Jeremy Hardy

Jeremy Hardy

Hardy during a recording of You'll Have Had Your Tea for BBC Radio 4 in 2006.
Birth name Jeremy James Hardy
Born 17 July 1961
Farnborough, Hampshire
Medium Television, radio and stand-up.
Nationality British
Website Official website

Jeremy James Hardy (born 17 July 1961) is a British comedian, widely known for his left-wing politics.

Career

Hardy was born in Farnborough, Hampshire. He attended Farnham College and studied Modern History and Politics at the University of Southampton. He started his stand-up career in the early 1980s, and won the Perrier Comedy Award in 1988 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He is best known for his radio work, 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 experiences in Israel 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.

He made his television debut in the late 1980s in various comedy shows including Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), and has 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. Hardy wrote a regular column for The Guardian until 2001.[1]

His off-key singing is a long-running joke on the radio panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

Hardy's politics are not always popular with the Radio 4 audience – in an appearance on Just A Minute in 2000 he earned boos from the audience and a reprimand from a fellow panellist, the former Liberal MP Sir Clement Freud, when Hardy responded to the subject 'Parasites' by talking about the Royal family. On the other hand, his satirical and slightly surreal impressions of bankers and other members of the establishment (mimicking a pompous sense of entitlement) have often prompted great mirth and recognition in live radio audiences.

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.[2]

In an edition of Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation on BBC Radio 4 "How to be Afraid," broadcast in September 2004, Hardy suggested 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.[3]

He was married to American-born actress and comedienne Kit Hollerbach, who featured alongside him in the radio sitcoms Unnatural Acts[4] and At Home with the Hardys.[5] They adopted a daughter in 1990. They separated in 2003 and are divorced. He now lives with film-maker 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[6] and wrote her Guardian obituary.[7]

Television

Radio

Film

References

  1. ↑ Hardy, Jeremy (2001-04-04). "Frankly, I've got nothing to joke about". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  2. ↑ "Jeremy Hardy:Caustic comic". BBC News Online. 2002-04-05. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  3. ↑ "Comic banned for "shoot BNP" joke". BBC News Online. 2004-11-02. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  4. ↑ "Unnatural Acts (a Titles & Air Dates Guide)". Epguides.com. 2007-06-17. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "radiohaha - At Home With The Hardys". Angelfire.com. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
  6. ↑ Hardy, Jeremy (2006-02-28). "Her mind was extraordinary". BBC News Online. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  7. ↑ Hardy, Jeremy (2006-03-01). "Obituary: Linda Smith". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-09-13.

External links

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