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There are very few people who could be seen as token Australians in personality - half the cast of Neighbours; that man who was jailed under Operation Yewtree in 2014 (you know who I am referring to); and Barry Humphries who has died at the age of 89. Famous for characters like Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson, Humphries delighted millions of people all over the world, including us Pommies 11,000 miles away in Great Britain with his (or should I say her) LWT shows as Dame Edna; The Dame Edna Experience; and Dame Edna's Neighbourhood Watch, famous for the outtake where a pair of brown underwear lost its elastic and had made its way onto her shoe. Her sidekick, Madge Allsopp (portrayed by later Brinsworth House resident Emily Perry), had no comment to make as usual with regards to the situation.
Dame Edna was the only person to do three Audience With... shows - more than any other person; in 1980, 1984 and 1988, with the second one first screened on Channel 4. He (Humphries) was always someone who had always seemed to be with us, albeit in character. What with Paul O'Grady leaving us this year, it doesn't look a very good year for our favourite drag artistes. Interesting how Dame Edna was portrayed more often than Patterson; one assumes that popularity from the public meant that they wanted the woman with big outrageous "not available to obtain under the NHS at Specsavers" glasses, and lilac "Phyllis Pearce" candy floss-alike hair, and the catchphrase "g'day possums". Humphries was also responsible for the Barry McKenzie cartoon strips in Private Eye, although as I only started to read the magazine myself in 1998 after discovering it in WHSmith back then after looking at the obscure magazines that they had, it was long before my time.
RIP Barry Humphries, Dame Edna Everage, Sir Les Patterson, Barry McKenzie and all the other characters which Humphries had portrayed.
Dame Edna was the only person to do three Audience With... shows - more than any other person; in 1980, 1984 and 1988, with the second one first screened on Channel 4. He (Humphries) was always someone who had always seemed to be with us, albeit in character. What with Paul O'Grady leaving us this year, it doesn't look a very good year for our favourite drag artistes. Interesting how Dame Edna was portrayed more often than Patterson; one assumes that popularity from the public meant that they wanted the woman with big outrageous "not available to obtain under the NHS at Specsavers" glasses, and lilac "Phyllis Pearce" candy floss-alike hair, and the catchphrase "g'day possums". Humphries was also responsible for the Barry McKenzie cartoon strips in Private Eye, although as I only started to read the magazine myself in 1998 after discovering it in WHSmith back then after looking at the obscure magazines that they had, it was long before my time.
RIP Barry Humphries, Dame Edna Everage, Sir Les Patterson, Barry McKenzie and all the other characters which Humphries had portrayed.
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