He arrived in England in 1959, making a living by writing the Barry McKenzie strip for Private Eye and appearing in musicals. In the Seventies his most famous creation, Dame Edna Everage, captured a British audience. Tours and television shows followed as Dame Edna and as Sir Les Patterson, the “Australian cultural attach? Recently Dame Edna has won a Tony award, appeared in the final series of Ally McBeal and written an advice column for Vanity Fair Humphries lives with his fourth wife, Lizzie Spender He has four children by two previous wives
Barry Humphries was born in Melbourne in 1934. He has four children by two previous wives.
Did your parents understand your urge to leap on to the stage and bring Australia into disrepute? Kirsty Hallett, DorchesterThey were very anxious about my decision to go into acting We knew no one in the theatre They thought I wouldn’t make any money And on and off, I don’t, of course. But my parents came around in the end and would come to my shows, although my mother never came to see Les Patterson because she said he was too Sydney.Is it true you’ve gone to visit Jeffrey Archer in jail? Have you read the prison diaries? Hugh Parker, LondonYes, I did visit him.
He was a very loyal friend to me at one time and I see no reason why I shouldn’t go and see him in adversity. I haven’t read the diaries, but I would say, by way of example, that if I was in a restaurant and wanted to review it unfavourably, I would wait until I’d left the table But that’s up to Jeffrey. He’s irrepressible.Are you planning to hang up the spectacles and retire to Melbourne? Sophie Pilston, by e-mailWell, I don’t know whether Edna will ever retire I perhaps might If I did, it would certainly be to Melbourne. My entire family are there – both my daughters, my two brothers and my sister I’m still constantly amused by Melbourne. I can’t explain why – it’s just a private joke between me and Melbourne.What is Sir Les Patterson up to now? Some of us still treasure memories of his ‘Traveller’s Tool’ and miss him. Jon Darley, Haywards HeathWell, the Australian government is very keen for Les to become their man in Baghdad So it’s Nobel prize time for Les He feels he can talk Saddam’s language As soon as Saddam meets Les, he’ll know he’s met his match Les will be able to sniff out any of this poison gas stuff He’ll also be on Parkinson at Christmas.
Santa Patterson will be there with some fairly suggestive packages for the womenfolk. And he is currently revising The Traveller’s Tool and hopes to publish The Enlarged and Extended Tool in the new year.Who makes Dame Edna’s frocks? Sean Gower, EastbourneAccording to Dame Edna, they are made by her son Kenny. However, I believe that many of the more brilliant frocks are in fact designed in London by Stephen Adnitt. Adnitt originally designed her London Weekend Television wardrobe in 1980s and early 1990s and is still the designer of her more specialised dresses such as her American Indian Dress and her New York dress.Didn’t Germaine Greer have a crush on you at university? What did you make of her? Debbie Gauld, LondonWell, she was at Sydney University and I was at Melbourne University, but friends of mine knew her and I met her when she came down to Melbourne It was 1958. It’s unlikely she had a crush on me, but I was certainly very impressed with her She was very attractive, and still is.
