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Geoffrey Perkins |
Stars pay tribute to producer who ‘nurtured many careers’
Postmortem results awaited for ex-BBC chief killed in high street accident
COMEDY stars have paid tribute to Geoffrey Perkins, the former BBC chief killed in an accident Marylebone High Street, with stories of how he nurtured a generation of comedians and saved the cult classic Father Ted.
Charlie Higson, one of the stars of The Fast Show, said he owed his TV career to Mr Perkins.
“He was a very good friend,” Mr Higson told the West End Extra.
“A very sweet kind, gentle, generous man, he was loved by all.
“Like many others I owe my TV career to him. There are very few good TV comedy producers around and even fewer that you would want to have lunch with. Now there is one less.”
Accident investigators are gathering evidence about the collision between Mr Perkins, 55, and a lorry last Friday.
A line of inquiry is the possibility that Mr Perkins collapsed before staggering into the road. Postmortem results have yet to be revealed.
The truck driver did not stop at the scene but was soon traced and released after questioning and a breathalyser test. No arrests have been made.
Barry Cryer, who worked with Mr Perkins on Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, said: “He had an impressive CV – he was a catalyst.
“He knew what he was doing because he had been a performer. Producers today are more likely to be young accountants, but Geoff wasn’t interested in number crunching and focus groups.
“Geoff was always there. He knew so many people and had worked with everybody. People knew his face, it was twinkly and full of fun.
“I wouldn’t see him for a while and then we’d bump into each other and it was like it was only yesterday.”
Mr Perkins, who met his wife Lisa Braun when they worked together on a radio production of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the 1970s, was responsible for hits such as The Fast Show and The Harry Enfield Television Programme.
He is also credited with nurturing the comedy talents of Catherine Tate, who grew up in the Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury. He left the BBC to work for the production company Tiger Aspect in 2001.
Graham Lineman, who originated the comedy cult classic Father Ted, said the programme was saved by Mr Perkins’s intervention.
Mr Lineman said Mr Perkins had given the show its “heart”, adding: “He was the man who chose the house that became our iconic central location, poring over a pile of location photographs, stabbing it with his finger and saying, ‘That’s the one’. Without Geoffrey, Father Ted would have been a cacophonous riot, and not nearly as loved as it is today. He gave the show a heart.”
Peter Bennett-Jones, chairman of Tiger Aspect, added: “Geoff genuinely made the world a funnier place.” |
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