Dave Allen

[excelsior-1]

one of our finest comedians (my humble opinion)

there will be a programme profiling his career on bbc2 monday evening at 2100hrs

i have set my machine to record it

[tearinghair]

I absolutely agree, excelsior-1. I don't think anyone since has got within a mile of him.

[Psybbo]

Thanks Excel, I'll do that too. He remains the best in my opinion x

[excelsior-1]

don't miss the programme, tearinghair

[excelsior-1]

hello Psybbo

always knew you had good taste

[Sam1960]

A fantastic comedian, and I agree he was one of our finest. The sketch where he is trying to tell his young son how to tell the time is priceless.

[Iluvspikey]

Abolutely brilliant man. I remember back a while when I watched TV, there was a programme on the top 100 comedians, and he wasn't mentioned - I switched off and haven't watched TV since! The one thing I find so sad was he never lived long enough to see his baby son born. He already had grown up family, this was with his second wife.

[bensmum]

Thanks for that, he was one of my favourite comedians and I'll make a point of watching

[jim360]

I have his "best of..." DVD. One of my favourite comedians ever.

[murraymints]

Thanks Exc..Will set mine now

[Psybbo]

Hi Excel, I loved his monologues(?) sitting on a chair, cigarette in one hand and a glass of whiskey at his right.

[Anngel]

Thanks for the info. I will take a look. The sketch with the thurifers (flaming handbags to the unitiated) was hysterical to me.

[Tizzi24]

I absolutely loved him, no one to match him imo. Fifty years ago in my youth when I used to go to concerts, he was usually the compere. This was before he became famous and he was hilarious then. It was a real disappointment if he was absent!

[Supermike]

Thanks Excelsior I will enjoy that one hour show. I first saw him when he used to compare pop shows around the country in the early 60's and it was no surprise that he made those very funny comedy shows for TV in the 70's.

He was a great comedian and I wish they could show more of his brilliant shows, but it seems he put a clause in his contract to allow only one repeat. Such a shame.

[LochNessMonster]

Brilliant comedian, missed loads.

May your God go with you. Dave

[Frank97]

Love Dave Allen, spent a very enjoyable evening watching him on Youtube recently, I'd forgotten just how funny he was.

[excelsior-1]

good responses everyone

i hope you all enjoy the programme

[pusskin]

Great comedian. Does any one know how he lost one of his fingers?

[sir.prize]

Caught it in a machine cog

[sir.prize]

and Wiki says:

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 cinema, then come out all ready to play "Cowboys and Indians". Staring down at his truncated finger, he would 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.

[excelsior-1]

Allen lost the top of his left forefinger 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 cinema, then come out all ready to play "Cowboys and Indians". Staring down at his truncated finger, he would mutter, "I had a sawn-off shotgun