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THE KENNY EVERETT TELEVISION SHOW

BBC1
24th December 1981 - 18th January 1988

After his final Thames Television show was pitted against Top of the Pops Everett decided to move back to the BBC where he was then broadcasting a Saturday morning show for Radio 2.

The writers Barry Cryer and Ray Cameron came with him, but this time he would be in front of an audience.

Kenny introduced a new batch of characters to the show, but by far the best and most loved was failing Hollywood starlet Cupid Stunt, forever regaling the sordid plot of whatever wretched film she was promoting to a cardboard cut-out of Michael Parkinson.

The producer of his previous Thames series Philip Jones made it clear to Everett and the BBC that Everett couldn’t use the characters he’d created for his previous shows, to which Everett replied “if Thames want to sue, they know our address”. Everett would later go on to confront Jones at a Television sales showcase.

Everett was also making regular anarchic appearances on the Terry Wogan-era Blankety Blank, and becoming a chat show regular, while the BBC1 series would also get a summer repeat on BBC2.

There would only be one musical act each week this time around, but they would be in the studio with him. Big name music acts like The Police and U2 appeared on the show such was the respect the music industry had for Everett. Kenny himself became a chart star with Snot Rap, which took him into the UK top ten in 1983 and featured the characters Sid Snot and Cupid Stunt, while the show’s theme Electro People, performed by seventies hit-makers Fox, was a minor hit.

It was during the taping of one sketch where he, dressed as Quasimodo, was held aloft by the lighting gantry at Television Centre roasting for over half an hour that he decided that it was enough and decided to quit the show.

He would however return to Television Centre a few months later in June 1988 for Brainstorm, a science-based quiz show, followed by another, Gibberish. These would be his last series for TV as his progressing illness made television appearances too tiring, although he continued on Capital Radio's oldies station until a few months before his death.