Heroes of Comedy: Max Miller - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Heroes of Comedy is a British television series broadcast on Channel 4, which devotes each episode to a past legend of British comedy. It was produced by John Fisher. Beginning in 1995, it followed a 2½ hour more general programme from 1992.

Series one

Episode number	Subject	Original air date	Notes
Pilot	Frankie Howerd Frankie Howerd Francis Alick "Frankie" Howerd OBE was an English comedian and comic actor whose career, described by fellow comedian Barry Cryer as "a series of comebacks", spanned six decades.-Early career:...	1 January 1995
1	Tommy Cooper Tommy Cooper Thomas Frederick "Tommy" Cooper was a very popular British prop comedian and magician from Caerphilly, Wales.Cooper was a member of The Magic Circle, and respected by traditional magicians...	13 October 1995
2	Joyce Grenfell Joyce Grenfell Joyce Irene Grenfell, OBE was an English actress, comedienne, diseuse and singer-songwriter.-Early life:...	20 October 1995
3	Max Miller	27 October 1995	Contributions from Bob Monkhouse Bob Monkhouse Robert Alan "Bob" Monkhouse, OBE was an English entertainer. He was a successful comedy writer, comedian and actor and was also well known on British television as a presenter and game show host... and Roy Hudd Roy Hudd Roy Hudd, OBE is an English comedian, actor, radio host and author, and an authority on the history of music hall entertainment.- Early life :... . An animatronic Miller was created for the programme and performed by David Barclay, Mike Quinn and Dave Chapman Dave Chapman Dave Chapman is an English actor, television presenter, puppeteer and voice artist.-Career:Dave Chapman trained at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and The Jim Henson Company... .
4	Arthur Haynes Arthur Haynes Arthur Haynes was an English comedian and star of The Arthur Haynes Show, a comedy sketch series produced by ATV from 1957 until his death from a heart attack in 1966...	3 November 1995
5	Terry-Thomas Terry-Thomas Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...	17 November 1995

Series two

Episode number	Subject	Original air date	Notes
1	Les Dawson Les Dawson Leslie "Les" Dawson was a popular English comedian remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife.-Life and career:...	16 April 1997
2	Kenny Everett Kenny Everett Kenny Everett was an English comedian, radio DJ and television entertainer. Born Maurice James Christopher Cole, Everett is best known for his career as a radio DJ and for the Kenny Everett television shows.-Early life:...	23 April 1997
3	Alastair Sim Alastair Sim Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE was a Scottish character actor who appeared in a string of classic British films. He is best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge, and for his portrayal of Miss Fritton, the headmistress in two St. Trinian's films...	30 April 1997
4	The Goons	7 May 1997	The first group subject and the first where two of the performers covered (Harry Secombe Harry Secombe Sir Harry Donald Secombe CBE was a Welsh entertainer with a talent for comedy and a noted fine tenor singing voice. He is best known for playing Neddie Seagoon, the central character in the BBC radio comedy series The Goon Show... and Spike Milligan Spike Milligan Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the... ) were alive at the time of broadcast

Series three

Episode number	Subject	Original air date
1	Benny Hill Benny Hill Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...	12 January 1998
2	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...	19 January 1998
3	Arthur Askey Arthur Askey Arthur Bowden Askey CBE was a prominent English comedian.- Life and career :Askey was born at 29 Moses Street, Liverpool, the eldest child and only son of Samuel Askey , secretary of the firm Sugar Products of Liverpool, and his wife, Betsy Bowden , of Knutsford, Cheshire...	26 January 1998
4	Tony Hancock Tony Hancock Anthony John "Tony" Hancock was an English actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in...	2 February 1998

Series four

Episode number	Subject	Original air date	Notes
1	Norman Wisdom Norman Wisdom Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, OBE was an English actor, comedian and singer-songwriter best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring his hapless onscreen character Norman Pitkin...	25 September 1999	All subjects in this series were living at the time of broadcast
2	Ken Dodd Ken Dodd Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE is a British comedian and singer songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or “fluff dom” and buck teeth or “denchers”, his favourite cleaner, the feather duster and his greeting "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off “Lots and Lots of Happiness!”...	2 October 1999
3	Eric Sykes Eric Sykes Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...	9 October 1999
4	Thora Hird Thora Hird Dame Thora Hird DBE was an English actress.-Early life and career:Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing...	16 October 1999
5	Barry Humphries Barry Humphries John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...	30 October 1999

Series five

Episode number	Subject	Original air date	Notes
1	Kenneth Williams Kenneth Williams Kenneth Charles Williams was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows, and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.-Life and career:Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February...	7 October 2000	Series examined living and dead performers
2	Bernard Manning Bernard Manning Bernard John Manning was an English comedian and nightclub owner. He was born and raised in Manchester in northwest England....	11 November 2000
3	Ronnie Barker Ronnie Barker Ronald William George "Ronnie" Barker, OBE was a British actor, comedian, writer, critic, broadcaster and businessman...	28 December 2000
4	Leonard Rossiter Leonard Rossiter Leonard Rossiter was an English actor known for his roles as Rupert Rigsby, in the British comedy television series Rising Damp , and Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin...	27 December 2001

Series six

Episode number	Subject	Original air date	Notes
1	Mike Yarwood Mike Yarwood Mike Yarwood, OBE is an English impressionist and comedian. He was one of Britain's top-rated entertainers, regularly appearing on television from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s. He left Bredbury Secondary Modern School in 1956 and worked as a messenger and then salesman at a garment warehouse...	16 February 2002
2	Sid James Sid James Sid James was an English-based South African actor and comedian. He made his name as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour and also starred in the popular Carry On films. He was known for his trademark "dirty laugh" and lascivious persona...	23 February 2002
3	Spike Milligan Spike Milligan Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...	2 March 2002	Previously covered as part of the Goons episode
4	Hattie Jacques Hattie Jacques Josephine Edwina Jaques was an English comedy actress, known as Hattie Jacques.Starting her career in the 1940s, Jacques first gained attention through her radio appearances with Tommy Handley on ITMA and later with Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour...	9 March 2002
5	Ronnie Corbett Ronnie Corbett Ronald Balfour "Ronnie" Corbett, OBE is a Scottish actor and comedian of Scottish and English parentage who had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the British television comedy series The Two Ronnies...	16 March 2002
6	Dick Emery Dick Emery Richard Gilbert "Dick" Emery was an English comedian and actor. Beginning on radio in the 1950s, an eponymous television series ran from 1963 to 1981. He was the brother of Ann Emery.-Life and career:...	13 April 2002

Series seven

Episode number	Subject	Original air date	Notes
1	Max Wall Max Wall Max Wall , was an English comedian and actor, whose performing career covered music hall, theatre, films and television.-Early years:...	2 January 2003

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