Kenny Everett
Biography
Popular DJ, born Maurice Cole on Christmas Day, 1944. His first radio experience was a show on the pirate station Radio London, from which he was sacked after making disparaging comments about an American evangelical show the station carried. After a brief spell at Radio Luxembourg, he joined the BBC as one of the original Radio 1 DJs. He got himself sacked from this as well (and was replaced with an exciting young talent by the name of Noel Edmonds), but was later reinstated. In 1973 he jumped ship to join the newly-formed Capital Radio, and presented its breakfast show for six years.
His wacky persona also came across well on television, with his main showcases being The Kenny Everett Video Show for Thames (1978-80) and The Kenny Everett Television Show for the BBC (1981-7). He even had a top ten hit single, "Snot Rap" (the 12" even came on green vinyl) featuring his characters Sid Snot and Cupid Stunt. One of Kenny's main writers on his TV shows was Barry Cryer.
His game show credits came toward the end of his career, and with failing health he went into semi-retirement in the late 1980s. He died in 1995.
Trivia
His real name was Maurice Cole.
His main catchphrase was, "It's all done in the best possible taste!" - somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
Everett appeared memorably many times as a guest panellist on Blankety Blank. His many antics on the show included famously snapping Terry Wogan's microphone in half, dancing around with one of the show's hopeless prizes - a mug tree - and breaking half the mugs, surprise, surprise, producing a packet of Spanish peanuts called 'Bum' - and also holding up a huge, placard-sized 'Ready' card while the other panellists held up standard-sized versions. Wogan actually believed that Everett helped the show to take off.
Books / Tapes
Kenny Everett and Me by Cleo Rocos and Richard Topping
