Latest news with #ThatWasTheWeekThatWas
National Post
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- National Post
Tom Lehrer, song satirist and mathematician, dies at 97
Article content He cut his first record in 1953, Songs by Tom Lehrer, which included I Wanna Go Back to Dixie, lampooning the attitudes of the Old South, and the Fight Fiercely, Harvard, suggesting how a prissy Harvard blueblood might sing a football fight song. Article content After a two-year stint in the Army, Lehrer began to perform concerts of his material in venues around the world. In 1959, he released another LP called More of Tom Lehrer and a live recording called An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer, nominated for a Grammy for best comedy performance (musical) in 1960. Article content But around the same time, he largely quit touring and returned to teaching math, though he did some writing and performing on the side. Article content Lehrer said he was never comfortable appearing in public. Article content 'I enjoyed it up to a point,' he told The AP in 2000. 'But to me, going out and performing the concert every night when it was all available on record would be like a novelist going out and reading his novel every night.' Article content He did produce a political satire song each week for the 1964 television show That Was the Week That Was, a groundbreaking topical comedy show that anticipated Saturday Night Live a decade later. Article content He released the songs the following year in an album titled That Was the Year That Was. The material included Who's Next? that ponders which government will be the next to get the nuclear bomb … perhaps Alabama? (He didn't need to tell his listeners that it was a bastion of segregation at the time.) Pollution takes a look at the then-new concept that perhaps rivers and lakes should be cleaned up. Article content He also wrote songs for the 1970s educational children's show The Electric told AP in 2000 that hearing from people who had benefited from them gave him far more satisfaction than praise for any of his satirical works. Article content His songs were revived in the 1980 musical revue Tomfoolery and he made a rare public appearance in London in 1998 at a celebration honoring that musical's producer, Cameron Mackintosh. Article content Lehrer was born in 1928, in New York City, the son of a successful necktie designer. He recalled an idyllic childhood on Manhattan's Upper West Side that included attending Broadway shows with his family and walking through Central Park day or night. Article content After skipping two grades in school, he entered Harvard at 15 and, after receiving his master's degree, he spent several years unsuccessfully pursuing a doctorate. Article content 'I spent many, many years satisfying all the requirements, as many years as possible, and I started on the thesis,' he once said. 'But I just wanted to be a grad student, it's a wonderful life. That's what I wanted to be, and unfortunately, you can't be a Phd and a grad student at the same time.' Article content He began to teach part-time at Santa Cruz in the 1970s, mainly to escape the harsh New England winters. From time to time, he acknowledged, a student would enrol in one of his classes based on knowledge of his songs. Article content 'But it's a real math class,' he said at the time. 'I don't do any funny theorems. So those people go away pretty quickly.'
Daily Mirror
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
BBC star dies at home following heart attack as tributes pour in
Barry Fantoni, who wrote scripts for That Was The Week That Was and presented A Whole Scene Going On for the BBC, has died at the age of 85, following a heart attack. He died on Tuesday May 20 at his home in Turin, Italy. The news was confirmed by Private Eye magazine where he also made his mark as a cartoonist. Have I Got News For You star and Private Eye editor Ian Hislop paid tribute. 'Barry was a brilliant multi-talented writer, artist and musician. He was an integral part of Private Eye's comic writing team from the early days in the sixties and I hugely enjoyed collaborating with him when I joined the magazine later on. "He created formats and characters and jokes that are still running and he was for a long time the voice of the great poet and obituarist E J Thribb. So farewell then Barry.' A man of many talents, Fantoni rose to prominence during the 1960s, carving out a unique space in British pop culture. He began his artistic journey at just 14, attending Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts on a Wedgewood Scholarship. His creative spirit flourished early, eventually making him a key figure in the UK's vibrant pop art scene of the 1960s. Fantoni's sharp wit and writing skills landed him a spot on the writing team of the influential satirical programme That Was The Week That Was, hosted by David Frost. Later, in 1966, he stepped into the spotlight himself, hosting the BBC's youth-focused music and fashion programme A Whole Scene Going. The show, which featured acts like The Spencer Davis Group and Pete Townshend, became a cultural touchstone for Britain's under-21s. Hislop said: 'Barry was a brilliant multi-talented writer, artist and musician. He was an integral part of Private Eye's comic writing team from the early days in the sixties and I hugely enjoyed collaborating with him when I joined the magazine later on. He created formats and characters and jokes that are still running and he was for a long time the voice of the great poet and obituarist E. J. Thribb. So farewell then Barry.' In addition to his work on Private Eye, where he was a mainstay from 1963, Fantoni was a cartoonist for The Times, a caricaturist for Radio Times, and later, a record reviewer for Punch magazine in the 1970s. His caricatures captured the likeness and spirit of some of Britain's best-known personalities, including Sir Bruce Forsyth, DJ Tony Blackburn, and comedian Sir Ken Dodd. Fantoni formally retired from Private Eye in 2010 after nearly five decades. Speaking about his decision to step back, he told The Independent, 'It was just time to leave. I'd done it. The establishment isn't even worth puncturing any more.' .
