0:00:02 > 0:00:04Remember this proverb. It's very, very simple.
0:00:04 > 0:00:06We have this in my country. We have it in your country also.
0:00:06 > 0:00:10- You never know what you've got until it's gone.- Yeah.
0:00:12 > 0:00:17The comedian, actor and writer Felix Dexter died last month.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19In my deal, innit? Star!
0:00:19 > 0:00:21He was one of the trailblazers.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23A comic genius.
0:00:23 > 0:00:25Hey, hey, hey!
0:00:25 > 0:00:27He went on stage, and he did it on his terms.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29Please pay attention!
0:00:29 > 0:00:30LAUGHTER
0:00:30 > 0:00:33And the audience are falling about!
0:00:33 > 0:00:35He never sought celebrity status,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38but Felix was one of the best-respected performers in the business.
0:00:40 > 0:00:41One love, one love!
0:00:44 > 0:00:46London Underground!
0:00:46 > 0:00:48Mash up Lucifer, vote yes!
0:00:48 > 0:00:50- # Bong-ba-di-bong-bong-bong! # - That's the one!
0:00:50 > 0:00:53- The screen comes alive when he's on. - He had that Richard Pryor thing
0:00:53 > 0:00:57that he could say a really edgy joke without looking angry.
0:00:57 > 0:00:58"Can we laugh at this?"
0:00:58 > 0:01:00You have to be able to enunciate and pronunciate.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02Absolute tosh!
0:01:04 > 0:01:05He made comedy slick.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07GUNSHOT
0:01:07 > 0:01:11So sit back and enjoy this tribute to the one and only Felix Dexter.
0:01:22 > 0:01:23At the age of seven,
0:01:23 > 0:01:27Felix came to Britain with his mother from the island of St Kitts.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30Most people who come to this country from the Caribbean,
0:01:30 > 0:01:34their families are going to go to Brixton, St Paul's,
0:01:34 > 0:01:36Handsworth, Moss Side, what have you and so on.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39Felix ended up in Surrey.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44I went to school, I was covered in those prefect badges,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47you know, from head to toe. I looked like an armadillo, you know?
0:01:47 > 0:01:52Although Felix told his friends very little about his background,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55it's clear his childhood was far from typical.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58Lots of black British people had the experience
0:01:58 > 0:02:02of being the only black person at school or whatever, but normally
0:02:02 > 0:02:06they would have that experience in a working-class context.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08Felix was having that in a very middle-class context.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11So that's going to make you a bit different.
0:02:11 > 0:02:12Being in the geography lesson,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15every time there was an issue about a tropical region,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18it was always, "Aah, Felix, you should know this."
0:02:19 > 0:02:22"You come from a hot country."
0:02:22 > 0:02:25"Oh, yes, mate, it's very hot in Guildford, isn't it?"
0:02:28 > 0:02:30Felix went to law school in London,
0:02:30 > 0:02:33and was training to become a barrister
0:02:33 > 0:02:35when he decided to give it all up...
0:02:38 > 0:02:41..and try his hand at stand-up comedy.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43Felix's mum - "Oh..."
0:02:43 > 0:02:47A mild coronary would probably be an understatement.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50"You're going to do what? Comedy?"
0:02:50 > 0:02:54Once he's set his mind to do something, he's going to go ahead and do it.
0:02:56 > 0:02:58CHEERING
0:02:58 > 0:02:59Felix began performing in the '80s,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02at the height of the alternative comedy scene.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04He had a ten-minute open spot
0:03:04 > 0:03:06and he absolutely stormed it.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10He went straight from the ten minutes into a full 20.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12He was that good.
0:03:12 > 0:03:14APPLAUSE
0:03:14 > 0:03:16What a right-on lot you are. That's beautiful.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18It's nice, you're right on. You're my type of people
0:03:18 > 0:03:21because I can feel it. You're anti-racist, you're anti-sexist,
0:03:21 > 0:03:23you're right on. You're vegetarian.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25You're the sort of people who probably say,
0:03:25 > 0:03:28"Oh, no, no, don't say the word black, don't say black person,
0:03:28 > 0:03:30"say high-melanin-content person."
0:03:33 > 0:03:36# Baa baa, high-melanin-content sheep, have you any wool... #
0:03:41 > 0:03:44He was a mainstay at The Comedy Store
0:03:44 > 0:03:48and Jongleurs, and the bigger clubs that we all did all the time.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51You had to get Felix in. Felix was the headline act.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56He had a whole routine about wanting to have sex
0:03:56 > 0:03:58but being turned down by a sleepy partner
0:03:58 > 0:04:02and then trying to surreptitiously masturbate in the bed
0:04:02 > 0:04:04and being banished to the spare room.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06"Don't do that in here!"
0:04:07 > 0:04:11His "Welcome To Scotland" look always worked, and it was funny.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13When I got off the train in Dundee,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17I got the "Welcome to Scotland" look. It goes like this.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20LAUGHTER
0:04:20 > 0:04:22As good as he was as a stand-up,
0:04:22 > 0:04:25I could see in the early days little voices were coming in.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28George, Anselm, come look, the next door people are going crazy in the street!
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Mi always thought they was funny. Come watch them! Aaah!
0:04:31 > 0:04:34And you'd think, "He really loves doing that."
0:04:34 > 0:04:38You can see he's found a whole new area to move into.
0:04:38 > 0:04:39Thank you.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41By the early '90s,
0:04:41 > 0:04:45Felix was a fixture on the alternative comedy scene.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47But he was one of the only black faces.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51The clubs were all white people, the acts were all white people.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54There just weren't any black people in the audience.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57So when a new black comedy circuit began to emerge,
0:04:57 > 0:05:02centred around the Hackney Empire, Felix's comedy found its home.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06She's sitting there with the man, she's not saying anything at all
0:05:06 > 0:05:11because she knows the man has not given her authority to speak.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14When we started the black comedy circuit,
0:05:14 > 0:05:16there was always this rumour there was this other black guy
0:05:16 > 0:05:18on the circuit and it wasn't Lenny Henry,
0:05:18 > 0:05:21so we were like, "Who is this guy we're hearing about?"
0:05:21 > 0:05:24The first time I saw Felix was at the Hackney Empire.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26I walked out thinking, "I like this man.
0:05:26 > 0:05:28"I'm going to remember him forever."
0:05:28 > 0:05:31As the black comedy scene grew in popularity,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34television executives began to sit up and take notice.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43In 1991, a groundbreaking new comedy sketch show was launched.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48- It's all been quite a shock.- Quite.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51Now, if you could just tell me in your own words how it happened.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53It was a damp and moonless night.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56My heart fluttered like a caged bird
0:05:56 > 0:05:59as I walked through a deserted churchyard.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03The Real McCoy was the first black sketch show
0:06:03 > 0:06:07written by African-Caribbean people and performed by them.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11Ladies, please don't take the weave seriously.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18Everybody said, "OK, this is the turning point for black comedy."
0:06:18 > 0:06:19You could be in a club, right,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22and scratch this side, and the other side move.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29The audience felt that they had found a show that told their story
0:06:29 > 0:06:32and told their story funny. You know, it wasn't depressing,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35it wasn't about "issues" or difficult, it was just funny.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37Felix came on board in series three,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40which in my opinion is when it really got its legs.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42Everything he did was sort of magic.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45I mean, he had the characters that he evolved.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48You didn't really have to find anybody to work with him,
0:06:48 > 0:06:50he kind of came in with the characters.
0:06:50 > 0:06:55The Real McCoy was where Felix's character comedy really took flight.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00The first one that I remember him introducing was the lawyer.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02Ahem.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05Erm, I'm Douglas, and this is my club.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07When I heard about your programme,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09I thought, absolutely marvellous idea, it really was.
0:07:09 > 0:07:15And he just started to speak and the crowd went crazy.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19Racism in Britain today, wonderful, wonderful, absolutely amazing.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22But it is, yes, of course, a really big problem, enormous problem,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25big, enormous, tremendously big problem, yes.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27I think we had to do two or three takes
0:07:27 > 0:07:29so it didn't sound like canned laughter.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31I lapsed into the vernacular, you know,
0:07:31 > 0:07:33blouson skirts, box bottoms...
0:07:35 > 0:07:37Beat-down Babylon...
0:07:38 > 0:07:41Go on, my brethren, and so on and so forth.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44LAUGHTER
0:07:44 > 0:07:46Rass cloth, I announced...
0:07:46 > 0:07:49LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:07:49 > 0:07:52The nuances and little phrases that he could pull out
0:07:52 > 0:07:54that would reduce the room to fits,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58which would leave a white audience thinking, "Why is that funny?"
0:07:58 > 0:08:02You know, and I think it gave him a freedom to be somebody that maybe
0:08:02 > 0:08:06he wasn't able to really be in the clubs that we played.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09Our mission is only one thing and what it is,
0:08:09 > 0:08:12it is to mash up Lucifer!
0:08:12 > 0:08:16Mash up Lucifer is what we have to do! Mash him up!
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Yes, mash him to little bits. We have to mash him up,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22make him go down on the ground, start bawling and crying!
0:08:22 > 0:08:26"We Need To Mash Up Lucifer" - I just thought to myself, hilarious!
0:08:26 > 0:08:31Some of the young ladies as well, I've got something to say to you.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34I notice some of you, you're walking about, yo-yo-yo-you...
0:08:36 > 0:08:39Yo-yo-your skirt is all-all-all hung out like that.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:08:45 > 0:08:48Tuck it up yourself!
0:08:48 > 0:08:51I mean to say, what the hell is going on?
0:08:55 > 0:08:56Then he starts wiping his brow
0:08:56 > 0:08:59and I'm thinking, "The church people are going to be so upset with you.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01"You've gone too far, you've gone too far."
0:09:01 > 0:09:06He does take you to the point where you think, "Is he? Yes! Oh!"
0:09:06 > 0:09:09And then you can just go, "Nn! Ah!"
0:09:09 > 0:09:12And that's what makes a brilliant comedian. He challenges you,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15he makes you laugh even though you don't think you should be laughing.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17That's a great comedian.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19Excuse me, excuse me.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22I'd just like to say something.
0:09:22 > 0:09:27My name is Nathaniel. I'm from Lagos and I'm studying accountancy.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30Felix was never afraid to be subversive,
0:09:30 > 0:09:35particularly with Nathaniel, the Nigerian accountant-cum-cab-driver.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38And what I'd like to do is to teach some of you West Indians,
0:09:38 > 0:09:40especially the Jamaicans...
0:09:43 > 0:09:46..how to speak the Queen's mother's language.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49How to speak the Queen's mother's language.
0:09:49 > 0:09:55Here was a Caribbean man playing an African ridiculing West Indians,
0:09:55 > 0:09:59so you know, this character was a one-off.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02What I've noticed, you are mucking about with your Hs.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05All the time. What you are doing,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08if there is an H, if there is an H in front of the vowel,
0:10:08 > 0:10:10you are taking it away.
0:10:11 > 0:10:15And if there is not supposed to be one there, you are putting one in.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18So what you are doing, in your own accent, you are saying things like,
0:10:18 > 0:10:23"My friend Harchibald was in the 'ospital.
0:10:23 > 0:10:29"They are keeping 'im hin hovernight for a hobservation.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33"Because 'e's 'aving an hoperation.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35"On 'is 'ernia."
0:10:36 > 0:10:40It wasn't done with spite or even real ridicule,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43it was done with a sense of, I suppose, love.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47But as the nation embraced his many characters,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50those closest to him knew very little of the private man.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54It was always good to see him, have a bit of a chat,
0:10:54 > 0:10:56do your act, and then he'd go.
0:10:56 > 0:11:02I produced two national tours for him, I slept in his spare room
0:11:02 > 0:11:05and I gigged with him for 20 years, and I still hardly knew him.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08He would come and do the show and leave,
0:11:08 > 0:11:11and sometimes you might say to him,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14"So, Felix, I don't see you with anybody" - and he'd go, "Ha-ha! Hey!"
0:11:14 > 0:11:16And you think, "You're not going to tell me, are you?"
0:11:16 > 0:11:19He was just a kind of an island.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23You create characters to hide away, you know,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26I remember talking to a therapist years ago
0:11:26 > 0:11:28when I first started, saying, "Characters are dodgy."
0:11:28 > 0:11:30I said, "What do you mean?"
0:11:30 > 0:11:32She said, "You want to hide in different characters."
0:11:32 > 0:11:34I think he was a very classic example of that.
0:11:34 > 0:11:39It's Floyd, it's Floyd, all right? Nice, nice, nice, nice, nice.
0:11:39 > 0:11:41You see stupid written on my forehead?
0:11:41 > 0:11:43You see stupid written on my forehead?
0:11:43 > 0:11:46If you see stupid written on my forehead, you'd better rub it off
0:11:46 > 0:11:49because I don't want to be sat here with stupid written on my forehead.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53By the mid-'90s, Felix and his comic creations were hot property.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57He was playing cameo roles on all the big comedy shows.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00You must call yourself Mr Fry and Mr Laurie,
0:12:00 > 0:12:04and then when you are more famous you can drop the Mister.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08- Ronnie Biggs, it's not yes or no, is it?- Well, yes, it is.- Good.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10Say what you like about Paul Simon and Malcolm McLaren,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13they gave African music structure.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15Before, of course, they met these producers,
0:12:15 > 0:12:17there was all this drumming the whole time.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19Drumming, drumming, drumming, drumming, drumming!
0:12:19 > 0:12:22- # Bong-ba-di-bong-bong-bong! # - That's the one!
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Then, when he was offered a part in The Fast Show,
0:12:28 > 0:12:31Felix met his comedy kindred spirits.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35- Hey, wait!- What happen, sir?
0:12:35 > 0:12:38So can man look up on his brethren, eh?
0:12:38 > 0:12:40We needed someone who could do
0:12:40 > 0:12:45a very convincing urban slang.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49- Last time I was in a dance class. Some crack.- Right. Right!
0:12:49 > 0:12:51My God. Ninja, man. Epic.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55Paul and I, not being from the streets, shall we say,
0:12:55 > 0:12:57we didn't presume to write the script ourselves,
0:12:57 > 0:13:00so we needed to find someone who could write and could improvise.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02So mi turn around, but when mi turn back,
0:13:02 > 0:13:07I got a brethren there in my deal, innit? Star! Yard star!
0:13:07 > 0:13:10Mi just look, "Ah, right, den!"
0:13:10 > 0:13:13Rock stone! Rock stone!
0:13:15 > 0:13:16No.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19No. I can't keep up with this.
0:13:19 > 0:13:24I don't know what the bloody hell you're on about. Not a bloody clue!
0:13:25 > 0:13:29We actually developed a sort of professional relationship
0:13:29 > 0:13:33from then on, because he asked me and Charlie
0:13:33 > 0:13:37to script edit a pilot that he'd done of his own show.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41# Felix Dexter on TV! #
0:13:41 > 0:13:43- Leave it!- Leave it!
0:13:43 > 0:13:47The pilot took the characters from Felix's live act
0:13:47 > 0:13:49and placed them in a sketch show.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53Don't tell me I'm backside, right. I know I'm right!
0:13:53 > 0:13:56We thought this was going to be a chance, and so did Felix, you know,
0:13:56 > 0:14:00for him to showcase his characters on his own.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02What is going on? Stop, stop, stop!
0:14:02 > 0:14:04I cannot believe
0:14:04 > 0:14:08what yo-yo-yo-you-yo-you're putting...
0:14:08 > 0:14:12- You are putting the devil into this young girl.- Not yet, he hasn't.
0:14:12 > 0:14:13I'm sorry, I've got no choice,
0:14:13 > 0:14:17- I've got to suck the devil out of her.- What?
0:14:23 > 0:14:25Boosey got balls!
0:14:26 > 0:14:31The show went out in September 1995, but wasn't picked up as a series.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35I personally believe there was disappointment
0:14:35 > 0:14:37in that not working out for whatever reason.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40On the back of doing his sketch show,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43he did try and develop the lawyer character.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46Respect, respect, respect.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50A year later, Felix was given a second pilot.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53Please take a seat, Mr Johnson.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55It was a sitcom featuring Douglas,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58a well-to-do lawyer all at sea in multicultural Britain.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03Douglas is kind of him, I think.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07Yeah, I think it is!
0:15:07 > 0:15:09He was lampooning himself as much as anything else.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12He was lampooning the black guy who doesn't actually eat
0:15:12 > 0:15:15curried goat and rice every Saturday. Why should he?
0:15:18 > 0:15:20Oh, um... Hello, brother.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22Brother? What the hell are you talking about?
0:15:22 > 0:15:24Since when is me and you family?
0:15:24 > 0:15:27I'm most dreadfully sorry, it's just that as we are the same hue,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30I thought there might be some cultural solidarity, at least.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34Same hue? Cultural what?
0:15:34 > 0:15:35Show me your damn ticket!
0:15:36 > 0:15:40Like the sketch show, Douglas wasn't commissioned as a series.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45I saw him at the BBC once and we were talking about it,
0:15:45 > 0:15:49and he was so gracious, it was almost like he missed his bus,
0:15:49 > 0:15:50he didn't get the bus.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53It was almost like, "OK, never mind, let's just keep moving."
0:15:53 > 0:15:56And I remember saying, "Felix, if you don't get it,
0:15:56 > 0:15:58"then we might as well give up."
0:15:58 > 0:16:02because if there is anyone of the black comedy circuit
0:16:02 > 0:16:05that should have got their own show - Felix.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07People have always recognised Felix
0:16:07 > 0:16:12but whether they quite realised what he was capable of,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15you know, some of the executives perhaps didn't realise that.
0:16:15 > 0:16:22He was one of those performers who far too many people missed
0:16:22 > 0:16:27through short-sightedness, through the status quo,
0:16:27 > 0:16:33there's a million and one reasons why not enough people saw Felix Dexter,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36and none of them was his.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39When I was in school or in the barbershop,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42the constant conversation piece
0:16:42 > 0:16:45would be "Why hasn't Felix got his own show?"
0:16:46 > 0:16:49When Jason worked with Felix a decade later,
0:16:49 > 0:16:51he got the chance to ask him about it.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56He could have played the race card in his answer to me,
0:16:56 > 0:17:02but he didn't, and that made me respect him even more,
0:17:02 > 0:17:04and that's one of the major things that I got from him
0:17:04 > 0:17:07in terms of perseverance, you know -
0:17:07 > 0:17:10no matter what obstacles are put in front of you,
0:17:10 > 0:17:12keep going, keep going.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14Was there any suggestion that she might have had...
0:17:14 > 0:17:17The next few years were busy ones for Felix.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19As well as touring his live show,
0:17:19 > 0:17:22he took on a variety of acting roles for television.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25You're a homosexual fellow?
0:17:25 > 0:17:29How many ages hence will this our lofty scene be acted over?
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Every man, away!
0:17:31 > 0:17:35People are often surprised when it turns out a comedian can act,
0:17:35 > 0:17:36but it's all in there.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41Different voices that emerge through the stand-up, you know,
0:17:41 > 0:17:43that is acting, that's what it is.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48Felix also began to work in theatre.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51He performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company
0:17:51 > 0:17:52and at the Young Vic.
0:17:52 > 0:17:57In 2004, he appeared in a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
0:17:57 > 0:17:59along with a dozen other comedians.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03You can imagine with a company
0:18:03 > 0:18:06mainly made up of comedians, there's always the danger
0:18:06 > 0:18:10that it turns into a bit of a kind of stand-up showdown.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13I took my cue off him because he's the man who's been there,
0:18:13 > 0:18:14he's done it, and I'm going,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18"Oh, I can't play the fool if he's being very, very serious."
0:18:18 > 0:18:22And I just remember that Felix would just always be
0:18:22 > 0:18:25this very relaxed, very calm,
0:18:25 > 0:18:30very wise kind of voice at the heart of it.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32Always taking the work seriously,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35and I knew him as an actor and not as a comedian.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41In 2006, Felix rejoined his old friends Paul Whitehouse
0:18:41 > 0:18:45and Charlie Higson on a radio show called Down The Line.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49Quite a simple idea, really, it was just a spoof radio show
0:18:49 > 0:18:53where all the characters that call in can vent their spleen.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56- I'm going to help the environment, yeah?- Yeah.
0:18:56 > 0:18:57Can be politically incorrect...
0:18:57 > 0:19:00- I had a very bad problem.- Hmm? - It was never diagnosed.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Right, dyslexia or something like that?
0:19:03 > 0:19:04No, I was blind.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07But they are all played by performers that we like.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09- Felix Dexter. - Felix Dexter, obviously,
0:19:09 > 0:19:11is very good at doing the black characters.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14- SLURRED:- You cannot progress in your education
0:19:14 > 0:19:16- unless you have the clarity of speech, right?- No...
0:19:16 > 0:19:18It's the most important thing in your...
0:19:18 > 0:19:22We live in a multicultural society, so as well as acknowledging it,
0:19:22 > 0:19:24we should also be able to laugh about it,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26and Felix had already opened the door.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29Listen mate, listen. I've got a lot of black mates, all right?
0:19:29 > 0:19:32- Calm down.- I couldn't care if you've got friends in Jamaica, in Brixton
0:19:32 > 0:19:35and The Black And White Minstrels. You are parking in the wrong place.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37Move the car, remove it for me.
0:19:37 > 0:19:39Over the course of this series,
0:19:39 > 0:19:41I've travelled the length and breadth of Britain
0:19:41 > 0:19:44and I've met some diverse and fascinating characters.
0:19:44 > 0:19:49Down The Line was reincarnated for television as Bellamy's People,
0:19:49 > 0:19:50a spoof celebrity travelogue
0:19:50 > 0:19:53fronted by an earnest young journalist, Gary Bellamy.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56- Gary Bellamy!- I knew that!
0:19:56 > 0:19:57One love!
0:19:57 > 0:20:01- Check over here, like. - I like the pumas.- Eh?
0:20:01 > 0:20:02Are they panthers?
0:20:02 > 0:20:04No, no, that's lion. Lion.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06No, that's a panther, I think.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08No, man, that's a black lion we are talking about.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10You can't get black lions.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14You arguing with me about what is a panther like? That's a lion!
0:20:14 > 0:20:16The show was entirely unscripted,
0:20:16 > 0:20:18and played to all of Felix's strengths.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20- Really?- Yes, check man in.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25It was all completely spontaneous and improvised.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27HE BARKS
0:20:27 > 0:20:30That's an amazing skill, and to make these characters so different
0:20:30 > 0:20:33and to give them all their own personalities
0:20:33 > 0:20:34but also their own language.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39On one side is Scylla, on the other side is Charybdis,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42the whirlpool and the monster.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44Only Argonaut reach through.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48He knew these characters so well, he got inside them so well,
0:20:48 > 0:20:50and he knew how their minds worked.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52Choppy little custom buoy...
0:20:52 > 0:20:54He could go on all day in one character,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57and that was sometimes a problem. We had to stop him...
0:20:57 > 0:21:00Say, "Felix, we've only got a half-hour show!"
0:21:00 > 0:21:03It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm the gentleman you are going to...
0:21:03 > 0:21:08- Oh! That's right, OK, nice to meet you too. Hello.- So, in my opinion...
0:21:08 > 0:21:10- No, we haven't started yet. - Wait one second.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14One of the stars of the show was Felix's character Julius Olufemwe...
0:21:14 > 0:21:16- We need to put a microphone on you for this.- OK.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18..eternal student and rampant Anglophile.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21- Hold on.- We won't be able to hear you if you don't put that on.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23Calm down! Calm down, stop it! Stop that!
0:21:23 > 0:21:25So, Julius, why have you brought me here?
0:21:25 > 0:21:28Well, you know, I've brought you here
0:21:28 > 0:21:30to show you, in a sense, what are
0:21:30 > 0:21:34the most important features of London if we carry on talking
0:21:34 > 0:21:37about the thing that we must celebrate about England...
0:21:37 > 0:21:40The thing about Julius is, he is more patriotic and more British
0:21:40 > 0:21:42than any of the other characters in the show,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45and he's always picking up Gary Bellamy, the host,
0:21:45 > 0:21:46for not being British enough.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50Nelson's Column, what a marvellous representation
0:21:50 > 0:21:54- of all the best of English history. - That's not Nelson's Column.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56No, no, that's Nelson's Column.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59No, Nelson's Column is in Trafalgar Square. We're in Pall Mall.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02Please, please, it doesn't matter. It's virtually the same as him.
0:22:02 > 0:22:04We were talking about what it meant to be British
0:22:04 > 0:22:06and he was saying, "I think we've lost that,"
0:22:06 > 0:22:08and I said, "What about the Jubilee?
0:22:08 > 0:22:11"That was a very British, great thing."
0:22:11 > 0:22:13And then it somehow got around
0:22:13 > 0:22:16to Brian May playing on the roof of Buckingham Palace.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Brian May was on top of the Palace, playing God Save The Queen.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22- What could be more British than that?- How long was he doing that?
0:22:22 > 0:22:25- For about two and a half minutes. - There you go.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27Winston Churchill would be disgusted with that.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30Brian May should be playing for an hour! Three hour!
0:22:30 > 0:22:32- But...- Five hour!
0:22:32 > 0:22:34'I'm laughing. He does not crack. He is that person'
0:22:34 > 0:22:38and he just keeps going with it, you know, "For an hour, two hour".
0:22:38 > 0:22:41What do you mean by people like us?
0:22:41 > 0:22:42People of breeding, yes,
0:22:42 > 0:22:46people who abhor the vulgar and the crass, you know?
0:22:46 > 0:22:49But to be fair, surely, aren't you a bit of a fish out of water,
0:22:49 > 0:22:51living in the countryside yourself?
0:22:52 > 0:22:54No, I don't know what you mean.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57If I come to you, BBC, say, "Give me TV show," you give me TV show?
0:22:57 > 0:22:58No. No.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04Mr Khan, the self-styled Muslim community leader
0:23:04 > 0:23:05in Bellamy's People,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08eventually became the subject of his own sitcom.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12And when its creator Adil Ray was casting for the series,
0:23:12 > 0:23:14Felix was top of the list.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16- This is Omar. He is new.- Excellent.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18'I always felt that a black Muslim
0:23:18 > 0:23:21'coming up against Mr Khan would be very funny,'
0:23:21 > 0:23:24and he was the only person we didn't audition for.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26Everyone else we auditioned for. Felix was the one guy,
0:23:26 > 0:23:29called him up. "Got this thing, do you want to do it?" "Yes."
0:23:29 > 0:23:32I don't think he even had an agent. He was like, "I'll do it."
0:23:32 > 0:23:36Ah, salaam alaikum! I'm delighted to make the acquaintance
0:23:36 > 0:23:38of such a prominent member of the local community.
0:23:41 > 0:23:42What's wrong with him?
0:23:42 > 0:23:44- He's from Somalia.- Oh.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47You're always certain that Felix will find the funny here,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49he'll do something funny,
0:23:49 > 0:23:51and it's sometimes very simple lines for Felix,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54you know, "Salaam alaikum", which is the Muslim greeting,
0:23:54 > 0:23:57but the way Felix would say it would just crack us up.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00What are you doing here? You're not even on the bloody committee!
0:24:00 > 0:24:03I'm taking the minutes of the meeting on the computer.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05He's our technical wizard.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08- Him?- That's what I used to do back in Somalia.
0:24:08 > 0:24:09You worked in IT?
0:24:09 > 0:24:11No, he was a wizard.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14'The way Felix played it was very clever
0:24:14 > 0:24:17'because sometimes there were moments where you weren't sure'
0:24:17 > 0:24:20whether Omar was deliberately winding Mr Khan up
0:24:20 > 0:24:22or he was just, that was just Omar.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25HIGH-PITCHED CHANT
0:24:26 > 0:24:28During filming,
0:24:28 > 0:24:32it became clear that Felix was having some health problems.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36Felix did tell us he was ill, but he would tell us it was a back problem.
0:24:36 > 0:24:38Looking back now, you kind of go,
0:24:38 > 0:24:41"OK, now we know what the problem might have been."
0:24:43 > 0:24:47When we were making the last series of Down The Line
0:24:47 > 0:24:48in the spring of 2013,
0:24:48 > 0:24:51we noticed that he was slightly under par,
0:24:51 > 0:24:53that there wasn't the energy in the performances
0:24:53 > 0:24:56and he didn't seem as mentally fast.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59And we got him to do a couple of things again,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01and he kept apologising, saying, "Oh, sorry,
0:25:01 > 0:25:04"I've got a bit of a cold at the moment, I'm not feeling too good."
0:25:06 > 0:25:09To a handful of close friends, Felix revealed the truth.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13When he called me, I honestly thought
0:25:13 > 0:25:19he was ringing to wind me up about Arsenal being top of the league.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22I saw his name come up on my phone. "Felix, oh!"
0:25:22 > 0:25:25I said, "Oh, hi, Felix, I know you've not been well
0:25:25 > 0:25:28"because I heard about your back, so what's going on?" Blah, blah,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33and that's when he said, "Well, you know, Judith, you know...
0:25:34 > 0:25:37"..well, basically, I'm dying."
0:25:37 > 0:25:41There was no wind-up, there was no punchline, and he said,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44"I've got this multiple myeloma,"
0:25:44 > 0:25:47and he'd had it for a long time.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52By the time his friends learned about it,
0:25:52 > 0:25:55Felix's cancer had reached its final stages.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00I went to see him a few times,
0:26:00 > 0:26:03and I did sort of broach the subject or the fact
0:26:03 > 0:26:06that he was a guarded person
0:26:06 > 0:26:08and we got...
0:26:10 > 0:26:12..um, got very emotional.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14Eddie and I went up to the hospice that he was in,
0:26:14 > 0:26:17and as soon as we walked in, he went, "I should have told you.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20"I'm so sorry. I should have told you. I'm so sorry."
0:26:20 > 0:26:22And we were like, "No, come on, man."
0:26:22 > 0:26:25We laughed hard, until I thought
0:26:25 > 0:26:28the people at the hospice were going to say, "Look,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31"there are dying people here, you're going to have to keep it down."
0:26:31 > 0:26:33So for the first week, chatty, great,
0:26:33 > 0:26:35second week, little bit less energy,
0:26:35 > 0:26:38and by the third week, the third week was the last week,
0:26:38 > 0:26:41and he reached out, and him reaching out to me was...
0:26:43 > 0:26:45..was just really, really, touching.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51On October the 18th this year, Felix died.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58Although he was never a household name,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01to his friends and fans, he was simply a legend.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07He will go down in our history as one of our comic geniuses,
0:27:07 > 0:27:12not a black comic genius, a comic genius.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14He knew his craft to the bone.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:27:16 > 0:27:19Excuse me! Excuse me! Excuse me!
0:27:19 > 0:27:23Can I please interrupt you? Can I please interrupt you?
0:27:23 > 0:27:26You West Indians, what are you doing? I can't believe you.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29He invited everyone to laugh,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33you know, black, white, whatever, wherever you are from.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37I think his legacy is, he was one of our finest character comedians.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44I was raving last night, you know,
0:27:44 > 0:27:48and well, you see, a whole heap of my spars come in my yard,
0:27:48 > 0:27:51and, well, we mash up the place.
0:27:53 > 0:27:58For me, he was good enough to be the star of the show,
0:27:58 > 0:28:03but you know, he was still happy enough to play his position
0:28:03 > 0:28:07and he wouldn't let that kind of get in the way of being professional
0:28:07 > 0:28:11and doing a good job, because you know, his work speaks for itself.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13- Baby love.- Yeah.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15- You feeling nice?- I've...
0:28:15 > 0:28:18- Give you a little stroke to your ear like that, right?- Yeah.
0:28:18 > 0:28:19And then start with the t'ing!
0:28:19 > 0:28:22It's just a shame that...
0:28:24 > 0:28:27..that he didn't get a chance to see this
0:28:27 > 0:28:28and to see what people thought,
0:28:28 > 0:28:31how people love him and how they'll miss him.
0:28:31 > 0:28:33You've been lovely to me. I hope you've enjoyed me.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36Thanks a lot for listening. Good night to you.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:29:05 > 0:29:08Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd