DICK EMERY T-SHIRT

Ooh, You Are Awful — The Many Faces of a British Comedy Original

For much of the 1970s, switching on BBC One on a Saturday evening meant there was a fair chance Dick Emery would appear wearing an alarming wig, an extravagant costume or enough theatrical make-up to transform himself into somebody entirely different. At its peak, The Dick Emery Show was one of British television's most familiar comedy institutions, built around a rapid succession of recurring characters whose catchphrases became part of everyday conversation.

Born Richard Gilbert Emery in London in 1915, Emery came to television after a long apprenticeship in entertainment. He worked in variety, radio and stage comedy and appeared in programmes including Educating Archie before becoming a television star in his own right. That background mattered. Emery belonged to a generation of performers for whom character comedy was closely connected to music hall, revue and theatrical impersonation: change the voice, change the walk, add a costume and an entirely new personality could walk onstage.

"Ooh, you are awful... but I like you."

The Dick Emery Show began in 1963 and eventually ran for nearly two decades, giving Emery an unusually large gallery of alter egos. Among the best remembered was Mandy, the voluptuous blonde whose interviews invariably descended into misunderstandings and innuendo. There was the toothy, enthusiastic Bovver Boy; the formidable Duchess; the gloomy old pensioner Lampwick; and the extravagantly dressed Hettie, forever accompanied by her disapproving companion. Emery could move between age, accent, social class and gender with the speed of a repertory company condensed into one performer.

The structure was deliberately brisk. Rather than constructing a single half-hour narrative, the programme moved from sketch to sketch and character to character, usually returning to familiar situations that audiences recognised immediately. Catchphrases were crucial. A few words could announce not only the joke but the entire character, giving the programme the rhythm of traditional variety entertainment transferred directly to television.

Emery's comedy also provides an unusually clear snapshot of mainstream British television during the 1960s and 1970s. Double entendres, comic misunderstandings, eccentric regional voices and exaggerated social types were everywhere. The humour could be broad, but the performances behind it were often remarkably precise. Emery understood that a convincing comic character needed more than a wig and a voice: posture, timing, facial expression and tiny repeated mannerisms gave each creation its identity.

His television fame inevitably spread into cinema. Emery appeared in films including The Fast Lady and Ooh... You Are Awful, the latter released in 1972 and named after his most famous catchphrase. Yet television remained his natural territory. The intimacy of the small screen suited characters designed to become familiar visitors to British living rooms rather than distant theatrical creations.

By the time The Dick Emery Show ended in 1981, British comedy was changing quickly. Alternative comedy was approaching, sitcoms were becoming less dependent on variety traditions and the star-led television sketch show would gradually become less dominant. Emery therefore sits at an interesting crossroads: connected backwards to music hall and radio variety while simultaneously belonging to television's first great age of mass-audience character comedy.

Decades later, the wigs, voices and catchphrases remain instantly evocative of an era when a single comedian could populate an entire television programme. Dick Emery did not merely perform sketches. Week after week, he arrived with a whole cast.

💬 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

Q1: When was The Dick Emery Show first broadcast?

A1: The Dick Emery Show began on the BBC in 1963 and continued, with changes of format and supporting cast, until 1981.

Q2: Who were Dick Emery's most famous characters?

A2: His best-known creations included Mandy, the Duchess, Lampwick, Hettie and the Bovver Boy, alongside numerous other recurring characters developed during the programme's long run.

Q3: Did Dick Emery appear in films as well as television?

A3: Yes. Emery appeared in several British films, including The Fast Lady, Loot and the 1972 comedy Ooh... You Are Awful, which took its title from his famous television catchphrase.