Ken Campbell is dead

;-(. A very familiar sight lurking around the Gray's Inn Buildings of yore.

Sad! I always liked him.

that is very sad. rip.

remember the BBC ad "What has the BBC ever done for us?" John Cleese?

and all the passing celebs and TV stars would say "dramas", the two ronnies said "Comedy, oh yeah, that's a larf innit"

Ken Campbell popped out of a mens room to shout "And Alternative Comedy!!"

Anyroad, Ben Elton on his TV show ripping on this ad: "that bloke who says "And alternative Comedy"!! Who is he? I mean, who is he? I have no idea!!!"

damn liar,....

Oh, and when Keith Allen was going up for a D&D charge, Ken Campbell insisted on giving a character reference which led to a 3 month prison sentence if I recall correctly.

That now goes down as Campbell's greatest achievement.

Bummer. Thanks to Reality on the Rocks, he's one of the reasons I'm a physicist now.

From Wikipedia, "In 1984, Campbell made plans to adapt Valis by Philip K. Dick for stage." That must have taken ten years off his life right there.

I was 14 when Reality on the Rocks was broadcast -- the perfect age. It's probably the kind of bong hit pop sci I'd object to now because I'm a cynical asshole, but there's no denying it changed my life.

Oh, and when Keith Allen was going up for a D&D charge, Ken Campbell insisted on giving a character reference which led to a 3 month prison sentence if I recall correctly.

-- Mark G, Monday, 1 September 2008 13:05 (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Great story!

i really liked "beyond our ken".

I only know him for two small roles but he was so memorable in both thanks to the way he used his voice that I have no problem in immediately remembering them -- a half-a-minute bit in A Fish Called Wanda (he's another one of the crime boss's lawyers who passes on word that Michael Palin's character got the key -- I just love the way he half-whispers "De NADA.") and Poodoo the anti-Lintilla hunter in the final radio episode of Hitchhiker's. (A note in the radio scripts book, from Geoffrey Perkins (RIP) reads: "The part of Poodoo was especially written for Ken Campbell....who we simply asked to be himself in the part. Strangely the only way we could get Ken to sound remotely like himself was to imitate him down the talkback and for him to copy what we did.")

"Syb? Ill?"

I once bumped into him on St Martin's Lane and he signed my copy of "Lo!" by Charles Fort. Then recited the whole first page from memory.

A NAKED man in a city street -- the track of a horse in volcanic mud -- the mystery of the reindeer's ears -- a huge, black form, like a whale, in the sky, and it drips red drops as if attacked by celestial swordfishes -- an appalling cherub appears in the sea --

Confusions.

Showers of frogs and blizzards of snails -- gushes of periwinkles down from the sky --

The preposterous, the grotesque, the incredible -- and why, if I am going to tell of hundreds of these, is the quite ordinary so regarded?

An unclothed man shocks a crowd -- a moment later, if nobody is generous with an overcoat, somebody is collecting handkerchiefs to knot around him.

A naked fact startles a meeting of a scientific society -- and whatever it has for loins is soon diapered with conventional explanations.

Chaos and muck and filth -- the indeterminable and the unrecordable and the unknowable -- and all men are liars -- and yet --

Wigwams on an island -- sparks in their columns of smoke.

Centuries later -- the uncertain columns are towers. What once were fluttering sparks are the motionless lights of windows. According to critics of Tammany Hall, there has been monstrous corruption upon this island: nevertheless, in the midst of it, this regularization has occurred. A woodland sprawl has sprung to stony attention.

The Princess Cariboo tells, of herself, a story, in an unknown language, and persons who were themselves liars, have said that she lied, though nobody has ever known what she told. The story of Dorothy Arnold has been told thousands of times, but the story of Dorothy Arnold and the swan has not been told before. A city turns to a crater, and casts out eruptions, as lurid as fire, of living things -- and where Cagliostro came from, and where he went, are so mysterious that only historians say they know -- venomous snakes crawl on the sidewalks of London -- and a star twinkles --

But the underlying oneness in all confusions.

An onion and a lump of ice -- and what have they in common?

I'll also never forget he and his friends demonstrating gastromancy, or be so thankful I wasn't sat near the front.

I will listen to Wol Wantok tonight in tribute. RIP Ken.

:-(

I also once bumped into him - he was behind me in the queue in a supermarket - but sadly I didn't have any Forteana on me to strike up a conversation about.

He had a wonderful voice - I particularly remember a documentary series he presented on some philosophical topic, and in that, the way in which he pronounced "qualia".

RIP

I particularly remember a documentary series he presented on some philosophical topic, and in that, the way in which he pronounced "qualia".

this may have been the quantum theory/cosmology series I mentioned.

http://static.guim.co.uk/Guardian/stage/gallery/2008/sep/01/kencampbell/campbell4-5550.jpg
In 2005, Campbell talked to the Guardian about his pet parrot: 'Parrots live for ever and she's nowhere near 10 yet, so she'll live way after me. At least I know my voice will carry on for a bit after I'm gone: 'I'm up 'ere, you're down there!'"

Damn! RIP, Ken. I saw him do one man spots on the Fringe a couple of times, incredibly charming and gregarious, seemed to want to spend time time with everybody in the audience before, after and during.

That's a great story, Aldo; Ken could have added himself to the bottom of Fort's list!

wonderful performer. mighty brain. someone i'd have dearly loved to have met. RIP.

ha dude was a local

I feel immensely affected by this, Ken was one of the people that made me conect with Forteana in a direct way (and me, a passing acquaintance with Fanthorpe).

I'm suprised, maybe, nobody else has commented on "Syb? Ill?". One of the most memorable moments in British Sitcom history and AFAIK a Ken adlib. A genius.

Seriously, a forgotten comedy hero and one of my all time heroes.

Introducing the Robert Anton Wilson tribute last year

And 'Syb? Ill?' at 6:20 and forward

Just been watching some old Ken Campbell tv programs (six experiments that changed the world and reality on the rocks) and wishing he was still here.

He was a very memorable Ted Goat in a Lovejoy episode, and James Ryder in the Brett Sherlock Holmes adaptation of the Blue Carbuncle... once I realized it was the same guy, he seemed to pop up everywhere on TV!

They missed a trick by not giving him the Dr Who gig. His science programs are far superior to the current Brian Cox/Iain Stewart type shite, they could learn a lot from him.