Kenneth Horne
The son of a clergyman who was also a politician, Horne had a burgeoning business career with Triplex Safety Glass, which was interrupted by service with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.
A 2002 BBC radio survey to find listeners' favourite British comedian placed Horne third, behind Tony Hancock and Spike Milligan.
[4] Silvester, a powerful orator, was a leading light in the Congregationalist movement, as minister at the Whitefield's Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road from 1903 and, from 1910, chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales.
[9][a] Although he was not strong academically,[11] he developed into a good sportsman, representing the school in rugby and cricket,[12] and during the summer holidays took part in the Public Schoolboys Lawn Tennis Championship at Queen's Club; in his final appearance in 1925 he was knocked out by the future Wimbledon finalist Bunny Austin.
[14][16] He committed himself to the sporting side of life and represented the college at rugby, and in the relay team alongside the future Olympic gold medallist Lord Burghley.
[19] Austin Pilkington was aggrieved at Horne's failure to make the most of the opportunity he had provided, and decided against offering the young man a post in the family firm.
Despite the disappointment, through his contacts within the industry, he secured for the young Horne an interview with the Triplex Safety Glass Company at King's Norton, a district of Birmingham.
Mary applied for an annulment in November 1932; she declared the reason was "the incapacity of the respondent [Charles Kenneth Horne] to consummate the marriage", which was dissolved in 1933, although the two remained on friendly terms thereafter.
911 (County of Warwick) Squadron, a barrage balloon unit in Sutton Coldfield, and was called up into the RAF full-time on the outbreak of war.
[27] In early 1942, the BBC producer Bill McLurg asked whether the RAF station at which Horne was based could put on an edition of his programme Ack-Ack, Beer-Beer.
[33] His work with ORBS brought him into contact with Flight Lieutenant Richard Murdoch, who he jokingly introduced in one broadcast as "the station commander of Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh"; with a great deal in common in their backgrounds and a similar sense of humour, the pair quickly formed a friendship.
[35] Murdoch, a professional actor and entertainer for 12 years before the war, recognised Horne's talent as a performer, and used his contacts to secure him more broadcasting work.
Are you like that all over?Horne: (pause) There's one little place that you really must see when you go to Bermuda, Murdoch... Ack-Ack, Beer-Beer came to an end in February 1944 when the BBC decided to direct their programming at the general armed forces, rather than the barrage balloon crews.
[40] With the coming of peace, the supposed RAF station became a civil airport, and the show continued much as before, written by and starring Horne and Murdoch, with Sam Costa.
Rather than wait to see what other offers of work would come in from the Corporation, Horne and Murdoch signed the comedy to a 35-programme series on Radio Luxembourg between October 1950 and June 1951.
Horne received several attractive job offers, and chose the post of chairman and managing director of the toy manufacturers Chad Valley, where he was a success.
[63] In January 1957 Horne appeared as the compere on the popular Saturday evening comedy and music radio show Variety Playhouse, initially for a run of four months, but soon extended until the end of June.
[64][g] After his work on Variety Playhouse had finished, he and the programme's writers Eric Merriman and Barry Took prepared a script for a pilot episode of a new show, Beyond Our Ken.
[74][75] The first episode was not well received by a sample audience,[76] but the BBC decided to back Horne and his team, and the initial six-week contract was extended to 21 weeks.
They included J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock, the walking slum; the Noël Coward parodies Charles and Fiona; the incompetent villain Dr. Chou En Ginsberg; the folk singer Rambling Syd Rumpo[89] and the "outrageously camp" Julian and Sandy.
[102] Horne died of a heart attack on 14 February 1969, while hosting the annual Guild of Television Producers' and Directors' Awards at the Dorchester hotel in London.
[103] The televised recording of the event omitted the incident, with announcer Michael Aspel explaining, "Mr Horne was taken ill at this point and has since died.
[104][l] After his death, Horne was eulogised in The Times as "a master of the scandalous double-meaning delivered with shining innocence",[101] while The Sunday Mirror called him "one of the few personalities who bridged the generation gap" and "perhaps the last of the truly great radio comics.
His warmth tempered the sharpness of the writing ... To say that everyone loved him sounds like every obituary ever written – nonetheless it's true ... Horne was one of the few great men I have met, and his generosity of spirit and gesture have, in my experience, never been surpassed.
[1] Horne attributed his voice and delivery "to 'the Grace of God', his grandfather Lord Cozens-Hardy, the former Master of the Rolls, and the hard training of being 'a jovial chap among the golf and motoring fraternity'.
"[110] The obituarist for The Times highlighted Horne's "remarkably skilful but very personal comic technique" of playing "a friendly good-natured old buffer who was simply doing his best, apparently lost in wonder, at the glossier, more spectacular talents of those among whom he found himself".
"[113] Williams reported that Horne had a card index mind, "in which there seemed to be stored every funny voice, every dialect, every comedy trick, which he knew that each member of the cast was capable of", and would suggest a change in approach if a line did not work during rehearsals.
Ball also identified that Horne's "stage character, that of a slightly bufferish English gent, was adored by middle- and working-class audiences alike.
[117] A successful stage show called Round the Horne ... Revisited opened in London in October 2003, compiled by Series Four co-writer Brian Cooke from original scripts.
[124] In a 2002 survey conducted by the BBC to find listeners' favourite British comedian, Horne appeared third, behind Tony Hancock and Spike Milligan.
