Humphrey Barclay

Humphrey Barclay (born 24 March 1941 in Dorking, Surrey, England) is a comedy executive and producer.

Career

His first foray into show business was via Cambridge Footlights revues where he appeared alongside Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese and Miriam Margolyes. He was offered a job as a BBC radio producer and soon aftwards put together the team who produced the BBC Home Service comedy show "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again" (four series starting 1964) and Associated-Rediffusion Television's "Do Not Adjust Your Set" (1967-1969).

Following the ITV franchise changes of 1968, Barclay moved to London Weekend Television (LWT) for whom he produced the "Doctor..." series (1969-1977). 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,cite web |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/739900/index.html|title= British Film Institute biography of Humphrey Barclay] but nothing came of it. Later, Cleese created "Fawlty Towers" for the BBC.

Barclay became Head of Comedy at LWT in 1977 and supervised various successful series including "A Fine Romance" (1981-1984). Following criticism at the Edinburgh International Television Festival of what was seen as casual racism the LWT series "Mind Your Language" (1977-1979; 1986), Barclay commissioned "No Problem!", transmitted by Channel 4 1983-1985, the first original black-made sitcom for British TV (an earlier series featuring a black family, "The Fosters" (ITV, 1976-1977), 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) and black sitcom "Desmond's" (Channel 4, 1989-1994). 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.

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. There to attend the funeral of his friend, the actor Christopher (Gyearbuor) Asante. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/jan/06/mondaymediasection5 Comic hero | Media | The Guardian ] ] As a chief of the community, he now bears the title of 'nana kwadwo ameyaw gyearbour yiadom I nkosuhene of Kwahu-Tafo.' Barclay is currently active in helping to raise funds for the community, which currently has unemployment levels running at over 80%.

Barclay was already in the line of descent of the Barclays of Mather and Urie, a Scottish lairdship.

References

External links

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* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/talent/b/barclay_humphrey.shtml BBC list of shows directed or produced by Humphrey Barclay]