Kenny Everett was born in Crosby, Merseyside in 1944 and who became a much-fired radio DJ who then tried his hand at television. He was one of the first people to grab hold of new video technology and make it his own unique canvas. He is probably best remembered for his Thames television series “The Kenny Everett Video Show” which ran from 1978 – 1980. Originally conceived as merely a vehicle for Kenny to introduce music videos and pop star studio (mimed) performances it soon became clear that Everett had a unique comic ability and grasp of the emerging new video technologies. The pop star appearances were kept whilst Everett and co-writers Ray Cameron, Barry Cryer and Dick Vosburgh helped supply the funnies for a range of Everett’s comic characters. So integral were the characters that they were often seen interacting with the pop star appearances whether it was Freddie Mercury with Sid Snot or David Bowie with Angry of Mayfair (where Angry utters the immortal lines “I fought in the war for people like you…and I never got one”). The show was unique in that any laughter heard was that of the crew as there was no studio audience and the show seemed funnier for it.The show was risque for it’s time and time slot and became notorious for the Hot Gossip dance troupe who would writhe around to pop songs with an act that verged on soft porn. The producer for many of the Thames series was David Mallet who was making a name for himself in the emerging pop video world and is probably best known for various videos he made with David Bowie including Ashes to Ashes.
In 1981 Everett fell out with Thames TV over his shows scheduling against the Beeb’s Top Of the Pops and soon defected to the BBC after retiring some characters on the last Thames series (the last appearance of Marcel Wave still sticks in my mind) and taking others with him to a show that lost some of it’s cutting edge appeal, slowly phased out the pop stars and introduced a studio audience. Kenny was much loved and eventually returned to his first love, radio but would be taken from us all in 1995 of an Aids related illness at age 50.
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Up the hill backwards 
The strange thing about Kenny Everett’s Video Show was it a variety show with pop stars. Quite unique really, if anything can be.
Certainly unique in its time anyway. I think the original Thames series was just meant to be Ken intro-ing music videos but it expanded into a sort of visual radio on the telly with sketches vehicle.David Mallet no doubt played an important part in getting at least some of the pop names on there (hey it was free publicity). He was lucky that so many big names of the day actually wanted to appear on the thing and were prepared to take the mick out of themselves.