When Edna met Andrew
28th December 2023
I’ve had a wonderful ‘money can’t buy’ Christmas present this year - an appearance on a BBC Radio 2 tribute to the late and brilliant Barry Humphries. I’ve been a fan of Dame Edna Everage’s alter ego for as long as I can remember, first on the TV and - more recently - on his first love, the radio. We all know the glamorous, caustic matriarch of Moonee Ponds. But Barry’s fabulous R2 programmes “Barry Humphries Forgotten Musical Masterpieces” introduced us to his eclectic musical passions and inspiration. Anyone who saw him live, which I did most recently at Leeds Grand Theatre in 2014, will know that he had a wonderful way with the audience. The start of his professional career in the UK in the late 50s came at the end of the era of music hall and drew lots from it, not least the intimacy and interaction he could magic up in the biggest of venues. Seeing him at The Grand almost a decade ago made me feel as connected if he’d been on stage at the Leeds City Varieties across the road. This is what I wrote in my diary for Tuesday 25th February 2014:
“Superb performance by Barry Humphries, who’s 80. Sir Les Patterson and Sandy Stone in first half; Dame Edna second. Rude, knowing, a real affection for and from his audience. Superb. A privilege to be there. At times difficult to watch. Real pathos.”
Sandy Stone wasn’t as well known as spitting Sir Les, Australia's cultural attaché, but - that night - this ‘decent man from the suburbs’ (as Sir John Betjeman apparently described him) brought tears to my eyes. The 'Eat, Pray, Laugh’ tour was billed as Barry’s farewell, but was anything but. Still, we knew we were watching a now old man (though still on top of his game) truly living a character he first wrote about in his early twenties. I lost my Dad the following year and seeing this gentle, dull man (Sandy, not my Dad!) in the twilight of his suburban life was astonishingly poignant.
My friend and colleague Hilary Robinson, a wonderful radio producer and author, knew I was a fan of Barry Humphries. She also knew that, in the 90s, I’d met him for an hour - interviewing him, or rather her, for the BBC Radio Leeds show ‘Real Lives’. Barry came to our studios on Woodhouse Lane as a middle aged man meeting a then young Andrew. He insisted that I would be be speaking to Dame Edna throughout, despite appearances. I found the mismatch between voice and person surprisingly difficult to navigate, not least because I was rather overawed and nervous. Barry was polite, professional and insistent that Dame Edna’s manager (ie Barry) would NOT be available for interview.
A few months ago Hilary put the wonderful, creative producer Clair Wordsworth in touch with me. She’d worked with Barry on the previous BBC Radio 2 shows and was planning another series at the time of his unexpected death. Her tribute to Barry Humphries, narrated by another of my radio heroes, Steve Wright, is a glorious, illuminating and at times rather sad listen. I’m chuffed to bits that she included my thoughts about Sandy Stone. Sit back and enjoy. I pop up about 45 minutes in: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001ttqj
