I watched the TV documentary on Bob Monkhouse last night.

[GabbyLoggon]

Did anyone see it?

Bob Monkhouse seemed a very complex bloke. Made a fortune out of running TV gameshows; but he still was not happy.

I liked his joke. "this business is about sincerity; When you have learned to fake that; you,ve made it."

Did anyone see him perform "live" ?

No, but I've always had an embarrassing crush on him (it's a dad complex thing)

He's an exceptionally clever man, but I'm not the hugest fan of his comedy just a little forced and smooth for me no vulnerability or quirk really.

Oh, my father saw him live and said he was very good, and extremely rude (but not sweary rude)

He was a very funny, very clever man with an extremely charitable nature, much of which went unreported as it was carried out without fuss or fanfare.

My family knew him well.

My fave Bob Monkhouse line:

"When I said I was going to be a comedian, everyone laughed. They're not laughing now...".

Brilliant. Works on so many levels. Apparently, he was almost a proper film star, Dirk Bogarde-style but something happened, or he chose not to move to Hollywood, not sure. Would have liked to see the documentary.

I treated him a couple of times (dental nurse) and he was the loveliest, most sincere person I have ever treated. No airs & graces, great manners & very grateful that we kept the surgery open late for him (even tho he didn't req it).

Very funny man, paid me some lovely compliments too!

Anyone who knew him IRL always says how lovely he was but his stage persona was so, um, oily and slightly creepy. Very odd.

Didn't he have his entire library of jokes stolen at some stage? Remember being quite impressed/taken aback that he'd apparently got this huge catalogue!

is he dead?

When I was little I was convinced my primary school teacher was married to Bob Monkhouse. No idea why.

i used to love him as a child. I used to veer from wishing him or Brian Cant was my dad. That bingo game show he presented was my utterly favourite programme for a time.

As an adult thought he had such an oleaginous screen persona, albeit strangely vulnerable.

My XP met him once and said he was absoklutely lovely, a very kind and gentle man.

sorry, excrutiating grammar there.

Oh, Brian Cant would have been a great Dad!

I know. He was utterly wonderful. I grew up without a man in the home and to me (for an embarassingly long time) he represented what a bloke should be.

I wonder is he is still alive.

He died a few years back - prostate cancer i think???

Sadly he died of prostate cancer a few years ago. Much missed, I thought he was hilarious and a real gentleman. One of the few old school comedians who never seemed to go out of date.

Think I read Bob Monkhouse is why comedians who tell rude jokes are called 'blue'. Apparently he had two books - the one with rude jokes in it was blue and he used to ask clubs if it was OK to do jokes from the blue book, which got shortened to 'blue jokes' (might have dreamt this though....)

Brian is still with us happily.

I didn't spend much time in Britain as a child but watchnig Brian do his thang in tight colourful dungarees on various kids' shows is an abiding memeory.

Oh Bric a Brac, I loved that show.

What a nice bloke he seems. Glad he is still alive, bless him.

DH and I sometimes say a person is 'a total Brian'. Meaning Brian Cant. Not because Mr Cant is anything less than utterly brilliant, it's the way my cousin from Woolwich pronounces the c-word.

I thought he was very funny.

I saw Bob Monkhouse a couple of times, I was in the TV studio audience.

The first show I saw was his one-man show. He tiptoed onto the stage while the producer was doing the usual TV audience intro (basically please laugh loudly and bear with us if we have to do things again). When the cameras were off BM was so warm and lovely, and constantly joking ? the amount of material was phenomenal. He was also very modest and grateful to people for coming. When they picked people out of the audience to ask him questions he was lovely to them, he managed to be perfectly respectful but sometimes a bit flirtatious. I can well imagine differentname's lovely compliments!

I agree with previous posters - I can't quite understand how his onscreen personality came aacross as so slimy and obnoxious. I haven't watched anything about him dying even though he did such great work for awareness of prostate cancer, despite his age I just think it's really sad he's not around any more. In these times of so much reality TV he could have been a real national treasure as people could see the real him, not the cocky stand-up persona.

As an aside, some months after, I went to see being filmed. HNC wouldn't walk on stage till there was a massive round of applause (which was actually for the warm-up guy) and once his speeches were over he stood there completely stumm. They were filming it to look like a variety show so there may have been reasons for doing it differently, but it was amazing how very much better Bob Monkhouse was.

'An audience with...', usually can't stand that sycophantic showboating, was very moving because he knew he was dying and it was his swansong. Just in that programme you can see how utterly brilliant and clever he was.

He also did adverts for prostate cancer 'beyond the grave' - youtube them - eerie stuff.

My father knew him, says he was a very lovely man.

Yes Bob did have his bumper fun book stolen. But it was returned. The police did not prosecute. Yes he had prostate cancer, And so does my best mate, But it can be cured if caught early