Dave Allen Saturday 4th Jan BBC 2 starting at 21:00

mike65

Set your VCRs

Dave Allen: God's Own Comedian

Told by family and friends, with rare unseen archive, this documentary reflects on the career of Dave Allen, relative of poet Katharine Tynan, and a natural performer who cut his teeth at Butlins. He became a TV star in Australia in his twenties, before returning home to dominate the schedules here in Britain with his unique blend of sketches and stories in a career that took in films, plays, documentaries and chat shows, alongside award winning comedy series.

Respected, admired and with unshakeable integrity, Dave Allen fought for what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. He was driven by simple honesty. It was this solitary and determined path that made his talents special and unusual and inspired a generation of comics that were to follow. For the first time ever this rich and compelling career is celebrated on screen, giving a chance to reflect on his many achievements and on the private life that went alongside it. With contributions from Stephen Berkoff, Stephen Frears, and Dame Maggie Smith, among others.

Dave Allen: The Immaculate Selection

Duration: 1 hour

An anthology of Dave Allen's finest, funniest and most irreverent material, compiled from his time at the BBC from 1971 to 1986.

Dave Allen In Search of the Great English Eccentric

A 1974 documentary in which Dave Allen meets a variety of eccentrics, including a man who lives in a box on wheels, a cowboy vicar and a man who pretends to fly a Lancaster bomber in his garage

mike65

Bump!

Skid X

The first two programmes were shown last April, I thought they were excellent.

The last one should be interesting, he did a lot of documentaries and few of them have ever been repeated.

fryup

very funny man,

they sure don't make them like they use to, ah well at least we got the memories