The Man Called Monkhouse

Hailed as an expert comedy technician, Bob Monkhouse was a comic, writer, actor and TV personality consistently on British radio and TV screens for fully four decades.

Using film archive, atmospheric lighting and a clever soundscape, as well as authentic stand up material from Monkhouse himself, The Man Called Monkhouse is a 65 minute solo play featuring the extraordinary talent of Simon Cartwright as our eponymous hero.

You get to trace his life through a difficult childhood, via the vertiginous heights of television superstardom, the dent in his status during the new wave comedy of the late ‘80s and finish with a re-born Bob, back on TV and finally feted as the comic genius he undoubtedly was.

Set in July 1995, you find Bob Monkhouse alone in his cramped study among thousands of showbusiness artefacts. With the realisation that two treasured joke books have been stolen, in his obsessively categorised world, this is something of a disaster.

To add to his woes, he has been asked to write a eulogy for his friend and script writing colleague, Denis Goodwin. An emotional task that whether he likes it or not, forces uneasy introspection.

Speaking aloud his thoughts, you eavesdrop on the writing duo’s time together in the ‘50s, ‘60s and beyond as they battled for a foothold in a burgeoning entertainment business.

In contrasting Denis’s life with his own, Bob tells his imaginary congregation as much about himself as he does his close friend, painting an intriguing picture of a glorious career stretching out long after Denis’s death, set against a difficult home life.

For every hilarious anecdote, there is also personal tragedy as we peek behind the impenetrable mask of this oh-so familiar public face.