John Bird obituary
Satirist and actor whose pairing with John Fortune gave him a long career in popular entertainment
He was not on the list.
.jpg)
The satire boom of the early 1960s heralded the end of the age of deference in public life generally and in the media specifically. On television, Robin Day began giving politicians a tough time, and in the theatre Beyond the Fringe set a tone of mockery and irreverence that spawned Peter Cook’s Establishment club in Soho, the magazine Private Eye, and Ned Sherrin’s ground-breaking satire shows on BBC television, That Was the Week That Was, or TW3 as it became known, and Not So Much a Programme More a Way of Life.
John Bird, who has died aged 86, was a central figure in this phenomenon, appearing on stage and television with a voice in various timbres of reasoning dismay, comic self-justification and utter incredulity.
Sherrin had asked Bird to be the anchor of TW3, which ran for two seasons in 1962 and 1963, but Bird declined – having coined the show’s title – and suggested he ask David Frost instead. Instead he wrote for, and appeared on, the show, alongside his Cambridge contemporary John Fortune. Once he had scored a resounding follow-up success with his sketches in Not So Much a Programme (1964-65), Bird’s path was set in popular entertainment.
His comfortably padded features, roguish twinkle and vivid turn of phrase made him an ideal and merciless impersonator of both the Labour prime minister Harold Wilson and secretary of state George Brown as well as a string of African politicians and potentates culminating in portraits of the Kenyan leader Jomo Kenyatta, complete with pillbox, kofia hat and fly-whisk, which drew complaints from the high commission in London, and, even more flagrantly, of Idi Amin, the Ugandan president whose “collected broadcasts” Bird released as a satirical album in 1975. The satirical lorry thundered through the narrow gap between statesmanship and thuggery, though such derisory “blackface” finger-pointing would be difficult to justify today.
Following various television and stage appearances, from 1990 Bird, along with Fortune, rebooted his career with Rory Bremner in a series of eponymous programmes over 20 years. While Bremner supplied the acidic vignettes of impersonation, Bird and Fortune perfected an improvisatory double act in which they alternated as interviewer and interviewee, the latter usually named George Parr, an all-purpose grandee from politics, big business, the armed forces and public services; Bird later resurrected one of his African despots as George MParrbe, though without make-up, whose nation was, as far as its exact whereabouts was concerned, a state secret.
Bird as Parr, otherwise, could be manifest as a Eurosceptic MP (long before Brexit), and would cut through his own screen of evasive waffle and comic xenophobia to express what he called the innate British dislike of foreigners. All foreigners? Yes. And again as Parr, now a knighted admiral of the fleet, he completely blindsided Fortune in suggesting that the large deck of an over-expensive aircraft carrier (“We can’t afford the aircraft and the carrier”) might be used to create swimming pools for the Olympic Games.
The outrageous suggestion behind all of this was that Parr, in all his guises, was somehow out of his depth, out of touch with reality and out of control in his various fields of supposed expertise. No laughing matter, perhaps, but, boy, were the two Johns funny. Between 1996 and 1999, these sketches were siphoned off into their own 15-minute slot, The Long Johns.
The final Bremner, Bird and Fortune show was a four-part special in 2008 following the economic crash. Bird was again in his element as a blithely unconcerned investment banker, quizzed by an astonished Fortune on the turbulence in the financial markets as if nothing untoward had happened at all, business as usual, and so on. The silver lining to the cloud of disaster and collapse was that he had lost only other people’s money, not his own.
John was born in Bulwell, Nottingham, the son of Horace Bird, a chemist’s shopkeeper, and his wife, Dorothy (nee Haubitz). Although he failed the 11-plus exam, he was fast-tracked by a supportive teacher into the High Pavement grammar school and thence to King’s College, Cambridge, to study English, where he soon made his mark in the Footlights.
A quiet and thoughtful man, he at first harboured serious ambitions as a theatre director at the Royal Court, home of new theatre writing, where he was an assistant, then associate, director between 1959 and 1963. He directed – after first mounting the premiere at the ADC theatre in Cambridge – NF Simpson’s surreal comedy A Resounding Tinkle (with a cast including Cook and Eleanor Bron) and George Tabori’s cabaret Brecht on Brecht, which featured the Royal Court’s artistic director George Devine and the great cabaret singer Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill’s muse and wife, in her first London stage appearance since the 1930s.
Bird himself would never claim to have had a significant career as an actor, but he did make telling contributions to Alan Bennett’s medical farce Habeas Corpus (1973) at the Lyric as Sir Percy Shorter, a flustered doctor and president of the British Medical Association, in a fine cast led by Alec Guinness; and to Jonathan Miller’s 1970 movie version of Kingsley Amis’s Take a Girl Like You as a lecherous landlord and Labour councillor trying vainly to seduce Hayley Mills.
And two BBC series in his own name – A Series of Bird’s (1967) and With Bird Will Travel (1968) – were decidedly experimental, the first an accumulation of spoofs, sketches and satirical playlets co-written with Fortune, the second co-starring Carmen Munroe and analysing the process of presenting humour on television, with some sequences shot from a control room.
He was one of seven adult actors – the others included Helen Mirren, Janine Duvitski, Michael Elphick and Colin Welland – playing seven-year-old children in Dennis Potter’s Blue Remembered Hills (1979), an outstanding BBC Play for Today set during the summer of 1943 in the Forest of Dean. And he was ideal casting as a university vice-chancellor in Andrew Davies’s series A Very Peculiar Practice (1986), wooing Japanese investment in line with the increased commercialism of higher education in the 80s following government cuts.
Later work included a shifty and incompetent barrister, John Fuller Carp, in Clive Coleman’s Chambers (2000), and an overweening PR man, Martin McCabe, alongside Stephen Fry as his partner in crime, Charles Prentiss, in a government media relations company in Absolute Power (2003-05); both these series started out on BBC Radio 4 before moving to television.
Bird won two Bafta awards, the first as a performer in 1966, the second, shared with Fortune, in 1997, and was awarded an honorary degree at Nottingham University in 2002. He was married three times: to the actor Ann Stockdale, daughter of the US ambassador to Ireland (1965-70); to the television presenter Bridget Simpson in 1975, separating in 1978; and finally to Libby Crandon, a concert pianist.
The couple lived in Reigate, Surrey, in the 80s and had settled in Newdigate, near Dorking, in the late 90s where they raised Libby’s two sons from a previous marriage and kept two pet llamas. Never one for the bright lights, Bird admitted to having had periods of drug and alcohol dependency, at one stage claiming that his problems had caused him to become paranoid and indeed suicidal. But he was latterly a contented member of his local bowls club and patron of the Mole Valley Arts Alive festival.
Libby died in 2012; Fortune died the next year. Bird is survived by his stepsons, Dan and Josh.
Actor
Annette Badland, Neil Dudgeon, and Nick Hendrix in Midsomer
Murders (1997)
Midsomer Murders
7.9
TV Series
St John Beachwood
2017
1 episode
Rory Bremner's Election Report
TV Movie
Permanent Secretary, Treasury
2015
Rory Bremner's Coalition Report
6.0
TV Movie
2015
Alan Davies in Jonathan Creek (1997)
Jonathan Creek
8.1
TV Series
Horace Greeley
D.I. Nathan Gallo
2000–2014
3 episodes
Bert & Dickie (2012)
Bert & Dickie
6.5
Lord Aberdare
2012
Bremner, Bird and Fortune: Silly Money
8.1
TV Series
Various
2008
4 episodes
John Bird, Rory Bremner, and John Fortune in Bremner, Bird
and Fortune (1997)
Bremner, Bird and Fortune
7.6
TV Series
Various Characters
1997–2008
19 episodes
Absolute Power (2003)
Absolute Power
8.1
TV Series
Martin McCabe
2003–2005
12 episodes
Bremner, Bird and Fortune: A Bunch of Counts
TV Movie
Various
2005
Winter Solstice (2003)
Winter Solstice
5.5
TV Movie
Barry
2003
Trust Me, I'm a Prime Minister
6.4
TV Movie
2003
Chambers (2000)
Chambers
7.1
TV Series
John Fuller-Carp
2000–2001
12 episodes
My Government and I
TV Movie
Various Roles
2000
Valentina Igoshina in The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka:
The Mystery of Chopin (1999)
The Strange Case of Delfina Potocka: The Mystery of Chopin
5.3
1st Official
1999
In the Red (1998)
In the Red
7.7
TV Mini Series
Controller Radio 4
Controller, Radio 4
1998
3 episodes
Giving Tongue (1996)
Giving Tongue
6.2
TV Movie
Lord Jessop
1996
Murder Most Horrid (1991)
Murder Most Horrid
7.3
TV Series
Duncan Jupp
1996
1 episode
Rory Bremner in The Best of Rory Bremner (1995)
The Best of Rory Bremner
Video
1995
The Long Johns (1995)
The Long Johns
TV Series
Various Characters
1995–1997
Our Hands in Your Safe
TV Movie
1995
Annette Crosbie and Richard Wilson in One Foot in the Grave
(1990)
One Foot in the Grave
7.9
TV Series
Lewis Atterbury
1995
1 episode
Neil Morrissey and Alexei Sayle in Paris (1994)
Paris
7.5
TV Series
Psychiatrist
1994
1 episode
Imogen Stubbs in Anna Lee (1994)
Anna Lee
7.3
TV Series
Adrian Wesley
1994
1 episode
Ian Richardson and Kitty Aldridge in To Play the King (1993)
To Play the King
8.3
TV Mini Series
Bryan Brynford-Jones
1993
2 episodes
Sooty & Co. (1993)
Sooty & Co.
6.8
TV Series
John Bird
1993
1 episode
Rory Bremner in Rory Bremner, Who Else? (1993)
Rory Bremner, Who Else?
6.6
TV Series
Various
1993
1 episode
Kate O'Mara, Ian Lavender, Derek Nimmo, David Robb, Joan
Sims, and Toyah Willcox in Cluedo (1990)
Cluedo
6.4
TV Series
Professor Plum
1993
6 episodes
Performance (1991)
Performance
6.6
TV Series
John Reid
1992
1 episode
A Word in Your Era
4.8
TV Series
Napoleon
1992
1 episode
Rory Bremner in Rory Bremner (1988)
Rory Bremner
6.3
TV Series
Various
1989–1992
21 episodes
El C.I.D. (1990)
El C.I.D.
6.8
TV Series
Douglas Bromley
1990–1992
19 episodes
Bejewelled (1991)
Bejewelled
6.2
TV Movie
Eustace
1991
Joint Account (1989)
Joint Account
7.3
TV Series
Ned Race
1989–1990
16 episodes
Screen Two (1984)
Screen Two
6.3
TV Series
George
Commander Abigail
1987–1990
2 episodes
John Thaw and Kevin Whately in Inspector Morse (1987)
Inspector Morse
8.2
TV Series
George Linacre
1990
1 episode
Elizabeth Bennett, Joan Blackham, Reece Dinsdale, and John
Thaw in Home to Roost (1985)
Home to Roost
6.7
TV Series
FG Fielding
F G Fielding
1985–1989
2 episodes
Jonathan Hyde in Shadow of the Noose (1989)
Shadow of the Noose
8.4
TV Mini Series
Mr. Justice Hawkins
1989
1 episode
John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael
Palin in A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
A Fish Called Wanda
7.5
Clerk of the Magistrate's Court (uncredited)
1988
Dramarama (1983)
Dramarama
6.6
TV Series
Dudley Roberts
1988
1 episode
The First Kangaroos (1988)
The First Kangaroos
7.0
Jupes
1988
Finbar Lynch in Small World (1988)
Small World
8.3
TV Mini Series
Hermann Pabst
1988
1 episode
Yes, Prime Minister (1986)
Yes, Prime Minister
8.6
TV Series
Simon Monk
1988
1 episode
Warren Mitchell, Dandy Nichols, and Una Stubbs in In
Sickness and in Health (1985)
In Sickness and in Health
7.0
TV Series
the Consultant
1987
1 episode
Emmerdale Farm (1972)
Emmerdale Farm
4.8
TV Series
Bishop Gardner
1987
6 episodes
Dead Entry (1987)
Dead Entry
TV Series
Bernard Dougherty
1987
2 episodes
Amelia Shankley in A Little Princess (1986)
A Little Princess
8.4
TV Mini Series
Mr. Carmichael
1987
3 episodes
The Mistress (1985)
The Mistress
5.8
TV Series
Dr. Jameson
1987
1 episode
Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, and Nigel Planer in Filthy
Rich & Catflap (1987)
Filthy Rich & Catflap
7.1
TV Series
Dingo Wucker
1987
1 episode
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1987)
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole
7.6
TV Series
Courtney Elliot
1987
3 episodes
The Ballad of Johnny Vanguard
TV Movie
Agent
1986
Dangerous Brothers Present: World of Danger (1986)
Dangerous Brothers Present: World of Danger
7.5
Video
(segment "Babysitter")
1986
God's Chosen Car Park
TV Movie
Frank Frankenham
1986
Help! (1986)
Help!
7.5
TV Series
Wilf Rigby
1986
2 episodes
A Very Peculiar Practice (1986)
A Very Peculiar Practice
8.4
TV Series
Vice Chancellor Ernest Hemmingway
1986
7 episodes
Saturday Live (1985)
Saturday Live
7.4
TV Series
Unemployed defence minister
1986
5 episodes
Farrington of the F.O. (1986)
Farrington of the F.O.
6.6
TV Series
VJ Lawrence
1986
1 episode
Lytton's Diary (1985)
Lytton's Diary
7.0
TV Series
Jacko
1985
1 episode
Mrs. Capper's Birthday (1985)
Mrs. Capper's Birthday
7.2
TV Movie
Maurice
1985
Leigh Lawson in Travelling Man (1984)
Travelling Man
8.0
TV Series
Jack Ormand
1985
2 episodes
Lea Thompson and Chris Lemmon in Going Undercover (1985)
Going Undercover
4.1
Professor Borg
1985
Leslie Ash, Jill Gascoine, and Rosalyn Landor in C.A.T.S.
Eyes (1985)
C.A.T.S. Eyes
6.4
TV Series
Lord Richie
1985
1 episode
There Comes a Time
TV Series
Vicar
1985
1 episode
Blue Money (1985)
Blue Money
6.0
TV Movie
Harry Diamond
1985
Budgeting
6.1
Video
Ron Scroggs
1984
Oxbridge Blues (1984)
Oxbridge Blues
8.0
TV Series
Clive
1984
1 episode
Jane (1982)
Jane
7.8
TV Series
Casper Cutler
1984
5 episodes
Round and Round
TV Series
Dr. Fisher
1984
1 episode
Danger: Marmalade at Work (1984)
Danger: Marmalade at Work
7.2
TV Series
Mr. Atkins
1984
10 episodes
Video Stars (1983)
Video Stars
7.8
TV Movie
Cedric Shade
1983
Play for Today (1970)
Play for Today
7.8
TV Series
Lord North
Desmond Hughes
Captain Wigmore ...
1979–1983
4 episodes
John Bird and Charlotte Coleman in Educating Marmalade
(1982)
Educating Marmalade
7.6
TV Series
Mr. Atkins
1982–1983
10 episodes
The Tractor Factor
Short
1982
King Lear (1982)
King Lear
7.6
TV Movie
Duke of Albany
1982
Harry Andrews and Arthur Lowe in A.J. Wentworth, B.A. (1982)
A.J. Wentworth, B.A.
6.9
TV Series
Major Faggott
1982
1 episode
Playhouse: The Combination
TV Movie
Dr. Hughes-Jones
1982
Charlotte Coleman and Dudley Sutton in Theatre Box (1981)
Theatre Box
TV Series
Mr. Atkins
Pot Smasher
1981
1 episode
Timon of Athens (1981)
Timon of Athens
7.3
TV Movie
Painter
1981
BBC2 Playhouse (1973)
BBC2 Playhouse
6.7
TV Series
H.G. Wells
1981
1 episode
Depreciation and Inflation
Video
Ron Scroggs
1980
Cost, Profit, and Break-Even
6.9
Video
Ron Scroggs
1980
The Taming of the Shrew (1980)
The Taming of the Shrew
7.2
TV Movie
Pedant
1980
Richard O'Sullivan in Dick Turpin (1979)
Dick Turpin
7.3
TV Series
Gooch
1980
1 episode
Armchair Thriller (1978)
Armchair Thriller
7.4
TV Series
Cyril
1980
4 episodes
Don Henderson, Diane Keen, Peter Sallis, and Don Warrington
in Crown Court (1972)
Crown Court
7.3
TV Series
1978
1 episode
That's the Way the Money Goes
TV Series
Various Characters - Seven Salesmen
1978
1 episode
In the Looking Glass
TV Series
1978
1 episode
Jabberwocky (1977)
Jabberwocky
6.1
1st Herald
1977
The Galton & Simpson Playhouse (1977)
The Galton & Simpson Playhouse
7.8
TV Series
The Man
1977
1 episode
The Melting Pot (1975)
The Melting Pot
5.3
TV Series
Mr. Rembrandt
1975–1976
7 episodes
Pleasure at Her Majesty's (1976)
Pleasure at Her Majesty's
7.3
TV Movie
Various
1976
Well Anyway
TV Series
John Dally
1976
7 episodes
Alan Arkin, Robert Duvall, Vanessa Redgrave, and Nicol
Williamson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
6.6
Berger
1976
Shades of Greene (1975)
Shades of Greene
8.3
TV Series
Maling
1976
1 episode
The Punch Review
TV Series
Various Characters
1975
1 episode
Dawson's Weekly (1975)
Dawson's Weekly
7.3
TV Series
Reverend Michael Ffoulkes
1975
1 episode
Comedy Playhouse (1961)
Comedy Playhouse
7.3
TV Series
Mr. Rembrandt
Barnaby Spoot
1965–1975
2 episodes
After That, This
TV Series
Various Characters
1975
6 episodes
The Lives of Benjamin Franklin (1974)
The Lives of Benjamin Franklin
7.8
TV Mini Series
William Whateley
1974–1975
2 episodes
The End of the Pier Show (1974)
The End of the Pier Show
TV Series
Various Characters
1974–1975
2 episodes
Leeds
TV Series
1972–1974
5 episodes
Grubstreet
TV Series
Various Characters
1973
6 episodes
Full House (1972)
Full House
6.7
TV Series
Actor in sketches
1973
4 episodes
Dudley Moore and Sheila Hancock in But Seriously, It's
Sheila Hancock (1972)
But Seriously, It's Sheila Hancock
TV Series
Various Characters
1973
1 episode
The Alf Garnett Saga (1972)
The Alf Garnett Saga
5.1
Willis
1972
Beyond a Joke
TV Series
Various Roles
1972
6 episodes
Private Eye TV
TV Movie
1971
Jackanory (1965)
Jackanory
7.1
TV Series
Storyteller
1970–1971
6 episodes
Phyllis Calvert and Jack Hedley in Kate (1970)
Kate
6.0
TV Series
Benjamin
1971
1 episode
Take a Girl Like You (1970)
Take a Girl Like You
5.6
Dick Thompson
1970
John Bird and Dudley Foster in If It Moves, File It (1970)
If It Moves, File It
TV Series
Quick
1970
6 episodes
The Breaking of Bumbo (1970)
The Breaking of Bumbo
4.9
Jock
1970
Step Laughing Into the Grave
TV Movie
1970
Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Paul Scofield, and Anna
Calder-Marshall in ITV Saturday Night Theatre (1969)
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
6.3
TV Series
Edgar
1970
1 episode
A Promise of Bed (1969)
A Promise of Bed
4.2
Taxi Driver
1969
World in Ferment
TV Series
Gerald Pikestaff
1969
6 episodes
The Best House in London (1969)
The Best House in London
4.3
Home Secretary
1969
Charge! (1969)
Charge!
TV Series
Scrumpton
1969
1 episode
With Bird Will Travel
TV Series
1968
A Dandy in Aspic (1968)
A Dandy in Aspic
6.1
Henderson
1968
30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968)
30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia
5.3
Greenslade
1968
Sweet and Sour (1963)
Red and Blue
6.6
Short
Man on Train
1967
A Series of Bird's
TV Series
1967
8 episodes
The Late Show
8.0
TV Series
1966–1967
23 episodes
Anne-Marie Mallik in Alice in Wonderland (1966)
Alice in Wonderland
6.8
TV Movie
Frog Footman
1966
My Father Knew Lloyd George
TV Movie
Various Roles
1965
Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life
7.4
TV Series
Various Characters
1964–1965
61 episodes
Quest (1961)
Quest
8.6
TV Series
Various characters
1963
2 episodes
What's Going on Here?
TV Movie
1963
Writer
Rory Bremner's Election Report
TV Movie
written by
2015
Rory Bremner's Coalition Report
6.0
TV Movie
written by
2015
Bremner, Bird and Fortune: Silly Money
8.1
TV Series
written by
2008
4 episodes
John Bird, Rory Bremner, and John Fortune in Bremner, Bird
and Fortune (1997)
Bremner, Bird and Fortune
7.6
TV Series
written by
1997–2006
4 episodes
Bremner, Bird and Fortune: A Bunch of Counts
TV Movie
Writer
2005
Trust Me, I'm a Prime Minister
6.4
TV Movie
Writer
2003
Beyond Iraq and a Hard Place (2003)
Beyond Iraq and a Hard Place
8.5
TV Movie
written by
2003
Between Iraq and a Hard Place (2003)
Between Iraq and a Hard Place
8.6
TV Movie
written by
2003
Heroes of Comedy (1992)
Heroes of Comedy
6.7
TV Series
additional material
2002
1 episode
Rory Bremner: From Blair to Here
TV Special
written by
1998
The Long Johns (1995)
The Long Johns
TV Series
Writer
1995–1997
Our Hands in Your Safe
TV Movie
Writer
1995
Rory Bremner in Rory Bremner, Who Else? (1993)
Rory Bremner, Who Else?
6.6
TV Series
writer
1993
1 episode
Rory Bremner in Rory Bremner (1988)
Rory Bremner
6.3
TV Series
written by
1989–1990
2 episodes
The Tractor Factor
Short
Writer
1982
In the Looking Glass
TV Series
writer
1978
1 episode
Well Anyway
TV Series
writer
1976
7 episodes
After That, This
TV Series
additional material
1975
1 episode
Leeds
TV Series
writer
1972–1974
5 episodes
Yellow Dog (1973)
Yellow Dog
7.4
new dialogue
1973
Full House (1972)
Full House
6.7
TV Series
sketch writer
1973
5 episodes
Dudley Moore and Sheila Hancock in But Seriously, It's
Sheila Hancock (1972)
But Seriously, It's Sheila Hancock
TV Series
written by
1973
2 episodes
Beyond a Joke
TV Series
with
1972
6 episodes
Embassy (1972)
Embassy
5.1
Writer (uncredited)
1972
Step Laughing Into the Grave
TV Movie
Writer
1970
With Bird Will Travel
TV Series
writer
1968
A Series of Bird's
TV Series
writer
1967
8 episodes
The Late Show
8.0
TV Series
Writer
1966–1967
BBC 3 (1965)
BBC 3
4.5
TV Series
Writer
1966
1 episode
My Father Knew Lloyd George
TV Movie
Writer
1965
Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life
7.4
TV Series
writer
1964–1965
4 episodes
Milligan's Wake
TV Series
Writer
1964–1965
Second City Reports
TV Series
writer
1964
6 episodes
What's Going on Here?
TV Movie
writer
1963
That Was the Week That Was (1962)
That Was the Week That Was
8.2
TV Series
Writer
1962–1963
Casting Department
Damn the Defiant! (1962)
Damn the Defiant!
7.1
casting advisor (uncredited)
1962
No comments:
Post a Comment