Celebrated comedy actor John Inman has died. Most famous for his Are You Being Served? character Mr. Humphreys (all right, only famous for his Are You Being Served? character Mr. Humphreys) Inman was also a stalwart of pantomime, playing the Dame on many occasions.He undoubtedly blazed a trail for people like Graham Norton, showing that high camp was funny in a time when approval from audiences ran along the lines of ‘he’s quite funny…for a poof’.
It’s a little known fact that Inman was considered for the Roger Moore role in The Wild Geese. The film’s star Richard Burton had requested Inman personally as he was said to have compared Inman and Molly Sugden’s sparring in the hit BBC show with his and Elizabeth Taylor’s performances in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
In the end Inman decided that the South Africa based shoot would, ‘place havoc with my feet’ and he decided instead to concentrate on the Are You Being Served? feature film. Or maybe all that didn’t happen. Might have.
Seriously though, Inman also made an LP, ‘John Inman With a Bit of Brass’, if you can find it in a charity shop sometime (like a flatmate of mine once did) snap it up, cos it’s absolutely hilarious. In fact you can hear it right now, by downloading the tracks via this site.
1 comment:
Bugger...I'm right in the mood for this having split my sides at 'AYBS' (the film) t'other night, and can't get it.
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