him in all the time that I did know him,

0:35:36 > 0:35:40because all the work that he'd done to build up The Golden Shot

0:35:40 > 0:35:44had suddenly, it would appear, evaporated into nothing.

0:35:50 > 0:35:52The sudden sacking from The Golden Shot

0:35:52 > 0:35:55left Bob with no television show of his own.

0:35:55 > 0:35:58To fill the gap, he went back to the thing he loved the most,

0:35:58 > 0:36:00live stand-up comedy.

0:36:00 > 0:36:03In the end, Bob always had the clubs,

0:36:03 > 0:36:05and he knew that would last for ever.

0:36:08 > 0:36:10"If you haven't seen Bob Monkhouse in cabaret,

0:36:10 > 0:36:11"you've never seen a one-man riot."

0:36:11 > 0:36:14That's what the Daily Mirror said about me this year.

0:36:14 > 0:36:17I'm at the Talk of the North for two nights only, May 8th and 10th.

0:36:17 > 0:36:19Book now for The Bob Monkhouse Show, May 8th and 10th.

0:36:19 > 0:36:21I'll make you laugh!

0:36:22 > 0:36:25I knew him from the quiz shows and Bernie the Bolt

0:36:25 > 0:36:26and all that sort of thing,

0:36:26 > 0:36:30and I didn't realise how sharp and what a perfectionist that man was.

0:36:30 > 0:36:31They'd seen him on telly

0:36:31 > 0:36:34and they'd seen him be all that kind of slick, "Hey",

0:36:34 > 0:36:38but I'm not sure at the end, people knew just how...

0:36:38 > 0:36:40He was VERY good live.

0:36:40 > 0:36:43He got a lot of respect from a lot of the newer comics

0:36:43 > 0:36:46who'd never seen a guy work like that. He was excellent.

0:36:47 > 0:36:50He was absolutely excellent. I don't think people get how good he was.

0:36:50 > 0:36:52I'm going to miss that old Golden Shot. Really going to miss it.

0:36:52 > 0:36:54AUDIENCE CHEERS

0:36:54 > 0:36:57Y'see, when I'm on television, I try to pretend I'm a nice man.

0:36:57 > 0:37:00I'm not a nice man, I'm a nasty man. I do really rotten things.

0:37:00 > 0:37:04I send calendars to convicts who are serving life sentences.

0:37:04 > 0:37:05LAUGHTER

0:37:06 > 0:37:09When he came to doing live gigs, he was a lot more sexual innuendo,

0:37:09 > 0:37:12a lot racier, a lot ruder.

0:37:12 > 0:37:14He wasn't blue by any stretch of the imagination,

0:37:14 > 0:37:18but it wasn't the bloke that you saw doing The Golden Shot.

0:37:18 > 0:37:21That I should be required to be any kind of a jester,

0:37:21 > 0:37:25to respond gratefully on behalf of the guests here tonight

0:37:25 > 0:37:26makes about as much sense...

0:37:28 > 0:37:31..as taking your wife to a brothel and paying corkage.

0:37:31 > 0:37:32LAUGHTER

0:37:34 > 0:37:37I asked him about this. He said, "Well, it's therapy. It's release.

0:37:37 > 0:37:40"You can't do all that on television,

0:37:40 > 0:37:44"so I just really let 'em have it when I'm working live."

0:37:44 > 0:37:46Birds and booze. They killed my brother.

0:37:46 > 0:37:48He couldn't get either, so he shot himself.

0:37:48 > 0:37:49LAUGHTER

0:37:52 > 0:37:54My father was ruined by hard drink.

0:37:54 > 0:37:56He sat on an icicle.

0:37:56 > 0:37:57LAUGHTER

0:37:57 > 0:38:00Thought he'd been attacked by an Eskimo from the rear for a moment.

0:38:00 > 0:38:02LAUGHTER

0:38:02 > 0:38:04I went out with an Eskimo once. We rubbed noses.

0:38:04 > 0:38:05I caught a case of sniff-ilis.

0:38:05 > 0:38:07LAUGHTER

0:38:07 > 0:38:10I remember seeing him in Birmingham being incredibly rude.

0:38:10 > 0:38:12It was almost single-entendre humour.

0:38:12 > 0:38:15A lot of the material here seems to be very robust, to say the least...

0:38:15 > 0:38:17- Mm!- ..Very bawdy. Why is this?

0:38:17 > 0:38:19I don't think it's bawdy. I think it's adult.

0:38:19 > 0:38:22I think this audience is extremely quick-witted.

0:38:22 > 0:38:24The club audience, I'm talking about.

0:38:24 > 0:38:27I think they've had a load of, shall we say,

0:38:27 > 0:38:30disinfected pap from television for a long time,

0:38:30 > 0:38:32which they like very well in their own homes,

0:38:32 > 0:38:35but when they get together, they want to hear something stronger,

0:38:35 > 0:38:38brighter, gayer and a little bit more engaged to the adult taste.

0:38:38 > 0:38:42He used to do one about me, and he'd say, "Oh, you know,

0:38:42 > 0:38:44"Anne Aston, she can't count up to two

0:38:44 > 0:38:46"unless she lifts up her sweater."

0:38:46 > 0:38:47And I remember my father going,

0:38:47 > 0:38:50"Huh! I'll have a word with him afterwards!"

0:38:51 > 0:38:53I'll miss that little girl. She's a sweetheart.

0:38:53 > 0:38:56She has to take her sweater off to count to two, but she's a sweetie.

0:38:56 > 0:38:57LAUGHTER

0:39:00 > 0:39:02This was a different Bob Monkhouse,

0:39:02 > 0:39:04up close to the audience,

0:39:04 > 0:39:05near the knuckle,

0:39:05 > 0:39:07no format to worry about,

0:39:07 > 0:39:09and he'd had a drink.

0:39:09 > 0:39:13Bob did have a drink before the show, a small glass of whisky,

0:39:13 > 0:39:16and I said, "I didn't know you had a drink before the show!"

0:39:16 > 0:39:20And he memorably said to me, "I never go on alone."

0:39:20 > 0:39:22What a joy to be here,

0:39:22 > 0:39:26what a delight to see you here in this elegant khazi, what a thrill...

0:39:26 > 0:39:27LAUGHTER

0:39:27 > 0:39:29It's an Arabic word. Means "palace".

0:39:29 > 0:39:34What a thrill to see you here in the Aquarius, Chesterfield.

0:39:34 > 0:39:37Won't it look great when they get it finished? Isn't it beautiful?

0:39:37 > 0:39:38LAUGHTER

0:39:38 > 0:39:44Bob's ritual was to have quite a big chaser, quite a big slurp of whisky,

0:39:44 > 0:39:46and he'd bring it on with him.

0:39:47 > 0:39:51Bob, I think, liked to sort of quell his excitement

0:39:51 > 0:39:53with a little bit of a softener.

0:39:53 > 0:39:57Once again, the evidence of Bob's cabaret whisky routine

0:39:57 > 0:39:59was left behind in the house.

0:39:59 > 0:40:01Dad worked a lot of nightclubs.

0:40:01 > 0:40:04He'd do cabaret, and I think when he would leave,

0:40:04 > 0:40:06he would then take a drink with him.

0:40:07 > 0:40:09The whisky glass was never returned.

0:40:09 > 0:40:12And rather than throw a glass away,

0:40:12 > 0:40:14he'd put it in a cupboard.

0:40:15 > 0:40:19And over the years, I came out with a lot of glasses.

0:40:19 > 0:40:22In fact, at home I've still got a lot of those original glasses.

0:40:22 > 0:40:25And so there are cupboards and cupboards of these glasses.

0:40:25 > 0:40:27They're very normal, very ordinary.

0:40:27 > 0:40:30I've got half-pint glasses, I've got quarter-pint glasses,

0:40:30 > 0:40:33I've got jugs, I've got frosted glasses.

0:40:33 > 0:40:38It was probably the most extensive whisky-glass collection

0:40:38 > 0:40:39in the western hemisphere.

0:40:39 > 0:40:43Utterly valueless, cos they were all different.

0:40:44 > 0:40:47To the crowd in the nightclub, this was something special.

0:40:47 > 0:40:50Bob Monkhouse, the nice man from the telly,

0:40:50 > 0:40:52live and dangerous.

0:40:52 > 0:40:56Bob said to me, "Last night, I did the most awful thing.

0:40:56 > 0:41:00"I had a heckler at one of the tables right in front of the stage.

0:41:00 > 0:41:02"And you know me, I can handle hecklers."

0:41:02 > 0:41:06I said, "Of course, you've got loads of lines to put them down."

0:41:06 > 0:41:09He said, "But for some reason, this guy really got to me,

0:41:09 > 0:41:13"and I went over to the table and I kicked him right in the teeth."

0:41:13 > 0:41:16But it's interesting, isn't it, that even the greats can snap.

0:41:17 > 0:41:22# This is your golden day... #

0:41:22 > 0:41:24Meanwhile, back in Birmingham,

0:41:24 > 0:41:27The Golden Shot had struggled without Bob.

0:41:27 > 0:41:29Norman Vaughan just didn't have it.

0:41:30 > 0:41:33Ladies and gentlemen, hello and welcome to the new Golden Shot.

0:41:33 > 0:41:35- Do you like it?- Yes!

0:41:35 > 0:41:36I remember working with Norman.

0:41:36 > 0:41:38He was very sweet...

0:41:38 > 0:41:40but made the show look, erm,

0:41:40 > 0:41:43slightly more difficult than Bob ever did!

0:41:43 > 0:41:44SHE CHUCKLES

0:41:45 > 0:41:47Ah, hang on.

0:41:47 > 0:41:50- You want to fire again? - Take it again, please, Norman.

0:41:50 > 0:41:52Take it again? Something went wrong?

0:41:52 > 0:41:55- Take it again, please. - Isn't that unusual?- No!- No?

0:41:55 > 0:41:59Who said that? OK, it's you, Alice. I knew you'd be trouble to me.

0:41:59 > 0:42:00We're going to both go again, are we?

0:42:00 > 0:42:04It was only when other people did it afterwards

0:42:04 > 0:42:07that you realised just how good Bob was.

0:42:07 > 0:42:09Norman Vaughan struggled a bit.

0:42:09 > 0:42:10He handed it on to Charlie Williams,

0:42:10 > 0:42:12who struggled a bit.

0:42:12 > 0:42:13Welcome to The Golden Shot.

0:42:13 > 0:42:16No, a tibula... A tibia and a fibula.

0:42:16 > 0:42:18'Yes, and if you break one, I can bandage it up.'

0:42:18 > 0:42:20And if I break one...

0:42:20 > 0:42:23There's no need to bother about that, flower. Ooh, no!

0:42:23 > 0:42:25When Charlie took over,

0:42:25 > 0:42:30it was a body blow for Bob to see a show that he'd worked so hard on

0:42:30 > 0:42:34and put so much effort and time and imagination into,

0:42:34 > 0:42:37into making it the huge success it was,

0:42:37 > 0:42:38to see it go down.

0:42:38 > 0:42:41And then good sense prevailed,

0:42:41 > 0:42:45pretty much as Bob had anticipated,

0:42:45 > 0:42:50and as a result of an awful lot of letters being sent to ATV,

0:42:50 > 0:42:53saying, "Please reinstate Bob Monkhouse. He's marvellous."

0:42:53 > 0:42:55- Thank you very much. - APPLAUSE

0:42:55 > 0:42:57Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen.

0:42:57 > 0:43:00It's like...coming home again. This is just like my home.

0:43:00 > 0:43:01Filthy and full of strangers.

0:43:01 > 0:43:03LAUGHTER HE LAUGHS

0:43:03 > 0:43:08Bob was back in charge of The Golden Shot two years after being sacked.

0:43:09 > 0:43:11It was a triumphant return.

0:43:11 > 0:43:14But 1975 had a sting in the tail.

0:43:16 > 0:43:18Just as everything was going Bob's way,

0:43:18 > 0:43:22the life of Denis Goodwin was coming to a tragic end.

0:43:22 > 0:43:25You know, those awful words "Have you heard about Denis Goodwin?"

0:43:25 > 0:43:28And oh, that was a bolt from the blue. That was awful.

0:43:28 > 0:43:33I mean, it's terrible when anybody goes, but Denis, from nowhere.

0:43:33 > 0:43:37We knew he was having a hard time professionally and everything,

0:43:37 > 0:43:40but to hear he'd gone... A complete shock.

0:43:42 > 0:43:43Denis Goodwin killed himself

0:43:43 > 0:43:48with an overdose of sleeping tablets in February 1975.

0:43:48 > 0:43:50Oh, I was shocked.

0:43:50 > 0:43:53Sad. It was a tragedy.

0:43:54 > 0:43:56And as I talk about it now,

0:43:56 > 0:43:59I feel the tragedy of it.

0:43:59 > 0:44:01Very sad. I was very upset.

0:44:01 > 0:44:03So was Bob. He was in a terrible state.

0:44:05 > 0:44:09For a long time, we just used to phone and talk about it

0:44:09 > 0:44:11and didn't know what to do.

0:44:11 > 0:44:13But Bob had become so big,

0:44:13 > 0:44:16and he did everything he could for Denis.

0:44:16 > 0:44:19But...didn't work, unfortunately.

0:44:19 > 0:44:20It's very sad.

0:44:21 > 0:44:24Denis had gone to Hollywood to write for Bob Hope,

0:44:24 > 0:44:27but drink and drug problems eventually caught up with him,

0:44:27 > 0:44:29and his career suffered.

0:44:30 > 0:44:31He was working in a tough environment,

0:44:31 > 0:44:33a very competitive environment.

0:44:33 > 0:44:36And Mr Hope had a legion of writers,

0:44:36 > 0:44:39and it was dog-eat-dog out there, really tough, tough, tough times.

0:44:39 > 0:44:42And I don't think he could...

0:44:42 > 0:44:45compete in the way that he wanted to.

0:44:45 > 0:44:49Bob's continuing success and Bob's star shining bright

0:44:49 > 0:44:52maybe didn't help his disposition,

0:44:52 > 0:44:55which, sadly,

0:44:55 > 0:44:56led to his demise.

0:44:58 > 0:44:59With the death of Denis Goodwin,

0:44:59 > 0:45:02the last connection with his early career had gone.

0:45:02 > 0:45:05He also had a new wife, Jackie,

0:45:05 > 0:45:08and together they embarked on the next chapter of Bob's life.

0:45:09 > 0:45:12..and here he is, the star master of Celebrity Squares,

0:45:12 > 0:45:15the big square himself, Bob Monkhouse!

0:45:15 > 0:45:18- CHEERING AND APPLAUSE - Oh!

0:45:19 > 0:45:23Celebrity Squares was pure and simple ITV entertainment,

0:45:23 > 0:45:27a giant game of noughts and crosses with famous faces.

0:45:27 > 0:45:29- Hello, celebrities! - ALL: Hello, Bob!

0:45:29 > 0:45:31Do you remember that old ATV show

0:45:31 > 0:45:33that ran for so long called New Faces?

0:45:33 > 0:45:35Welcome to the sequel, Re-treads.

0:45:35 > 0:45:37LAUGHTER

0:45:37 > 0:45:42Nearly every one of its 138 episodes was immediately wiped.

0:45:42 > 0:45:44It was throwaway TV,

0:45:44 > 0:45:46but not to its compere, Mr Monkhouse.

0:45:46 > 0:45:51He saved 40 episodes, containing some great moments.

0:45:51 > 0:45:52Ooh, good Gawd, it's snowing!

0:45:52 > 0:45:53LAUGHTER

0:45:53 > 0:45:55No, that's not...

0:45:55 > 0:45:56I've got dandruff.

0:45:56 > 0:45:58LAUGHTER

0:45:58 > 0:46:00Well, keep it to yourself!

0:46:00 > 0:46:02Spike for Tony. According to the old superstition,

0:46:02 > 0:46:05what does it mean if a hen runs into your house?

0:46:05 > 0:46:06Erm...

0:46:06 > 0:46:09there's a cock in the district on fertility drugs.

0:46:09 > 0:46:10LAUGHTER

0:46:10 > 0:46:12APPLAUSE

0:46:12 > 0:46:15Thank you! Thank you, folks!

0:46:15 > 0:46:17This could mean a bonus for all of you!

0:46:18 > 0:46:20Now listen, Mr Monkhouse, if you mean Ali,

0:46:20 > 0:46:23let me remind you, I sting like a bee.

0:46:23 > 0:46:24So watch what you're saying,

0:46:24 > 0:46:26or I'll punch you where,

0:46:26 > 0:46:27it really would be painful,

0:46:27 > 0:46:28right in the Secret Square.

0:46:28 > 0:46:30LAUGHTER

0:46:30 > 0:46:32I didn't realise how much work people had put into it.

0:46:32 > 0:46:36People had been working on the jokes with the writers.

0:46:36 > 0:46:39And I just showed up and messed around, really! I was like this...

0:46:39 > 0:46:43It was like I was a big puppy on telly!

0:46:45 > 0:46:50Celebrity Squares cemented the image of 1970s Bob Monkhouse,

0:46:50 > 0:46:54the slick game-show host dressed in increasingly loud jackets...

0:46:56 > 0:46:57..all of them specially made,

0:46:57 > 0:47:00and all of them carefully stored,

0:47:00 > 0:47:02along with every tie from every show.

0:47:08 > 0:47:11It was at this time that Bob's popularity

0:47:11 > 0:47:14simultaneously reached its highest and lowest point.

0:47:15 > 0:47:17In the same week in 1978,

0:47:17 > 0:47:23he was top of the list of most-loved and most-hated people on television.

0:47:24 > 0:47:28Bob said to me once that he'd been in lists of

0:47:28 > 0:47:31TV performers who are loved and TV performers you can't stand,

0:47:31 > 0:47:36and as the great Bruce Forsyth once observed, "I was in both."

0:47:36 > 0:47:40And Bob said he found himself in widely different lists,

0:47:40 > 0:47:43popular and... He said, "I'm a Marmite man.

0:47:43 > 0:47:46"You either like me or you can't stand me."

0:47:46 > 0:47:49And he said, "You have to live with that. You can't please everybody."

0:47:49 > 0:47:52It's quite an achievement, really.

0:47:52 > 0:47:55Being top in both probably kind of amused him in his own way.

0:47:55 > 0:47:58The thing that worked against him, I think,

0:47:58 > 0:48:00was the fact that he was so slick, you know?

0:48:00 > 0:48:01Bob was good at what he did.

0:48:01 > 0:48:04No matter what talent a performer may have...

0:48:05 > 0:48:08..no matter what dedication, the most important thing you can have

0:48:08 > 0:48:10is sincerity. That, I think, is a performer's greatest asset

0:48:10 > 0:48:13and the key to a performance.

0:48:13 > 0:48:15Ladies and gentlemen, sincerity.

0:48:15 > 0:48:17Once you've learnt to fake that, you're made.

0:48:17 > 0:48:20LAUGHTER

0:48:20 > 0:48:22I've often heard people say about Bob

0:48:22 > 0:48:25that he was slick, he was insincere.

0:48:25 > 0:48:26Bob wasn't.

0:48:26 > 0:48:28That was his performance.

0:48:30 > 0:48:32That performance was of a man always in control

0:48:32 > 0:48:35and with a joke for every possible situation.

0:48:35 > 0:48:37How many wings has a beetle?

0:48:37 > 0:48:41The only Beatle I can think of with Wings is Paul McCartney.

0:48:41 > 0:48:43LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

0:48:43 > 0:48:46But all this confidence hid a deep fear of failure.

0:48:46 > 0:48:49It was a concern to him

0:48:49 > 0:48:52that he didn't have the comic, comedic instincts,

0:48:52 > 0:48:57the natural comedic instincts of, let us say, a Frankie Howerd

0:48:57 > 0:48:59or a Tommy Cooper or an Eric Morecambe.

0:48:59 > 0:49:02And Bob did feel he had to have ammunition

0:49:02 > 0:49:06to turn him into the funny soul, you know?

0:49:07 > 0:49:09Everybody needs ammunition,

0:49:09 > 0:49:12but some people need it more than others, you know?

0:49:12 > 0:49:15And I think he felt, perhaps wrongly,

0:49:15 > 0:49:18that he had to be completely armoured.

0:49:18 > 0:49:21The Essex county council have announced

0:49:21 > 0:49:24they're spending £2 million a year treating alcoholics.

0:49:25 > 0:49:27- Isn't that ridiculous? - LAUGHTER

0:49:27 > 0:49:29It's high time those alcoholics bought their own drinks.

0:49:29 > 0:49:30LAUGHTER

0:49:31 > 0:49:36Bob's need to find new jokes became a lifelong obsession.

0:49:36 > 0:49:38He hunted them down with a vengeance

0:49:38 > 0:49:41and catalogued them all in a series of ledgers,

0:49:41 > 0:49:44otherwise known as the famous Bob Monkhouse joke books.

0:49:46 > 0:49:47They were kind of works of art,

0:49:47 > 0:49:49because as well as having lovely handwriting...

0:49:49 > 0:49:52He was a very dextrous man. ..he was a great artist.

0:49:52 > 0:49:54And so he would sit doodling,

0:49:54 > 0:49:57so at the end of the day you'd say, "Show us your book,"

0:49:57 > 0:50:00and he'd have lovely pictures of me and other people in the room.

0:50:00 > 0:50:02And as someone who can't draw,

0:50:02 > 0:50:04I've always admired people who can.

0:50:04 > 0:50:06Again, it was something else that made me think,

0:50:06 > 0:50:08"This guy's quite a special bloke."

0:50:08 > 0:50:11If Bob wanted a joke on a plumber,

0:50:11 > 0:50:13if one of his contestants was a plumber,

0:50:13 > 0:50:16he would spin down to T for Trades,

0:50:16 > 0:50:18open it up,

0:50:18 > 0:50:20come to the section marked "trades",

0:50:20 > 0:50:24go through carpenter, window cleaner, car mechanic.

0:50:24 > 0:50:27Ah, plumber. The joke books went with him everywhere.

0:50:27 > 0:50:32They were an extension of his soul, really.

0:50:32 > 0:50:36Just in case he came across a situation which required a joke,

0:50:36 > 0:50:37and he could refer to them.

0:50:39 > 0:50:42In 1995, the joke books were famously stolen

0:50:42 > 0:50:43and held for ransom.

0:50:44 > 0:50:47But after a long police investigation, they were recovered

0:50:47 > 0:50:50and handed back to a grateful Mr Monkhouse.

0:50:51 > 0:50:55..and here's your host, Bob Monkhouse!

0:50:55 > 0:50:56CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:50:56 > 0:50:58Throughout the 1980s,

0:50:58 > 0:51:02the Monkhouse juggernaut was travelling at full speed.

0:51:02 > 0:51:06Next came one of TV's greatest game-show hits,

0:51:06 > 0:51:07Family Fortunes.

0:51:08 > 0:51:11Great! Oh, marvellous. Thank you very much!

0:51:11 > 0:51:14You know, applause like that means only one thing to me.

0:51:14 > 0:51:16It means we've fixed the sign.

0:51:16 > 0:51:17LAUGHTER

0:51:18 > 0:51:21Game shows were a vehicle, they were a means to an end.

0:51:21 > 0:51:24They weren't the be-all and end-all. They were...

0:51:24 > 0:51:28Get him on TV, give him the chance to do his jokes,

0:51:28 > 0:51:31and to make light of various situations,

0:51:31 > 0:51:33and joke with contestants,

0:51:33 > 0:51:36remind the audience you're a comedian but at the same time,

0:51:36 > 0:51:39"Actually, I'm still a comedian, I'm still a stand-up comic,

0:51:39 > 0:51:44"and this is my tool just to keep my profile high, in the public eye".

0:51:45 > 0:51:49The game-show Monkhouse was Bob's greatest creation.

0:51:49 > 0:51:51He would change.

0:51:51 > 0:51:55He would walk off that set at Family Fortunes to his dressing room,

0:51:55 > 0:51:57and he would change in the walk.

0:51:58 > 0:52:01From the set to the dressing room, he would change.

0:52:01 > 0:52:03If someone knocked on the door...

0:52:04 > 0:52:07..he would be Bob Monkhouse again. "Come in!"

0:52:07 > 0:52:11And the door would open, and he would be the game-show host again.

0:52:11 > 0:52:12It was quite...

0:52:12 > 0:52:14It was fascinating, quite honestly.

0:52:16 > 0:52:20To his loyal fans, Monkhouse had become Uncle Bob,

0:52:20 > 0:52:24a permanent fixture on television for the last 30 years.

0:52:24 > 0:52:26He was part of the furniture.

0:52:26 > 0:52:30So who better to turn bingo into peak-time entertainment?

0:52:30 > 0:52:33Cue Bob's Full House.

0:52:33 > 0:52:35What happens to hamsters at the age of three?

0:52:35 > 0:52:38- Mark?- They die.- That's right! You just won the second game!

0:52:38 > 0:52:39LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

0:52:41 > 0:52:44As the Monkhouse output became more and more bland and formulaic,

0:52:44 > 0:52:48even he began to worry about his reputation.

0:52:48 > 0:52:49He was always saying,

0:52:49 > 0:52:52"There's a whole generation don't know I'm a comedian.

0:52:52 > 0:52:53"You know... Game-show host."

0:52:53 > 0:52:56I think he probably did more game shows than anybody.

0:52:56 > 0:52:59And that rankled a bit with him.

0:52:59 > 0:53:01He said, "I want to remind them I'm a comedian."

0:53:01 > 0:53:07He was, in a sense, ruined by his success as a game-show host.

0:53:07 > 0:53:08That was where the work was,

0:53:08 > 0:53:10that was where the fame lay,

0:53:10 > 0:53:11and that was his career.

0:53:11 > 0:53:13I've given away too many prizes.

0:53:13 > 0:53:16People don't and think, "Here's Bob Monkhouse. He tells jokes."

0:53:16 > 0:53:19- They see me coming and they go... - COCKNEY:- "It's Monk'ouse.

0:53:19 > 0:53:20"He's got prizes.

0:53:21 > 0:53:23"Keep 'im talkin'. I'll look for his van."

0:53:23 > 0:53:24LAUGHTER

0:53:27 > 0:53:29For all his achievements,

0:53:29 > 0:53:32Bob Monkhouse always felt that he wasn't accepted

0:53:32 > 0:53:33by the comedy establishment.

0:53:35 > 0:53:40Bob did feel an outsider in many ways. He said to me once about...

0:53:40 > 0:53:43I think the word he used was the "gang" or "the club",

0:53:43 > 0:53:46Eric and Ernie, Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd.

0:53:46 > 0:53:48"Oh, they don't like me." I said, "That's not true."

0:53:48 > 0:53:51"All right, they don't reckon me. I'm not one of them."

0:53:51 > 0:53:55And you got a feeling that he'd rather like to have been embraced

0:53:55 > 0:53:58into that gang and treated as a peer.

0:53:58 > 0:54:01I think deep down he was disappointed

0:54:01 > 0:54:04that he didn't have the love and affection

0:54:04 > 0:54:06that Eric Morecambe and Tommy Cooper had.

0:54:06 > 0:54:09Bear in mind, he came from a very middle-class,

0:54:09 > 0:54:11well-to-do, wealthy background.

0:54:11 > 0:54:14Most of the comedians when he started were blue-collar,

0:54:14 > 0:54:15working-class guys,

0:54:15 > 0:54:19so, from the get-go, he was on the outside.

0:54:19 > 0:54:21Bob was smart and posh, and...

0:54:22 > 0:54:24He felt he wasn't one of them, and he wanted to be.

0:54:27 > 0:54:30Bob Monkhouse had become a light-entertainment brand.

0:54:30 > 0:54:32With his name in the title,

0:54:32 > 0:54:34audiences knew exactly what they were going to get

0:54:34 > 0:54:36from Bob's Full House,

0:54:36 > 0:54:38and Bob Says Opportunity Knocks.

0:54:39 > 0:54:41He was at the very top of his profession,

0:54:41 > 0:54:44but he had also pulled off the unenviable trick

0:54:44 > 0:54:49of being disliked by both the old guard and the new wave of comedians.

0:54:49 > 0:54:53# 'Ello, John, got a new motor? 'Ello, John, got a new motor? #

0:54:53 > 0:54:57When you had Rik and Ade and Alexei Sayle and that group coming on,

0:54:57 > 0:55:01it made Bob seem a bit old-fashioned for a bit.

0:55:01 > 0:55:03Good evening, ladies and gentlemen...

0:55:03 > 0:55:06Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!

0:55:06 > 0:55:10That whole instinct, that compulsion which came out of punk, really,

0:55:10 > 0:55:13which was "Anybody can get up on stage and do something",

0:55:13 > 0:55:16meant that the rough-and-ready slightly won over

0:55:16 > 0:55:18the slick and professional,

0:55:18 > 0:55:20because it was newer.

0:55:20 > 0:55:22Bob went through a phase of being considered naff.

0:55:23 > 0:55:27"He's a naff, mainstream, derivative comic."

0:55:27 > 0:55:29I said, "Every morning I wake up, I go to the bathroom,

0:55:29 > 0:55:32I look in the mirror and I want to throw up. What's wrong with me?"

0:55:32 > 0:55:34He said, "I don't know, but your eyesight is perfect."

0:55:34 > 0:55:35LAUGHTER

0:55:36 > 0:55:40To make matters worse, in the eyes of the alternative comedians,

0:55:40 > 0:55:43Bob had become an enthusiastic supporter of Margaret Thatcher

0:55:43 > 0:55:45and the Conservative party.

0:55:45 > 0:55:46CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:55:48 > 0:55:50Next Thursday at the polls,

0:55:50 > 0:55:54it won't just be Bob, it'll be Britain saying opportunity knocks.

0:55:54 > 0:55:57CHEERING

0:56:00 > 0:56:03And if we put Maggie back in for the third time, we'll all be winners.

0:56:03 > 0:56:05CHEERING

0:56:06 > 0:56:09It probably didn't help Bob's career at that point

0:56:09 > 0:56:11that he was aligned with Mrs Thatcher

0:56:11 > 0:56:13because you had all these Comic Strip people

0:56:13 > 0:56:17and the new people, everybody's material was based on anti-Thatcher.

0:56:17 > 0:56:20So there wasn't a lot of room for him probably on television

0:56:20 > 0:56:21aside from the game shows.

0:56:21 > 0:56:25I did say to him once, "Why did you do that? Why did you...

0:56:25 > 0:56:31"tie yourself to the Conservative party quite so...visibly?"

0:56:31 > 0:56:33And he said, "Well, I knew Mrs Thatcher couldn't lose,

0:56:33 > 0:56:36"and I wanted to be associated with a winner."

0:56:36 > 0:56:38Maybe that was a misjudgement.

0:56:38 > 0:56:41Bob Monkhouse continued his collecting habit.

0:56:41 > 0:56:44At one stage, he had the third biggest

0:56:44 > 0:56:46private film collection in the world.

0:56:46 > 0:56:51However, with film industry hysteria about video pirates escalating,

0:56:51 > 0:56:54his famous collection led to his arrest.

0:56:54 > 0:56:59Part of the evidence was that they found in his dustbin

0:56:59 > 0:57:03a card from Terry Wogan's young boy saying,

0:57:03 > 0:57:10"Thank you for loaning us..." I think it was a James Bond movie.

0:57:10 > 0:57:12He wasn't stealing stuff and exploiting it

0:57:12 > 0:57:14in the commercial marketplace.

0:57:14 > 0:57:16It was for his own personal use

0:57:16 > 0:57:18and he shared it with the odd friend.

0:57:18 > 0:57:22I don't think he charged Terry Wogan for renting his...

0:57:22 > 0:57:25He wasn't making money out of it in any way, shape or form.

0:57:25 > 0:57:27He was just a collector.

0:57:27 > 0:57:31At one point, our QC actually said to him,

0:57:31 > 0:57:35"Bob, you know, if this case goes against you,

0:57:35 > 0:57:38"this could be a prison sentence."

0:57:40 > 0:57:44After two long years, the case was dismissed at the Old Bailey.

0:57:44 > 0:57:49The judge had decided that lending a film to Terry Wogan was not a crime

0:57:49 > 0:57:50and Bob walked free.

0:57:50 > 0:57:52I certainly don't feel like a pirate any more.

0:57:53 > 0:57:55It's terrible being a film pirate, I believe.

0:57:55 > 0:57:58You can't watch films with a patch over one eye

0:57:58 > 0:57:59and a parrot on your shoulder.

0:57:59 > 0:58:01The hangover from the court case,

0:58:01 > 0:58:03because it was very scarring for Bob,

0:58:03 > 0:58:05was that he didn't go out of his way

0:58:05 > 0:58:07to talk about his collection a lot,

0:58:07 > 0:58:10and he kept it as private as he could.

0:58:10 > 0:58:15I could imagine that he would have been paranoid, almost,

0:58:15 > 0:58:17in a nice way,

0:58:17 > 0:58:21about the threat to his collection.

0:58:21 > 0:58:23He'd done nothing wrong. He was just a collector.

0:58:25 > 0:58:29From this point on, Bob's collection was for his eyes only.

0:58:30 > 0:58:33Away from the cameras, and away from the TV studios,

0:58:33 > 0:58:36Bob pursued his hobby with renewed vigour.

0:58:37 > 0:58:41The late '70s and early '80s were a boom time for home recording,

0:58:41 > 0:58:45with all kinds of machines and formats hitting the shops.

0:58:45 > 0:58:49I have video recorders in every room of my house.

0:58:49 > 0:58:51No, my wife won't let them in the loo

0:58:51 > 0:58:53because there's one thing she does in there

0:58:53 > 0:58:54she doesn't want freeze-framed

0:58:54 > 0:58:56or played back at a more convenient time.

0:58:56 > 0:59:00Dad had about...must have had about six machines in the house,

0:59:00 > 0:59:03all recording things at different times.

0:59:05 > 0:59:08Jackie would call dinner and say, "Dinner's on the table."

0:59:08 > 0:59:10You wouldn't see him for five minutes

0:59:10 > 0:59:12while he was still sorting out this tape or that tape.

0:59:12 > 0:59:15If we were having a chat, a meeting in the house,

0:59:15 > 0:59:17going through material,

0:59:17 > 0:59:19he'd look at his watch and say, "Excuse me, Carl,"

0:59:19 > 0:59:21and he'd disappear out of that room,

0:59:21 > 0:59:22go into another room,

0:59:22 > 0:59:24and set a VHS.

0:59:24 > 0:59:27He'd disappear three or four times during the course of an evening

0:59:27 > 0:59:28to record stuff.

0:59:30 > 0:59:32It was verging on obsession.

0:59:32 > 0:59:34And then he would go away on holiday,

0:59:34 > 0:59:37so obviously wasn't there to be able to record things.

0:59:37 > 0:59:41And I know he sent off... He would get the Radio or TV Times

0:59:41 > 0:59:45and he would go through the listings to see what was on

0:59:45 > 0:59:47and mark what was wanted,

0:59:47 > 0:59:53and send off a fax to somebody to go and actually record them for him.

0:59:53 > 0:59:56Now, this was a daily occurrence, so when he came back,

0:59:56 > 1:00:00he was probably recording maybe eight hours of material a day.

1:00:00 > 1:00:03And when he came back, there was all this vast mountain of video tapes,

1:00:03 > 1:00:07and in those days, video tapes were big, chunky, bulky things.

1:00:08 > 1:00:12Even Bob's enormous house wasn't big enough to contain the vast amounts

1:00:12 > 1:00:15of Betamax and VHS recordings.

1:00:15 > 1:00:17The solution was a new building in the garden.

1:00:19 > 1:00:21Bob called it "The Boardroom".

1:00:21 > 1:00:26There was so much recorded there weren't enough hours in the day.

1:00:26 > 1:00:30There weren't enough days left in his life when he was middle-aged,

1:00:30 > 1:00:32to watch all the stuff that he amassed.

1:00:32 > 1:00:37About 50,000 VHSs in what he called the boardroom,

1:00:37 > 1:00:40which was a shed... Sorry, Bob!

1:00:40 > 1:00:44..that he had built in the garden because he ran out of room

1:00:44 > 1:00:46to house VHSs in the house.

1:00:46 > 1:00:50I am fascinated by what his wife must have thought of his shed...

1:00:50 > 1:00:51LAUGHTER

1:00:51 > 1:00:52..and his cellar.

1:00:52 > 1:00:55It must have been impossible. I really sympathise with her.

1:00:55 > 1:00:58Jackie hated it, of course, cos she wanted to throw stuff away,

1:00:58 > 1:01:01but she daren't touch anything of his stuff because

1:01:01 > 1:01:02"I've got it, it's OK."

1:01:02 > 1:01:04Jackie faced a constant battle

1:01:04 > 1:01:07to keep Bob's collecting habits under control.

1:01:08 > 1:01:09She would maybe say to me,

1:01:09 > 1:01:12"Where's this stuff appeared from?" You know.

1:01:12 > 1:01:13And I'd say, "Oh...

1:01:14 > 1:01:17"it was in the back of the car. I'd been keeping that.

1:01:17 > 1:01:20"I forgot to bring it in the night before a gig.

1:01:21 > 1:01:24"Oh, I know nothing about it. I don't want it.

1:01:24 > 1:01:26"Just take it back home with you. You keep it."

1:01:29 > 1:01:32Bob Monkhouse loved the art of comics.

1:01:32 > 1:01:34He would buy hundreds every year,

1:01:34 > 1:01:36ranging from his childhood favourites

1:01:36 > 1:01:38to the very latest titles.

1:01:41 > 1:01:44Bob was, himself, a talented illustrator.

1:01:44 > 1:01:45As a precocious schoolboy,

1:01:45 > 1:01:49he was supplying artwork to the Beano and the Dandy.

1:01:50 > 1:01:56He loved that. He would have loved to have been a cartoonist, I think.

1:01:56 > 1:01:57It would have made him happy.

1:01:58 > 1:02:02Later, he was able to buy large quantities of original comic art

1:02:02 > 1:02:05which ended up covering the walls of his house.

1:02:13 > 1:02:16The attention to detail that Bob brought to his collection

1:02:16 > 1:02:19is, at times, bewildering, but always unique.

1:02:20 > 1:02:24His cataloguing of the magazine TV Times is a case in point.

1:02:25 > 1:02:29Bob kept the very earliest examples of the TV Times.

1:02:29 > 1:02:31Right from issue one, Bob was collecting it.

1:02:31 > 1:02:34And what was more, he was collating it into bound volumes

1:02:34 > 1:02:36and he was actually writing inside those volumes.

1:02:36 > 1:02:38Television was always live in those days

1:02:38 > 1:02:41and so it was very common for artists to change

1:02:41 > 1:02:43at the last minute, so what was actually in the TV Times

1:02:43 > 1:02:45would not actually be accurate.

1:02:45 > 1:02:48Bob would go through and very carefully cross out

1:02:48 > 1:02:50who didn't appear and write in who did appear.

1:02:50 > 1:02:52And he'd go into minute detail.

1:02:52 > 1:02:54He'd write in literally every single member of the cast,

1:02:54 > 1:02:56and that is something that people would not normally do,

1:02:56 > 1:02:59and I think it shows a lot about Bob's personality.

1:02:59 > 1:03:02So a programme such as Oh Boy! would go out at 10.50 at night.

1:03:02 > 1:03:05Bob would change the time to reflect the true time

1:03:05 > 1:03:07it went out at 10.37 and,

1:03:07 > 1:03:10at the time, he was the only person keeping that record.

1:03:10 > 1:03:11You begin to wonder

1:03:11 > 1:03:15whether he had some form of compulsive collecting disorder.

1:03:15 > 1:03:19It's fairly...extreme, you know,

1:03:19 > 1:03:23annotating copies of the TV Times

1:03:23 > 1:03:25with what actually went out on screen and so on.

1:03:25 > 1:03:28I can't see that served any useful purpose.

1:03:29 > 1:03:30Armed with his TV Times,

1:03:30 > 1:03:34Bob was able to record all the television shows he wanted.

1:03:35 > 1:03:37He had also, of course, been recording radio shows

1:03:37 > 1:03:40from as early as the 1940s.

1:03:40 > 1:03:43Probably the most exciting part of the Bob Monkhouse collection

1:03:43 > 1:03:45is actually the audio part of it,

1:03:45 > 1:03:48because it goes back to 1948,

1:03:48 > 1:03:51which is far earlier than many other broadcasters have kept material,

1:03:51 > 1:03:53and it's absolutely unique.

1:03:53 > 1:03:57There were radio recordings there off air of people like Tony Hancock.

1:03:57 > 1:03:58The Tony Hancock Appreciation Society

1:03:58 > 1:04:00were jumping up and down in excitement.

1:04:00 > 1:04:02They couldn't wait to listen to them again.

1:04:03 > 1:04:05In this unique Hancock's Half Hour,

1:04:05 > 1:04:10Sid James and Tony get ready for the 1958 Commonwealth Games.

1:04:10 > 1:04:13- SID:- Now, I would have thought you were a hammer throwing man, myself.

1:04:13 > 1:04:15You have got the build for it.

1:04:15 > 1:04:17You know, you've done some in the past. I can see that.

1:04:17 > 1:04:19- TONY:- No, no, no, no, you've summed me up wrong there.

1:04:19 > 1:04:21No. I'm a pole vaulter.

1:04:21 > 1:04:22LAUGHTER

1:04:22 > 1:04:24I had my best season this year.

1:04:24 > 1:04:263'6" last week.

1:04:26 > 1:04:28LAUGHTER

1:04:28 > 1:04:303'6" and went over like a bird.

1:04:30 > 1:04:33LAUGHTER

1:04:33 > 1:04:35Yes, well, they're clearing 14ft in the Games.

1:04:35 > 1:04:37Ah, yes, I know, but I'm handicapped with my weight, you see.

1:04:37 > 1:04:38LAUGHTER

1:04:38 > 1:04:40I run along and dig the pole in the ground

1:04:40 > 1:04:42and I take off and the pole sinks.

1:04:42 > 1:04:43LAUGHTER

1:04:44 > 1:04:47I might tell you, I have to let go of it a bit sharpish to do 3'6".

1:04:47 > 1:04:48LAUGHTER

1:04:50 > 1:04:51We also have Bob to thank

1:04:51 > 1:04:53for saving several performances by Frankie Howerd.

1:04:54 > 1:04:56Here is Frankie in full swing

1:04:56 > 1:05:01in the only surviving recording of Light Up Again from 1953.

1:05:01 > 1:05:03Today I want you all to be chummy and matey.

1:05:03 > 1:05:05Not too matey, mate!

1:05:05 > 1:05:06LAUGHTER

1:05:06 > 1:05:08No, one seat, one person.

1:05:08 > 1:05:09LAUGHTER

1:05:09 > 1:05:12I mean, I don't mind you putting your arms round each other

1:05:12 > 1:05:15but have a thought for the five people in-between you.

1:05:15 > 1:05:17You take your festivities too far.

1:05:17 > 1:05:20I went to this pet shop and there was the owner, a little old man,

1:05:20 > 1:05:22polishing a monkey. I said...

1:05:22 > 1:05:23LAUGHTER

1:05:23 > 1:05:24- I said, "Good morning." - LAUGHTER

1:05:24 > 1:05:26Come along now, please.

1:05:26 > 1:05:28Thank you. Don't doze off. So I said...

1:05:28 > 1:05:30LAUGHTER

1:05:30 > 1:05:33I said, "Good morning. I think you're expecting me."

1:05:33 > 1:05:35He said, "Yes, I've cleaned your cage out." Cheeky devil!

1:05:35 > 1:05:36LAUGHTER

1:05:36 > 1:05:38Cheeky devil!

1:05:38 > 1:05:39He loved comedy.

1:05:39 > 1:05:41It was obsession, almost.

1:05:41 > 1:05:44And he just wanted to know why people laughed,

1:05:44 > 1:05:47what were the new things that people were laughing at,

1:05:47 > 1:05:51or the new people that the audiences were laughing at.

1:05:51 > 1:05:55He wanted to understand it to make sure he hadn't missed something.

1:05:55 > 1:05:58It was a kind of positive obsessiveness.

1:05:59 > 1:06:03It led his mind into all sorts of places

1:06:03 > 1:06:06from which he profited,

1:06:06 > 1:06:10both intellectually and professionally.

1:06:12 > 1:06:15One of the most exciting discoveries was the audio recordings

1:06:15 > 1:06:19of four episodes of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's Not Only But Also.

1:06:21 > 1:06:23These were thought lost completely

1:06:23 > 1:06:26but, thanks to Bob, we can at least hear them again.

1:06:27 > 1:06:30Here, have a taste of this. Have a guess what it is.

1:06:30 > 1:06:32I made it in the cookery class.

1:06:32 > 1:06:35Um...I don't really know.

1:06:35 > 1:06:36Is it a blancmange or something?

1:06:36 > 1:06:38No, it's cauliflower cheese.

1:06:38 > 1:06:39LAUGHTER

1:06:39 > 1:06:42- Good, isn't it?- I thought it was Esperanto tonight?

1:06:42 > 1:06:45Well, they're combining Esperanto and cookery in a crash course.

1:06:45 > 1:06:47They give you the recipe in Esperanto.

1:06:47 > 1:06:51Oh, I see. Well, what is Esperanto for cauliflower cheese?

1:06:51 > 1:06:53I think this is one of the few cases

1:06:53 > 1:06:57where the Esperantos use the same word as we do. Cauliflower cheese.

1:06:57 > 1:06:58LAUGHTER

1:06:58 > 1:07:00There are no such people as the Esperantos.

1:07:00 > 1:07:03Esperanto is a composite language, Dud.

1:07:03 > 1:07:05There's no place called Esperanto?!

1:07:05 > 1:07:08- No.- Oh, I wrote off for two weeks there in August.

1:07:08 > 1:07:10LAUGHTER

1:07:10 > 1:07:12What's all this rubbish you brought back?

1:07:12 > 1:07:15What, these books? These are my reference books.

1:07:15 > 1:07:17- Reference books?- Yes.- Angelique.

1:07:17 > 1:07:19The Voyeur.

1:07:19 > 1:07:20The Adventurers.

1:07:20 > 1:07:22The Nude Ice Murders.

1:07:22 > 1:07:25What sort of rubbish is this you're digesting?

1:07:25 > 1:07:27I'm writing a novel.

1:07:28 > 1:07:29What kind of novel are you writing?

1:07:29 > 1:07:32I thought a bestseller would be a good thing.

1:07:32 > 1:07:33LAUGHTER

1:07:34 > 1:07:38In some ways it was easy for Bob to acquire comedy memorabilia

1:07:38 > 1:07:41because he always worked alongside legendary performers.

1:07:41 > 1:07:43ERIC AND ERNIE: # Whether they cheer or boo

1:07:43 > 1:07:45# You can see it through

1:07:45 > 1:07:47ALL: # When you've somebody there at your side. #

1:07:48 > 1:07:50This very rare Morecambe and Wise script

1:07:50 > 1:07:53from their 1954 show, Running Wild,

1:07:53 > 1:07:56was picked up when Bob himself was recording Fast And Loose

1:07:56 > 1:07:59at the same BBC studios.

1:08:00 > 1:08:04Likewise, Bob's time at ATV in the 1970s

1:08:04 > 1:08:06gave him access to a unique recording

1:08:06 > 1:08:08of another ATV show,

1:08:08 > 1:08:10New Faces.

1:08:10 > 1:08:13# You're a star, you're a star... #

1:08:14 > 1:08:18The very first TV appearance by a 16-year-old Lenny Henry

1:08:18 > 1:08:19had been thought lost for ever.

1:08:20 > 1:08:24I'd been looking for it for 30-something years.

1:08:24 > 1:08:26It was a very important document to me

1:08:26 > 1:08:30because the very first appearance was where people saw

1:08:30 > 1:08:32the promise in me and the potential in me.

1:08:32 > 1:08:34And I'd never seen it. I'd never had it.

1:08:34 > 1:08:39But the other day, I was sort of on the phone to my PA

1:08:39 > 1:08:41and she said, "Oh, somebody wants to get in touch with you

1:08:41 > 1:08:43"from Birmingham.

1:08:43 > 1:08:45"They've got your first ever New Faces appearance, and they're..."

1:08:45 > 1:08:48And I went, "What, what what, what, what?!"

1:08:48 > 1:08:49I said "what" that many times.

1:08:49 > 1:08:51"What?"

1:08:51 > 1:08:53"They said they've got your first-ever New Faces.

1:08:53 > 1:08:55"It was in Bob Monkhouse's basement."

1:08:55 > 1:08:57LAUGHTER

1:08:57 > 1:09:00He's a really new, exciting face to television. Just 16 years old.

1:09:00 > 1:09:03Enough from me. Let him express himself in three minutes,

1:09:03 > 1:09:05as we bring on Mr Lenny Henry!

1:09:05 > 1:09:07APPLAUSE

1:09:07 > 1:09:11MUSIC: Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em Theme

1:09:14 > 1:09:17- AS FRANK:- Who saw the Queen on Christmas Day then, my darling?

1:09:17 > 1:09:19LAUGHTER

1:09:19 > 1:09:21That's my baby, Jessica, that is.

1:09:23 > 1:09:25LAUGHTER

1:09:26 > 1:09:27Oh!

1:09:27 > 1:09:29There's a lot of people out there.

1:09:32 > 1:09:35If you're wondering about the slightly permanent suntan...

1:09:36 > 1:09:39..it all started when Betty got me a job as a salesman for Ambre Solaire.

1:09:39 > 1:09:41LAUGHTER

1:09:41 > 1:09:43It's not funny. I only put a teaspoonful on.

1:09:43 > 1:09:45- I can't get it off now. - LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

1:09:47 > 1:09:50And I'd been asking people for years, "Have you got that first...?

1:09:50 > 1:09:52"No, not the London Palladium one where I did Al Jolson

1:09:52 > 1:09:54"and sang Leaning On A Lamp Post..."

1:09:54 > 1:09:57Christ knows why. "..but the first one where I was doing stuff

1:09:57 > 1:10:00that I'd written that I'd worked in the clubs,

1:10:00 > 1:10:03"Club Lafayette in Wolverhampton and the Summerhill in Dudley.

1:10:03 > 1:10:05"That material?"

1:10:05 > 1:10:08That was definitely more Lenny than that other stuff.

1:10:09 > 1:10:11And the fact that Bob recognised that...

1:10:12 > 1:10:13..that was a big deal.

1:10:13 > 1:10:15APPLAUSE

1:10:17 > 1:10:21Suddenly, for...that performance to show up again...

1:10:22 > 1:10:24..that meant a lot to me,

1:10:24 > 1:10:26and the fact that Bob had it, and Bob always had it...

1:10:28 > 1:10:30..it did make me see him in a different light

1:10:30 > 1:10:32because there was always a tinge of respect there for him,

1:10:32 > 1:10:34but my respect for him went up hugely.

1:10:34 > 1:10:38And I was incredibly grateful to him for holding on to it,

1:10:38 > 1:10:39cos nobody else had it.

1:10:39 > 1:10:42Bob never stopped collecting comedy.

1:10:42 > 1:10:44It was his passion and his life.

1:10:45 > 1:10:47And in the Bob Monkhouse Show,

1:10:47 > 1:10:49which ran from 1983 to 86,

1:10:49 > 1:10:53he had the chance to share his admiration for his fellow comedians.

1:10:53 > 1:10:55APPLAUSE

1:10:55 > 1:10:58This series is completely different. It's all about comedy and comedians.

1:10:58 > 1:11:00Comedians are always my heroes

1:11:00 > 1:11:02cos they're the performers who walk out on stage

1:11:02 > 1:11:05with no excuse for being there, except your laughter.

1:11:05 > 1:11:07MUSIC AND APPLAUSE

1:11:15 > 1:11:17CHEERING AND LAUGHTER

1:11:28 > 1:11:29What is it?

1:11:32 > 1:11:36Bend forward. Now, you can look that way.

1:11:36 > 1:11:38Now, I want you to breathe in and out.

1:11:38 > 1:11:40- Me?- Yes. No, out with the mouth open.

1:11:40 > 1:11:42- With the mouth open? - HE PANTS

1:11:42 > 1:11:43Yeah.

1:11:43 > 1:11:45I'm not sure if it's you or not, actually.

1:11:45 > 1:11:47LAUGHTER

1:11:47 > 1:11:49I've been getting these obscene phone calls all week.

1:11:49 > 1:11:51LAUGHTER

1:11:54 > 1:11:56The '80s was a turbulent time for comedy.

1:11:58 > 1:12:03The new alternative comedians wanted to replace the established stars,

1:12:03 > 1:12:07and Bob was written off, along with many others of his generation.

1:12:07 > 1:12:10For all the good changes that alternative comedy brought about,

1:12:10 > 1:12:12we threw a lot of babies out with the bathwater.

1:12:12 > 1:12:15Bob Monkhouse, unfortunately,

1:12:15 > 1:12:19was lumped in with the worst excesses of mainstream comedy.

1:12:19 > 1:12:21When alternative comedy came through,

1:12:21 > 1:12:23he was linked with the likes of Bernard Manning

1:12:23 > 1:12:25and the likes of Jim Davidson,

1:12:25 > 1:12:26and that wasn't fair.

1:12:28 > 1:12:30However, as the '90s approached,

1:12:30 > 1:12:33and pure stand-up comedy came back into fashion,

1:12:33 > 1:12:35Bob Monkhouse began to be seen in a whole new light.

1:12:37 > 1:12:39Suddenly, Bob's old school panache

1:12:39 > 1:12:44and style and facility with a joke became fashionable again.

1:12:44 > 1:12:45Do you know Helga?

1:12:45 > 1:12:48Some of the guys will know "Helga, your inflatable girlfriend.

1:12:48 > 1:12:49LAUGHTER

1:12:49 > 1:12:51"She never has a headache".

1:12:51 > 1:12:53No, but you do after you've blown the bloody thing up.

1:12:53 > 1:12:54LAUGHTER

1:12:54 > 1:12:58Suddenly he got on Have I Got News For You. Here's Bob Monkhouse,

1:12:58 > 1:13:00and people didn't know him, almost a new generation.

1:13:00 > 1:13:02On Ian Hislop's team

1:13:02 > 1:13:05is a comedian who recently said that comedy was just like sex.

1:13:05 > 1:13:08So we look forward to him being incredibly funny for five minutes

1:13:08 > 1:13:10and then falling asleep for the rest of the show.

1:13:10 > 1:13:13- LAUGHTER - Bob Monkhouse.- Five! That's a compliment.

1:13:14 > 1:13:17The Minister For Silly Walks. Look at him.

1:13:17 > 1:13:19It's interesting that if you rearrange the letters

1:13:19 > 1:13:20that spell Michael Portillo,

1:13:20 > 1:13:23they come out as "I talk bollocks".

1:13:23 > 1:13:24LAUGHTER

1:13:25 > 1:13:28Obviously, that's give or take a letter.

1:13:28 > 1:13:29LAUGHTER

1:13:29 > 1:13:32MUSIC: 20th Century Boy by T Rex

1:13:34 > 1:13:37By 1995, the comeback was complete,

1:13:37 > 1:13:41and Bob embarked on the series that would finally earn him the affection

1:13:41 > 1:13:43that have sometimes eluded him at his peak.

1:13:45 > 1:13:49On The Spot was one man and his audience.

1:13:49 > 1:13:50It was back to where it all began.

1:13:50 > 1:13:51APPLAUSE

1:13:51 > 1:13:54It was Bob Monkhouse, stand-up comedian.

1:13:54 > 1:13:55APPLAUSE

1:13:56 > 1:13:58I once had a Yorkshire terrier. I love them.

1:13:58 > 1:14:01They're lovely dogs, and so handy for washing the car.

1:14:01 > 1:14:02LAUGHTER

1:14:02 > 1:14:06They're marvellous cos they're the same size as the bucket. Hold your breath. In you go.

1:14:06 > 1:14:09It was called On The Spot and it genuinely was on the spot.

1:14:09 > 1:14:11It was Bob doing half an hour each week,

1:14:11 > 1:14:13no sketches, no padding,

1:14:13 > 1:14:15no interviews, just Bob.

1:14:15 > 1:14:18I have a cat. He's old now.

1:14:18 > 1:14:21He's going bald, but he combs his tail over the bald spot.

1:14:21 > 1:14:23LAUGHTER

1:14:25 > 1:14:27Bob Monkhouse had come full circle.

1:14:28 > 1:14:31It was just like 1947,

1:14:31 > 1:14:34Bob on the BBC in his bow tie,

1:14:34 > 1:14:36telling jokes, and getting laughs.

1:14:36 > 1:14:43His approach to his final few years was very smart and classy.

1:14:43 > 1:14:46He seemed to try and reinvent himself as a comic.

1:14:46 > 1:14:48You know, became a kind of...

1:14:48 > 1:14:51"I'm the grandaddy of them all, and I know what I'm doing".

1:14:51 > 1:14:52I'm a comedian, by the way.

1:14:52 > 1:14:54LAUGHTER

1:14:54 > 1:14:56I like to get that established fairly early on.

1:14:56 > 1:14:58I tell you something, it isn't easy.

1:14:58 > 1:15:00If I'm somewhere where they don't know me at all,

1:15:00 > 1:15:03and they say at a dinner party, "What do you do?"

1:15:03 > 1:15:04and I say, "I'm a comedian,"

1:15:04 > 1:15:08they always say the same thing. "You're a comedian? Tell me a joke."

1:15:08 > 1:15:10They don't do this to any other profession.

1:15:10 > 1:15:13They don't say, "You're a chef? Bake me a pie."

1:15:13 > 1:15:15LAUGHTER

1:15:15 > 1:15:18They don't say, "You're a politician? Ooh! Tell me a lie."

1:15:18 > 1:15:19LAUGHTER

1:15:19 > 1:15:22They don't say, "You're a gynaecologist, take a look at the wife." They don't.

1:15:22 > 1:15:23LAUGHTER

1:15:23 > 1:15:25You know, he still looked great.

1:15:25 > 1:15:28He didn't look like a senior citizen or anything.

1:15:28 > 1:15:31He'd been around so long, he thought, "I'm being accepted now

1:15:31 > 1:15:35"as an elder statesman who's done a lot and been here a long time."

1:15:35 > 1:15:38I think that probably relaxed him a bit.

1:15:38 > 1:15:42You know, he wasn't straining and pushing at it any more.

1:15:42 > 1:15:45He thought, "No, I think they accept me now."

1:15:46 > 1:15:50Bob Monkhouse now began to relax about his place in the world.

1:15:51 > 1:15:54He published a confessional autobiography,

1:15:54 > 1:15:56Crying With Laughter.

1:15:56 > 1:15:57And, for the first time in his life,

1:15:57 > 1:16:00talked publicly about his deepest feelings.

1:16:00 > 1:16:02It was now time to look back,

1:16:02 > 1:16:06and make sense of the 50-year career his driving ambition had given him.

1:16:06 > 1:16:10A career which he had so meticulously documented.

1:16:10 > 1:16:12I used...

1:16:13 > 1:16:18..work in order to distance the problems...

1:16:20 > 1:16:22..at home, and emotional problems.

1:16:23 > 1:16:24I kept them...

1:16:26 > 1:16:28..to one side while I got on with my work.

1:16:29 > 1:16:30He was relaxed, in a strange way.

1:16:30 > 1:16:35He thought, "I will stop wearing this...mask,

1:16:35 > 1:16:37and just...come out.

1:16:37 > 1:16:39"And I will just talk about things."

1:16:39 > 1:16:42Which he'd never done in public before.

1:16:42 > 1:16:44And it was quite touching.

1:16:44 > 1:16:46I thought, "Bob's letting it all out now."

1:16:50 > 1:16:53It was at this time, in 1992,

1:16:53 > 1:16:57that Bob's eldest son Gary, suffering with cerebral palsy,

1:16:57 > 1:16:59died at just 40 years old.

1:17:04 > 1:17:08I think most parents of a grossly handicapped child...

1:17:09 > 1:17:12..will see it not as their tragedy, but as their child's tragedy.

1:17:14 > 1:17:15And then,

1:17:15 > 1:17:17as in the case of my son,

1:17:17 > 1:17:20you begin to learn from the child.

1:17:20 > 1:17:22And he...

1:17:22 > 1:17:24was such a...

1:17:25 > 1:17:27..a straight arrow.

1:17:27 > 1:17:31He was a source of great inspiration to me. And...

1:17:31 > 1:17:33And I think of him every day.

1:17:33 > 1:17:35And if I...

1:17:36 > 1:17:37..grieve, as I do,

1:17:37 > 1:17:40I grieve not for his death, but for his life,

1:17:40 > 1:17:42which was a very difficult fight for him.

1:17:44 > 1:17:47Sadly, there was more tragedy to come.

1:17:47 > 1:17:51A family argument with his youngest son, Simon, had escalated,

1:17:51 > 1:17:54and the two hardly spoke for over ten years.

1:17:56 > 1:18:00As a child, Simon had been the star of his father's home movies.

1:18:03 > 1:18:07But as an adult, he had drifted away from his famous father.

1:18:10 > 1:18:12With their differences still unresolved,

1:18:12 > 1:18:15the shock news reached Britain in May 2001

1:18:15 > 1:18:18that Simon Monkhouse had died of a heroin overdose

1:18:18 > 1:18:21in a Bangkok hotel.

1:18:21 > 1:18:22Three days later he called to say,

1:18:22 > 1:18:25"Do you know, I'm walking around the house like a ghost?

1:18:25 > 1:18:26"I can't concentrate on anything."

1:18:28 > 1:18:31And I think the effect of Simon's passing...

1:18:32 > 1:18:36..lasted the rest of Bob's life. I don't think he ever got over it.

1:18:38 > 1:18:40A few months later,

1:18:40 > 1:18:42Bob's own life looked to be coming to an end,

1:18:42 > 1:18:45when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

1:18:46 > 1:18:49He called me, and he said, "Oh, I've got a bit of bad news."

1:18:49 > 1:18:51So I said, "Oh, what's up?"

1:18:51 > 1:18:54He said, "They've given me two years."

1:18:55 > 1:18:56"You're joking?"

1:18:56 > 1:18:59When he was diagnosed with the cancer,

1:18:59 > 1:19:02his way of dealing with it was to make jokes about it.

1:19:02 > 1:19:05He was on Michael Parkinson's show, the year he died,

1:19:05 > 1:19:08being very funny about the diagnosis of prostate cancer,

1:19:08 > 1:19:09even as the other guests,

1:19:09 > 1:19:11Peter Kay's one of them, even as the other guests,

1:19:11 > 1:19:13you can hear them kind of going,

1:19:13 > 1:19:14"Oh. Oh, dear. Oh."

1:19:14 > 1:19:15So here's the joke.

1:19:15 > 1:19:16LAUGHTER

1:19:18 > 1:19:20I said, "How long have I got to live?" He said, "Ten."

1:19:20 > 1:19:22I said, "What, months? Weeks?"

1:19:22 > 1:19:24He said, "Nine..."

1:19:24 > 1:19:26LAUGHTER

1:19:27 > 1:19:30Not bad, is it? Anyway, he said,

1:19:30 > 1:19:35"Er... Well, OK, it's treatable. It's incurable, but it's treatable."

1:19:35 > 1:19:36I'm not scared of dying anyway.

1:19:36 > 1:19:39- Are you not?- I'm not. Death is a terrible thing.

1:19:39 > 1:19:41The trouble is, the next day, you're so bloody stiff.

1:19:41 > 1:19:42LAUGHTER

1:19:45 > 1:19:47Knowing that time was running out,

1:19:47 > 1:19:51Bob went back to his roots for one last night of stand-up comedy.

1:19:52 > 1:19:55Most of the audience were young comedy writers and performers,

1:19:55 > 1:19:58eager to see the master joke teller in action.

1:19:59 > 1:20:01It was never broadcast,

1:20:01 > 1:20:02until now.

1:20:02 > 1:20:04The one and only Bob Monkhouse.

1:20:04 > 1:20:09CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

1:20:09 > 1:20:13He was very unwell. He was quite close to dying.

1:20:13 > 1:20:17And someone at the BBC said, "Let's organise a gig, Bob.

1:20:17 > 1:20:20"We'll get a load of comics in, and you can go on stage."

1:20:20 > 1:20:22Now, most comedians would run a mile from that.

1:20:22 > 1:20:26I'd rather get killed now, at my age, than do that gig.

1:20:26 > 1:20:30But Bob took that on board and said, "Yes."

1:20:30 > 1:20:32I remember being in the audience, with other comics.

1:20:32 > 1:20:34David Walliams was there, Kevin Day were there.

1:20:34 > 1:20:37I remember, we were all thinking, "Who would do this gig?"

1:20:38 > 1:20:41I think sleeping in the nude is a perfectly natural...

1:20:42 > 1:20:44Well, maybe you shouldn't do it on those LONG flights.

1:20:44 > 1:20:45LAUGHTER

1:20:47 > 1:20:49The sense of camaraderie in the room that night

1:20:49 > 1:20:51that Bob fostered was remarkable.

1:20:51 > 1:20:55It was really a wonderful thing to be part of.

1:20:55 > 1:20:58And also very, very funny.

1:20:58 > 1:21:01There used to be a sort of a bar on the way through to a dance hall,

1:21:01 > 1:21:03where I lived in Beckenham, Kent.

1:21:03 > 1:21:04You probably know I come from Kent.

1:21:04 > 1:21:07I hear people mention the word, they mutter it as they see me.

1:21:07 > 1:21:09LAUGHTER

1:21:09 > 1:21:12I had an affair with a lady optician once, who drove me mad in bed.

1:21:12 > 1:21:15She kept saying, "Is it better like this, or better like that?"

1:21:15 > 1:21:16LAUGHTER

1:21:18 > 1:21:21I think it was important for Bob to be able to show people like us

1:21:21 > 1:21:23how good he really was as a stand-up,

1:21:23 > 1:21:25because he was a fantastic stand-up.

1:21:25 > 1:21:30APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

1:21:30 > 1:21:31Thank you.

1:21:31 > 1:21:34Oh! Ohh! Oh! Can't get better than that!

1:21:34 > 1:21:38He said goodbye to an audience for the very last time,

1:21:38 > 1:21:39and took his final bow.

1:21:39 > 1:21:42It was the end of an extraordinary career,

1:21:42 > 1:21:46which spanned the golden era of British entertainment.

1:21:51 > 1:21:55The last few days of Bob's life were spent quietly at home.

1:21:55 > 1:21:57From here,

1:21:57 > 1:22:00Bob Monkhouse said his farewells to his closest friends.

1:22:01 > 1:22:03Amongst them, Joe Pasquale.

1:22:03 > 1:22:06Jackie phoned me up, and said, "Bob came to last night.

1:22:06 > 1:22:08"And he said..."

1:22:10 > 1:22:12"He sai...

1:22:13 > 1:22:15"He came to, and he said,

1:22:15 > 1:22:18"'I know why I can't move any more.'"

1:22:18 > 1:22:21And basically, he had all these cancers all over him.

1:22:21 > 1:22:24And one of them was on his neck, on his spinal cord,

1:22:24 > 1:22:26which stopped him having any type of movement at all.

1:22:26 > 1:22:29And he hadn't really been lucid at all for ages.

1:22:29 > 1:22:32All of a sudden he came to in the middle of the night.

1:22:32 > 1:22:34And he said, "I know why I can't move." So she said, "Why?"

1:22:34 > 1:22:39And he said, "Because... I've been visited by aliens,

1:22:39 > 1:22:43"and they've given me some sort of anaesthetic, and I can't move."

1:22:43 > 1:22:46He said to her, "But don't worry, Joe Pasquale's coming,

1:22:46 > 1:22:49"and when Joe gets here, he's got the antidote.

1:22:49 > 1:22:52"So make sure you send him in as soon as he gets here."

1:22:52 > 1:22:54So Jackie phoned me, and she said that to me.

1:22:54 > 1:22:57And I went in, and he was gone completely.

1:22:57 > 1:23:00You know, he was just laying there, and his eyes were shut.

1:23:00 > 1:23:04All I had with me was a Woolworth receipt for some pick'n'mix,

1:23:04 > 1:23:05that I'd bought.

1:23:05 > 1:23:08And I said, "Bob, I can't stay, I've got two shows."

1:23:08 > 1:23:10He wasn't listening, I don't know what was going on in his head,

1:23:10 > 1:23:12if anything was going on at all.

1:23:12 > 1:23:15And I said, "Jackie said that you've been waiting for me.

1:23:15 > 1:23:16"I've got the antidote."

1:23:16 > 1:23:19And all it was was a Woolworth's receipt for pick'n'mix.

1:23:19 > 1:23:22And I put it in his hand, and I said, "You can go now, Bob.

1:23:22 > 1:23:25"So, just leave it." And then I left.

1:23:25 > 1:23:26And the next day he died.

1:23:31 > 1:23:34When I said I wanted to become a comedian, everybody laughed at me.

1:23:34 > 1:23:36Well, they're not laughing now, are they?

1:23:36 > 1:23:37LAUGHTER

1:23:39 > 1:23:42Most of the people for whom I worked as a young man, as a writer,

1:23:42 > 1:23:43are forgotten now.

1:23:43 > 1:23:46Forgotten comedians, they're forgotten fame.

1:23:46 > 1:23:48Fame is an addiction,

1:23:48 > 1:23:49stronger than most.

1:23:51 > 1:23:53And it's very passing...

1:23:53 > 1:23:55once its usefulness is ended.

1:23:56 > 1:23:59No, I think I'd just as soon be...forgotten.

1:24:04 > 1:24:07The life and career of Bob Monkhouse,

1:24:07 > 1:24:11and the significance of the collection of recordings he left behind,

1:24:11 > 1:24:15was celebrated at London's Bafta in October 2009.

1:24:15 > 1:24:19The event was organised by the film and TV company, Kaleidoscope,

1:24:19 > 1:24:22who have been entrusted with preserving the entire collection.

1:24:23 > 1:24:26Friends, colleagues and fans

1:24:26 > 1:24:29gathered to spend a day being entertained by Bob Monkhouse.

1:24:30 > 1:24:32After a 30-year wait,

1:24:32 > 1:24:35Lenny Henry was able to see his first-ever TV appearance,

1:24:35 > 1:24:38as a 16-year-old on New Faces.

1:24:40 > 1:24:44It was another day of laughter courtesy of Bob Monkhouse.

1:24:45 > 1:24:49It was also the day of reunion for the names Monkhouse and Goodwin.

1:24:49 > 1:24:51For Denis Goodwin's daughter, Suki,

1:24:51 > 1:24:53and Bob's daughter Abigail.

1:24:53 > 1:24:55Look at these letters here.

1:24:55 > 1:24:57You expect me to guess their destination? That one...

1:24:57 > 1:24:58LAUGHTER

1:24:59 > 1:25:03It's very touching to see that he's appreciated.

1:25:03 > 1:25:06He was a writer, and funny,

1:25:06 > 1:25:08and that's all he wanted to do, was make people laugh.

1:25:08 > 1:25:10And today I sort of felt that.

1:25:10 > 1:25:13- And I felt the chemistry between our two dads.- Definitely.

1:25:13 > 1:25:17And I'd heard about it, for all those years,

1:25:17 > 1:25:20but to actually see and feel it was really good.

1:25:20 > 1:25:22I bet they had loads of fun. Don't you think?

1:25:22 > 1:25:24Yes, they looked like they had fun.

1:25:24 > 1:25:27They looked like they giggled their whole way through their lives

1:25:27 > 1:25:30- at that point.- Definitely.- Yeah.

1:25:42 > 1:25:46Bob and I used to share books quite a lot, and...

1:25:48 > 1:25:51we were apt to...

1:25:51 > 1:25:55sort of philosophise about...

1:25:55 > 1:26:01the last couple of lines from Fred Allen's autobiography,

1:26:01 > 1:26:03which went, if I remember...

1:26:05 > 1:26:13"What has a comedian to show for...all the years

1:26:13 > 1:26:18"of hard work and aggravation, except...

1:26:18 > 1:26:22"the echo of forgotten laughter?"