Geoffrey Perkins

I first came across his name when listening to The Jason Explanation, a sketch show he produced starring David Jason and Sheila Steafel, on radio in the seventies: when a character had to be named it invariably seemed to be "Perkins". There is an obiturary in the Guardian today, findable here:

www.guardian.co.uk/m...

But the most telling detail comes from Graham Linehan's additional note, reproduced below, which indicates both his foresight and the extent of his influence on Father Ted:

"Geoffrey was the man who found our early Father Ted script, at that time written as a mock-documentary, and suggested we turn it into a sitcom. He was the man who chose the house that became our iconic central location, poring over a pile of location photographs, stabbing it with his finger and saying: 'That's the one.' He also persuaded us to use Neil Hannon's Songs of Love as our theme music.

"This last one was a sticking point for a while. Arthur Matthews and I preferred a song by Neil that would later become A Woman of the World, from the Casanova album. That song was jaunty and silly and to us perfect in that it seemed to be subtly making fun of the form we were working in. 'Why do you want to make fun of your show?' said Geoffrey, finally, looking wounded and worried. 'People will love these characters.'

"I later realised that it was a fork in the road, that discussion, and if we had not travelled the way Geoffrey suggested, we'd have ended up lost - we might never have made it to series three. He gave the show a heart, and gave me, still young, and unsure as to what type of person I should try to become, someone to model myself on. I wish we'd worked together more."

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it is broadcast as part of this series of repeats, The Jason Explanation of Taboos is a particularly good episode, right from the opening seconds, as you will (I hope) hear - I won't give it away. There is also a sketch which takes Victorian prudishness about piano legs as its starting point...

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Not sure whether it's also being discussed elsewhere but here seems a good place to say that the Archive Hour tribute to Geoffrey Perkins was exemplary: a perfect mixture of round table discussion, narration, sound clips, warmth, humour, seriousness. That this was assembled so quickly after his death is a credit to all involved - and the readiness of people to speak is presumably a testament to the affection he inspired.

Right. Pub?