I
n late August 1981, on the penultimate day of their run at the Edinburgh Fringe, the cast of the Footlights revue became aware that an interloper had joined them on stage. Already a comic star, Rowan Atkinson had crept behind the then-unknown sextet of Stephen Fry (Queens’ 1978), Hugh Laurie (Selwyn 1978), Tony Slattery (Trinity Hall 1978), Paul Shearer (St John’s 1979), Emma Thompson (Newnham 1978) and Penny Dwyer (Homerton 1979), as they took their curtain call. The ambush was for Atkinson to announce that the group had won a new prize: the Perrier Award, instituted for the festival’s best comedy production. As well as heralding the arrival of some great comic talents, the prize was to have a profound effect on the reputation of the Footlights – arguably surpassing even the achievements of Peter Cook (Pembroke 1957), Jonathan Miller (St John’s 1953) and sundry Pythons and Goodies, decades earlier. Paul Shearer, later to join the cast of The Fast Show, says: “We assumed they wouldn’t want to give it to such an established comedy group, and we thought there would be anti-Oxbridge feeling. But with the quality
of the material and the performances from Hugh, Stephen, Emma and Tony, and to a lesser extent Penny and myself, the judges felt they had to award it to us. It was a wonderful thing for us at the time.” Almost 30 years later, on a morning halfway through their run, the cast of the 2011 Footlights revue, Pretty Little Panic, are gathered around the kitchen table in their rented Edinburgh flat – rather too conveniently located opposite one of the city’s biggest nightclubs. Ben Ashenden (Trinity Hall 2008), Adam Lawrence (Jesus 2009) and Alex Owen (St John’s 2008) are bleary-eyed; Mark Fiddaman (Corpus Christi 2008) just out of the shower, is wearing only a towel. “Doing the Footlights show here is a double-edged sword,” says Lawrence. “We get an incredible venue and time slot, given that the four of us are amateurs who have not done much before. We get 180 people coming to see us each day. No comedians get that here unless they’re already successful. “But the other side is that people have high expectations, and demand that it’s better than the average student show. There’s little goodwill or a feeling of ‘Let’s give these lads a chance’.”
Fringebenefits Thirty years ago a troupe of Cambridge unknowns, including Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery and Emma Thompson, took Edinburgh by storm. This year, as every year, a fresh crop of University talent is hoping for success. William Ham Bevan investigates the enduring appeal of the Footlights revue.
Image courtesy Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards
Main photograph Charlie Troman
RIght: The first Perrier Award, 1981. (Left-toright): Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson, Tony Slattery, Stephen Fry, Penny Dwyer, Emma Thompson, Paul Shearer.
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Opposite page: (Left-to-right) Mark Fiddaman, Alex Owen, Ben Ashenden and Adam Lawrence pictured backstage.