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Emrys

(8,698 posts)

7. The late great Dave Allen, sorely missed

Reply to Sogo (Original post)

Fri Jun 27, 2025, 12:17 AM

Jun 27

He was actually Irish.

He had long-running TV series in the UK. He was a fabulous raconteur, regularly pillorying the madness of politics and the oddities of the Catholic faith. One sketch which involved "The Pope" doing a striptease on some church steps excited disapproval in some quarters. Lots of other sketches and performances of his can be found on YouTube. Here's one from 1971:

His "standup" sections (he always sat in a leather swivel chair with whiskey and cigarette in hand) were interspersed with filmed sketches like the one in the OP, usually very funny with a regular talented cast of supporting actors.

He was also a deep thinker, and fronted a thought-provoking TV series, In Search of the Great English Eccentric. Here's one episode: