Heroes of Comedy is a British television series, produced by Thames Television, and broadcast on Channel 4, which devotes each episode to a legend of British comedy. It was produced by John Fisher. Beginning in 1995, it followed a 2½ hour more general programme from 1992.
Episodes Series one Episode number Subject Original air date Pilot Frankie Howerd 1 January 1995 1 Tommy Cooper 13 October 1995 2 Joyce Grenfell 20 October 1995 3 Max Miller* 27 October 1995 4 Arthur Haynes 3 November 1995 5 Terry-Thomas 17 November 1995
Contributions from Roy Hudd and Bob Monkhouse. An animatronic Miller was created for the programme and performed by David Barclay, Dave Chapman and Mike Quinn.
Series two
Episode number Subject Original air date 1 Les Dawson 16 April 1997 2 Kenny Everett 23 April 1997 3 Alastair Sim 30 April 1997 4 The Goons* 7 May 1997
The first group subject, and the first where two of the performers covered (Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe) were alive at the time of broadcast.
Series three Episode number Subject Original air date 1 Benny Hill 12 January 1998 2 Peter Cook 19 January 1998 3 Arthur Askey 26 January 1998 4 Tony Hancock 2 February 1998
This series examined dead performers.
Series four Episode number Subject Original air date 1 Norman Wisdom 25 September 1999 2 Ken Dodd 2 October 1999 3 Eric Sykes 9 October 1999 4 Thora Hird 16 October 1999 5 Barry Humphries 30 October 1999
All subjects in this series were living at the time of broadcast.
Series five Episode number Subject Original air date 1 Kenneth Williams 7 October 2000 2 Bernard Manning 11 November 2000 3 Ronnie Barker 28 December 2000 4 Leonard Rossiter 27 December 2001
This series examined living and dead performers.
Series six Episode number Subject Original air date 1 Mike Yarwood 16 February 2002 2 Sid James 23 February 2002 3 Spike Milligan* 2 March 2002 4 Hattie Jacques 9 March 2002 5 Ronnie Corbett 16 March 2002 6 Dick Emery 13 April 2002
Previously covered as part of the Goons episode. Aired three days after Milligan's death.
Series seven Episode number Subject Original air date 1 Max Wall 2 January 2003
External links .