Humphrey Barclay BEM (born 24 March 1941) is a British comedy executive and producer.
Career Barclay was educated at Harrow School, before reading Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge, where his first foray into show business was via the Amateur Dramatic Society. He then appeared in Cambridge Footlights revues alongside Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, David Hatch, Jonathan Lynn, Jo Kendall and Miriam Margolyes. Barclay was offered a job as a BBC radio producer and soon afterwards put together the team who performed the comedy show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (four series starting in 1964). Moving to television, Barclay oversaw at Associated-Rediffusion, the sketch show series Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967–69).
Following the ITV franchise changes of 1968, Barclay joined London Weekend Television (LWT), for whom he produced the Doctor... series (1969–77). One episode in that series involved a hotel proprietor and his wife and was written by John Cleese. Barclay said at the time that he thought there might be a series in the characters. Later, Cleese created Fawlty Towers for the BBC.
In 1975, he produced the Donald Sinden/Elaine Stritch sit-com Two's Company, which received the "Best Situation Comedy" BAFTA nomination in 1977. Barclay became Head of Comedy at LWT in 1977 and supervised successful series, including No, Honestly and A Fine Romance (1981–84). In May 1980, he unveiled Metal Mickey as a show "with the appeal of Star Wars, the Daleks and Mork and Mindy".
Following criticism at the Edinburgh International Television Festival of what was seen as casual racism in the LWT series Mind Your Language (1977–79; 1986), Barclay commissioned No Problem!, transmitted by Channel 4 during 1983–85, the first original black-made sitcom for British TV (an earlier series featuring a black family, The Fosters (ITV, 1976–77), had been a remake of a US show).
Barclay left LWT in 1983 and formed Humphrey Barclay Productions, which produced the media satire Hot Metal (ITV, 1986–1988), medical sitcom Surgical Spirit (ITV, 1989–95), and sitcom Desmond's (Channel 4, 1989–94) with black characters. In 1996, he returned to LWT as Controller of Comedy and, in 1999, became Head of Comedy Development for Granada Media International.
Though already in partial retirement, in April 2002, he joined Celador Productions as Development Executive.
Selected Filmography YearTitleRoleNetwork Notes1967 - 1969Do Not Adjust Your SetProducerITV (Rediffusion/ Thames)19 episodes1969The Complete and Utter History of BritainITV (LWT)6 episodes1969 - 1970Doctor in the House26 episodesHark at Barker15 episodes1971Doctor at LargeProducer/ Executive Producer29 episodesSix Dates with BarkerProducer6 episodes1972 - 1973Doctor in Charge43 episodes1974Doctor at Sea12 episodesThe Top Secret Life of Edgar Briggs13 episodes1974 - 1975No, Honestly13 episodes1975 - 1976Lucky Feller14 episodes1975 - 1977Doctor on the Go26 episodes1976Maggie and HerEpisode: "Poppy and Her"1976 - 1977Yes, Honestly26 episodes1976 - 1979Two's Company23 episodes1979Canned LaughterTV movie1980End of Part One7 episodesPeter Cook and Co.TV special1980 - 1982Nobody's Perfect14 episodes1982Whoops Apocalypse6 episodes1983 - 1984A Fine RomanceExecutive Producer13 episodes1983 - 1985No Problem!Channel 427 episodes1984Dream StuffingProducer10 episodesMe and My GirlExecutive ProducerITV (LWT)6 episodes1985 - 1987Relative StrangersProducerChannel 419 episodes1986 - 1988Hot MetalITV (LWT)12 episodes1988 - 1992That's LoveITV (TVS)26 episodes1988ThompsonBBC6 episodes1989Behaving BadlyChannel 44 episodes (mini-series)Look Back in AngerTV movie1989 - 1994Desmond'sProducer/ Executive Producer69 episodes1989 - 1995Surgical SpiritProducerITV (Granada)46 episodes1990 - 1993Up the Garden Path18 episodes1993 - 1994The Brighton BellesITV (Carlton)11 episodesConjugal RitesITV (Granada)13 episodes1995Agony AgainProducerBBC7 episodesPorkpieChannel 46 episodes1996 - 1998Faith in the FutureExecutive ProducerITV (LWT)15 episodes1997 - 1998Hale and Pace14 episodes1998Duck Patrol7 episodes1999Bostok's CupTV movieSpacedChannel 47 episodes2003 - 2004All About MeBBC16 episodes2005Comedy LabChannel 4Episode: "Skin Deep"2014 - 2016Birds of a FeatherProducerITV16 episodes2016Goodnight SweetheartBBCEpisode: "Many Happy Returns"2018 - 2019Hold the Sunset13 episodes
Inheritance In 2000, Barclay was adopted into the royal family of Tafo, a village which is a three-hour drive north-west of Accra in the Kwahu region of Ghana, while there to attend the funeral of his friend, the actor Christopher (Gyearbuor) Asante. As a chief of the community, he now bears the title of Nana Kwadwo Ameyaw Gyearbuor Yiadom I, Nkosuohene of Kwahu-Tafo."Humphrey Barclay Biography", Friends of Tafo. Barclay is active in helping to raise funds for the community, which has had unemployment levels of more than 80 per cent. He has teamed up with Ikando Volunteers to help provide skilled volunteers to the community. He is in the line of descent of the Barclays of Mather and Urie, a Scottish lairdship.
He is a descendant of David Barclay of Youngsbury (1729–1809), a Quaker banker who famously manumitted all of the slaves he acquired in English Jamaica as the result of a debt. In 2016, through an introduction via Verene Shepherd, the Jamaican historian of diaspora studies, Humphrey Barclay met with a distinguished African American descendant of one of the slaves freed by his ancestor.
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