| 19th | Top Royal Air Force members |
| Bob Monkhouse | |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert Alan Monkhouse 1 June 1928[1] Beckenham, Kent, England |
| Died | 29 December 2003 (aged 75) Bedford, England |
| Occupation | Actor, Comedian, Writer, Presenter |
| Years active | 1952-2003 |
| Spouse(s) | Elizabeth (1949-72) Jacqueline Harding (1973-2003) |
Robert Alan Monkhouse OBE (1 June 1928 – 29 December 2003)[2] was an English entertainer. He was a successful comedy writer, comedian and actor and was also well known on British television as a presenter and game show host. Monkhouse was famous for his quick ad-lib and one-liner jokes.
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Bob Monkhouse was born in Beckenham, Kent the son of Wilfred Adrian Monkhouse, who died in 1957 and Dorothy Muriel Monkhouse née Hansard. Monkhouse's father was a prosperous Methodist businessman who owned Monk and Glass, which made custard.[3][4]
While a schoolboy at Dulwich College, from which he was later expelled, Monkhouse wrote for the comics The Beano and The Dandy and subsequently drew for Hotspur, Wizard and Adventure comics.[2] Among other writing, he wrote more than 100 Harlem Hotspots porn novelettes.[2]
Monkhouse completed his national service with the RAF in 1948. He won a contract with the BBC after his unwitting group captain signed a letter Monkhouse had written telling the BBC he was a war hero and that it should give him an audition.[5]
This anecdote was among many which Monkhouse recalled in the BBC Radio 2 documentary Caught In The Draft, written by Terence Pettigrew and presented by Michael Aspel. The programme took a nostalgic look at compulsory National Service, which operated in Britain from the wartime years until the beginning of the 1960s. Taking part in the programme along with Monkhouse were Leslie Thomas, author of The Virgin Soldiers, and BBC Radio 2 presenter John Dunn.
Monkhouse's adult career began as a scriptwriter for radio comedy in partnership with Denis Goodwin, a fellow Old Alleynian with whom he also compèred Smash Hits on Radio Luxembourg. Alongside performing as a double act, Monkhouse and Goodwin wrote for comedians such as Arthur Askey, Jimmy Edwards, Ted Ray and Max Miller.[3][6] In addition, Monkhouse was a gag-writer for American comedians including Bob Hope when they wanted jokes for British tours.
In 1956, Monkhouse was the host of Do You Trust Your Wife?, the British version of an American gameshow. He went on to host more than 30 different quiz shows on British television.[3] His public profile growing, Monkhouse also began appearing in comedy films, including the first of the Carry On film series, Carry On Sergeant in 1958. He appeared in films and television programmes throughout his career, making guest appearances particularly in later years. Other presenting jobs in the 1960s included hosting Candid Camera and compèring Sunday Night at the London Palladium. In 1979 he starred in a sketch comedy television series called Bonkers! with the Hudson Brothers.
In the early 1970s he appeared on BBC Radio in Mostly Monkhouse with Josephine Tewson and David Jason.
Monkhouse was a respected stand up comedian. Known for his talent at ad-lib, he became a sought-after speaker for dinners and similar events. In 1976 he was the speaker at the Mars (Mars confectionery) sales conference at the Excelsior Hotel on Bath Road opposite Heathrow airport. He had been in a television advert for Polaroid cameras, and he told the joke, 'I am the only man ever allowed to say on television "you take it out and hold it in your hand, and in only 20 seconds it develops - or a minute if you want it in colour."'
Monkhouse was well known for hosting television quiz shows. One of his biggest successes was The Golden Shot during the late 1960s. This was broadcast live for 52 weeks a year and drew in up to 17 million viewers.[6] The dozens of other shows Monkhouse presented included Celebrity Squares, Bob's Full House and Family Fortunes. Audiences regularly topped 15 million.[2] In the late 1980s he hosted two series of the revival of the talent show Opportunity Knocks which aired as Bob Says Opportunity Knocks. He then moved to ITV to front two more gameshows, Bob's Your Uncle and the $64,000 Dollar Question, neither of which were popular successes.
In 1996, Monkhouse presented the National Lottery show on Saturday evenings on BBC One. The opening to each show would see him deliver several minutes of topical jokes, and on one occasion where his Autocue failed, he improvised a new and still topical routine. This talent was used in Bob Monkhouse On The Spot, a return to pure television comedy, in which audience members suggested topics and Monkhouse came up with a routine. Monkhouse returned to quizzes in 1998 when he took over hosting duties on Wipeout from Paul Daniels.
After being a stalwart of chat-shows, in the mid-1980s Monkhouse presented his own chat show for the BBC, The Bob Monkhouse Show. The show lasted two series and featured many guests from the world of movies and comedians of every age. Monkhouse was known among young comedians as a keen supporter of new comedy, and he used the show to introduce older audiences to new comedians, and vice versa. The format of the interviews varied between "true" chat and analysis of comedy, to scripted routines in which Monkhouse would willingly play the role of the guest's stooge. The most notable guest was the comedienne Pamela Stephenson who, after prior arrangement with the show's producer, appeared in a series of fake plaster casts, apparently the result of accidents whilst at home. During the interview she produced a handgun and fired it on several occasions, destroying a plantpot on the set and a series of lights in the studio roof. She then presented a rocket launcher which she promptly 'fired' destroying a television camera.
The gun, launcher and camera were replicas. None of this arrangement was known to Monkhouse (although the production crew were aware) who appeared genuinely frightened.
An expert on the history of silent cinema and a movie collector, he presented Mad Movies in 1966, in which he presented clips from comic silent movies, some of which he had helped to recover and restore. His private film collection was the cause of a court case at the Old Bailey in 1979 after he was charged with attempting to defraud film distributors, but he was acquitted. Many of the films in his collection were seized and destroyed (including what would have been the only surviving copies of many films) before the acquittal.
In 2008, the British Film Institute were contacted by Bob Monkhouse's daughter, Abigail, who asked if they would like to view the collection and provide some advice as to the best way of preserving it. Amongst the discoveries were many long disappeared TV shows. Dick Fiddy, archivist said "It's a huge, unwieldy collection which deals with a number of areas. It's not just film and TV. Initially we found half a dozen TV shows that we knew to be 'missing'."
Amongst those shows rediscovered, many feature Monkhouse himself. Including The Flip Side, a 1966 play starring Monkhouse as a DJ with his own late night television show, and the 1958 comedy My Pal Bob about an extra-marital affair.[7]
Not counting film cans, the archive consists of 36,000 videotapes, going back to when Monkhouse first bought a home video recorder in 1966. His film archive began in the late 1950s.
The entire Bob Monkhouse film and television archive is now held by Kaleidoscope, including all material previously held by the NFTVA. It is being catalogued and restored to digital formats in readiness for a major event at BAFTA on 24 October 2009. The full list of the archive will be published during that event, which is being organised by Kaleidoscope and filmed by the BBC. Chris Perry, part of Kaleidoscope and its partner company Kaleidoscope Publishing, said, "We are painstakingly transferring the important contents of the video tapes and restoring radio shows. There are many incredible finds, and the event in October will be an exciting time for all concerned."
In his final years, Monkhouse hosted a show on BBC Radio 2 called The Monkhouse Archive, in which he provided humorous links to clips of comedy acts spanning the previous 50 years. As both an enthusiast of classic comedy, and a keen supporter of young acts, he was ideally placed to select clips.
Monkhouse became a favourite with impressionists, and, as his style fell out of favour in the 1980s, he was mocked for his slickness and accused of insincerity. He came back into fashion during the 1990s, and appearances on Have I Got News For You restored his popularity. The British Comedy Awards handed him the Lifetime Achievement for Comedy honour in 1995. The Television and Radio Industries Club awarded him a Special Award - for outstanding contribution to broadcasting in 2003.[8] In a 2005 poll of fellow comedians and comedy insiders to find The Comedians' Comedian, Monkhouse was voted among the best 50 comedy acts ever.
Monkhouse was married twice, to Elizabeth Thompson on November 5, 1949 (divorced in 1972), and then to Jacqueline Harding on October 4, 1973. He had three children from his first marriage, but only his daughter Abigail survived him. His son Gary Alan, who had cerebral palsy, died in Braintree, Essex, in 1992, aged 40; this led to Monkhouse being an avid campaigner for the disabled. His other son Simon, from whom he had been estranged for almost a decade, died of a heroin overdose in a Bangkok hotel in 2001.[3][9]
In July 1995, Monkhouse appealed for the return of a ring binder that constituted one of his 'joke books', offering a £10,000 reward. The book, which contained notes on sketches and one-liners, for which Monkhouse was most famous, was returned after 18 months.[6]
Monkhouse was appointed an OBE in 1993. He succumbed to prostate cancer on 29 December 2003.
On 12 June 2007, Monkhouse appeared posthumously on a British TV advertisement promoting awareness of prostate cancer for Male Cancer Awareness Week. Using a combination of stock footage, a body double, CGI, and Simon Cartwright's "serious" impersonation of his voice (i.e. accurate, not caricatured), Monkhouse was seen in a graveyard next to his own gravestone (though in reality he was cremated) talking about the disease seriously, interspersed with humorous asides to another camera ("What killed me kills one man per hour in Britain. That's even more than my wife's cooking."). He ended by saying, "As a comedian, I've died many deaths. Prostate cancer, I don't recommend. I'd have paid good money to stay out of here. What's it worth to you?" before walking away from his grave and disappearing. The advertisement was made with the support of Monkhouse's family and supported by poster campaigns. Money raised went to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation.[10]
| Preceded by First Host |
Host of Family Fortunes 1980–1983 |
Succeeded by Max Bygraves |
| Preceded by Paul Daniels |
Host of Wipeout 1998 - 2002 |
Succeeded by series ended |
Robert Alan Monkhouse OBE (1 June 1928 – 29 December 2003) was a British comedian, actor and presenter.
Contents |
   | BBC Obituary for Bob Monkhouse - BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Comedian Bob Monkhouse dies |
| | Give a few Bob for the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation - give a few bob | Prostate Cancer Research Foundation |
| | Youtube video - YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. |
| | Bob Monkhouse on Chortle - Comedian Bob Monkhouse on : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide |
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