Summary
Chris Tarrant chooses one of the great pioneers of modern radio.
He's the man born Maurice Cole in Liverpool in 1944, who found fame on TV as Gizzard Puke, Cupid Stunt and Sid Snot: Kenny Everett.
Kenny's life was almost as bizarre as the characters he played, but it is for his work as a DJ that Chris Tarrant selects him. Tarrant was at London's Capital Radio for 20 years.
Kenny Everett began his career in pirate radio, from where he was sacked. He also worked for the BBC, from where he was sacked. He made one appearance on Radio 4's Just a Minute, famously talking about marbles. Other employees included Radio Luxembourg and Capital.
Presenter Matthew Parris reminisces about the Young Conservatives invitation to Kenny Everett to join them on stage in 1983 - his slogans included 'Let's Bomb Russia' and 'Let's kick Michael Foot's stick away' - while biographer James Hogg fills in some of the details of Everett's complicated personal life.
Producer: Miles Warde
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2013.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult? |
| 0:06.0 | What happens if the person you trust with your future isn't what you think they are? |
| 0:10.0 | I did feel the whole time he was watching me Yeti. I saw a footprint and that really gave me gusmas. |
| 0:16.4 | Or people who knew me. Emme, I remember every secret, every lie. I'm the only one who knows the truth. |
| 0:23.0 | Discover more of our biggest podcast from 2003. |
| 0:27.0 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.0 | Great Lives is a download from Radio 4. |
| 0:32.0 | We hope you enjoy what you're about to hear. |
| 0:38.0 | Today's Great Life was a DJ, the man whose lunacy kept me sane when I was a young and miserable trainee civil servant, |
| 0:46.0 | cranking myself up to another wretched day. The place was Clapham and this is what I heard on my radio. |
| 0:54.0 | The greatest story in the universe. |
| 0:58.0 | Crammedal of the Star Corps. |
| 1:00.0 | In today's nerve-noggling episode you'll hear the following fabulous stars |
| 1:05.7 | Valderie Nellie there and Doug Allerange. Here's Kremen. |
| 1:12.1 | Thank you, friends. |
| 1:13.0 | And hi, kids, you remember in our last wondrous episode how we'd landed on a far-off world |
| 1:19.1 | in search of fuel, only to find that the whole planet was made of a strange sticky goole. |
| 1:25.0 | Kenny Everett is Captain Kremen, one of the many characters he created for both radio and TV. This man was so much more than just a disc jockey. People |
| 1:37.2 | say he revolutionized that kind of radio in this country. So before introducing the man |
| 1:42.2 | who's chosen him, I'm going to play Kenny as himself, |
| 1:45.9 | talking on Desert Island discs in 1993. |
| 1:49.7 | So I used to make this silly cereal in my Cotswold home studio. The night before I went on the |
... |
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