Fondest memories of Barry Humphries’ “state visit” to Chichester

Humphries brought a quiet, contemplative show to Chichester in 2010 as an autumn event for the Chichester Festivities – an evening that absolutely wasn’t about Dame Edna, an evening that saw the star instead in rather more meditative mood as no one other than himself. And in hindsight, it was an evening all the more precious for that. Humphries called it a “a brief state visit” to Chichester. And that’s kind of what it was. Stately.

And then, not much later, he brought Dame Edna in all her outrageousness and crudity to the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton for a night of hilarity that was actually quite painful – one hell of a test for a wheezy old asthmatic such as me. I can remember genuinely struggling to get my breath I was laughing so much. And it was the best kind of laughter. Absolutely the “No, you really can’t say that!” type of laughter. Dame Edna always pushed the barriers… and she did so fabulously under that veneer of Dame Edna civility. She went way beyond shocking – and was all the more brilliant for it.

That Southampton night brought a range of Humphries’ characters to the stage including the appalling Sir Les and also the tragic elderly ghost, but it was Dame Edna who stole the show, especially with a running gag of quite mesmerising rudeness. It involved a future daughter-in-law, the tossing of peanuts and one of those peanuts getting stuck where you really wouldn’t want it to get stuck. The manner of its removal brought the house down. The Mayflower is massive. A couple of thousand people. Dame Edna had us entranced. I am smiling at the thought of it now. The huge roar of laughter which came and came again. And then the punchline to that peanut joke. I certainly won’t repeat it. But I am laughing now.

But maybe best of all was the fact that I got to interview Barry for that Chichester visit in 2010. And I remember feeling just a touch nervous… which doesn’t often happen. And actually it was one of those interviews I don’t like – where the interviewee insists on being interviewed in character. Hinge & Brackett did the same, and it was weird. But Humphries had written a book called Handling Edna: The Unauthorised Biography. And he certainly wasn’t going to be talking about Dame Edna as if she didn’t exist. The point was that she did – and the point was that she didn’t like his book. In fact she was suing him.

Imagine being sued by an irate Dame Edna. Barry was rather worried about it. I went along with the joke. And I am so glad I did. It was one of the best fun interviews I have ever had. He was warm, funny, completely engaging… and best of all, every word he said sparked in my mind “OMG! Am I really talking to Barry Humphries.” RIP Barry. And thank you for some of the crudest, rudest laughs I have ever had.

Here is the interview below:

Dame Edna is very unhappy. She has already started legal action against Barry Humphries.

Barry will explain why when he stops off in Chichester this week in a Festivities autumn event to discuss his new book Handling Edna: The Unauthorised Biography. It’s a book aimed at dispelling the myth that he and Edna are one and the same person; it’s also a book which lifts the lid on his love-hate relationship with that celebrated Melbourne housewife.

“Edna is hoping to restrain publication,” Barry confesses. “She will have to be quick. It is actually very embarrassing. It could be that the readers in Chichester may wish to buy multiple copies. The book could well become a collector’s item.”

Barry is insistent, though, that it is a tale which has to be told: “I have known Edna for a long time. I know the good and the bad. Edna’s fear is that I may be revealing certain things that she would prefer to remain obscure. I have tried to be tasteful but somehow it is difficult with Edna.”The revelations about her relationship with her bridesmaid Madge are an eye-opener; the tragic tale of the mystery disappearance of her daughter Lois is a bombshell. The Queen herself is said to be shocked - and it may well be that Barry has prevented Dame Edna from becoming Baroness Edna, thanks to the disclosures he has now made.“But I hope that one day she will understand why I wrote this book. She has the ability to reinvent herself. The fact is that she has been living and working successfully in theatre and TV for all these years - we are talking half a century. Personally I think she should gracefully retire. But her public will not allow her to. She is a servant to her public. She is a keeper of their soul - even though she has one of the most dysfunctional families in the southern hemisphere.”Quite why she has endured is hard to say, Barry admits: “I think it is because people see a little bit of their own mother in her. Don’t sound so incredulous! There are glimpses of their own parents in her perhaps a little stern and reproachful and a little moralistic outlook.“And there are not very many female role models around. Mother Teresa has gone. Princess Diana has gone. Margaret Thatcher is almost gone. Germaine Greer is under a rock somewhere. So Dame Edna does feel that she has a global responsibility to carry on.“But her career has never been founded on glamour and looks. She is not a conventional beauty. She is what the French call a belle laide. You’d better look that up. There have not been many women like her in history. Eleanor Roosevelt was a little like that. But you would never confuse Edna with Rita Hayworth. Mind you, Mother Teresa wasn’t a looker either.“But there is a warmth there” - and this despite her late husband’s tragic medical history and the sexual behaviour of her children. “She has always said that she is a successful actress and personality because she always put her family last. She said that putting your family first always leads to trouble.”Surprisingly, Sussex is one of her very favourite counties, Barry confides: “She rented a house very near Chichester some time ago. She was hoping to be snapped up by the Festival Theatre to star in a number of their productions. She feels that her abilities as an actress have never been recognised. She wants to play Lady Macbeth. She wants to play Hedda Gabler. She has written a version of that play called Edna Gabler. She wants to play Phedre. I don’t know whether your readers will have read Phedre.”The fact is that she remains very driven: “She has always wanted to make a film called Driving Dame Edna, an Australian version of Driving Miss Daisy but with an optimistic ending. She feels that the world has sunk into a world of pessimism. She feels that she was born to lift people out of their despair.”And that’s exactly what she will be doing when she makes what Barry calls “a brief state visit” to Chichester.