Kenny Everett (born Maurice James Christopher Cole; 25 December 1944 – 4 April 1995) was an English radio DJ and television comedian, known for his zany comedic style.
After spells working on pirate radio and Radio Luxembourg in the mid-1960s, Everett was one of the first DJs to join newly created BBC Radio 1 in 1967, where he developed the comedic voices and characters which he later adapted for television. He was dismissed from the BBC in 1970 after making a flippant comment on air after a news item concerning a government minister's wife. He was later reinstated at the BBC, working both on local and national radio. In 1973, when commercial radio became licensed in the UK, he joined Capital Radio.
In the late 1970s, moving to television, he made numerous comedy series, notably The Kenny Everett Video Show on ITV from 1978 to 1981, and The Kenny Everett Television Show on the BBC from 1981 to 1988, often appearing with Cleo Rocos, whose glamour and curvaceous figure were often used to comic effect. He was a highly versatile performer, able to write his own scripts and compose jingles in addition to operating advanced recording and mixing equipment. His personality made him a regular guest on chat shows and game shows such as Blankety Blank. In 2006, the British public ranked him number 45 in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars.
Everett supported the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher and made a public appearance at the Young Conservatives conference in 1983. As a gay man, he was criticised for supporting a Conservative government which enacted Section 28, a clause of the Local Government Act which made it illegal for councils to promote gay rights. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1989, developed AIDS in 1993, and died in 1995.
Early life and education Maurice James Christopher Cole was born on Christmas Day 1944 at 14 Hereford Road in Seaforth.
His family was Roman Catholic and he attended St Bede's, the local secondary modern school, in Crosby (now part of Sacred Heart Catholic College). He later attended a junior seminary at Stillington, North Yorkshire, with an Italian missionary order, the Verona Fathers, where he was a choirboy.
Radio
Radio London, Radio Luxembourg and BBC Radio 1 During 1963 he sent copies of his short, home-produced radio shows to Tape Recording Magazine, and they suggested sending a tape to the BBC. "The Maurice Cole Quarter of an Hour Show" led to an appearance, in May 1964, as a guest on the BBC Home Service show "Midweek", and a few weeks later to an audition at Broadcasting House. Nerves got the better of him, and it didn't lead to a job offer, but they suggested he send a tape to the producers looking for presenters for the soon to be launched pirate station Radio London. Everett then began his broadcasting career, on 25 December 1964 (his 20th birthday), as a DJ for Radio London. Before taking to the airwaves, he was advised to change his name to avoid legal problems. He adopted the name "Everett" from a childhood hero, the American comic actor Edward Everett Horton.
Everett and Dave Cash teamed for the Kenny & Cash Show, one of the most popular pirate radio programmes. His offbeat style and likeable personality quickly gained him attention, but in November 1965 he was dismissed after some outspoken remarks about religion on air. Like most of the pirate stations, Radio London carried sponsored American evangelical shows and Everett's disparaging remarks about The World Tomorrow caused its producers to threaten to withdraw their lucrative contract with the station. After a spell at Radio Luxembourg, and another dismissal, Everett returned to Radio London in June 1966. He accompanied The Beatles on their August 1966 tour of the United States, sending back daily reports for Radio London.
Johnny Beerling, a BBC producer, secretly visited Radio London in February 1967, and observed Everett at work: "I saw this man Everett doing everything. In the old way of doing things, the DJ sat in one room with a script. Someone else played the records and somebody else controlled the sound. Yet I see this man who has control of everything." An audition tape submitted to the BBC was assessed in March 1967 by a panel: Member one: 'A pseudo-American voice. Sounds experienced and seems to fancy his luck. Yes.' Member two: 'By far the most original of the young DJs. I found the stilted bits in bad taste but with suitable restraint and encouragement, Kenny Everett could be one of the BBC's best DJs. Yes.' Member three: 'Without the hard sell and the occasional phoney American accent, a good pop DJ. Must be made to curb the funnies and the voices. Yes.' Member four: 'I found the continuous changes of voices irritating and his personality supercilious but he certainly has some talent. Should be available but would need very firm production. Yes.'
Everett was heard in May 1967 on the BBC's soon to be discontinued BBC Light Programme previewing the Beatles' forthcoming album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He later produced their 1968 and 1969 Christmas records.
Everett was one of the DJs on the new pop music station Radio 1 from its launch at the end of September 1967. While at Radio 1, he continued to develop his distinctive presentation style, encouraged by producer Angela Bond, who had persuaded her superiors to give him his first programme,Obituary: Angela Bond, The Daily Telegraph, 24 March 2013. although he later reacted against her as a representative of the BBC. Everett's Radio 1 show featured zany voices, comical characters, multi-tracked jingles and trailers, all of his own creation and compilation. It was Everett who had persuaded Johnny Beerling and station controller Robin Scott, at a lunch meeting before his appointment, of the importance of the new station having jingles. Everett's shows on Radio 1 included Midday Spin and in late 1967 he took over his own show on Sunday mornings from 10 am to noon.
In July 1968, Everett briefly took over a daily show for Radio 1, entitled Foreverett. This went out from 6.45 to 7.30 pm on a Monday to Friday evening. At the time, this was becoming a gruelling schedule for Everett, so in early 1969 he took over a Saturday show from 10 am to noon.
In 1970, Everett again found himself dismissed, this time after suggesting on air that Mary Peyton, the British Transport Minister's wife, had bribed her driving test examiner. The remark was a spontaneous quip, following a news item describing how Peyton had finally passed after many attempts. The BBC thought the comment "indefensible", although shortly before the incident Everett had given a controversial interview with Melody Maker contrary to a BBC embargo preventing him from giving interviews. In negotiations with the record companies and the Musicians' Union over needle time, a limit on the playing on-air of commercially recorded music, the MU representatives would complain about Everett, the one BBC broadcaster who persistently mocked them. In the year after Everett's death, it was stated that the bribery quip was merely an excuse and that the real reason was because he threatened to go public on the restrictive practices and deals with the Musicians' Union that were not only frustrating him and his listeners, but also making Radio One much less popular than the pirate stations it had been set up to displace.
Following an interview on the BBC Radio Solent children's show Albert's Gang, Everett submitted weekly shows to the station that he had pre-recorded at home. This afforded the BBC the opportunity to vet the shows before broadcast. Everett was then heard on various BBC local radio stations before being reinstated at Radio 1 in April 1973. Here he recorded a weekly show from his home in Llandovery, Wales and it went out at 1:00 on a Sunday afternoon.
Capital Radio During this time, legislation had been passed allowing the licensing of commercial radio stations in the UK. One of the first, Capital Radio, began broadcasting to London and the home counties in October 1973. Everett joined the station and was given a weekend (recorded) show, where he further developed his distinctive ideas. From January 1974, following poor audience figures which in turn followed a difficult start for Capital during a time of industrial strife, the station changed to a more pop-based, rather than light music, format, with Everett presenting the breakfast show with his former colleague and friend from the pirate station Radio London (Big L) days, Dave Cash, and so reactivating the "Kenny and Cash" show. When Cash moved to the lunchtime slot in 1975, Everett continued alone on the breakfast show. Everett had a great love of sound recording equipment, in particular using reel-to-reel tape recorders and mixing equipment, often adding sound-on-sound to his recordings and stereo/multi-track recordings of his pseudo-singing voice. These were broadcast on air regularly and he often created his own radio jingles. Everett created many comedy characters on The Breakfast Show with Cash on Capital.
In May 1975, Everett found early mornings too much for his lifestyle and he vacated the breakfast show to Graham Dene and moved to less high-pressure weekend timeslots at Capital on Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes. Here he further developed his style, and featured both what he thought the best in music (Queen, Chris Rainbow) and the worst, which led to the popular Kenny Everett's World's Worst Record Show programmes, later released as an album in 1978, with slightly different tracks.
In 1975, Everett played a pivotal role in getting Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" released as a single. In 1976, he also presented a pre-recorded programme on Saturday lunch-time for Radio Victory in Portsmouth, later providing Captain Kremmen to the station for transmission in Dave Christian's late show. The series was also heard on Beacon Radio in the Midlands.
BBC Radio and back to Capital On 5 February 1980, Everett made his only appearance on the BBC Radio 4 show Just a Minute, where he spoke on the subject of marbles for 90 seconds. The extended improvisation was imposed by Nicholas Parsons as a practical joke.
In October 1981, Everett returned to BBC Radio, this time on Radio 2, on Saturdays from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 pm. The show ended in December 1983, a couple of weeks after he made a risqué on-air joke about Margaret Thatcher
Everett returned to Capital Radio in June 1984, reviving his Saturday lunchtime show. In May 1985, he was called in to replace Graeme Garden for one episode of the Radio 4 game show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. After Capital split its frequencies in 1988, he returned to daily broadcasting on Capital Gold, as part of a strong presenting line-up including Tony Blackburn and David Hamilton. Everett presented daytime shows on weekdays until 1994, when his health deteriorated to the point he was unable to continue. During that same year, he was awarded the Special Gold Award at Sony's Radio Academy Awards for his contribution to radio.
Timeline Kenny & Cash Show, Radio London, 1964–65 Kenny Everett Audio Show, Radio Luxembourg, 1966 Midday Spin, BBC Radio 1, 1967 Kenny Everett Radio Show, BBC Radio 1, Sundays 10 am - noon, December 1967 - June 1968 Foreverett, BBC Radio 1, Monday to Friday 6.45 p.m. – 7.30 pm, 22 July 1968 – 6 December 1968 Everett is Here, BBC Radio 1, Saturdays 10 a.m. – noon, 25 January 1969 – 18 July 1970 Kenny Everett Radio Show, BBC Local Radio, 1971 Kenny Everett Radio Show, BBC Radio 1, Sundays 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.,1973 Kenny Everett Radio Show Capital Radio, Late 1973 Breakfast Show, Capital Radio, 1974–75 Kenny Everett Audio Show/Cassette, Capital Radio, 1975–1980 Kenny Everett Audio Show/Cassette, Radio Victory, 1975–76 Captain Kremmen, Capital Radio, Radio Victory, 1976–80 (episodes repeated later on Capital Gold) Kenny Everett Radio Show, BBC Radio 2, Saturdays 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., 1981–1983