Dave Allen (comedian)
Encyclopedia
David Tynan O'Mahoney better known as Dave Allen, was an Irish
comedian
, very popular in Great Britain
, Australia
, and Canada
in the 1960s and 1970s. He also became known in the United States
through repeats of his shows on public television. His career had a major resurgence during the late 1980s and early 1990s. At the height of his career he was Britain's most controversial comedian, regularly provoking conservative indignation at his frequent highlighting of political hypocrisy and his disregard for religious authority.
Allen's act was typified by his relaxed, rueful and intimate style; he would sit on a high bar stool facing his audience, smoking and occasionally sipping from a glass of what he always allowed people to assume was whisky
, but in fact was merely ginger ale
with ice. Literally and metaphorically, he was a sober-minded man who, though sometimes appearing deliberately crotchety and irritable on stage, always gave off an air of charm and serene melancholy both in his act and in real life. Each day he would pore over the newspapers, constantly scribbling notes and ideas which he then expanded for his routines.
He was a religious skeptic (according to Allen himself, "what you might call a practising atheist", and often joked "I'm an atheist, thank God") as a result of his deeply held objections to the rigidity of his strict Catholic schooling. Consequently, religion became an important subject for his humour, especially the Roman Catholic Church
and the Church of England
, generally mocking church customs and rituals rather than beliefs. In 1998 he stated "The hierarchy of everything in my life has always bothered me. I'm bothered by power. People, whoever they might be, whether it's the government, or the policeman in the uniform, or the man on the door - they still irk me a bit. From school, from the first nun that belted me - people used to think of the nice sweet little ladies ... they used to knock the fuck out of you, in the most cruel way that they could. They'd find bits of your body that were vulnerable to intense pain - grabbing you by the ear, or by the nose, and lift you, and say 'Don't cry!' It's very hard not to cry. I mean, not from emotion, but pain. The priests were the same. And I sit and watch politicians with great cynicism, total cynicism."
At the end of his act Allen would always raise his glass and quietly toast
his audience with the words "Goodnight, thank you, and may your God go with you", an original and inclusive catchphrase that typified Allen's amiable style.
Along with his seated stand-up
routines, his television shows were interspersed with filmed sketch comedy
.
Highly regarded in Britain, Allen's comic technique and style had a lasting influence on many young British comedians. His targets were often figures of authority, his style was observational rather than gag-driven, and his language frequently ripe; he was a progenitor for the "alternative" comedians of the 1980s. In Ireland, however, he always remained somewhat controversial because of his mocking of the Catholic Church.
, Dublin, Ireland
, the son of Cully Tynan O'Mahoney, managing editor of The Irish Times
, and an English mother, David O'Mahoney left school aged sixteen, after attending the secondary schools Newbridge College
, Terenure College
and the Catholic University School
and followed his father into journalism
. He joined the Drogheda Argus as a copy-boy, and went to London
, aged nineteen. He drifted through a series of jobs before becoming a Butlins
Redcoat
at Skegness
in a troupe that also included the British jazz trumpeter and writer John Chilton
, and hosting pop music shows. At the end of the summer season, he did stand-ups at strip clubs and for the next four years he appeared in night clubs, theatres and working men's clubs. When entertainment work was slow he sold toys in a Sheffield
store and also worked as a door-to-door draught-excluder salesman.
He changed his stage surname to "Allen" on the prompting of his agent, who believed that few English people would be able to pronounce "O'Mahoney" correctly.
Allen had lost the top of his left index finger above the middle knuckle, after catching it in a machine cog. However, he enjoyed telling many differing stories as to how that happened and this became a minor part of his act. One version was that his brother John had surprised him by snapping his jaw shut when they were children, resulting in him biting it off. Another was that it was done deliberately to avoid National Service. A further explanation he gave on his programme Dave Allen at Large was that he often stuck his finger in his whisky glass and it had been eaten away by "strong drink". He also said the cause was repeated brushing down the dust from his suit with his hand causing the finger to be worn away. One of his memorable stand-up jokes was that, when he was a boy, he and his friends would go see a cowboy
movie at the local theatre, then come out all ready to play "Cowboys and Indians". Staring down at his truncated finger, he'd mutter, "I had a sawn-off shotgun." On his show he told a long, elaborate ghost story
, ending with "something evil" attacking Allen in a dark and haunted house. Allen grabbed and bit the attacker, the studio lights came back up, and it was his own left hand.
Allen had his first television appearance on the BBC
talent show New Faces in 1959. In early 1962 he was the compère of a pop music tour of England headlined by Helen Shapiro
that also included The Beatles
, then little known. In 1962 he also toured South Africa
with American vaudeville
star Sophie Tucker
, whom he described as "one of the most charming and delightful performers with whom I have ever worked". Tucker was impressed with him and suggested to him that he tried his luck in Australia. Moving there, he worked with Digby Wolfe
on Australian TV, becoming Wolfe's resident comedian.
While on tour in Australia in 1963, he quickly proved successful and accepted an offer to headline a television talk show with Channel 9
, Tonight with Dave Allen, which was very popular. However, only six months after his television début he was banned from the Australian airwaves when, during a live broadcast, he told his show's producer — who had been pressing him to go to a commercial break — to "go away and masturbate" so that he could continue an entertaining interview with Peter Cook
and Dudley Moore
. The ban was dropped quietly when Allen's popularity continued unabated.
In 1964 he married actress Judith Stott, whom he had met whilst in Australia. The marriage ended in divorce in 1983. Their son, Edward James O'Mahoney (professionally Ed Allen), is also a comedian.
Allen returned to the United Kingdom in 1964 and made a variety of appearances on ITV
, including The Blackpool Show, Val Parnell
's Sunday Night at the London Palladium
and on the BBC
on The Val Doonican Show
. In 1967 Allen hosted his own comedy/chat series, Tonight with Dave Allen, which earned him the Variety Club's
ITV
Personality of the Year Award. He signed with the BBC
in 1968 and appeared on The Dave Allen Show, a variety/comedy sketch series. This was followed, 1971–79, by Dave Allen at Large, which introduced his trademark solo joke-telling-while-sitting-on-a-stool-and-drinking routine. This standup routine by Allen led to handsomely mounted sketches that continued the themes touched on in the preceding monologues.
Allen's trademark satirising of religious ritual, especially Catholic, throughout each episode caused minor controversy, which coupled with sometimes comparatively frank material, earned the show a risqué reputation. In 1977, the Irish state television network RTE
placed a de facto
ban on Allen. Routines included sketches showing the pope (played by Allen himself) and his cardinals doing a striptease to music on the steps of St Peter's
, aggressive priests beating their parishioners and other priests, priests who spoke like Dalek
s through electronic confessionals, and an extremely excitable pope who spoke in a Chico Marx
style accent as he ordered Allen to "getta your bum outta Roma!" New seasons of the series, renamed Dave Allen in 1981, were made until 1990. In the same period, Allen also made The Dave Allen Show in Australia (1975–1977) for his old employers, Channel 9 in Australia.
His final series for the BBC in 1990 caused considerable controversy because of the strong language that Allen used freely (in contrast to all his earlier BBC series), and his behaviour was even raised in the House of Commons. In 1993, he returned to ITV, where he starred in the Dave Allen show, which was to be his final regular television series.
By the late 1990s Allen was in semi-retirement, though he made occasional chat show appearances and presented the six-part The Unique Dave Allen (BBC, 1998), in which he talked about his career in between clips and extracts from his past series for the BBC
. As he grew older, he brought a rueful awareness of ageing to his material, with reflections on the antics of teenagers and the sagging skin and sprouting facial hair of age. He was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the British Comedy Awards
in 1996.
Allen's hobbies included painting
, which he became increasingly enthusiastic about in his later years. His first exhibition, Private Views, was held in Edinburgh
in 2001.
Allen made several serious television documentaries, including Dave Allen in the Melting Pot (1969), In Search of the Great Eccentrics
(1974) and Eccentrics at Play (1974), all made for ITV
.
He also had a successful stage
career. In 1972 he starred in The Royal Court
's production of Edna O'Brien
's play A Pagan Place, and appeared as both Mr Darling and Captain Hook
in the London Coliseum
's production of Peter Pan
.
In 1979 he played a troubled property man suffering a mid-life crisis in Alan Bennett
's television play One Fine Day.
, west London
, in semi-retirement while enjoying the regular company of his close friends and devoted family. A keen amateur artist, he continued to exhibit his paintings. He had given up cigarettes for several years, which he had smoked regularly during his television appearances in the 1970s.
He died peacefully in his sleep in 2005 at the age of 68. He was survived by Karin O'Mahoney (née Stark), his wife of eighteen months and by his three children from his first marriage, Edward, Jonathan and Jane. Six weeks after his death, Karin gave birth to a son, Callum.
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
, very popular in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in the 1960s and 1970s. He also became known in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
through repeats of his shows on public television. His career had a major resurgence during the late 1980s and early 1990s. At the height of his career he was Britain's most controversial comedian, regularly provoking conservative indignation at his frequent highlighting of political hypocrisy and his disregard for religious authority.
Allen's act was typified by his relaxed, rueful and intimate style; he would sit on a high bar stool facing his audience, smoking and occasionally sipping from a glass of what he always allowed people to assume was whisky
Whisky
Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and corn...
, but in fact was merely ginger ale
Ginger ale
Ginger ale is a carbonated soft drink flavored with ginger. Dr. Thomas Cantrell, an American apothecary and surgeon, claimed to have invented ginger ale and marketed it with beverage manufacturer Grattan and Company. Grattan embossed the slogan "The Original Makers of Ginger Ale" on its bottles...
with ice. Literally and metaphorically, he was a sober-minded man who, though sometimes appearing deliberately crotchety and irritable on stage, always gave off an air of charm and serene melancholy both in his act and in real life. Each day he would pore over the newspapers, constantly scribbling notes and ideas which he then expanded for his routines.
He was a religious skeptic (according to Allen himself, "what you might call a practising atheist", and often joked "I'm an atheist, thank God") as a result of his deeply held objections to the rigidity of his strict Catholic schooling. Consequently, religion became an important subject for his humour, especially the Roman Catholic Church
Humor about Catholicism
The Catholic Church has been a subject for humor, from the time of the Reformation to the present day. Such humor ranges from mild burlesque to vicious satirical attacks...
and the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, generally mocking church customs and rituals rather than beliefs. In 1998 he stated "The hierarchy of everything in my life has always bothered me. I'm bothered by power. People, whoever they might be, whether it's the government, or the policeman in the uniform, or the man on the door - they still irk me a bit. From school, from the first nun that belted me - people used to think of the nice sweet little ladies ... they used to knock the fuck out of you, in the most cruel way that they could. They'd find bits of your body that were vulnerable to intense pain - grabbing you by the ear, or by the nose, and lift you, and say 'Don't cry!' It's very hard not to cry. I mean, not from emotion, but pain. The priests were the same. And I sit and watch politicians with great cynicism, total cynicism."
At the end of his act Allen would always raise his glass and quietly toast
Toast (honor)
A toast is a ritual in which a drink is taken as an expression of honor or goodwill. The term may be applied to the person or thing so honored, the drink taken, or the verbal expression accompanying the drink. Thus, a person could be "the toast of the evening," for whom someone "proposes a toast"...
his audience with the words "Goodnight, thank you, and may your God go with you", an original and inclusive catchphrase that typified Allen's amiable style.
Along with his seated stand-up
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
routines, his television shows were interspersed with filmed sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
.
Highly regarded in Britain, Allen's comic technique and style had a lasting influence on many young British comedians. His targets were often figures of authority, his style was observational rather than gag-driven, and his language frequently ripe; he was a progenitor for the "alternative" comedians of the 1980s. In Ireland, however, he always remained somewhat controversial because of his mocking of the Catholic Church.
Career
Born in FirhouseFirhouse
Firhouse is a small outer suburb of Dublin, in South Dublin County, Ireland, developed from what was historically a rural village. It is located just south of the River Dodder, and is in the postal district of Dublin 24...
, Dublin, Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, the son of Cully Tynan O'Mahoney, managing editor of The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
, and an English mother, David O'Mahoney left school aged sixteen, after attending the secondary schools Newbridge College
Newbridge College
Newbridge College is a co-educational fee-paying secondary school in Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, run by the Dominican Order. The Dominican Fathers founded Newbridge College in 1852 as a boarding school for boys...
, Terenure College
Terenure College
Terenure College is a Carmelites-run secondary school located in the Terenure area of Dublin, Ireland. The College was founded in 1860 and comprises a primary and secondary school. The school is part of the popular culture "Rugby Belt" or Leinster Schools Rugby playing institutions, having a strong...
and the Catholic University School
Catholic University School
Catholic University School is a Roman Catholic secondary school for boys located on the southside of central Dublin, Ireland. It is run by the Marist Fathers.-Origins:...
and followed his father into journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
. He joined the Drogheda Argus as a copy-boy, and went to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, aged nineteen. He drifted through a series of jobs before becoming a Butlins
Butlins
Butlins is a chain of large holiday camps in the United Kingdom. Butlins was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families....
Redcoat
Redcoats (Butlins)
Redcoat is the name given to frontline staff at Butlins holiday camps. A Redcoat may have many duties ranging from adult entertainer or children's entertainer to stewarding.-History:The first Redcoat was Norman Bradford...
at Skegness
Skegness
Skegness is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. Located on the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, east of the city of Lincoln it has a total resident population of 18,910....
in a troupe that also included the British jazz trumpeter and writer John Chilton
John Chilton
John James Chilton is a British jazz trumpeter and writer. During the 1960s he also worked with pop bands, including The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Escorts....
, and hosting pop music shows. At the end of the summer season, he did stand-ups at strip clubs and for the next four years he appeared in night clubs, theatres and working men's clubs. When entertainment work was slow he sold toys in a Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
store and also worked as a door-to-door draught-excluder salesman.
He changed his stage surname to "Allen" on the prompting of his agent, who believed that few English people would be able to pronounce "O'Mahoney" correctly.
Allen had lost the top of his left index finger above the middle knuckle, after catching it in a machine cog. However, he enjoyed telling many differing stories as to how that happened and this became a minor part of his act. One version was that his brother John had surprised him by snapping his jaw shut when they were children, resulting in him biting it off. Another was that it was done deliberately to avoid National Service. A further explanation he gave on his programme Dave Allen at Large was that he often stuck his finger in his whisky glass and it had been eaten away by "strong drink". He also said the cause was repeated brushing down the dust from his suit with his hand causing the finger to be worn away. One of his memorable stand-up jokes was that, when he was a boy, he and his friends would go see a cowboy
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
movie at the local theatre, then come out all ready to play "Cowboys and Indians". Staring down at his truncated finger, he'd mutter, "I had a sawn-off shotgun." On his show he told a long, elaborate ghost story
Ghost story
A ghost story may be any piece of fiction, or drama, or an account of an experience, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them. Colloquially, the term can refer to any kind of scary story. In a narrower sense, the ghost story has...
, ending with "something evil" attacking Allen in a dark and haunted house. Allen grabbed and bit the attacker, the studio lights came back up, and it was his own left hand.
Allen had his first television appearance on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
talent show New Faces in 1959. In early 1962 he was the compère of a pop music tour of England headlined by Helen Shapiro
Helen Shapiro
Helen Kate Shapiro is an English singer and actress. She is best known for her 1960s UK chart toppers, "You Don't Know" and "Walkin' Back to Happiness".-Early life:...
that also included The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, then little known. In 1962 he also toured South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
with American vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
star Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker was a Russian/Ukrainian-born American singer and actress. Known for her stentorian delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first half of the 20th century...
, whom he described as "one of the most charming and delightful performers with whom I have ever worked". Tucker was impressed with him and suggested to him that he tried his luck in Australia. Moving there, he worked with Digby Wolfe
Digby Wolfe
Digby Wolfe is an actor, screenwriter and university lecturer in dramatic writing.Wolfe was born in London, England, and began writing and performing in comedy series in England in the 1950s. Together with Jimmy Wilson he wrote a revue, with music by John Pritchett and Norman Dannatt, for the...
on Australian TV, becoming Wolfe's resident comedian.
While on tour in Australia in 1963, he quickly proved successful and accepted an offer to headline a television talk show with Channel 9
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
, Tonight with Dave Allen, which was very popular. However, only six months after his television début he was banned from the Australian airwaves when, during a live broadcast, he told his show's producer — who had been pressing him to go to a commercial break — to "go away and masturbate" so that he could continue an entertaining interview with Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
and Dudley Moore
Dudley Moore
Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE was an English actor, comedian, composer and musician.Moore first came to prominence as one of the four writer-performers in the ground-breaking comedy revue Beyond the Fringe in the early 1960s, and then became famous as half of the highly popular television...
. The ban was dropped quietly when Allen's popularity continued unabated.
In 1964 he married actress Judith Stott, whom he had met whilst in Australia. The marriage ended in divorce in 1983. Their son, Edward James O'Mahoney (professionally Ed Allen), is also a comedian.
Allen returned to the United Kingdom in 1964 and made a variety of appearances on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, including The Blackpool Show, Val Parnell
Val Parnell
Valentine Charles Parnell , known as Val Parnell, was a British television producer and theatrical impresario.-Life and career:...
's Sunday Night at the London Palladium
Sunday Night at the London Palladium
Sunday Night at the London Palladium is a British television variety show produced by ATV for the ITV network, originally running from 1955 to 1967, with a brief revival in 1973 and 1974...
and on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
on The Val Doonican Show
Val Doonican
Val Doonican is an Irish singer. From 1965 to 1986 he was a regular fixture on the BBC Television's schedule with The Val Doonican Show, which featured his own singing performances and a variety of guest artists...
. In 1967 Allen hosted his own comedy/chat series, Tonight with Dave Allen, which earned him the Variety Club's
Variety, the Children's Charity
Variety, the Children's Charity is an organisation founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October 10, 1927, when a group of eleven men involved in show business set up a social club which they named the "Variety Club". On Christmas Eve 1928, a small baby was left on the steps the Sheridan Square...
ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
Personality of the Year Award. He signed with the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 1968 and appeared on The Dave Allen Show, a variety/comedy sketch series. This was followed, 1971–79, by Dave Allen at Large, which introduced his trademark solo joke-telling-while-sitting-on-a-stool-and-drinking routine. This standup routine by Allen led to handsomely mounted sketches that continued the themes touched on in the preceding monologues.
Allen's trademark satirising of religious ritual, especially Catholic, throughout each episode caused minor controversy, which coupled with sometimes comparatively frank material, earned the show a risqué reputation. In 1977, the Irish state television network RTE
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
placed a de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
ban on Allen. Routines included sketches showing the pope (played by Allen himself) and his cardinals doing a striptease to music on the steps of St Peter's
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, aggressive priests beating their parishioners and other priests, priests who spoke like Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s through electronic confessionals, and an extremely excitable pope who spoke in a Chico Marx
Chico Marx
Leonard "Chico" Marx was an American comedian and film star as part of the Marx Brothers. His persona in the act was that of a dim-witted albeit crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes, and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat.As the first-born of the...
style accent as he ordered Allen to "getta your bum outta Roma!" New seasons of the series, renamed Dave Allen in 1981, were made until 1990. In the same period, Allen also made The Dave Allen Show in Australia (1975–1977) for his old employers, Channel 9 in Australia.
His final series for the BBC in 1990 caused considerable controversy because of the strong language that Allen used freely (in contrast to all his earlier BBC series), and his behaviour was even raised in the House of Commons. In 1993, he returned to ITV, where he starred in the Dave Allen show, which was to be his final regular television series.
By the late 1990s Allen was in semi-retirement, though he made occasional chat show appearances and presented the six-part The Unique Dave Allen (BBC, 1998), in which he talked about his career in between clips and extracts from his past series for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. As he grew older, he brought a rueful awareness of ageing to his material, with reflections on the antics of teenagers and the sagging skin and sprouting facial hair of age. He was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the British Comedy Awards
British Comedy Awards
The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...
in 1996.
Allen's hobbies included painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, which he became increasingly enthusiastic about in his later years. His first exhibition, Private Views, was held in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
in 2001.
Other television and theatrical work
Allen made several serious television documentaries, including Dave Allen in the Melting Pot (1969), In Search of the Great Eccentrics
Eccentricity (behavior)
In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive...
(1974) and Eccentrics at Play (1974), all made for ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
.
He also had a successful stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
career. In 1972 he starred in The Royal Court
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
's production of Edna O'Brien
Edna O'Brien
Edna O'Brien is an Irish novelist and short story writer whose works often revolve around the inner feelings of women, and their problems in relating to men and to society as a whole.-Life and career:...
's play A Pagan Place, and appeared as both Mr Darling and Captain Hook
Captain Hook
Captain James Hook is the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations. The character is a villainous pirate captain of the Jolly Roger brig, and lord of the pirate village/harbour in Neverland, where he is widely feared. Most...
in the London Coliseum
Coliseum Theatre
The London Coliseum is an opera house and major performing venue on St. Martin's Lane, central London. It is one of London's largest and best equipped theatres and opened in 1904, designed by theatrical architect Frank Matcham , for impresario Oswald Stoll...
's production of Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
.
In 1979 he played a troubled property man suffering a mid-life crisis in Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
's television play One Fine Day.
Death
Allen lived quietly in Holland ParkHolland Park
Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...
, west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, in semi-retirement while enjoying the regular company of his close friends and devoted family. A keen amateur artist, he continued to exhibit his paintings. He had given up cigarettes for several years, which he had smoked regularly during his television appearances in the 1970s.
He died peacefully in his sleep in 2005 at the age of 68. He was survived by Karin O'Mahoney (née Stark), his wife of eighteen months and by his three children from his first marriage, Edward, Jonathan and Jane. Six weeks after his death, Karin gave birth to a son, Callum.
External links
- Dave Allen at TV Greats