Showbiz friends, royalty and family alike turned out to pay tribute to the late comedian Sir Harry Secombe on Friday at Westminster Abbey. Brits Ronnie Corbett, Eric Sykes and Dame Thora Hird all turned out for the hour-long ceremony, as did one of the Goon’s biggest fans, Prince Charles.
Chat show host Michael Parkinson read from a 100-word potted history which Sir Harry – often referred to as “the clown” – had written himself before losing a battle with cancer in April, aged 79. The piece marked the comedian’s biggest achievements in chronological order, including the wild success of the Goon series, and ended with the following: “Records, books, telly, hymns, peritonitis, diabetes, knighthood. Songs of Praise, six grandchildren, devoted wife, prostate cancer, stroke, malaria expected soon – winds light to variable.”
Michael later shared his own thoughts on the comedian and his contemporaries’ lasting legacy. “Today they are accepted as the godfathers of post-war British comedy, but for those of us who were around at the time they were the jesters amid the austerity of Britain in the Fifites,” he said. “They helped a generation through the aftermath of a terrible war. They didn’t just make us laugh. They performed a much more important function than that. They made us feel better.”
Sir Spike Milligan, the last remaining Goon, was not amongst the 2,200-strong congregation. Spike was unable to attend due to illness, but, he sent along a message which read simply: “Harry was the sweetness of Wales, he really was.”
Comic Jimmy Tarbuck remembered Harry fondly as “a big brother, my favourite mischievous uncle and a dad all rolled into one”. “I’m talking about a 20-stone man of five foot eight who said he had been hit by a lift,” he said. “He had the energy of a pack of hyenas and a laugh to match.”
And while one might have expected the Friday tribute to be a sad one, Sir Harry’s friends ensured the laughter he inspired throughout his life would mark the occasion. Harry’s son David procured a copy of a 1956 episode of The Goon Show entitled The Fake Neddy Seagoon and broadcast the famed episode outside Westminster Abbey, much to the delight of Prince Charles.
At the time of Sir Harry’s death, the Prince of Wales sent his family a wreath of white lilies with this message: “For Harry, with profound admiration and great affection, from Charles.”
“The whole way the service was conducted was thrilling,” said Ronnie Corbett of the Friday thanksgiving service. “A wonderful farewell to a wonderful man.”
Sir Harry was knighted in 1981 and enjoyed a long and wildly popular time in the limelight. He retired in 1999 due to ill health.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
