They said my fiery whiskers made the guns go off too soon

With Harry'n'Meghan's engagement set to dominate every single news programme, tabloid and "lifestyle" magazine article for the next few months, I think it only right that I should add my congratulations by way of an appropriate song...

John Inman - We All Love Captain Ginger

Ginjah, Ginjah
They all know Captain Ginjah
Jolly old pot, O.T. 'ot
Ninety-five in the shade what, what.
I love all the ladies
Not one of them would I injure
All the girls love Gin-Gin-Gin-
Gin-Gin-Gin-Gin-Ginjah!

Indeed.

We All Love Captain Ginger

In this, the gayest of all weeks, we couldn't neglect the birthday of that camp icon John Inman.

His character "Mr Humphries" has often been cited by po-faced gay "activists" as somehow wrong or stereotyping of gay men for the way he was portrayed - mummy's boy, mincing, weak and pansy-ish - but, if truth be told, there are a helluva lot of gay men out there (here?) who fit that bill, so why on earth should he not?

I always thought he was hilarious when I was young, especially his interplay with the magnificent Molly Sugden ("Mrs Slocombe").

The late, great Mr Inman was "out there" shining a light on gayness, on prime-time television, at a time when "serious" art (think films such as Dog Day Afternoon, The Sergeant, The Children’s Hour) preferred its gays to be doomed, unhinged and/or tragic figures who always conveniently die in the end.

We should be eternally grateful to him for taking a gay character and making him into a figure beloved of millions.

Facts about John Inman:

• For a time he worked in a real-life department store, Austin Reed, but left for a job as a scenic artist with Kenneth Kendall's touring company, with whom he eventually became an actor. He appeared in many popular plays such as Salad Days, Charley's Aunt and My Fat Friend before getting his big break in Are You Being Served?.
• Mr Inman was one of the nation's best known pantomime dames and appeared in over 40 pantomimes across the United Kingdom, appearing regularly as one of the two ugly sisters alongside Hi-de-Hi's Barry Howard.
• In December 2005, after being in a long-term relationship for 33 years, John and his partner Ron Lynch entered into a civil partnership. John Inman died in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, on 8th March 2007 aged 71, and left his entire estate of £2.8 million to his partner. At the time this was believed to be the largest amount a gay man in a civil partnership had inherited since the ceremonies became legal in 2005.

Here is one of our favourite Music Hall numbers, done in Mr Inman's butchest fashion:

John Inman - We All Love Captain Ginger

Frederick John Inman (28th June 1935 – 8th March 2007)

Late, lamented variety

I am having a verrry slow start to the day, as is my wont on the weekend.

Just having listened to Babs Windsor's fab show on BBC Radio 2 (in which she always does a "Music Hall" slot), I am now suitably woken up and in the mood for a couple of extracts from the late, lamented Good Old Days.



One of the longest-running variety shows the BBC ever had, for some bizarre reason it was axed in the early 80s. Such a shame, for during its thirty years at the top of the ratings, compèred by Leonard Sachs, it featured more than 2000 performers - among them the very best of British showbiz talent, including Morecambe and Wise, Bruce Forsyth, Georgia Brown, Roy Castle, Larry Grayson, Dora Bryan, Arthur Askey, Edward Woodward, Les Dawson, Gemma Craven, David Kernan, Beryl Reid, Bernard Cribbins, Barry Cryer, Sheila Steafel, Roy Hudd, June Whitfield, Frankie Vaughan, Hinge and Bracket, Ken Dodd, Ron Moody, Tessie O'Shea and Barbara Windsor herself, and special guests from America like Eartha Kitt and Dolores Gray...

...as well as these two camp favourites - Danny LaRue and John Inman:

Good Old Days selection 8 featuring Danny La Rue

Good Old Days selection 7 featuring John Inman

The Good Old Days indeed!

He deserved better

We were all looking forward to the tribute gala for the late John Inman at the Lyric Theatre tonight, but...

Although it was nice to be there among the audience of extremely elderly luvvies and their grans, and to see creaking appearances by the likes of Danny LaRue, Frank Thornton, Trevor Bannister and the criminally under-used Wendy Richard - people who actually appeared to know and like John - the whole thing was just so stagey and distant and end-of-the pier that it seemed like the "John Inman bit" was sort of tacked on as an afterthought.

Reminiscent at times of watching a revival of New Faces of 1972, we were "treated" to music and jokes from faded old acts like Jess Conrad, Johnny More (who?), Craig Douglas, Julie Rogers and some woman who apparently appeared in Last of the Summer Wine - a show that has no perceptible link to John Inman at all, but he used to take the piss out of her clothes so that was sufficient for her to be there and read a poem about it. Among the acts, one Rose Marie - bizarrely billed as a "singer" - actually got the audience laughing at her terrible performance, despite trying to be serious!

On it went, as they dredged up Henry Cooper (!) to add to the list of wobbly old people on stage, and Frank Thornton tottered on again, looking for all the world like he was about to join John in his grave. Then he introduced the worst thing of the whole evening - Bobby Davro. I never liked him - he ranks with the likes of Jim Davidson, Jim Bowen and Ted Rogers in the hall of infamy of old school unfunny, sexist, racist and unpleasant "comedians". And true to form he resorted to the kind of routine that wouldn't be out of place thirty years ago at a Pavilion somewhere awful like Ilfracombe or Rhyl, or Benidorm perhaps.

After about an hour of "jokes" about dwarves, boobs and toupees we realised that this was indeed it - big names that had been advertised to appear were not going to turn up after all. We had been expecting Barbara Windsor, and rather hoped that one of the "surprises" might have been someone who would actually talk about John's life. But no - the mentions of John Inman amongst the acts were few and far between, and throughout the evening just one (rather dull) photo of him was projected as a backdrop. [Even Phil Starr got a selection of Powerpoint slides when Maisie Trollette did a tribute show at the Quebec pub.]

All in all an unsatisfactory tribute to a really talented man.

John Inman - I'm Free

John Inman website