Obituary: Geoffrey Perkins

Sep 3 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

EVEN in the voluminous annals of misguided careers’ advice, it seems bizarre to persuade the odd couple of Geoffrey Perkins and Michael Portillo – respectively future BBC head of comedy and future Tory minister – to join a shipping line in Liverpool.

Perhaps after the rarified Oxbridge atmosphere it was salutary for them to experience ordinary office life in 1975. Perkins made the biggest impact at Ocean Transport & Trading (parent of Blue Funnel Line) at India Buildings, Water Street – for the wrong reasons. His anarchic comic interjections were so disruptive that a corner of the open-plan office was boxed-off to contain him. Doubtless his bosses were relieved when, within a year, Perkins left for the BBC Light Entertainment Department.

Liverpool shipping’s loss was the country’s comedy gain. During the next six years, Perkins produced more than 20 different programmes and 200 individual shows. He coaxed the impossibly procrastinating writer Douglas Adams into finishing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, transforming it into a radio cult (he met his wife, Lisa, on the production). Another big hit (also as writer and performer) was Radio Active (a local radio send-up), which became KYTV on screen.

His output of top comedy shows across British networks was colossal, with leading involvement in practically every hit show for decades: Father Ted, Drop the Dead Donkey, Spitting Image, the Harry Enfield programmes, The Fast Show, The Catherine Tate Show, The Thin Blue Line, My Family, and Have I Got News for You. While at BBC Radio, he apparently devised the baffling Mornington Crescent word game for I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue.

Born in Bushey, Hertfordshire, Perkins revealed his comedic talents at Harrow County School for Boys. Besides Michael Portillo, his fellow pupils included Sir Nigel Sheinwald (British ambassador to the US), and Clive Anderson, with whom Perkins produced the school’s Christmas revue. Recent projects include ITV’s Benidorm, about ex-pat Brits, with Johnny Vegas. His latest production, Harry and Paul, starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, is due to start on BBC TV next week.

It was a great shock to hear that Perkins, aged only 55, died on Friday after being hit by a van in London. He leaves a wife and two children.

Geoffrey Perkins, comedy writer and producer; born February 22, 1953, died August 29, 2008