Crisis at No 10? Call for Margo and Jerry!
Comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who once played the role of president in a TV series, has just been voted the reallife president of the Ukraine.
This strange turn of events prompts the question: have any other professional comedians ever been elected to high office?
1 in The early1980s, Tommy Cooper, best known for his fez and his offbeat magic tricks, was briefly coleader of the SDP.
Concerned that the party he had founded was growing too heavyweight and ‘issue-based’, dr david owen called in allround family entertainer Tommy Cooper in the hope of giving it more widespread appeal.
accepting the leadership at the 1982 SDP Party Conference in harrogate, Cooper announced that he planned to win the next general election ‘ just like that’.
Unfortunately, the SDP performed poorly under his coleadership in the 1983 General election, losing all its deposits. But Cooper refused to be downhearted. ‘ as my father used to say, “never cry over spilt milk. it could have been whisky,”’ he told reporters.
around this time, it was rumoured that dr owen was beginning to regret his choice. ‘in my opinion, this is not a serious politician,’ he told an undercover journalist. 2 As a child, Brexit leader nigel Farage made cameo appearances in three norman Wisdom films, playing the part of young norman. ‘as he got older, he grew increasingly tired with slapstick,’ observed his biographer, ‘but he was only too happy to let nigel Farage continue acting the giddygoat.’ 3 in 1975, Prime minister Theresa may auditioned for the role of margo Leadbetter in the popular TV sitcom The Good Life. Coincidentally, she first met Chancellor Philip hammond at the same audition. hammond was going after the role of her putupon husband, Jerry.
They both heard the news of their failure to land their roles within minutes of each other. ‘That was the moment we both vowed to go into politics, to help put this country back on its feet,’ recalls hammond.
Such is fate. had things worked out differently, Penelope Keith might now be in no 10, wrestling with the problems posed by Brexit, and Theresa may could be shaping up for a season as mrs malaprop at the Chichester Festival Theatre. 4 The Conservative Women’s Forum were convinced they had picked a safe pair of hands when they elected Benny hill their honorary President in the autumn of 1977, but by the end of the year, discord had already begun to surface, and at their spring conference they were obliged to chase him all the way round the Royal albert hall, and then back again. 5 Leading Rightwinger Jacob Reesmogg is still probably best known for his appearance in the first season of popular TV comedy series mrs Brown’s Boys.
Jacob played longlost cousin algernon montmorency Brown, as a Latinquoting toff who is thinking of running for Parliament on a populist ticket, but his character was dropped after the first series, on the grounds that it was too farfetched. 6 Leftwing firebrand owen Jones shot to fame in the early noughties as one of Ken dodd’s diddymen at a season at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens. on realising that his character, diddy owen, worked down the Jam Butty mines, Jones attempted to organise a protest march in support of better pay and conditions.
‘ When i tell people what we’re being asked to do for a living, you know what they do? They just laugh,’ he complained at a rally in Knotty ash. 7 It’S OFTEN forgotten that Frankie howerd was President of the Board of Trade in edward heath’s 197074 administration. he was widely commended on all sides of the house for leaping to his leader’s defence during a debate on the Balance of Payments.
‘oooh, no, don’t — don’T! it’s wicked to mock the afflicted!’ he said, adding, ‘ Teddy’s a very clever boy, very clever indeed. one of these days, he might even turn professional!’ 8 Before winning the Labour leadership election in 2015, Jeremy Corbyn had toyed with accepting an offer to play the older Steptoe in a revival of the longrunning TV sitcom Steptoe and Son.
‘i intended to highlight the very real plight of the elderly in our society,’ he told an interviewer last year. ‘But then i decided i could draw attention to the same issue by appearing on television every night as party leader.’