Jeremy Hardy

Jeremy James Hardy (17 July 1961 – 1 February 2019) was an English comedian.

Born and raised in Hampshire, Hardy studied at the University of Southampton and began his stand-up career in the 1980s, going on to win the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1988. He is best known for his appearances on radio panel shows such as the News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

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Early life

Hardy was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, the fifth and youngest child of rocket scientist Donald D. Hardy (1925–2016) by his marriage to Sheila Stagg (1924–2012). 

He attended Farnham College and studied modern history and politics at the University of Southampton. He subsequently failed to obtain a place on a journalism course, and considered becoming an actor or poet.

Career

Hardy started scriptwriting before turning to stand-up comedyin London in the early 1980s, funded in part by the Enterprise Allowance Scheme. He won the Perrier Comedy Award in 1988 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

He made his television debut in the late 1980s, featuring regularly as Jeremy the boom operator in the Rory Bremner-led comedy show Now – Something Else on BBC Two, along with guest appearances on programmes including the BBC One talk show Wogan. He went on to feature in various comedy shows including Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), and presented a television documentary about the political background to the English Civil War as well as an edition of Top of the Pops in 1996. He was one of the two team captains on the BBC Two game show If I Ruled the World that ran for two series in 1998–1999. Kit Hollerbach featured alongside him in the BBC radio sitcoms Unnatural Acts and At Home with the Hardys.

He became best known for his work on BBC Radio 4, particularly on The News Quiz, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and his long-running series of monologues Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation. His excruciatingly off-key singing was a long-running joke on the radio panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, on which he appeared regularly, and which was replicated to great disadvantage in the spin-off radio series You'll Have Had Your Tea: The Doings of Hamish and Dougal. He was a recurring character on early series and episodes of QI alongside Alan Davies and Stephen Fry.

His experiences in Palestine during the Israeli army incursions of 2002 became the subject of a feature documentary Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army (2003), directed by Leila Sansour. A four-episode series entitled Jeremy Hardy Feels It was broadcast on Radio 4 in December 2017 to January 2018.

Hardy wrote a regular column for The Guardian until 2001. He then wrote a column in the London Evening Standard's magazine. His first book, When Did You Last See Your Father, was published by Methuen in 1992. My Family and Other Strangers, based on his research into his family history, was published by Ebury Press on 4 March 2010.

Political views

Hardy was a committed socialist, and a supporter of the Labour Party. He performed at Labour Party rallies and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn considered him a "dear, lifelong friend". His comedy embodied his radical politics, including outspoken opposition to former Labour leader Tony Blair – he was conflicted during the Blair and Gordon Brown leadership period, quoted as saying "To me, voting Labour is like wiping your bottom: I can't say I like doing it but you've got to – because you're in a worse mess if you don't." Hardy was banned from voting in Labour internal elections in 2015 because he had also raised funds for the Green Party. He strongly supported Corbyn in the leadership election of 2015. He was also an outspoken opponent of the Trident programme.

Hardy supported Irish nationalist Róisín McAliskey, the then-pregnant daughter of Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, when the former was accused of involvement in an IRA mortar attack in Germany, and put up part of the bail money to free her.[8] He also supported the campaign to free Danny McNamee, wrongly convicted of involvement in the Provisional Irish Republican Army's (IRA) Hyde Park bombing on 20 July 1982.

In an edition of Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation on BBC Radio 4 "How to be Afraid", broadcast in September 2004, Hardy joked that members and supporters of the BNP should be "shot in the back of the head", sparking complaints and causing Burnley Borough Council to cancel a show in the town over fears that it could be "disruptive" in an area with a recent history of racial tension.

In September 2016 Hardy performed at the Keep Corbyn rally in Brighton in support of Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.[22] On Hardy's death, Corbyn said "He always gave his all for everyone else and the campaigns for social justice."

Personal life

Hardy married actress and comedian Kit Hollerbach in 1986 and in 1990 adopted a daughter, Elizabeth Hardy. Hardy later married photographer and filmmaker Katie Barlow.

He was a close friend of comedian Linda Smith; when she died of ovarian cancer on 27 February 2006, he publicly eulogised her in many media outlets, and wrote her Guardian obituary.

Hardy died on 1 February 2019 from cancer at the age of 57. 

Julie McKenzie, the head of Radio team at BBC Studios, said of Hardy "I will remember him as someone who could convulse an audience with laughter at a comic image whilst at the same time making a point of substance that reverberated on a much deeper level and spoke to his principles and unflinching concern for the less fortunate."

Appearances

Television

• Helping Henry (1988) – the voice of Henry
• Blackadder Goes Forth ("Corporal Punishment") – Corporal Perkins (1989)
• Jack and Jeremy's Real Lives (1996) (with Jack Dee)
• If I Ruled the World (1998)
• QI (2003)
• Grumpy Old Men (2004)
• Mock the Week (2005)
• Countdown (2007) (Dictionary Corner)
• The Voice (2008)

Radio

• The News Quiz
• I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
• Just a Minute
• Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation
• Unnatural Acts
• At Home with the Hardys
• You'll Have Had Your Tea: The Doings of Hamish and Dougal
• Chain Reaction
• Comic to Comic
• The Unbelievable Truth
• Jeremy Hardy Feels It (2018)

Film

• Hotel (2001)
• Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army (2003)
• How to Be (2008)