Barry Took
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Barry Took (June 19, 1928 - March 31, 2002) was a British comedian, writer and television presenter. He is most well-known in the UK for his weekly role as presenter of Points Of View, a BBC TV programme in which viewers' letters criticising or praising the BBC were broadcast. He also presented the BBC Radio 4 programme The News Quiz until the late 1990's.
Took was born in London and brought up there during the war, running away from the home in Wisbech to which he had been evacuated. It was during his period of National Service that he began performing seriously, and it was also then that he met his wife, Dorothy. He later worked as a stand-up comedian, eventually becoming a West End revue performer.
In terms of comedy writing, he was the writing partner of Marty Feldman and wrote for several seminal radio shows in the 1950s and 1960s, including Round The Horne.
Took also went to the USA to work on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, before joining the BBC, where he helped devise both Monty Python's Flying Circus. The Goodies, and the popular literacy programme, On the Move (starring Bob Hoskins).
Autobiography
- A Point of View (1990)
External links
- BBC News article reporting his death (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/tv_and_radio/newsid_1903000/1903696.stm)
- Kenneth Williams/Round The Horne (http://www.stopmessinabout.co.uk)