Kenny Everett

Think context is important too in assessing Everett. If you take away the music and his show's original placing on a pop station (possibly bookended by less imaginative DJs) so that all you have is his unadorned chatter then you can't help listening in a more critical way and I agree as foreground listening it doesn't add up to much. The science fiction spoof, in particular, is desperately unfunny.

Nevertheless he was important in the early days of Radio One and a comparatively anarchic figure in that setting (I always felt that the later, rather leaden, "wackiness" of Noel Edmunds in his DJ days was an attempt to emulate him). The Beatles admired him. And Barry Cryer writes with considerable fondness of working with "Ev" on his TV shows - though I have to admit these haven't weathered well either. Suppose you had to be there. But yes, enough already with the Everett-comedy-genius-type programmes. What I'd really love to hear again is a programme originally broadcast on Radio One of highlights of Viv Stanshall deputising for John Peel. Now that would stand up out of context.

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I'm inclined to agree - although for masochistic listeners like me there may, perhaps, be a case for a brief series featuring the best (or worst) bits of the least self-aware Radio One dinosaurs, now lost to local radio or a strange twilit world of bitterness and regret - or both.

I'd like to hear a carefully selected half hour of Dave Lee Travis in his pomp, for example; I used to have a cassette of Radio One bloopers which featured the self-style Hairy Cornflake's "hilarious" snooker quiz. Simon Garfield's book The Nation's Favourite provides background on the ousting of the old guard at Radio One and includes some excerpts from shows including DLT's; it was actually made into a one man show at the Edinburgh Fringe some years ago, though I don't know whether a radio version was ever made.

Going back to Everett, another point to make about the programmes on BBC7 is that, presumably because of availability of tapes in reasonable quality, the excerpts tend not to come from earlier in his career, like the 60s stint at Radio One. And even if those early shows suffer from the same limitations of being isolated from the music and the times a greater case could be made for their historical importance.