THE death of Barry Cryer at the age of 86 has left the comedy world in mourning – but as ever, he will have the last laugh.
Several years ago the legendary funnyman whose career spanned six decades revealed he had planned his own humanist funeral with a typically witty epitaph.
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He said: “I’ll pop up on a screen saying, ‘I know where you’re all going later — the pub! But I’m off for a drink with Eric Morecambe and Tommy Cooper’. I want my ashes scattered in the garden of my local pub.”
It’s a fitting end for the comedy genius from the golden era of gags, who wrote for Morecambe and Wise, the Two Ronnies, Jack Benny, Bob Hope and Bruce Forsyth, among many others.
To Radio 4 listeners he was the quick-witted, avuncular regular on comedy panel show I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, barely missing an episode from 1972 to his final appearance last year.
Yesterday, in a moving statement, his family confirmed that Barry had died in Northwick Park Hospital, near his Middlesex home on Tuesday.
Joking to the end, he had had the staff in stitches with a cheeky gag about the Archbishop of Canterbury, they revealed.
The family paid tribute to the “loving husband” to Terry, his wife of 60 years, and “gentle father” to children Tony, Dave, Jack and Bob, as well as grandad to seven grandchildren and great-grandad to one.
Although he hated the term “national treasure” — saying it made him feel like something that had been dug up — Barry was a friend and mentor to many in the entertainment industry, frequently phoning the names in his extensive little black book to tell them a joke.
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Yesterday a host of big names paid tribute, with Stephen Fry calling him “one of the absolute greats of British comedy, a glorious, gorgeous, hilarious and gifted writer and performer who straddled all the comic traditions. Universally beloved.”
Jack Dee, host of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, tweeted: “British comedy just lost its greatest curator and archivist.
“Thoughts are with Terry and all his family. RIP Baz.”
Sandi Toksvig said: “I loved him beyond all measure,” adding, “I doubt he’ll rest in peace. If there is an audience in heaven, Barry will be playing to them.”
Despite a stellar career which saw him become one of the biggest names in TV and radio comedy, Barry remained one of the most down-to-earth figures in entertainment.
He never moved from the Middlesex home he bought shortly after marrying West End singer and dancer Terry in 1962.
One of the absolute greats of British comedy, a glorious, gorgeous, hilarious and gifted writer and performer who straddled all the comic traditions. Universally beloved
Stephen Fry
Born in Leeds, he suffered tragedy at the age of five when his dad Carl died from meningitis — a fact that he learned in a brutal fashion.
“My mum told me he was ill in hospital, but he’d actually died,” he once told the Daily Mail.
“I found out when a kid at my school in Leeds said, ‘Your dad’s dead’ — and I punched him.”
Barry said his greatest regret was not knowing his dad, who his mum Jean rarely mentioned.
He added: “I only have one or two memories of him, like us building an Airfix model plane, which I flew straight into the fire.”
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Barry, a former Leeds Grammar School pupil, dropped out of university when an agent saw him cracking jokes in a student revue and he landed his first gig, on the variety show The Good Old Days at the Leeds City Varieties Theatre.
But a constant battle with chronic eczema, which saw him hospitalised 12 times in eight years, meant he was sacked from the show, and he turned his hand to comedy writing rather than performing.
He has put his recovery from the debilitating skin condition down to meeting future wife Terry in a Piccadilly nightclub in 1960.
“I was smitten from when I first caught sight of her,” he told Reader’s Digest magazine.
He was suffering an intense bout of eczema at the time and added: “When Terry first met me, I had dark glasses on and a coat buttoned up to the chin.
“She thought, ‘Oh God! Who’s this one? He looks a bit weird’.
“But I was only in hospital with it once more after meeting her. Not a co-incidence, I think.”
One of Barry’s first writing gigs was for entertainer and female impersonator Danny La Rue, and it was in La Rue’s London club that a 1963 meeting with TV host and satirist David Frost changed his life.
I’ll pop up on a screen saying, ‘I know where you’re all going later — the pub! But I’m off for a drink with Eric Morecambe and Tommy Cooper’. I want my ashes scattered in the garden of my local pub.
Barry Cryer
Barry said: “I was with Ronnie Corbett and David asked us to work on (his show) The Frost Report. I was catapulted to writing full-time for TV.”
Barry’s co-writers on the show included future Monty Python stars John Cleese and Graham Chapman, and he went on to provide material for many of his fellow comedians, including Les Dawson, Tommy Cooper, Spike Milligan and Frankie Howerd, as well as DJ Kenny Everett.
He often preferred to work in partnerships, forming writing teams at various times with Tim Brooke-Taylor, Willie Rushton and John Junkin — who he worked with on the legendary Morecambe and Wise Christmas shows. He also had a long friendship with Everett co-writer Ray Cameron — Michael McIntyre’s dad — who took his own life at 57.
While working behind the scenes, Barry satisfied his need to perform with extensive radio work, including sketch show Hello Cheeky and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, and touring in stage shows such as Two Old Farts In The Night, with Willie Rushton, and his solo show That Reminds Me.
From 1969 to 1974 he hosted ITV comedy panel game Jokers Wild, and most recently he indulged his love of classic gags with the Sky TV show Comedy Legends.
No matter how big a name he became, Barry was a generous mentor to up-and-coming acts.
I wrote to him when I was setting out in stand-up comedy in 1986. To my great surprise, he phoned me up at home and gave me many words of encouragement. Top bloke.
Dave Ainsworth
In a tweet that summed up his kindness, comedy writer Dave Ainsworth wrote: “RIP Barry Cryer. I wrote to him when I was setting out in stand-up comedy in 1986.
“To my great surprise, he phoned me up at home and gave me many words of encouragement. Top bloke.”
Barry lived by the motto “Never lose touch with Silly”, which he borrowed from his great hero, jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton — the original host of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue — and he lived up to it in everything he did.
A devoted family man, he said the happiest moment of his life was the birth of his first son Tony, now 48.
In a recent interview, Barry said: “We had a small family do at our home the other weekend.
“There were 15 people in the room and I loved it. The laughter and noise of your own family is a joy.”
In their touching tribute released yesterday, his family wrote: “Dad was a talented comedy writer and comedian in a particularly golden vintage.
“Incidentally, he never really liked the terms ‘comedy writer’ or ‘comedian’, instead preferring ‘hack’ and ‘enter-tainer’ . . . He was, in his words, arrogant in his humility.”
They added: “He had a talent for friendship (as anyone who still has a landline will testify) and a genius for putting people at ease.
“Oh yes. And he made people laugh. A lot. Over many years.”
Today, for those who knew and loved Barry, or just loved him, there will be tears — but not without a lot of laughter.
He wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
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Barry Cryer dead – Much-loved comedian dies aged 86 as heartfelt tributes pour in
