Kenneth Victor Campbell (10 December 1941 – 31 August 2008) was an English actor, writer and director known for his work in experimental theatre. He has been called "a one-man dynamo of British theatre". Campbell achieved notoriety in the 1970s for his nine-hour adaptation of the science-fiction trilogy '' Illuminatus!'' and his 22-hour staging of

Neil Oram Neil R. G. Oram is a British musician, poet, artist and playwright. He is known for his 10-play cycle, ''The Warp'', directed by Ken Campbell. Soho, jazz, art and poetry career In Africa, Oram met musician Mike Gibbs. He played double ba ...

's play cycle '' The Warp''. The ''

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

'' listed the latter as the longest play in the world. ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' said that, "In the 1990s, through a series of sprawling monologues packed with arcane information and freakish speculations on the nature of reality, he became something approaching a grand old man of the fringe, though without ever discarding his inner enfant terrible." ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'' labelled Campbell a one-man whirlwind of comic and surreal performance.

Michael Coveney Michael Coveney (born 24 July 1948) is a British theatre critic. Education and career Coveney was born in London and educated at St Ignatius’ College, Stamford Hill, and Worcester College, Oxford. After graduation, he worked as a script r ...

, in an obituary in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'', described him as "one of the most original and unclassifiable talents in the British theatre of the past half-century. A genius at producing shows on a shoestring and honing the improvisational capabilities of the actors who were brave enough to work with him." The artistic director of the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse said, "He was the door through which many hundreds of kindred souls entered a madder, braver, brighter, funnier and more complex universe."

Early life and career

Campbell was born in Ilford,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, the son of Elsie (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...

Handley) and Anthony Colin Campbell, who was a telegrapher. He staged his first performances in the bathroom of his childhood home: "I was three years old and helped by my invisible friend, Peter Jelp, I put on shows for the characters in the linoleum." He was educated at Chigwell School (where he won the Drama prize) and then studied at

RADA The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Sena ...

before joining

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colc ...

Repertory theatre as an

understudy In theater, an understudy, referred to in opera as cover or covering, is a performer who learns the lines and blocking or choreography of a regular actor, actress, or other performer in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to a ...

to Warren Mitchell. In 1967 he became resident dramatist and acting company member at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent. He soon began writing and directing his own productions, including working with director

Lindsay Anderson Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading-light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered f ...

. After seeing the American Living Theatre at The Roundhouse in 1969 he was inspired to found The Ken Campbell Roadshow, a small theatre group that performed in unconventional venues such as pubs. Members included

Bob Hoskins Robert William Hoskins (26 October 1942 – 29 April 2014) was an English actor. His work included lead roles in films and television series such as '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Long Good Friday'' (1980), ''Mona Lisa'' (1986), '' Who ...

, Bernard Wrigley, Jane Wood, Dave Hill and

Sylvester McCoy Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith (born 20 August 1943), known professionally as Sylvester McCoy, is a Scottish actor. Gaining prominence as a physical comedian, he became best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the lon ...

. Campbell was invited by

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and ...

to appear with his Roadshow team in the first '' Secret Policeman's Ball'' in June 1979.

Theatre director and playwright

In 1976, he and Chris Langham formed the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool in order to stage ''

Illuminatus Illuminatus may refer to: *singular of Illuminati *Illuminatus of Arce (fl. 1219), companion of Saint Francis *Illuminatus of Assisi (d. c. 1281), bishop *'' The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' (1975), a series of novels by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wils ...

'', a nine-hour cycle of five plays by himself and Langham based on the cult trilogy of avowedly

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

science fantasy novels of the same name by

Robert Shea Robert Joseph Shea (February 14, 1933 – March 10, 1994) was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy '' Illuminatus!'' It became a cult success and was later tu ...

and

Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson; January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was an American author, futurist, psychologist, and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilso ...

. Starring Campbell and Langham themselves, the production featured Neil Cunningham, David Rappaport, Jim Broadbent,

Bill Nighy William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Nighy started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre starting with '' The Illuminatus!'' in 1977. There he g ...

and Campbell's future wife Prunella Gee. It later moved to the National Theatre, where it opened the new Cottesloe Theatre in 1977. Sir Peter Hall, director of the National at the time, writes of Campbell in his ''Diaries'', "He is a total anarchist and impossible to pin down. He more or less said it was a crime to be serious." ''The Warp'', based on the real life experiences and adventures of author Neil Oram, is a dizzying trek through the nether reaches of gurudom and tireless post-sixties mind-expansion, directed by Ken Campbell, and opened at London's

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA ...

in January 1979. It was spawned by the encounter between Oram and Campbell after Oram gave his acclaimed performance as raconteur at the ICA. Campbell commissioned the cycle of ten plays after hearing Oram. The cycle's inordinate length when (as was intended to be possible) it is played together, 22 hours, rendered the 9-hour ''Illuminatus!'' a mere bagatelle by comparison. For the first two weeks the performances were of one play per night, after which the impetus for a marathon performance, a real challenge to actors and audience, became irresistible. The success of this remarkable effort by all concerned led to three full marathon performances at the ICA. Five marathon performances followed at the Roundhouse in London in November 1979 also directed by Ken. Probably the most remarkable, and in terms of the ethos of the author and the work, the most attractive event in this episode was the five marathons that were performed, against the wishes of an army of local officialdom, during a squat of the Regent Theatre in Edinburgh during the Festival of 1979. The Scottish audiences were as enthusiastic as the London crowd. After one performance at Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, a further performance was given at Liverpool Everyman Theatre in a ten-week run from 29 September – 6 December 1980. Cult status was established giving some credence to the publicity material - "The world may soon divide into those who have been through THE WARP and those who have not" More recently the cycle was revived in the 1990s in a production directed by Campbell's daughter Daisy. In May 1979, again at the ICA, the company presented the first stage version of ''

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (sometimes referred to as ''HG2G'', ''HHGTTG'', ''H2G2'', or ''tHGttG'') is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it ...

''. One eye-popping aspect of the production was that for each set change the entire audience was wafted 1/2000th-of-an-inch above the floor aboard an industrial

hovercraft A hovercraft, also known as an air-cushion vehicle or ACV, is an amphibious craft capable of travelling over land, water, mud, ice, and other surfaces. Hovercraft use blowers to produce a large volume of air below the hull, or air cushion, ...

. The cast cavorted on various ledges and platforms. The craft's carrying capacity meant that audiences were limited to a maximum of eighty each night. Langham was Arthur Dent, Richard Hope as Ford Prefect and narration of The Book was split between two usherettes. The problem of how to portray Zaphod Beeblebrox, the Betelgeusian blessed with three arms and two heads - not an issue in the original radio series - was assailed in typical Campbell fashion by simply (or not so simply) putting two actors inside one large costume. Audience-carrying capacity was not a problem at London's vast Rainbow Theatre where Campbell mounted a yet more grandiose version of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide'' in July 1980. The venue had been renovated in the 1970s to take

rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...

s. Some reviewers, who in general did not greet the show favourably, labelled it a musical, since it now came with incidental music and audacious laser effects. It ran for over three hours, despite attempts to shorten the script, and was forced to close some four weeks early, losing a lot of money in the process. For a year, 1980–1981, Campbell was artistic director of the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. From 1984, he made repeated efforts to adapt for the stage '' VALIS'', the largely autobiographical cult science fiction novel by

Philip K. Dick Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928March 2, 1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his l ...

, but to the disappointment of fans, these efforts came to nothing.

Television, radio and film

Campbell played Alex Gladwell, a corrupt lawyer, in one of the TV events of the 1970s, ''Law & Order'', the notorious but ground-breaking corruption drama by G.F. Newman, a luminary of British TV screenwriting. The series provoked such a press outcry at the time that the BBC banned its overseas sale, since it was deemed to have portrayed Britain's police and criminal justice system in such a wholly unfavourable light. He played Alf Garnett's neighbour, Fred Johnson in the series of the 1980s sitcom '' In Sickness and in Health'', which had the effect of cementing his career-long friendship with Warren Mitchell. He was memorable in Jack Pulman's 1981 television series

Private Schulz ''Private Schulz'' is a 1981 BBC television comedy drama serial set mostly in Germany, during and immediately after World War II. It stars Michael Elphick in the title role and Ian Richardson playing various parts. Other notable actors included ...

as the acerbic Herr Krauss, an underwear factory owner hoping the war would continue so as not to jeopardise his contracts with the German army. Campbell in 1987 unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of the

Seventh Doctor The Seventh Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', and the final incarnation of the original Doctor Who series. He is portrayed by Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy ...

in '' Doctor Who''. He was beaten to the role by his old protégé Sylvester McCoy, but an independently written and produced episode, "The Lost Doctor", features the voice of Ken Campbell. The then script editor,

Andrew Cartmel Andrew J. Cartmel (born 6 April 1958) is a British author and journalist. He was the script editor of ''Doctor Who'' during the Sylvester McCoy era of the show between 1987 and 1989. He has also worked as a script editor on other television seri ...

, later revealed that Campbell's interpretation had been considered "too dark" to put on television. Other roles included the children's programme "Erasmus Microman" on ITV from 1988 to 1989 being a mad scientist. He also played Roger in " The Anniversary" episode of '' Fawlty Towers'', buck-toothed blackmailer Ted Goat in ''Lovejoy Loses It'', a 1993 episode of Lovejoy and a thieving flower-show entrant in ''Say It With Flowers'', a 2004 episode of

Heartbeat A heartbeat is one cardiac cycle of the heart. Heartbeat, heart beat, heartbeats, and heart beats may refer to: Computing *Heartbeat (computing), a periodic signal to indicate normal operation or to synchronize parts of a system *Heartbeat, clus ...

. Campbell's radio career included playing

Poodoo This page is a list of characters in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', by Douglas Adams. The descriptions of the characters are accompanied by information on details about appearances and references to the characters. Main characters ...

in ''

'', a part specifically written for him. The Radio 3 literary programme '' The Verb'' included Campbell as a regular contributor; in such spots as ''Campbell's Book Soup'' he became an upturner of bibliographic rocks, revealing unconsidered trifles to the hilarity of fellow contributors. His film work included

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...

's '' The Tempest'' (1979), '' Breaking Glass'' (1980), '' Joshua Then and Now'' (1985), '' The Bride'' (1985), Chris Bernard's '' Letter to Brezhnev'' (1985),

Peter Greenaway Peter Greenaway, (born 5 April 1942) is a Welsh film director, screenwriter and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular. Common traits in his films are t ...

's ''

A Zed and Two Noughts ''A Zed & Two Noughts'' is a 1985 film written and directed by Peter Greenaway. This film was Greenaway's first collaboration with cinematographer Sacha Vierny, who went on to shoot virtually all of Greenaway's work in the 1980s and 1990s, until ...

'' (1985),

Charles Crichton Charles Ainslie Crichton (6 August 1910 – 14 September 1999) was an English film director and editor. Born in Wallasey, Cheshire, he became best known for directing many comedies produced at Ealing Studios and had a 40-year career ed ...

's '' A Fish Called Wanda'' (1988), '' Hard Men'' (1996), ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creature ...

'' (1999), '' Saving Grace'' (2000) and ''

Creep Creep, Creeps or CREEP may refer to: People * Creep, a creepy person Politics * Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CRP), mockingly abbreviated as CREEP, an fundraising organization for Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign Art ...

'' (2004). In the final years of his life Campbell suddenly found himself cast in a whole new TV role: that of doggedly curious sceptic called upon to probe the outer realms of

particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) and ...

and cognitive science on behalf of the casual viewer, particularly where the science bordered on the

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. No ...

. Campbell's idiosyncratic presentation in ''Brainspotting'', ''Reality On the Rocks'' and ''Six Experiments that Changed the World'', each made for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

, owed much to the influence of one of his heroes, the American iconoclast Charles Fort. Campbell became a star turn at the annual ''

Fortean Times ''Fortean Times'' is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001), I Feel Good Publishing (2001 to 2005), Dennis Publishing (2005 t ...

'' convention, UnCon.

Later career and one-man shows

From the late eighties onwards Campbell wrote and performed a series of one-man shows, each a mélange of autobiographical

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...

, ontological speculation and popular-science rant. They include ''Recollections of a Furtive Nudist'', ''Jamais Vu'', ''Mystery Bruises'' and ''Pigspurt''. Several were published by

Methuen Methuen may refer to: *Methuen (surname) *Methuen, Massachusetts, a U.S. city **Methuen High School **Methuen Mall *Baron Methuen, a British title of nobility *Methuen Cove, South Orkney Islands *Methuen Publishing, Methuen & Co. Ltd., a British p ...

. He toured them worldwide. Three of them were performed together at the National Theatre in 1993, as ''The Bald Trilogy: Furtive Nudist, Jamais Vu and Pigspurt''. Campbell was later commissioned by the National's director

Trevor Nunn Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is a British theatre director. He has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed drama ...

to write ''The History of Comedy Part One: Ventriloquism''. The two had previously fallen out when Nunn had been director of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1981. Campbell had carefully concocted a press release and a string of personal letters complete with forged signature: Nunn appeared to be announcing that henceforth, as a consequence of the huge success of its recent adaptation of '' Nicholas Nickleby'', the Royal Shakespeare Company would be changing its name to the Royal Dickens Company. Several grandees of the English theatre had been taken in by the hoax. Only when an exasperated Nunn called in Scotland Yard did Campbell finally own up. In 1999, Campbell starred with Warren Mitchell and John Fortune in '' Art'' in London's West End. In 2001 Campbell staged a version of ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'' in

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...

English, called Makbed (blong Willum Sekspia). It was the big gun in his campaign to get

Bislama Bislama (; ; also known by its earlier French name, ) is an English-based creole language and one of the official languages of Vanuatu. It is the first language of many of the "Urban ni-Vanuatu" (citizens who live in Port Vila and Luganvil ...

, first language of 6,000 inhabitants of the

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

islands of

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

, formally adopted as a world language (''wol wantok''). The virtue of Bislama was that with a bit of determination you could pick it up in an afternoon. Campbell argued that, in certain respects, Macbeth in pidgin was better than the original. If nothing else, the campaign had the effect of bringing to a wider public the Bislama for

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...

: ''Nambawan bigfala emi blong Misis Kwin'' ("Number one big fellow him belong Mrs Queen"). With

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''Watchmen'', '' V for Vendetta'', ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and ''From Hell ...

, Bill Drummond, Mixmaster Morris and

Coldcut Coldcut are an English electronic music duo composed of Matt Black and Jonathan More. Credited as pioneers for pop sampling in the 1980s, Coldcut are also considered the first stars of UK electronic dance music due to their innovative style, ...

, he appeared at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

in 2007 in a memorial tribute to

, co-author of the Illuminatus! novels. In July 2008

Staffordshire University , mottoeng = Dare to know , type = Public , endowment = £70 million (2015) , administrative_staff = 1,375 , chancellor = Francis Fitzherbert, 15th Baron Stafford , vice_chancellor = Professor Martin Jones , ...

awarded Campbell an honorary doctorate, labelling him one of Staffordshire's "greatest living success stories", a reference to his time as artist in residence in 1967 at

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surroun ...

's Victoria Theatre. Campbell appeared on 6 September 2009, over a year after his death, in the first of a new series of Marple on ITV. He played Crump; his wife was played by Wendy Richard.

The School of Night

On 23 April 2005, Ken Campbell was asked by Mark Rylance, the artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, to stage a celebration of Shakespeare's work. Campbell responded with ''Shall we Shog?'', a show in which actors played competitive improvisational games against each other in the idiom of Shakespeare. These included games like 'flyting' (a tournament of increasingly outrageous insults); an explanation and demonstration of the 'Nub' (a piece of poetic-sounding doggerel an actor uses to give himself a breathing space when he has forgotten his lines - the first sentence should contain the word 'nub' to warn the others that the actor is in trouble, and it should end with the words "Milford Haven"); and fastest recitation of Hamlet's To be, or not to be soliloquy; among many others. Campbell continued working with some of the actors from ''Shall We Shog'', shedding and adding more along the way. He presented a series of literary improvisation shows, including a run at The Royal Court called ''Décor Without Production'', in which the cast would create scenes and songs in the styles of poets, playwrights, novelists and songwriters. In 2006 Campbell worked with

Adam Meggido Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as ...

's theatre company the Sticking Place (now Extempore Theatre) and staged a run of ''In Pursuit of Cardenio'' at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

, during which the cast were supposed to re-create a lost Shakespeare play through improvisational techniques. In practice it turned into a nightly-changing series of literary challenges for the performers. By the latter part of the run, a large section of the show was devoted to improvised songs. One example of the extent to which Campbell pushed the actors was that by the end, each member of cast had developed four musical styles in which they could improvise, each corresponding to a different Elizabethan humour. They would then perform fully sung-through scenes, swapping humours and song styles mid-sentence as the scene or Campbell demanded. The Cardenio shows used Campbell's now well-established "Goader and Rhapsodes" technique, in which the goader (Campbell) pushed the rhapsodes (the cast) into feats that they would not be able to achieve without the pressure he could apply. The group eventually consolidated and settled on the name "The School of Night", after Sir Walter Raleigh's secret society. Raleigh's School of Night (also called The School of Atheism) was a group of highly literate and intellectual men who would meet to discuss forbidden topics. Campbell's take on it was that the group, which included playwrights and poets, were steeped in the art of extemporisation and would create from scratch, in perfect meter, plays and poems. Campbell's School of Night group has become well known in the improvisational theatre and comedy scene, putting on shows and workshops and appearing in festivals as far afield as Elisnore Castle, the Wiesbaden Summer Improv Festival and the Improvaganza festival in Edmonton, Canada, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; and returning several times to Shakespeare's Globe. In 2007, the work on singing in various styles of music that Campbell developed also led two of the members of the School of Night—Adam Meggido and Dylan Emery—to develop an improvised musical. The resulting show, which while not directed by Campbell, was enormously influenced by him, became '' Showstopper! The Improvised Musical''. Its first run in Edinburgh was in 2008; it returned in subsequent years and has become something of a fringe institution. The show continues to tour and has had a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

series. A West End run in 2016 won the Olivier for Best Entertainment and Family. Campbell performed with 'The Showstoppers' in August 2008 in their second Edinburgh Fringe, reprising his School of Night role as on-stage director of proceedings in the final six shows of the run. For these performances, instead of taking suggestions from the audience regarding the setting and title of the show, Campbell had previously asked a number of professional theatre critics to each write a review of an imaginary musical; after this review was read onstage, the company's task would be to realise the show whose details they had only just heard. Campbell's last performance was on 24 August 2008, one week before he died.

Personal life

Campbell married the actress Prunella Gee in 1978, and they had a daughter, Daisy. They divorced in 1983 but remained close friends. He was in a relationship with the

ventriloquist Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is v ...

and actress Nina Conti when she was 26 and he was 59; from him she inherited his collection of ventriloquist dummies. Campbell lived in

Loughton Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Char ...

, adjacent to

Epping Forest Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the Londo ...

, in a nineteenth-century Swiss chalet. His funeral, a woodland burial in

, was attended by mourners with whom he had worked in the theatre.

Filmography

Bibliography

*1972 - ''You See the Thing Is This: A One Act Comedy'' () *1972 - ''Old King Cole'' () *1975 - ''Skungpoomery'' () *1976 - ''Jack Sheppard'' () *1991 - ''Recollections of a Furtive Nudist'' () *1993 - ''Pigspurt: Or Six Pigs from Happiness'' () *1995 - ''The Bald Trilogy'' () - a volume collecting together ''Furtive Nudist'', ''Pigspurt'' and ''Jamais Vu'' *1996 - ''Violin time; or, the Lady from Montségur'' () *2000 - ''Wol Wantok'' () - a

English version of

*2011 -

Coveney, Michael Michael Coveney (born 24 July 1948) is a British theatre critic. Education and career Coveney was born in London and educated at St Ignatius’ College, Stamford Hill, and Worcester College, Oxford. After graduation, he worked as a script re ...

, ''Ken Campbell: The Great Caper'',

Nick Hern Books Nick Hern Books is a London-based independent specialist publisher of plays, theatre books and screenplays. The company was founded by the former Methuen drama editor Nicholas Hern in 1988. History Nick Hern Books was founded in June 1988,Sara ...

, London () *2011 - Merrifield, Jeff, ''Seeker! Ken Campbell: His Five Amazing Lives'', Playback Publications, Shetland ()

Legacy

Many contemporary performers cite Ken Campbell as an influence early in their careers, including Richard Herring, Nina Conti,

Cariad Lloyd Katie Cariad Lloyd (born 21 August 1982) is a British comedian, actress, writer, and podcaster who has been performing since 2007. She is a member of the improvisational comedy group Austentatious, the host and creator of '' Griefcast'', and ...

, Diane Morgan and

Michael Brunström Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

.British Comedy Guide - First Gig, Worst Gig - Michael Brunström
/ref>

References

External links

Campbell on BBC Radio 3, on the Library of the Peculiar
& Jeremy Beadle
Jeff Merrifield on putting Illuminatus! on stage

Recording of performance in Manchester of The Captain sequence from ''Pigspurt'', December 1992
*

Interviews

2004 recording of Campbell on the origins of Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool

Obituaries

* ttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/sep/01/obituary.ken.campbell?gusrc=rss&feed=stage Michael Coveney, ''The Guardian'', 1 September 2008
''The Daily Telegraph'', 1 September 2008

Mark Borkowski, ''Chortle'', UK comedy website, 1 September 2008

* ttp://www.everymanplayhouse.com/news/full-story.asp?Article_ID=546 Gemma Bodinetz, artistic director of the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse
''What's on Stage'' tribute
from Simon McBurney of Complicite
The Fortean Institute

''The Times'', 1 September 2008

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Richard Eyre Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre (born 28 March 1943) is an English film, theatre, television and opera director. Biography Eyre was born in Barnstaple, Devon, England, the son of Richard Galfridus Hastings Giles Eyre and his wife, Minna Ma ...

, ''The Guardian'', 11 October 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Ken Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art English male comedians English male film actors English male radio actors English male stage actors English male television actors English theatre directors Forteana People educated at Chigwell School People from Ilford People from Loughton 1941 births 2008 deaths 20th-century English comedians English people of Scottish descent