Kevin Turvey

Last updated

Kevin Turvey was a British television comedy character, created by actor and comedian Rik Mayall, who featured in the BBC sketch show A Kick Up the Eighties in 1981. [1]

Contents

A Kick Up the Eighties

Turvey, an awkward and socially inept character who spoke with a broad West Midlands accent, was a self-styled "investigative journalist" who still lived with his mother, wore a shapeless blue anorak, fancied a local girl called Theresa Kelly (who was never depicted), and rarely ventured outside his home town of Redditch, north Worcestershire. [2] Each week, his 'investigations' amounted to little more than an over-excited, rambling, uninformed monologue delivered straight to camera, [3] providing absolutely no insight into the subject-matter whatsoever.

The Kevin Turvey segments used as theme music the third movement alla marcia from the Karelia Suite by Sibelius; the first movement, Intermezzo, was the theme of ITV's This Week current affairs programme.

Mayall went uncredited for these appearances, with "Also Featuring: Kevin Turvey" in the end credits rather than his real name. Mayall's then-girlfriend, Lise Mayer, also wrote for these television appearances uncredited. [4] [5]

The Man Behind the Green Door

In 1982 a one-off mockumentary, Kevin Turvey the Man Behind the Green Door was broadcast. In this, a BBC 'fly-on-the-wall' camera crew followed Kevin for a week as he went about his "investigations." Robbie Coltrane played Mick the lodger (who was AWOL from the Army), Ade Edmondson played Kevin's friend Keith Marshall, and Gwyneth Guthrie played Kevin's mum. Roger Sloman appeared as a psychotic park-keeper. Making guest appearances, as part of Kevin's band "20th Century Coyote", were Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron, known as Raw Sex.

Influences

Mayall described Turvey as "an accent and a mood from the West Midlands" where he (Mayall) had grown up (in Droitwich). J. F. Roberts has suggested that Turvey bore some strong similarities to Peter Cook's dullard, know-it-all character E. L. Wisty. [2]

Mayall had previously performed a similar, though slightly differently named, character called 'Kevin Turby', on stage at London's the Comic Strip. Critic Ian Hamilton described Turby's routine:

Kevin's tour de force is a long, intricately plodding monologue about His Average Day. He gets up very late and goes down to Tesco, where he buys some cornflakes, which he then takes home and puts into a plate before sitting down at a table with the flakes in front of him ... etc. 'I was just sitting there eating my cornflakes. I don’t know how many I had had. Fifteen, sixteen, maybe. I wasn’t counting.' [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Blackadder</i> British TV sitcom (1983–1989)

Blackadder is a series of four period British sitcoms, plus several one-off instalments, which originally aired on BBC1 from 1983 to 1989. All television episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as the antihero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick. Each series was set in a different historical period, with the two protagonists accompanied by different characters, though several reappear in one series or another, e.g., Melchett, Lord Percy Percy / Captain Darling and George.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Cook</span> British comedian, actor, satirist (1937–1995)

Peter Edward Cook was an English comedian, actor, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishment comedic movement that emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1950s.

<i>Bottom</i> (TV series) British TV sitcom (1991–1995)

Bottom is a British sitcom created by Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson that ran for three series on BBC2 from 1991 to 1995. It focuses on Richard "Richie" Richard (Mayall) and Edward Elizabeth "Eddie" Hitler (Edmondson), two unemployed, crude, and perverted flatmates living in Hammersmith, London, who aspire to better themselves. Bottom became known for its chaotic, nihilistic humour and violent slapstick comedy. In 2004, Bottom was ranked 45th in a BBC poll for Britain's Best Sitcom.

<i>French and Saunders</i> Television series

French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is also the name by which the performers are known when they appear elsewhere as a double act. The show was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities, and art. French and Saunders continued to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been individually successful starring in other shows.

<i>The Young Ones</i> (TV series) British sitcom

The Young Ones is a British sitcom written by Rik Mayall, Ben Elton, and Lise Mayer, starring Adrian Edmondson, Mayall, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan, and Alexei Sayle, and broadcast on BBC Two for two series, first shown in 1982 and 1984. The show focused on the lives of four dissimilar students and their landlord's family on different plots that often included anarchic, offbeat, surreal humour. The show often included slapstick gags, visual humour and surreal jokes sometimes acted out by puppets, with each episode also featuring a notable selection of guest stars and musical numbers from various performers.

The Comic Strip are a group of British comedians who came to prominence in the 1980s. They are known for their television series The Comic Strip Presents..., which was labelled as a pioneering example of the alternative comedy scene. The core members are Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson and Jennifer Saunders, with appearances by Keith Allen, Robbie Coltrane, Alexei Sayle and others.

Christopher Ryan is a British actor best known for his roles as Mike The Cool Person in the BBC comedy series The Young Ones, Dave Hedgehog in the BBC comedy series Bottom, Tony Driscoll in the BBC comedy series Only Fools and Horses, and as Edina Monsoon's ex-husband Marshall Turtle in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. He has also appeared as the McKendrick twins in One Foot in the Grave, and played Sontaran General Staal in Doctor Who in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rik Mayall</span> English comedian (1958–2014)

Richard Michael Mayall known professionally as Rik Mayall, was an English comedian, actor and writer. He formed a close partnership with Ade Edmondson while they were students at Manchester University, and was a pioneer of alternative comedy in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bad News (band)</span> Fictional English heavy metal band

Bad News are a fictional English heavy metal band created for the Channel 4 television series The Comic Strip Presents.... Its members were Vim Fuego on vocals and lead guitar; Den Dennis on rhythm guitar; Colin Grigson on bass; and Spider "Eight-Legs" Webb on drums. The band continued outside the context of the TV series, with the actors eventually playing a number of live gigs as Bad News, and recording an album and a single that made the UK charts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Allen (comedian)</span> Irish comedian and satirist (1936–2005)

David Tynan O'Mahony, known professionally as Dave Allen, was an Irish comedian, satirist, and actor. He was best known for his observational comedy. Allen regularly provoked indignation by highlighting political hypocrisy and showing disdain for religious authority. His technique and style have influenced young British comedians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Eldon</span> British actor and comedian

Kevin Eldon is an English actor and comedian. He featured in British comedy television shows of the 1990s including Fist of Fun, This Morning with Richard Not Judy, Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Big Train, Brass Eye and Jam. In 2013, Eldon appeared in his own BBC sketch series It's Kevin. He has also appeared in minor speaking roles in the HBO series Game of Thrones.

<i>Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door</i> British comedy film (1987)

Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door is a 1987 comedy film made for British television as part of The Comic Strip Presents... series. It was briefly screened theatrically in late 1987 and was broadcast on Channel 4 on 5 March 1988. It was released on VHS in the late 1980s, and became available on DVD when the entire Comic Strip Presents... series was released as a box set in the UK in June 2005. It has also been repeated occasionally on the Paramount Comedy Channel.

Saturday Live is a British television comedy and music show, made by LWT and initially broadcast on Channel 4 from 1985 to 1988, with a brief revival on ITV in 1996. A few one-off editions have also been screened sporadically, including a contribution to the BBC's 1993 Comic Relief telethon. It was based on the American sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live but otherwise had no direct connection to the show.

20th Century Coyote was an English comedy group famous for first uniting Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall. Formed by Lloyd Peters (lloydpeters.uk) in March 1976 whilst studying B.A. Drama at Manchester University, this improvisatory character-led comedy troupe was to become the resident company at The Band on the Wall in Manchester. Peters recruited fellow thespian student Rik Mayall principally because they shared the same off-beat humour – anarchic slapstick mixed with a large dose of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Two further drama students were press-ganged from the year below and rather late in the day Adrian Edmondson to appear in Coyote's first improv-based comedy entitled Dead Funny (1976). Six other shows followed before an Edinburgh Fringe Festival spin-off. The 40-minute live shows were self-contained narratives based on recognized comedy templates but worked, or more correctly warped, by improvisation and then re-improvised in performance. The shows were often loud, crude and grotesque. The group were important in that, its techniques and the lasting influence of character-led sketch and 'improv' comedy helped shape a distinctive brand of 'alternative comedy' in the 1970s and 1980s and that would soon dominate the comedy mainstream.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Black Seal</span> 6th episode of the 1st series of Blackadder

"The Black Seal" is the sixth and final episode of The Black Adder, the first serial in the BBC Television Blackadder series. Set in late 15th-century England, the episode concludes the alternate history of the last years of the House of York with the final adventure of Prince Edmund, Duke of Edinburgh, son of the fictional King Richard IV. The story follows a conspiracy by Edmund to overthrow the King and seize the Throne of England for himself, assisted by a band of violent mercenaries.

<i>A Kick Up the Eighties</i> Television series

A Kick Up the Eighties was a 1981–1984 BBC 2 comedy sketch show starring Robbie Coltrane, Tracey Ullman, Richard Stilgoe, Miriam Margolyes, Rik Mayall, Ron Bain and Roger Sloman.

<i>Wood and Walters</i> TV series or program

Wood and Walters is a British television comedy sketch show starring Julie Walters and Victoria Wood for Granada Television and written entirely by Wood. The show was short-lived, with one pilot in 1981 and a series of seven shows in 1982.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrian Edmondson</span> English actor, comedian, musician and writer (born 1957)

Adrian Charles Edmondson is an English actor, comedian, musician, writer and television presenter. He was part of the alternative comedy boom in the early 1980s and had roles in the television series The Young Ones (1982–1984) and Bottom (1991–1995), which he wrote together with his collaborator Rik Mayall. Edmondson also appeared in The Comic Strip Presents... series of films throughout the 1980s and 1990s. For two episodes of this he created the spoof heavy metal band Bad News, and for another he played his nihilistic alter-ego Eddie Monsoon, an offensive South African television star.

The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between September 26, 1992, and May 15, 1993, the eighteenth season of SNL.

The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between October 1, 2005, and May 20, 2006, the thirty-first season of SNL.

References

  1. Taylor, Steve (January 1982). "Talking Turvey with Rik Mayall". The Face .
  2. 1 2 Roberts, JF (2012). The True History of the Black Adder. pp. 76–77. ISBN   9781848093461.
  3. Pickering, Andrew (May 1992). Science as Practice and Culture. p. 319. ISBN   9780226668017.
  4. Banks, Morwenna; Swift, Amanda (1987). The Joke's on Us: Women in Comedy from Music Hall to the Present Day. London: Pandora. p. 206. ISBN   0863581196.
  5. Sayle, Alexei (2016). Thatcher Stole My Trousers. Bloomsbury Circus. p. 289. ISBN   9781408864531.
  6. Hamilton, Ian (3 September 1981). "The Comic Strip". London Review of Books. 3 (16).