Dick Emery

[BillySmartsC]

Dick Emery - Died 1983.

Huge in the UK in the 60's 70's and into the 1980's mainly due to his long running light entertainment "The Dick Emery Show" which consisted of mainly short sketches, with Dick playing a vast number of regular characters. Almost as much an institution as "The Morecambe & Wise Show" I'd say. Though personally, I liked Dick Emery better.

Catchphrases of his may characters included "Ooh you are awful.....but I like you!"

He was also big on the wireless in comedy shows, and had a go at singing aswell. I've got the LP shown in the picture. Not a great cover though, the dog looks as if it has recently been hit by a car.

More info at -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Emery

[TaupinJohn]

Yeah, you know (and yes, yes I DO seem to begin every post this way... no idea why!)

This man, though... he was an absolute trip! I don't think comedy would be easy to perform, but this guy, if it got a laugh, he went there. And I respect comedians like that. They know the audience is sometimes laughing with them and sometimes AT them. And they don't care, because they're laughing and that's what they love to hear. Just seeing him in a woman's getup (and I saw that a lot!) made me laugh. Real comedy isn't a 30-minute sitcom with canned laugher (in fact, the canned laugher is insulting, as though "they" were trying to let me know when to laugh.) Real comedy is (to me) inventive, sparing nothing for the laughs, and a kind of brilliant way of knowing what makes people actually laugh. And Dick Emery did every one of those things, and I loved him for that. And I've got got a real respect for those kinds of people.

And yeah, I remember "Mandy" and the "Ooh, you're awful..." thing... always, always lifted my mood. And that's why I value people who do what he did: it makes my world a better place by putting my mind in a better place.

I sincerely hope that he, too, is in a better place. Kudos to BillySmartsC for this post. Brought back a lot of memories, and every one of them good. I remember he played the role of a sex-hungry woman once, and it just struck me as terribly funny. And I do love a dose of funny!

Godspeed, funny guy, and I hope, through threads like this one, your outstanding work will never be forgotten.

[erictheking97]

I use to love the father and son sketch with Roy Kinnear, bless them both

[BillySmartsC]

I use to love the father and son sketch with Roy Kinnear, bless them both

Yeah it was good and always ended - "Dad, I fink I got it wrong again...". Great.

[oldsweat]

There were a few rumours around at the time concerning Dick after he died.
One was that Dicks ashes were hidden in a Nescafe jar by his girlfriend because of a dispute with Dicks family. The story goes ( as detailed in the womans autobiography ) that a visiting Freddie Starr ( another well known British comedian of the time) helped himself to a cup of coffee, and you can guess the rest. Starr denied the story, but then he did eat a hamster!
I also remember a scandel in the news at the time where I think an undertaker was accused of inappropriate/misuse of Dicks corpse. I think it was found in a garage but cant remember the full story, can any one else remember this?