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 (1961-07-17) 17 July 1961
Farnborough, Hampshire
Medium Television, radio and stand-up.
Nationality British
Alma mater University of Southampton
Website Official website

Jeremy James Hardy (born 17 July 1961) is an English comedian.

Born and raised in North Hampshire, he studied at the University of Southampton and began his stand-up career in the 1980s, going on to win the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1988. Today he is best known for his appearances on radio panel shows such as the News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

Early life

Hardy was born in Farnborough, Hampshire. He attended Farnham College and studied Modern History and Politics at the University of Southampton. He subsequently attempted but failed to obtain a place on a journalism course. He also considered being an actor or poet.[1]

Career

Hardy started scriptwriting before turning to stand-up comedy in London in the early 1980s,[1] funded in part by the Enterprise Allowance Scheme.[2] He and won the Perrier Comedy Award in 1988 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

He made his television debut in the late 1980s, featuring regularly as Jeremy the boom operator (media) in the Rory Bremner-led comedy show Now – Something Else on BBC Two , along with guest appearances on programmes including the BBC One talk show Wogan (TV series).[1] He went on to feature 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. He was one of the two team captains on the BBC Two game show If I Ruled the World that ran for two series in 1998–1999.[1]

He has become best known for his work on BBC Radio 4, 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 excruciatingly off-key singing is a long-running joke on the radio panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, on which he appears regularly, and replicated to great disadvantage in the spin-off radio series "You'll Have Had Your Tea: The Doings of Hamish and Dougal.". His experiences in Palestine 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. A four-episode series entitled Jeremy Hardy Feels It was broadcast on Radio 4 in December 2017 to January 2018.[3]

Hardy wrote a regular column for The Guardian until 2001.[4] He then wrote a column in the London Evening Standard's magazine.[1]

His first book, My Family and Other Strangers, based on his research into his family history, was published by Ebury Press on 4 March 2010.[5]

Political views

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.[6] He also supported the campaign to free Danny McNamee, wrongly convicted of involvement in the Provisional Irish Republican Army's (IRA) Hyde Park bombing on 20 July 1982.[7]

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.[8]

In September 2016, Hardy performed at the Keep Corbyn rally in Brighton in support of Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.[9]

Personal life

Hardy was married to American-born actress and comedian Kit Hollerbach, who featured alongside him in the radio sitcoms Unnatural Acts[10] and At Home with the Hardys.[11]

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[12] and wrote her Guardian obituary.[13]

Television

Radio

Film

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Jeremy's stand-up routine". The Bolton News. 22 February 2002. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  2. ↑ Moorhead, Rosy (19 February 2015). "Jeremy Hardy looks back at 'the one decent thing Thatcher did'". Harrow Times. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  3. ↑ "Jeremy Hardy Feels It". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  4. ↑ Hardy, Jeremy (4 April 2001). "Frankly, I've got nothing to joke about". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 September 2007.
  5. ↑ Hardy, Jeremy (27 February 2010). "Jeremy Hardy's family tree". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  6. ↑ "Jeremy Hardy:Caustic comic". BBC News. 5 April 2002. Retrieved 13 September 2007.
  7. ↑ "McNamee's 11-year campaign for justice". BBC News. 17 December 1998. Retrieved 27 February 2007.
  8. ↑ "Comic banned for 'shoot BNP' joke". BBC News. 2 November 2004. Retrieved 13 September 2007.
  9. ↑ Burke, Darren (26 August 2016). "TV star comedians line up for Jeremy Corbyn rally in Doncaster". Doncaster: Doncaster Free Press. Retrieved 1 June 2018.
  10. ↑ "Unnatural Acts (a Titles & Air Dates Guide)". Epguides.com. 17 June 2007. Retrieved 14 July 2010.
  11. 1 2 "radiohaha – At Home with the Hardys". Angelfire.com. Retrieved 14 July 2010.
  12. ↑ Hardy, Jeremy (28 February 2006). "Her mind was extraordinary". BBC News. Retrieved 13 September 2007.
  13. ↑ Hardy, Jeremy (1 March 2006). "Obituary: Linda Smith". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 September 2007.


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