Finally got around to watching both those Unforgettable... programmes on Jeremy Beadle and Bob Monkhouse this week.
What do you think of when you hear those names? One's a beardy irritant with a withered hand and the other is a much-missed national treasure? Probably. That's what I thought. But the difference is Bob was lucky enough to be able to transcend his cheesiness, reinvent himself for a new generation and remain a comedy giant in the eyes of the public.
Poor Beadle was more or less hounded off the telly, reviled by all and not welcome on our screens at all. It was so sad, We never got a chance to see the real man and he never got a second chance to show us. Rehabilition was not an option. I wonder if people even know he's dead.
The show was most illuminating. Did you know, for example, that he put on the Bickershaw pop festival in the early Seventies? Not growing up in London, I had no idea he was an LBC radio regular which then led to his inclusion on Game For A Laugh which, like everyone else, I loved until all the good hosts left and Lee Peck turned up. And as I've said before, we don't have enough programmes featuring stools these days, especially ones in which people sit on them, laughing. There was some great archive footage.
Anyhoo, why did we all go off Beadle so much? The pranks certainly became tiresome, I didn't like him on You've Been Framed and it seemed he was on everything. But of course behind the scenes everyone loved him. I nearly cried when I saw the inscription on his gravestone - "ask my friends', the people who really knew him wouldn't hear a word against him. Turns out he was one of nicest men in showbiz, raising more than £100m for charity. And we never knew.
I'm never disliking a celebrity again...until next time.
