0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:05 > 0:00:09And now you're going to meet a very funny man. Welcome Dave Allen.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13Your host for the evening, Mr Dave Allen.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15The other fellow going across the road
0:00:15 > 0:00:17and every time he puts his foot down...eeek...cars,
0:00:17 > 0:00:20eeek.. cars and the fellow goes up and he says, "There's a zebra
0:00:20 > 0:00:25"crossing up there," and he says, "Well, I hope he's having better luck than me."
0:00:25 > 0:00:27Watson, if the poison from this dart is not
0:00:27 > 0:00:32sucked from your posterior within the next 15 seconds, you shall die.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34So what's going to happen?
0:00:34 > 0:00:35You're going to die.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40Before the show, probably outwardly, I am very
0:00:40 > 0:00:45calm and very quiet, but inside it's like a train terminal at rush hour -
0:00:45 > 0:00:47things all zinging and zinging
0:00:47 > 0:00:50and my words and what I'm going to talk about.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59I often wonder whether God has got a sense of humour.
0:00:59 > 0:01:04I hope he has. I'm in trouble if he hasn't.
0:01:04 > 0:01:05LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:01:13 > 0:01:16When you hear the name Dave Allen, what do you think of first of all?
0:01:16 > 0:01:19Finger, alcohol, smoking.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25Very good-looking, very Irish-looking.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28Sitting on a stool, telling stories.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31Glass in his hand making people laugh. You know.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34Priests, they want to get married. I feel that if a priest
0:01:34 > 0:01:36meets another priest and they like one another...
0:01:36 > 0:01:39For me, Dave Allen was constantly full of mischief and outrage.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42You look at the controversy that he sparked.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45I'm an atheist, thank God.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48I think that's how important he is, as a comedian and a comic.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50He had a genuinely serious side
0:01:50 > 0:01:52and thought he could say something important.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54My mum likes you.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56I meet people now and if they find out I'm Dave Allen's son,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00they kind of grab me and they go, "You don't understand.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04"Your dad made such a massive impact on my parents' life, we loved him."
0:02:07 > 0:02:09As you know, my name is Dave Allen.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12I'd also like to tell you I come from a little country in the world
0:02:12 > 0:02:15called Ireland, and, like most Irishmen, I live in England.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18LAUGHTER
0:02:18 > 0:02:20And in Ireland we have a very old saying in which we say,
0:02:20 > 0:02:22"When you can see the mountains it's going to rain,
0:02:22 > 0:02:25"and when you can't see the mountains, it's raining."
0:02:25 > 0:02:29Davey's grandmother was a journalist, poet
0:02:29 > 0:02:33and her sister, his great aunt was the poet Katharine Tynan.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36I was born in the country.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38We lived in a kind of big rambly house
0:02:38 > 0:02:41about five or six miles outside Dublin.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44I know he and his brothers liked to get up to mischief,
0:02:44 > 0:02:46playing and getting into trouble and getting grubby.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49I was five years of age when I started to smoke.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54My brothers, they smoked so I smoked because I wanted to be like them.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56My parents would spend all their time going, "Come on, come in,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00"Come on, in, in," and like a pack of dogs, woof-woof, in we'd come,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03and we'd all sit there and say, "What'll we do?"
0:03:03 > 0:03:04"Well, let's go out again"
0:03:10 > 0:03:14My father was known as the clown prince of Irish journalism.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18He was a great character in Dublin journalism.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21People say to me, "Oh, your dad was a wonderful man."
0:03:24 > 0:03:26School was a huge influence for Davey.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29He found the schools he went to very authoritarian.
0:03:29 > 0:03:35Of course, there was, you know, huge emphasis on Catholicism.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38It's extraordinary, I mean, when you're seven years of age
0:03:38 > 0:03:40and you've got to go confess.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44And you get into this little dark box and confess. I used to make them up.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46Kids were evil, weren't they?
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Had terrible impure thoughts and had to be moulded into
0:03:49 > 0:03:53what the Church wanted them to be, or teachers thought they should be.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00They hit me, they pulled my hair, they punched me, they demeaned me
0:04:00 > 0:04:05and, I mean, now I kind of think about it and I'm quite angry
0:04:05 > 0:04:08because none of them were qualified teachers. None of them.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11Luckily enough, he was bright enough to question it,
0:04:11 > 0:04:15and he continued to question it and he always questioned it.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18I was educated by the Carmelite Nuns, the Gestapo in drag.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20LAUGHTER
0:04:20 > 0:04:22'Have you ever burnt yourself?'
0:04:22 > 0:04:25Yeah, I burnt myself on the candle.
0:04:25 > 0:04:26'What was it like?'
0:04:26 > 0:04:27Very sore.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30'Can you imagine that pain all over your body?
0:04:30 > 0:04:32'That's what will happen to you if you do not love God.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34'What do you think of that?'
0:04:34 > 0:04:35I love him. I love him!
0:04:35 > 0:04:37LAUGHTER
0:04:37 > 0:04:40I think what was going on with Davey at school was completely
0:04:40 > 0:04:43the opposite of what was going on in his home life.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46It was very open hearted and open minded.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49My father was quite a story teller.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53One of our great joys on a cold night was to have a big fire
0:04:53 > 0:04:56and for him to tell stories, and at the end of the story we were
0:04:56 > 0:04:59sent off into this rattling house - frightened the shit out of you.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08I have extraordinary dreams too about my father, where I find him.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13And he is now younger than I,
0:05:13 > 0:05:15because I'm past him now,
0:05:15 > 0:05:19and I always ask him why he went away, why did he go away?
0:05:19 > 0:05:21And he has some sort of reason that he had to go.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23He couldn't tell anybody but he had to go.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27Losing Cullie, I mean, couldn't have been more momentous.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31The effect for the family was huge, and their life became very insecure
0:05:31 > 0:05:33financially and in every other way.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36When Davey was about 16, the family came to England.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43I think as he grew up it was almost taken for granted that he'd follow
0:05:43 > 0:05:45in his father's footsteps and be a journalist.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50I came to England, hoping that within six months
0:05:50 > 0:05:54I would be the top of the pile on Fleet Street and have my own by-line
0:05:54 > 0:05:57and would be the great reporter.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02But the gentlemen who sit at the editorials table
0:06:02 > 0:06:05didn't quite agree with me so I went to Butlins.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08# Butlins, Butlins
0:06:08 > 0:06:10# Butlins by the sea
0:06:10 > 0:06:14# There's a holiday that's full of fun for Mum and Dad and everyone
0:06:14 > 0:06:16# At Butlins by the sea. #
0:06:16 > 0:06:19I got a job as a Butlins Red Coat for the summer.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21# See a show if you want to. #
0:06:21 > 0:06:24The Red Coats used to put a show on themselves.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26Kind of a review type thing.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28# At Butlins by the sea. #
0:06:28 > 0:06:32They stole bits here and sketches there and odd songs
0:06:32 > 0:06:35and we wrote a little song and things like that.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38And I was in it. I was in some of the sketches.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42And one night I ran on stage to get into this sketch and I caught
0:06:42 > 0:06:47my arm in the tab or the curtain pull, the rope on the side
0:06:47 > 0:06:50which pulls the rope without knowing it and I ran straight on stage
0:06:50 > 0:06:55and this thing came to an end and just threw me right up in the air.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58I mean, I did a total flip and landed on my face
0:06:58 > 0:07:03and the audience laughed for two minutes solid and everybody on stage
0:07:03 > 0:07:07laughed for two minutes and everyone backstage laughed for two minutes.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10And I didn't feel any pain because of the laughter,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13but once the laughter was over I felt enormous pain,
0:07:13 > 0:07:15and people were saying to me, "You've got to keep that in"
0:07:15 > 0:07:18and week after week I would try and do it and it never worked.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24Then they gave me a kind of five or six minutes spot on the Red Coat Show
0:07:24 > 0:07:27and that was really where it developed.
0:07:29 > 0:07:34I suppose there was a kind of dormant fool lying in me,
0:07:34 > 0:07:38and then when the summer season came to an end I decided that
0:07:38 > 0:07:43I would go to working men's clubs which they have in England
0:07:43 > 0:07:47and try and earn a living at it
0:07:47 > 0:07:50and I starved for about two years but I was learning.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07My surname is Tynan O'Mahony and I'd arrive at places
0:08:07 > 0:08:11and it would be Dave O'Malley or Maloney.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14I, by then, had an agent, Richard Stone,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17and I was sitting looking at his list of clients
0:08:17 > 0:08:20and there was nobody with an A so I thought, well, if I had
0:08:20 > 0:08:23a surname beginning with A I'd be top of the list.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28So I changed my name to Allen, so I'm stuck with it now.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30# Walking back to happiness
0:08:30 > 0:08:32# Whoop-ah, oh, yeah-yeah
0:08:32 > 0:08:34# Said goodbye to loneliness
0:08:34 > 0:08:37# Whoop-ah, oh, yeah-yeah
0:08:37 > 0:08:40# I never knew I'd miss you. #
0:08:40 > 0:08:42He had a real affinity with the Beatles.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44Coming from Liverpool,
0:08:44 > 0:08:48they had an affinity with Irish culture and Irish wit anyway,
0:08:48 > 0:08:50and so there was a natural connection.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52That was an amazing experience
0:08:52 > 0:08:55and it drew him into the pop culture of the 1960s.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02I worked with Sophie Tucker in South Africa.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10I meet this amazing woman. She was absolutely extraordinary...
0:09:10 > 0:09:13# I'm the last of the red-hot mamas. #
0:09:13 > 0:09:17..and she advised me to go to Australia.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20Without me knowing, she wrote to the agent in Australia and said,
0:09:20 > 0:09:25"I've seen a young comic and I think he's quite good and if you ever have
0:09:25 > 0:09:28"a chance to offer some work give him a chance. I think he's worth it."
0:09:32 > 0:09:35He's just completed a tour with Sophie Tucker
0:09:35 > 0:09:36and he's a very funny man.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38Welcome, Dave Allen!
0:09:38 > 0:09:40APPLAUSE
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Thank you very much. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49Morning, chaps.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52LAUGHTER
0:09:55 > 0:09:59Some of us are going to lose limbs, some of us are going to lose life
0:09:59 > 0:10:02but I am not afraid.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05One of the soldiers stepped out and he said, "Why is that, sir?"
0:10:05 > 0:10:06He said, "I'm not going."
0:10:10 > 0:10:13Stop, stop, don't.
0:10:13 > 0:10:14Don't stop.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18'The company or A television company offered me
0:10:18 > 0:10:21'a pilot show for a chat show.'
0:10:23 > 0:10:27Ladies and gentlemen, how about a great big warm welcome, please, for Miss Rose Takali.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30'And they wanted to do a kind of Tonight type show
0:10:30 > 0:10:33'like a Jack Paar American-type chat show.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38'They gave me a pilot and it took off.'
0:10:38 > 0:10:41Is there any story behind the missing finger?
0:10:41 > 0:10:43Oh, yes!
0:10:43 > 0:10:46- There is a little.- Shouldn't put your fingers where they oughtn't to be.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48'It had an open end so it meant that
0:10:48 > 0:10:51'if it was going well at 90 minutes, you didn't chop into it,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54'you finished maybe 10 or 15 minutes longer
0:10:54 > 0:11:01'but it was, it was great because it was live and you had to learn quickly.'
0:11:01 > 0:11:04He was an iconoclast, and he was an individual,
0:11:04 > 0:11:06and he had his own view of the world.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08The Australians are iconoclastic,
0:11:08 > 0:11:10they don't take rules from anybody very much
0:11:10 > 0:11:14and so Dave, of course, of all things, they loved him.
0:11:14 > 0:11:15Where were you born?
0:11:15 > 0:11:16- In Ireland.- Whereabouts in Ireland?
0:11:16 > 0:11:18A little place called Dublin.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21What colour pyjamas do you wear?
0:11:21 > 0:11:23None.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25Oh, I don't know!
0:11:27 > 0:11:29'There was always games going on,
0:11:32 > 0:11:34'the crew had a rubber python
0:11:34 > 0:11:37'and suddenly this thing comes from nowhere.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41'A four-letter word came out, everything,
0:11:41 > 0:11:43'it's as close as I ever came to shitting myself.'
0:11:48 > 0:11:50I went to Australia
0:11:50 > 0:11:53and we played, we played all the theatres
0:11:53 > 0:11:55that Dave had played
0:11:55 > 0:11:57and I used to say rather garishly
0:11:57 > 0:11:59he's a great friend of mine, you know.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01Well, then they all went raving mad.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03I didn't know what he was,
0:12:03 > 0:12:06who he was or why there was... I was only six.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29My first memory of him was
0:12:29 > 0:12:31seeing both my mother who I adored...
0:12:33 > 0:12:36..and David embracing
0:12:36 > 0:12:39and seeing my mother happy for the first time in a couple of years.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44For as long as he was there making my mother happy I was happy.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46Looking back it was obvious
0:12:46 > 0:12:50that they were a sort of mini Airfix golden couple.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56He books into a hotel, comes down to see the desk clerk.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59He said, "I'd like to change my room" and the fella said, "Why?"
0:12:59 > 0:13:02He said, "I don't like it." He said, "Well what's wrong with it?"
0:13:02 > 0:13:03He said, "It's on fire."
0:13:06 > 0:13:07Thank you.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17'The BBC offered me a series with Val Doonican as a resident comedian,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19'which was exactly what I needed.'
0:13:19 > 0:13:22And I remember as a kid watching him on the Val Doonican show.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25He had about five minutes a week and he made an instant impact,
0:13:25 > 0:13:27people talking about him because he wasn't like anything else.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30If it wasn't for the fact that you wear different clothes
0:13:30 > 0:13:33and you are obviously about ten years older I would have...
0:13:33 > 0:13:35I would have sworn you were Dave Allen.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37Now, you're not, you're not related to him in any way are you?
0:13:37 > 0:13:39No. No not at all.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47'I would say that would be the break in English television for me.'
0:14:05 > 0:14:09# Tiptoe through the window
0:14:09 > 0:14:11# By the window... #
0:14:11 > 0:14:12Mr Henry Cooper.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23All the way around!
0:14:25 > 0:14:27And they pay you money for that?
0:14:33 > 0:14:35They say that the only way to get out of a car under water
0:14:35 > 0:14:38is to allow the pressure on the inside of the car
0:14:38 > 0:14:40to be exactly the same as the outside, is that right?
0:14:40 > 0:14:42That's absolutely true, yes.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46'The car thing was actually quite an interesting piece of television,
0:14:46 > 0:14:48'it was experimentation,
0:14:48 > 0:14:50'it was live television,
0:14:50 > 0:14:52'it was necessary to do things like that.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56'So we got a big tank, we got a glass tank,
0:14:56 > 0:14:57'we got underwater cameras
0:14:57 > 0:15:00'but we couldn't get a cameraman so we had to strap them in the back
0:15:00 > 0:15:04'and we dropped this car into the tank.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11'And we had two air tanks just in case something happened
0:15:11 > 0:15:12'so we could breathe.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21'And the car is filling up with water and I tapped one of the tanks
0:15:21 > 0:15:23'and one went "bong"
0:15:23 > 0:15:25'and the other one went "bing"!
0:15:25 > 0:15:27'They'd only put one full tank in
0:15:27 > 0:15:31and I thought, "Jesus, if this goes wrong you're going to see the real underwater fight."'
0:15:34 > 0:15:37OK, there's quite a bit of water coming in now.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43OK, I think we'll start to see them get out in just a few moments.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01'I got quite a lot of letters
0:16:01 > 0:16:03'and I still keep in touch with somebody in Glasgow.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07'They'd taken their son to Ayr one day and they'd parked on the harbour
0:16:07 > 0:16:10'and they'd gone out to get an ice cream
0:16:10 > 0:16:13'and they turned around, the car had gone into the harbour
0:16:13 > 0:16:16'and there were people diving in left right and centre
0:16:16 > 0:16:18'and suddenly the kid popped up and they said, you know,
0:16:18 > 0:16:20' "How did you manage to do that?
0:16:20 > 0:16:23'And he said, "I've seen Dave Allen do it." '
0:16:23 > 0:16:25Well, ladies and gentlemen, that does complete the show,
0:16:25 > 0:16:27I hope you have learned something tonight,
0:16:27 > 0:16:31I don't mean that you're all going to go driving off and go into a river
0:16:31 > 0:16:33but if you do ever, by chance, go into a river
0:16:33 > 0:16:36allow the car to fill up with water
0:16:36 > 0:16:38and stay there for a long time.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41Goodnight and may God be with you.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01There was Morecambe and Wise, there was The Two Ronnies.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03And they were the big vehicles, I suppose, at the time.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06The Morecambe and Wise shows, The Two Ronnies shows,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10they were sort of quite traditional entertainment structured shows.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14But Dave Allen at Large was a little bit different.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16Because of the nature of his comedy
0:17:16 > 0:17:19you had to construct a different shape of show.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23There was a special thing, "Dave Allen's on tonight",
0:17:23 > 0:17:27"Dave Allen, oh, I love Dave Allen", "Oh, Dave Allen's on tonight."
0:17:27 > 0:17:28He just sat there.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33Attractive, beautifully Irish,
0:17:33 > 0:17:34and told the most outrageous jokes.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38Two Irish fellas open a bar and nobody ever comes in.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42Nobody comes in to drink
0:17:42 > 0:17:44and one says, "I think we'll open a brothel."
0:17:45 > 0:17:48He said, "Ah, that'll be no good, if you can't get them to drink beer
0:17:48 > 0:17:50"how the hell are we going to get them to drink broth?"
0:17:50 > 0:17:52You enjoyed seeing how much your parents enjoyed it
0:17:52 > 0:17:54because as a kid you didn't understand a lot of it,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58you wouldn't get the bits your parents were howling with laughter about.
0:17:58 > 0:17:59You'd say, "What's funny about that?"
0:17:59 > 0:18:01They said, "I'll tell you when you're older."
0:18:01 > 0:18:04I'd sit there laughing, my English dad would sit there laughing
0:18:04 > 0:18:06and my Irish mum was crossing herself furiously.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14It would start with the gentle slow one at the start
0:18:14 > 0:18:17but by the end it was like you could power small farms
0:18:17 > 0:18:20with the energy created by my mum crossing herself.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26I think Dave Allen at Large was a fairly simple format really,
0:18:26 > 0:18:29it was about half Dave chatting and half sketches
0:18:29 > 0:18:32and I think that was the basic idea
0:18:32 > 0:18:37and the linking of the sketches was very sketchy.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40Oh, for God's sake, don't do it!
0:18:40 > 0:18:43ORGAN MUSIC PLAYS
0:18:54 > 0:18:57I think when you are a kid you used to enjoy the stupidness
0:18:57 > 0:18:59of his sketches and bits of comedy, the slapstickness.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01Have you got a last request?
0:19:04 > 0:19:07Si, I see I would like my brother to go,
0:19:07 > 0:19:09he had nothing to do with the crime.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Oh, I believe you. He may go then.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18He had this obsession with Mexican firing squads for some reason.
0:19:18 > 0:19:19Fire!
0:19:23 > 0:19:26One of Dave's classic jokes, I think,
0:19:26 > 0:19:28was he was going to be shot at dawn.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32You are entitled to one last request.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36And of course we all know what it's going to be, he asks for the girl.
0:19:38 > 0:19:39Caramba!
0:19:41 > 0:19:42The rest of the soldiers
0:19:42 > 0:19:45are smoking a cigarette, looking, eating.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50Then you get dusk, you get nightfall
0:19:50 > 0:19:55and suddenly then you get, you know, early in the morning sun rising
0:19:55 > 0:19:57and they're all tired, they wake up,
0:19:57 > 0:20:02and of course eventually the officer goes up and bangs on the bunker door.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04Senora?
0:20:07 > 0:20:09You're too late.
0:20:09 > 0:20:10He's dead.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14It was very simple joke and I wish I'd written it.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19'A lot of gags, sketch gags can come from observation,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22'I did a sketch gag of a street cleaner
0:20:22 > 0:20:24sweeping up and I was watching
0:20:24 > 0:20:26when I was sitting again in a traffic jam
0:20:26 > 0:20:28and watching this man sweeping the streets
0:20:28 > 0:20:30and he came to the edge of the kerb
0:20:30 > 0:20:33and I really wanted him, in my own mind physically,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36I wanted him to bend down and pick up the edge of the kerb
0:20:36 > 0:20:39and sweep the dirt underneath.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Most of his notes were written on the back of disused envelopes,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46dry cleaning bills, and receipts.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49And you'd pick up a piece of paper and it would say
0:20:49 > 0:20:53"hypnotised chickens"
0:20:53 > 0:20:56or "nuns farting next to lilies"
0:20:56 > 0:20:57and that would turn into
0:20:57 > 0:21:00some material typed up on PV's manual typewriter.
0:21:00 > 0:21:01Spies again?
0:21:03 > 0:21:04He had an enormous
0:21:04 > 0:21:06number of writers sending in material
0:21:06 > 0:21:12and I was editing and so we were filming quickies all over the place.
0:21:12 > 0:21:135, 4, 3, take 1.
0:21:15 > 0:21:16Try it again.
0:21:26 > 0:21:27520, take 2.
0:21:27 > 0:21:28Action!
0:21:28 > 0:21:30Your Majesty!
0:21:32 > 0:21:35The original team that started was
0:21:35 > 0:21:39Ronnie Brody, Michael Sharvell-Martin,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42Ian Burford and myself and we were the four.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44327 take 2.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46What game do these knights play, Merlin?
0:21:46 > 0:21:49'Tis said he who... "He who?!" I'm sorry!
0:21:50 > 0:21:53'Tis said that he who draws..
0:21:53 > 0:21:56'Tis said that he who draws the stop...
0:21:57 > 0:22:01I did nuns, I did sleeping beauty I was always old ladies,
0:22:01 > 0:22:03and one of the very first sketches I did
0:22:03 > 0:22:07he was standing there, natch, as a priest! The whole idea was
0:22:07 > 0:22:09that the flames of Satan came
0:22:09 > 0:22:12spewing out from the grave at a vast rate.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17Well, it didn't work on the first take so some prop boy went off,
0:22:17 > 0:22:22came back and went into the grave hole
0:22:22 > 0:22:26and we all... OK, get ready, take two.
0:22:34 > 0:22:35The prop boy threw a match
0:22:35 > 0:22:39into the grave.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47He'd filled it with petrol.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49All I can say is I then saw a Mr Allen
0:22:49 > 0:22:55with singed eyebrows, singed hair, luckily he kept his face.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01The gags, they had to have a flavour of realism.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04You know, from a designer's point of view that's what made it really interesting.
0:23:04 > 0:23:09You couldn't just cod up a church, because it didn't work with Dave.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14One day we built Stonehenge
0:23:14 > 0:23:16and it was very nearly full sized.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18I mean, it was absolutely enormous.
0:23:18 > 0:23:20And it was all made of polystyrene.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34The sketches were fun but actually, for me,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38the monologues were the iconic moments.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42And I walked into a pub the other day where a dog had done something.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45And I stood on it and skidded right across the room, boom!
0:23:49 > 0:23:52Nearly broke my head on the wall.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54I get my booze and I'm sitting in the corner
0:23:54 > 0:23:56and a fella comes in and he does exactly what I did,
0:23:56 > 0:23:58he went phew, schoom! Straight into the wall.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01And I ran over and picked him up and said, "I just did that, he nearly murdered me!"
0:24:01 > 0:24:05When we first started he actually had the script in front of him
0:24:05 > 0:24:08and you could see him looking down which wasn't very good.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12And later on we had the script or the ideas for the script
0:24:12 > 0:24:13on idiot cards.
0:24:13 > 0:24:18We sat in the front row with these big boards in front of our knees.
0:24:18 > 0:24:23The way Dave remembered paragraphs or pages or material was very often
0:24:23 > 0:24:29by a single phrase and some of these single phrases were outrageous!
0:24:29 > 0:24:32There is a really intriguing thing about Dave Allen
0:24:32 > 0:24:34when he talks to the audience, he's brilliant,
0:24:34 > 0:24:39he's very much a bar room raconteur in some ways.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42And we were in a bar and we'd had a couple of drinks
0:24:42 > 0:24:47and somebody started to talk about the unknown, the spirit world.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51And he had a way of going sideways at jokes,
0:24:51 > 0:24:53it was never sort of full on.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55It was that I accepted a dare or a bet
0:24:55 > 0:24:58that I would stay the night in the cottage beside the graveyard.
0:24:58 > 0:24:59He sat down, he was relaxed,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02he'd have his arm on this little table,
0:25:02 > 0:25:04he'd pause and have a whiskey,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08blow on his fag, and he'd just talk down the lens at you.
0:25:08 > 0:25:12And I felt something on my chest beginning to move.
0:25:14 > 0:25:19It crept slowly up my chest.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22It came closer, nearer,
0:25:22 > 0:25:24and I grabbed it,
0:25:24 > 0:25:27and it was wet and cold and I bit it.
0:25:27 > 0:25:28Aargh, screamed with pain!
0:25:28 > 0:25:30And that is how I lost my finger.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38And now for all the people who had nothing to complain about
0:25:38 > 0:25:41in last week's show
0:25:41 > 0:25:44get your pens out because it's complaint time.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55I wish to protest most strongly about The Dave Allen Show,
0:25:55 > 0:25:57last night's show was disgraceful.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05The sight of Dave Allen getting cheap laughs to his mixture
0:26:05 > 0:26:08of smut and profanity is to say the least nauseating.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12I think they got it wrong, the Church is dangerous and the politicians,
0:26:12 > 0:26:14he was just showing you how ridiculous they were.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20How the BBC censors could allow such blasphemous rubbish
0:26:20 > 0:26:24to be shown at Easter time or any other time is beyond my comprehension.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27I think it's a very difficult thing, censorship,
0:26:27 > 0:26:31because what you are doing is you are putting your code
0:26:31 > 0:26:34on millions of viewers which is a very difficult thing to do
0:26:34 > 0:26:37and with the BBC, they've been very good to me.
0:26:37 > 0:26:38I mean, I do get away with a lot of things
0:26:38 > 0:26:43that other comedians wouldn't even attempt,
0:26:44 > 0:26:45but that is me.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49And if I'm... If they put reins on me it's not me,
0:26:49 > 0:26:52it would be a shadow of what I am.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56Dave Allen was far more subversive
0:26:56 > 0:27:00than just about any other comic on TV.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04He did a sketch about apartheid.
0:27:04 > 0:27:05Hey, you boy.
0:27:05 > 0:27:06Yes, sir.
0:27:06 > 0:27:07What are you doing in this church?
0:27:07 > 0:27:09You know blacks are not allowed in this church?
0:27:09 > 0:27:12Oh, yes, Father, but I am cleaning the floor.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14Ah, cleaning the floor, eh?
0:27:14 > 0:27:16Good, but don't let me catch you praying.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18I remember turning to my dad and saying what's that about
0:27:18 > 0:27:22and my dad explained apartheid to me on the back of a Dave Allen sketch.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25He had a huge sort of personal integrity
0:27:25 > 0:27:27about what he wanted to say.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30I even had a telegram from Rome.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33From the boss himself!
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Hey, what's the matter, David baby?
0:27:39 > 0:27:42I could understand why he was considered dangerous by the Catholic Church,
0:27:42 > 0:27:46why he wasn't popular in Ireland because of it.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50Ireland in the '60s and '70s was a very deeply conservative country,
0:27:50 > 0:27:53in any rural Irish village, the priest is pretty much
0:27:53 > 0:27:55the most important person in there.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57The usual, Father.
0:27:57 > 0:27:58God bless you.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01The sketches, they were just silly,
0:28:01 > 0:28:03but they undermine the authority of priests.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11If somebody is saying I am going to blow you up,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14you don't kind of take too many chances about it.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16Was it because of your gags?
0:28:16 > 0:28:17Yes, I think so, I suppose so.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20What type of gag would they have objected to?
0:28:20 > 0:28:21Most of them.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24Dave said what he wanted to say,
0:28:24 > 0:28:26he was an adult, he was a professional,
0:28:26 > 0:28:27he worked out a way to say it,
0:28:27 > 0:28:31but you didn't get very far saying to David, I don't think we should do a joke about the Pope.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49The concept at that time of the Pope in anything less than
0:28:49 > 0:28:5315 layers of linen stuff and a gold thing over the top,
0:28:53 > 0:28:55that's how you saw the Pope,
0:28:55 > 0:28:57and suddenly you could see his naked leg.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05It was shocking, I mean it genuinely was shocking.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08It upset people.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10I mean teachers at school would tell us off for watching it
0:29:10 > 0:29:12and my mum was horrified by it.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15And she would sit there telling me and my dad
0:29:15 > 0:29:18that we would go to hell for laughing.
0:29:23 > 0:29:25How do you become Jewish quickly?
0:29:25 > 0:29:27Some people think Davey was anti-religion
0:29:27 > 0:29:31and actually he wasn't, he had huge respect for religions,
0:29:31 > 0:29:33but what he didn't like was being told what to think,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36he didn't like brain washing,
0:29:36 > 0:29:42and he didn't like a sort of prescribed guilt.
0:29:42 > 0:29:44Goodnight and may your God go with you.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49With my family and my children,
0:29:49 > 0:29:52I mean they know that I have something to do with show business
0:29:52 > 0:29:55but they're not all that sure what I do,
0:29:55 > 0:29:57except that I'm not a real daddy,
0:29:57 > 0:29:59because real daddies go to work on trains.
0:30:01 > 0:30:06You know, certainly when I was young I didn't really know who he was anyway but you just wouldn't.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09You know we weren't allowed to watch that when we were little.
0:30:09 > 0:30:11Too rude, Mummy said.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13I think I really wanted to be like him.
0:30:13 > 0:30:15I do remember being out with him sometimes
0:30:15 > 0:30:18and people would say, you know, "Hi, Dave" and I'd be going,
0:30:18 > 0:30:22"No, he's my daddy" you know, not kind of getting that, I don't want to share him, you know.
0:30:22 > 0:30:24When he started out I was a bit young,
0:30:24 > 0:30:28I was probably five or six when he started doing Dave Allen at Large
0:30:28 > 0:30:29so I got friends of mine
0:30:29 > 0:30:33who are kind of a bit older and they are like five years older than me
0:30:33 > 0:30:38and they said to me, "Ed, you don't know, like, there would be no-one on the streets.
0:30:38 > 0:30:40"Everyone would be watching your dad."
0:30:41 > 0:30:44They said, "You don't get it."
0:30:44 > 0:30:47We had a house in Devon, it was set in a valley
0:30:47 > 0:30:50with a stream going through it and all of us adored it.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52Lots of people would come and join us, cousins
0:30:52 > 0:30:54and, like, friends of my big brothers from school,
0:30:54 > 0:30:59it was a house full of people, people that were all, you know, quite close which was lovely.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02It would always be like loads of children down there
0:31:02 > 0:31:05and all the adults chip in and have a laugh like kids as well.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12The children loved it, they just, they just loved him.
0:31:12 > 0:31:14He was like, he'd be like the Pied Piper
0:31:14 > 0:31:17and they'd all sort of trail after him.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20Well, he found them fascinating and funny
0:31:20 > 0:31:25and he kind of discussed things very seriously with them,
0:31:25 > 0:31:28they had great respect for him.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30Jane and Ed and Toby and I, you know,
0:31:30 > 0:31:33we kind of all of us grew up together, we were all the same age.
0:31:33 > 0:31:37My memories of Dave were usually very scruffy.
0:31:37 > 0:31:43The person I remember had absolutely nothing to do with the persona of the man sitting in the chair
0:31:43 > 0:31:45with the cigarette and the drink.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47Completely different.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49I mean, the cigarette and the drink were there
0:31:49 > 0:31:53but where he got the suits from I certainly never saw them.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57It gives me great pleasure tonight...
0:31:57 > 0:32:02..to present to you ladies and gentlemen...
0:32:03 > 0:32:07..the curse of the werewolf.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11We used to turn the lights off and he used to just have a candle going
0:32:11 > 0:32:15and he would spend half an hour telling a ghost story.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18It was just another excuse for him to put the crappers up us
0:32:18 > 0:32:21because it was usually something around a fire
0:32:21 > 0:32:23and it was usually terrifying
0:32:23 > 0:32:26and my brother, Toby, being absolutely kind of, you know...
0:32:26 > 0:32:30"Ah, yes, and then, you know, they came and they ate the child"
0:32:30 > 0:32:32and my poor brother going, "Oh, my God!"
0:32:32 > 0:32:37Just this mass of sort of kids in like one bunk bed, frightened,
0:32:37 > 0:32:39jumping at every kind of creek in the house.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47All through the time, he was known as a comedian
0:32:47 > 0:32:49performing on BBC, he made these documentary shows.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52Without a doubt in my mind
0:32:52 > 0:32:56the most enchanting place that I have ever been.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58They came seeking the great American dream,
0:32:58 > 0:33:03equality, tolerance, religious freedom, money.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08- Hi, nice to meet you, my name is Dave Allen.- Oh.
0:33:08 > 0:33:10I think people are marvellous,
0:33:10 > 0:33:13I would probably draw the line with politicians,
0:33:13 > 0:33:14I don't consider them as people,
0:33:14 > 0:33:19but in general, I mean, I am very fond of people.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21Anyone usually fighting against each other,
0:33:21 > 0:33:24I mean, right here in Williamsburg we can all live together.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27Eccentricity is in the air we breathe,
0:33:27 > 0:33:29it's part of the English tradition,
0:33:29 > 0:33:31it's been that way for so long
0:33:31 > 0:33:35we've created a special sanctuary for eccentrics.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39Dave had spoken to Lew Grade, of fond memory,
0:33:39 > 0:33:43about doing what he called a more serious programme.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51It all began with a one-hour documentary
0:33:51 > 0:33:53in search of the great English eccentric.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57For ten years it was the highest rated documentary
0:33:57 > 0:33:59on British television.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03I've had a bit of a job finding you, I didn't realise you lived in a little house like this.
0:34:03 > 0:34:04Yes, try to live here.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07How long have you been living in here?
0:34:07 > 0:34:09Well, I should imagine 25 years.
0:34:09 > 0:34:12It's not a very big bed. I mean, how do you lie down there?
0:34:12 > 0:34:14Oh, I can't really lay down,
0:34:14 > 0:34:16I put on an extension for the feet as you see.
0:34:16 > 0:34:18- Can I see then?- Yes.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22- And you put your feet in there, do you?- Yes.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25The first rule we made was that we weren't going to put
0:34:25 > 0:34:27mad people on television.
0:34:27 > 0:34:32Now that immediately created the world's most difficult defining line.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38Bring your mice to Snowy, all bring your mice to Snowy one at a time.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40What we learnt eccentricity was, was passion.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43That's nice, isn't it?
0:34:43 > 0:34:46And to live your life as you saw it
0:34:46 > 0:34:51with complete commitment and complete attention to detail
0:34:51 > 0:34:55but not giving a hell as to what other people thought.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57Snowy, tell me, how do you live?
0:34:57 > 0:35:01I live off my land, yes, I've got two pieces of allotment, you see.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04I grow potatoes and also greens, most of them,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07January King which are very nice and Brussels and carrots,
0:35:07 > 0:35:09whichever the case, so I live off my land, you see.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11That's all you eat.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14That's all I eat, I eat like a rabbit, you see, vegetables, you see,
0:35:14 > 0:35:16and I don't drink nothing no stronger than water.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19He loved eccentricity, he was an eccentric himself, really,
0:35:19 > 0:35:23and he loved slightly mad people and he loved stories.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26If somebody could tell him a story or somebody could show him something crazy,
0:35:26 > 0:35:30you know, if a man could suck a ha'penny up his nose Dave would be there watching him, that was Dave.
0:35:32 > 0:35:33That's handed over to me now,
0:35:33 > 0:35:37- is there any kind of words said or anything?- No.
0:35:38 > 0:35:40Dave never ever giggled.
0:35:40 > 0:35:45I mean, he really just thought, you know, how can you... how happy all these people were.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50He was capable of suspending judgement entirely.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52In fact even that is not quite the right phrase
0:35:52 > 0:35:57because he wasn't suspending it, it was as if he had no judgemental thing.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02This block here is white, Hispanics, the Negro,
0:36:02 > 0:36:04and everybody is together,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06but you go up the next block and you've got just Jews.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09You don't see nobody else up there, just Jewish people.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12They own practically everything around here
0:36:12 > 0:36:15and they got us as workers and they don't want to pay us nothing, you know.
0:36:15 > 0:36:20In America we, there was an entirely different breed of people
0:36:20 > 0:36:21that we found.
0:36:21 > 0:36:27Half of them were showmen, which is a characteristic I am sure is built into a load of Americans,
0:36:27 > 0:36:30The other half were demonstrating something.
0:36:30 > 0:36:36We are out to show that Jewish rights are no less than those of other people.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40And that the Jew is not the easy market certain people think it is.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44We are tired of having to be the victims.
0:36:44 > 0:36:47What you are actually teaching here is a kind of form of militancy.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49Yes, yes.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52But if you teach this here surely other groups,
0:36:52 > 0:36:54say anti-Semitic groups, are going to teach it as well.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57Unless this force stands up now and says that's it...
0:37:00 > 0:37:04..then what happens in Germany will happen here.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06I think the heartbeat of Dave Allen
0:37:06 > 0:37:10was really curiosity, that he always asked the question why.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14It was just going out and finding people
0:37:14 > 0:37:16and spending time with them and talking to them
0:37:16 > 0:37:17and showing them as they were.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22In his reporting one of the things that stands out was the fact that
0:37:22 > 0:37:24he approached it almost like he was by your side
0:37:24 > 0:37:27rather than standing above you telling you things,
0:37:27 > 0:37:31that he made you a fellow observer and that was something
0:37:31 > 0:37:36that made his work so intimate and so engaging and so real.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40He again really pioneered a way of doing documentaries that went on
0:37:40 > 0:37:43to inspire the likes of Louis Theroux and many other people.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46'At Speakers Corner in London
0:37:46 > 0:37:47'anyone can stand up
0:37:47 > 0:37:50'and say exactly what they like.'
0:37:50 > 0:37:53A minister has to mind his Ps and Qs,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56well, I am the world's greatest dictator.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00Great Britain is the most beautiful country in the world.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04There is only one thing wrong with it, the English.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10There are days obviously that people, you don't want people,
0:38:10 > 0:38:14but there are days that you adore the world,
0:38:14 > 0:38:18you love people to a great extent.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23I think people are people.
0:38:23 > 0:38:24I am a people person. I'm people
0:38:24 > 0:38:29and I would hope that I would treat people
0:38:29 > 0:38:31as they in turn would treat me.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33I know this sounds a bit farfetched
0:38:33 > 0:38:35but my feeling was that Dave
0:38:35 > 0:38:38was looking for the meaning of life.
0:38:38 > 0:38:39You have a philosophy in life.
0:38:39 > 0:38:44Well, I don't, I don't call it philosophy, you know, there is too much of a loss in that,
0:38:44 > 0:38:46I like to be on the gaining side of things.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48No matter how weird they were
0:38:48 > 0:38:53there was something that he was learning from people in that way.
0:38:58 > 0:39:00I recently became legitimate.
0:39:04 > 0:39:06You've got filthy minds!
0:39:06 > 0:39:10By that I mean I became a straight actor.
0:39:10 > 0:39:11As far back as late November
0:39:11 > 0:39:14I played a part of a straight actor in a straight play.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17It was a very important part of his persona,
0:39:17 > 0:39:21he was an artist and he saw what he did as one branch of being an artist
0:39:21 > 0:39:24and so when he was offered the opportunity to play some
0:39:24 > 0:39:26pretty substantial roles
0:39:26 > 0:39:28he jumped at it and he was very good in them.
0:39:28 > 0:39:29Who's the father?
0:39:29 > 0:39:31- Fathers.- You shut up.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34'I remember going to see him
0:39:34 > 0:39:36'in the Edna O'Brien play at Royal Court Theatre.'
0:39:36 > 0:39:38I wouldn't mind a chaser.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41'I knew that he had been offered'
0:39:41 > 0:39:42the lead role in it.
0:39:42 > 0:39:44To which he had refused
0:39:44 > 0:39:47because he had never actually done much straight theatre
0:39:47 > 0:39:51and he took a part, which was the part of a doctor, it was a wonderful performance.
0:39:51 > 0:39:56Doctor, can I have a word with you in private?
0:39:56 > 0:39:58Look all the private shite is over,
0:39:58 > 0:40:00it's now in the public domain.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03I suggest we set out in the morning,
0:40:03 > 0:40:08yourself the boss, your mother and me, and find your Romeo.
0:40:09 > 0:40:10There was a few punch-ups
0:40:10 > 0:40:13outside the theatre when the show was on you know.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16He enjoyed championing events and being involved in them
0:40:16 > 0:40:19if they were going to challenge people's conceptions
0:40:19 > 0:40:22and also challenge the authority and the establishment.
0:40:22 > 0:40:24Is that your homemade blackberry wine?
0:40:24 > 0:40:26It is.
0:40:26 > 0:40:28Do you have any gin, any dry Satin Gin?
0:40:28 > 0:40:32I think he appreciated the art of performance
0:40:32 > 0:40:37and that made him, for me, someone special.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44Dave always wanted to stretch himself as an actor
0:40:44 > 0:40:50and he really admired playwrights like Alan Bennett
0:40:50 > 0:40:52and so when One Fine Day came along as a project
0:40:52 > 0:40:54he was very keen to do it.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58He's threatening to take me to a topless steak house.
0:41:03 > 0:41:04Cheer up.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09I always got the impression he was quite choosy,
0:41:09 > 0:41:15and, you know, it was, you know, good for us that he picked us up,
0:41:15 > 0:41:16that he agreed to do it.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20How is your good lady?
0:41:20 > 0:41:23How is the carpentry? Has she put up any more shelves?
0:41:25 > 0:41:28No, I think we're well catered for in the shelf department.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30She's a remarkable woman.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33She's in Colchester for a few days looking after her father.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37Colchester, really? I once had a Chinese meal there.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40It was comic so you wanted someone with a sense of humour
0:41:40 > 0:41:43and you wanted someone who was thoughtful, you know,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47where there was more going on inside behind his eyes, inside his brain.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49So you are playing somebody who was thinking a lot.
0:41:49 > 0:41:51Well, Dave never stopped thinking, you know,
0:41:51 > 0:41:55if you are a stand-up comic I guess that's what you do.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59It was untypical of Alan's writing, normally Alan wrote about these
0:41:59 > 0:42:01northern comic characters
0:42:01 > 0:42:03like Thora Herd and Patricia Routledge,
0:42:03 > 0:42:08and this was a much more sort of impressionistic piece.
0:42:08 > 0:42:09HE WHISTLE
0:42:09 > 0:42:11He could hold the camera,
0:42:11 > 0:42:15if you'd start a shot he could keep it interesting, that's what movie stars...
0:42:15 > 0:42:17You start watching them and then you follow them
0:42:17 > 0:42:21and there's no need to cut the camera because they're inherently interesting.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23You just believed in him, he was in front of you,
0:42:23 > 0:42:25you believed in him that was all you needed.
0:42:44 > 0:42:45My name's Richard Dangerous
0:42:45 > 0:42:47and this is Adrian Dangerous.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51People often say to me, "Alexei,
0:42:51 > 0:42:54"what is alternative new wave Marxist comedy?"
0:42:54 > 0:42:58And I say, "Sod off, you nosey bastard!"
0:42:58 > 0:43:01When alternative comedy came along
0:43:01 > 0:43:09Dave had a sufficient field of his own which they didn't impinge upon.
0:43:09 > 0:43:11He had the ethos of alternative comedy before we did
0:43:11 > 0:43:16in that comedy could be not only funny but challenging.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21Before alternative comedy he was a man who went out there and said,
0:43:21 > 0:43:25"I don't give a fuck about what they are saying. This is the truth, this is what I want to say, I'll say it."
0:43:32 > 0:43:34He did the Strand Theatre
0:43:34 > 0:43:37and on the first night it was who's who of the young comedians.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39They all turned up to see Dave.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43I know comics who would say that man inspired me to get up on stage,
0:43:43 > 0:43:47he was inspiring people like us to get up and to do it.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50I did a load of photographs in the dressing room
0:43:50 > 0:43:53cos at Fairfield Hall in Croydon, not many people see this, you know.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56The intimacy of the dressing room before he goes on stage
0:43:56 > 0:43:57and, you know, he's getting ready,
0:43:57 > 0:44:00and got DJ on and looking in the mirror,
0:44:00 > 0:44:04and he's very quiet, you know, not much talking,
0:44:04 > 0:44:06and just before he goes on stage
0:44:06 > 0:44:09he was standing in the doorway of his dressing room.
0:44:09 > 0:44:13Took a couple of shots and he's standing there with a glass of champagne
0:44:13 > 0:44:15just looking away from the camera.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18Very, you know, just the moment before he has a sip and then walks on.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24You're offering yourself up in a way.
0:44:24 > 0:44:28You're not actually placing your head down on a plate,
0:44:28 > 0:44:31but you're saying this is it, this is me,
0:44:31 > 0:44:34we're going to be here for the next two and a half hours.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37All of us, and we're either going to have a good time
0:44:37 > 0:44:39or we're going to have a rotten time.
0:44:39 > 0:44:41When Dave confronted a real live audience
0:44:41 > 0:44:44you could see the change that came over him,
0:44:44 > 0:44:47he sort of flowed out to the audience
0:44:47 > 0:44:50and, you know, he was a master of a situation.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54He commanded that hall, which was sometimes quite a big theatre, immediately.
0:44:54 > 0:45:00And you can feel the audience, a sort of wave of love coming back.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03There's a funny thing that goes on with that audience
0:45:03 > 0:45:07and that audience wants Dave to like them.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11I get tremendous pleasure from watching people
0:45:11 > 0:45:17physically bend forward and laugh and people wiping their eyes.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21I'm bubbling inside.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24I mean, there's the other side, I'm a performer,
0:45:24 > 0:45:27but inside I'm looking at something
0:45:27 > 0:45:29and I say, isn't that marvellous, look at her.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32She is, her mascara is running all over the place.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49Thank you. Thank you very much indeed.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53Thank you, good evening, and welcome to the show.
0:45:53 > 0:45:59As you can see this show has no music, no titles, no actors,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02no costumes, no sketches, let's be honest,
0:46:02 > 0:46:04it's cheap.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09There is something about him, which was eternally young.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11Even when he got into his 50s, 55, 60s,
0:46:11 > 0:46:13he was a vital comedian.
0:46:13 > 0:46:19And a great disappearing lavatory paper act, have you come across that?
0:46:19 > 0:46:21No adult when you go to the lavatory,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24you don't check to see that the paper is there, do you?
0:46:24 > 0:46:26He became much more observational.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29Maybe because he had said all he needed to say about the church,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32you know, there is only so much hypocrisy you can expose.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36The first time I saw him I was quite a bit older, you know, I was late teens.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39My daughter Jane, I would take her to school in the morning,
0:46:39 > 0:46:41not only would I take her to school in the morning
0:46:41 > 0:46:43but I'd take all her friends to school in the morning as well.
0:46:43 > 0:46:45He was talking about Jane,
0:46:45 > 0:46:47about being at school
0:46:47 > 0:46:50and talking all the time and being in the back of the car and...
0:46:50 > 0:46:52HE MUTTERS
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Verbal diarrhoea pouring in torrents...
0:46:57 > 0:46:59And finding that hilarious
0:46:59 > 0:47:03because I know that person and it's absolutely true.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05I drop them off, goodbye, Belinda, bye Jean,
0:47:05 > 0:47:07bye Alexander, bye Vanessa.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11Jane would go in to the house,
0:47:11 > 0:47:13I'd park the car, I'd go into the house and she's on the phone.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15Who are you talking to? Belinda.
0:47:15 > 0:47:17Belinda lives next door!
0:47:19 > 0:47:22He got a lot of laughs out of me, a lot of laughs you know.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Edward's friends are always ringing.
0:47:25 > 0:47:26I pick up the phone.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29GRUNTS
0:47:29 > 0:47:31He used to do an impression of me opening a fridge.
0:47:31 > 0:47:33I remember I went to watch the show with a great friend of mine
0:47:33 > 0:47:37who used to spend a lot of time around our house and he was pissing himself.
0:47:37 > 0:47:38I was sitting there going, "It's not me."
0:47:38 > 0:47:41He was like, "It's you, man, I promise you that's you."
0:47:41 > 0:47:43GRUNTS
0:47:44 > 0:47:45What?
0:47:45 > 0:47:48GRUNTS
0:47:48 > 0:47:53My son's name is Edward, maybe they call him Ed? I don't know?
0:47:53 > 0:47:54Maybe...
0:47:54 > 0:47:55GRUNTS
0:47:57 > 0:47:59Maybe he is saying,
0:47:59 > 0:48:01"Is Ed in?"
0:48:01 > 0:48:03You can't kind of ignore that teenage behaviour.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06I mean it's a great source of humour
0:48:06 > 0:48:11and also lots of people in the audience got it as well.
0:48:11 > 0:48:13Did you say, "Is Ed in?"
0:48:13 > 0:48:15GRUNTS
0:48:18 > 0:48:22No, you didn't say, "Is Ed in?" dickhead, you said...
0:48:22 > 0:48:24GRUNTS
0:48:24 > 0:48:26No, he's not.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29You wake to the clock.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33You go to work to the clock, you clock in to the clock.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36You clock out to the clock. You come home to the clock.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38You eat to the clock. You drink to the clock.
0:48:38 > 0:48:39You go to bed to the clock.
0:48:39 > 0:48:41You get up to the clock.
0:48:41 > 0:48:42You go back to work to the clock.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44You do that for 40 years of your life, you retire,
0:48:44 > 0:48:46what do they fucking give you?
0:48:46 > 0:48:47A clock!
0:48:50 > 0:48:52DIALLING TONE
0:48:52 > 0:48:55I would just like to basically say how utterly disgusted I was.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59Dave Allen had to ruin a very good show...
0:48:59 > 0:49:01Disgraceful, foul language,
0:49:01 > 0:49:05Oh he used the fuck word, you're damn right he used the fuck word.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07You take a very libertarian line on language.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10Yeah, I think it's necessary, language is language.
0:49:10 > 0:49:11I mean, language is just sounds,
0:49:11 > 0:49:14it's only what somebody says that's not a good sound
0:49:14 > 0:49:17or that's a bad sound or that's a rude sound, it's nothing,
0:49:17 > 0:49:21it's only emphasis, it's only erm,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26it's gut, I think.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29We were both rather surprised at the level of the controversy
0:49:29 > 0:49:31that happened after that show went out.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34Moir who is head of BBC's light entertainment group
0:49:34 > 0:49:38has, erm, sent us a statement and he says that,
0:49:38 > 0:49:42"Clearly we are sorry if we have given unnecessary offence".
0:49:42 > 0:49:46Unfortunately, although the BBC knew it was in the programme,
0:49:46 > 0:49:50when the questions were asked they didn't really feel able to support him,
0:49:50 > 0:49:52he felt disappointed by that,
0:49:52 > 0:49:57and, erm, perhaps a bit abandoned,
0:49:57 > 0:49:59and it took him a long time
0:49:59 > 0:50:02to feel that he wanted to go back on television after that incident.
0:50:02 > 0:50:06We were looking, you know noisy shows, big signings.
0:50:06 > 0:50:08And Dave hadn't worked for a time
0:50:08 > 0:50:11for the BBC, he hadn't worked for anybody. He'd stopped doing telly,
0:50:11 > 0:50:13and we had endless meetings at his house
0:50:13 > 0:50:18and I'm sure there was a Chinese meal involved somewhere because there always was,
0:50:18 > 0:50:21and we eventually persuaded him to come and do these six shows.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25We got a very good team of writers, people like Kevin Day wrote for him,
0:50:25 > 0:50:29he enjoyed that interaction with young up and coming writers.
0:50:30 > 0:50:35I think the big difference was the ITV show he was standing up and he was angry,
0:50:35 > 0:50:39he had more energy than he had in the '70s and '60s shows, far more energy.
0:50:39 > 0:50:40Grannies.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45Do you ever get behind a granny in a queue?
0:50:45 > 0:50:47He was looking for something to get his teeth into,
0:50:47 > 0:50:51to argue with almost, as part of that creative process,
0:50:51 > 0:50:53it was really fascinating, I loved it.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56And I'm sending them the birthday presents because...
0:50:56 > 0:50:59and I'm standing behind her thinking, you old geriatric!
0:50:59 > 0:51:02For Christ sake, die and let me buy my stamps!
0:51:02 > 0:51:06My abiding memory very early on in the process of working with Dave
0:51:06 > 0:51:08is him telling me that he was working on this routine
0:51:08 > 0:51:11about teaching children to tell the time,
0:51:11 > 0:51:15and I distinctly remember, "Well, that's not going to change the world, Granddad, is it?"
0:51:15 > 0:51:18Teach you to read the time.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21Why? Because it's important that you know the time.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23He does this routine and it was about 15 minutes live
0:51:23 > 0:51:26and it got edited down on the show, and he does the entire routine
0:51:26 > 0:51:29as an imaginary conversation with a small child.
0:51:29 > 0:51:31I mean who else could do a routine
0:51:31 > 0:51:34about the second hand and the minute hand on a watch?
0:51:34 > 0:51:38There's the hour hand, that's the first hand. The hour hand.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40The second hand is the minute hand,
0:51:40 > 0:51:42and the third hand is the second hand.
0:51:45 > 0:51:47For him to point this out and bring the house down
0:51:47 > 0:51:52on the extraordinary contradiction just between how they're named.
0:51:52 > 0:51:54So it moves away from the fat hand,
0:51:54 > 0:51:56leaving the fat hand at the 1 and the 2
0:51:56 > 0:52:00and then it comes over to the 1 here by itself, see the 1?
0:52:00 > 0:52:01To the right of the 1 and the 2?
0:52:01 > 0:52:04Now, that one is 5.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11Because it is, it's 5, 2 is 10,
0:52:11 > 0:52:153 is 15, 4 is 20, 5 is 25, 6 is a half.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21Now I know what I can do for Dave Allen,
0:52:21 > 0:52:25I can make him the best darn cup of tea he's ever had,
0:52:25 > 0:52:28because there's not much I can bring to him in terms of writing
0:52:28 > 0:52:31and that, that telling the time routine just summed him up.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33It is now what time?
0:52:33 > 0:52:38It is not five o'clock, it's one o'clock.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41For me the man is a comic genius he's a stand-up genius,
0:52:41 > 0:52:42that's what he does.
0:52:42 > 0:52:44Shut up!
0:52:50 > 0:52:51He really enjoyed working
0:52:51 > 0:52:54and put himself absolutely into it with great heart,
0:52:54 > 0:53:01but he loved being at home and domestic life and family life too.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06Well, Davey and I got together in 1986,
0:53:06 > 0:53:10some might have said it was an unexpected coupling,
0:53:10 > 0:53:13he was much older than me, although the age gap,
0:53:13 > 0:53:15never mattered, certainly not to me.
0:53:15 > 0:53:21He was extraordinary and extremely easy to love.
0:53:21 > 0:53:25Davey was a very private person and his work was his work
0:53:25 > 0:53:28and that was very separate from family life and our life together.
0:53:28 > 0:53:31We never courted publicity,
0:53:31 > 0:53:36and it was important for him to protect us from that.
0:53:42 > 0:53:43In his latter years,
0:53:43 > 0:53:46he didn't feel the need to constantly be chasing work,
0:53:46 > 0:53:47he used to get offered a lot of work.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50I mean, I think there wasn't a film made in Ireland
0:53:50 > 0:53:53without him being offered a part in it.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56You know, he got offered a lot of television, most of which he turned down.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59For the people who will be watching this show
0:53:59 > 0:54:03when it is a repeat, good evening, welcome to the show, it is a repeat.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06He hated repeats,
0:54:06 > 0:54:09I think there was a clause in his contract that they could show one repeat,
0:54:09 > 0:54:11one series repeat, OK, and that was it.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14Everything is repeated now apart from Dave Allen stuff,
0:54:14 > 0:54:20I've got a videotape of Dave, right, I've got a videotape of him.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24It's nuts, he's my comedic idol and I've got a bloody videotape.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34He was never somebody that seemed, you know,
0:54:34 > 0:54:36he had regrets,
0:54:36 > 0:54:37or, well, if only I was, you know.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40He was really happy, he worked hard, he lived full,
0:54:40 > 0:54:43he had a family that, you know, adored him,
0:54:43 > 0:54:46and who he loved and, you know, he had passion.
0:54:46 > 0:54:52Life was very important to Davey, he had a huge appetite for life,
0:54:52 > 0:54:56and he loved his work
0:54:56 > 0:55:01but he didn't, he didn't define himself by what he did, you know.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05He did his work but he did lots of other things as well.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07He loved his painting and his drawing
0:55:07 > 0:55:10and being at home and gardening and cooking.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14He was disarmingly modest and quiet about his many talents
0:55:14 > 0:55:18and I always think he was ordinary and extraordinary.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21He was normal and grounded, he was always gracious with people
0:55:21 > 0:55:24when they stopped him or recognised him,
0:55:24 > 0:55:30and yet he had these many, many abilities, but he held them quietly.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54When I think of Davey, I mean, I really do just think of love
0:55:54 > 0:55:58and I feel that love is the most extraordinary thing,
0:55:58 > 0:56:02for two people to meet and fall in love,
0:56:02 > 0:56:06with each other at the same time seems extraordinary.
0:56:07 > 0:56:13For that to last for decades seems miraculous,
0:56:13 > 0:56:18and for it to only get better seems sort of impossibly lucky.
0:56:20 > 0:56:25So losing Davey as I did was,
0:56:29 > 0:56:31I mean, hard beyond description,
0:56:34 > 0:56:40and it's sort of like being a long way from home all the time,
0:56:40 > 0:56:43but three weeks after I lost Davey I had our son Cully,
0:56:45 > 0:56:47our beautiful boy.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52And I think Davey would be very proud of him.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01Death is inevitable, I mean, erm,
0:57:01 > 0:57:03life is what you are anyhow,
0:57:03 > 0:57:05what you experience now,
0:57:05 > 0:57:08and death is going to happen to us anyhow
0:57:08 > 0:57:12so there's no sense in spending 70 years worrying about dying,
0:57:12 > 0:57:16because if you do, you won't even get to 40 I think.
0:57:16 > 0:57:21But, you know, I really do, I, as an Irishman,
0:57:21 > 0:57:24I've been, not laughing about my own death,
0:57:24 > 0:57:31but laughing about death as a subject for years, coffins and wakes, erm,
0:57:31 > 0:57:35and I, it doesn't bother me.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39I mean, I know that some people get a bit upset but it's there,
0:57:39 > 0:57:44you might as well not laugh at the moon or not accept the existence of the sun.
0:57:44 > 0:57:47I wonder what my epitaph will be.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53Here lies Dave Allen, a comedy fool
0:57:53 > 0:57:58who drank and told gags as he sat on his stool,
0:57:58 > 0:58:02his last words on earth the atheist wretch,
0:58:02 > 0:58:05time for religion, here's a sketch.
0:58:11 > 0:58:12There's the church.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18The big question everybody asks me about Dave Allen
0:58:18 > 0:58:21is always, "How did he lose the finger?"
0:58:21 > 0:58:23I've got time to ask you one more thing
0:58:23 > 0:58:26and that's about your famous, the missing joint on your finger.
0:58:26 > 0:58:28I've asked him that so many times and he's given me
0:58:28 > 0:58:31about five different stories, none of which I believe to be true.
0:58:31 > 0:58:34I was about nine, nine years of age...
0:58:34 > 0:58:35What did he tell you?
0:58:35 > 0:58:38Oh, all sorts of thing starting from nose picking accidents.
0:58:38 > 0:58:41I was sitting there and I had something in my back tooth...
0:58:41 > 0:58:44He picked his nose and he lost it, how do you do that?
0:58:44 > 0:58:47I was actually trying to pick it out, with my finger,
0:58:47 > 0:58:48I was trying to get this little bit of meat.
0:58:48 > 0:58:51Working up to knife fight in a Paris brothel.
0:58:51 > 0:58:55And my brother, John, came in behind me and he just saw me there...
0:58:57 > 0:59:01He lost it in a bet with a priest in a pub.
0:59:01 > 0:59:04We were wrestling or something like that, he just came behind me
0:59:04 > 0:59:05and went, boom, like that
0:59:05 > 0:59:06and my jaw closed
0:59:06 > 0:59:09and I bit my finger right through.
0:59:14 > 0:59:17The final gag, is everyone always asks me that
0:59:17 > 0:59:19and they don't believe me when I say I don't know,
0:59:19 > 0:59:22but to this day I have no idea, and I think that's fantastic.
0:59:22 > 0:59:24Thank you goodnight and may your God go with you.