Terry Wogan was a colossus of British broadcasting, a genial Irishman whose an easy manner and understated wit established him as the BBC’s most important star on both television and radio across four decades. During those years he hosted his own daily breakfast radio show, an eponymous television talk show, game shows, the annual Children in Need telethon and he was the guide for British viewers of The Eurovision Song Contest. A consummate broadcaster, Sir Terry was adored by his countless millions of fans for his dry sense of humour and keen eye for the absurd.

Johnny Carson was America’s king of television, the host and star of NBC’s Tonight Show for thirty extraordinary years. Decades after his death Carson remains a revered figure in American entertainment, a performer whose impact was so significant it is almost impossible to quantify. No one has come close to rivalling Carson’s phenomenal television stardom - his apparently effortless style, relaxed demeanour and razor-sharp timing were the hallmarks of a peerless professional who understood the medium better than anyone before or since.

John Marley and Mark Wells share their memories of working with Terry Wogan and offer an appreciation of his talent, along with that of the incomparable Johnny Carson.

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Barry Humphries was a comedy’s artistic disrupter before the term was even invented. His comic creations – Dame Edna Everage, Sir Les Patterson and Sandy Stone – were all experiments in how far he could push a larger-than-life character comedically, each one as finely drawn as one of Barry's own prized artworks. Dame Edna, the Melbourne suburban housewife superstar with a garish taste in fashion began as a joke but soon morphed into a real-life megastar, rubbing shoulder pads with the world’s richest and most famous. Sir Les was the Australian Cultural Attaché (and Chairman of the Australian Cheese Board), a grotesque whose boozy indiscreet stories both appalled and delighted in equal measure. And Sandy Stone, “Australia’s most boring man”, tested his audience’s capacity for melancholic tedium to its limit.

Humphries was a comic genius whose talent was simply too big be confined to his native Australia. Though perhaps few would recognise him out of costume, his characters became world famous and his colossal, inventive talent marked him out as a genuine one-off.

In this special edition of Funny But Dead devoted solely to Barry Humphries, John Marley and Mark Wells assess the extraordinary work and career of Australia' greatest comedy star of all time.

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Tommy Cooper is regularly cited as every comedian’s favourite comedian. He had a unique act as bungling fez-wearing magician unable to perform tricks while appearing entirely undeterred, but this masked a master craftsman whose every chaotic mishap was meticulously planned. Cooper had only to walk onto a stage to make an audience laugh. He was an innately funny performer, a towering presence on the British comedy and variety scene for over three decades before his untimely death on a live television variety show in 1984. His legacy lives on today in regular reruns of his popular shows and documentaries charting his phenomenal success.

Foster Brooks established himself as “the best drunk act in America” in the late 1960’s with a performance made all the more extraordinary by Brooks’ status as a committed teetotaller. No one in American comedy gave a more convincing, or more hilarious, portrayal of extreme inebriation. Brooks found national fame after Dean Martin first showcased his work on network television and he became a semi-regular on the Hollywood celebrity roasts hosted by his champion. On British television, Brooks was introduced to the UK audience by his great fan, Bob Monkhouse.

John Marley and Mark Wells discuss the work of the peerless Tommy Cooper and the comedy of the great Foster Brooks.

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