KEN

A belated farewll to the inspirational Ken Campbell. I first became aware of Campbell in a typically manic programme exploring Einstein's theory of relativity that he made for Channel 4 way back when.

Over the years I always meant to check out what he was up to and to go to some of his shows, and like many others I'm sure, I really wish I'd done so now.

I finally saw him perform in his School of Night show at the Latitude festival this summer. He was manhandling a couple of brave actors into discovering their 'inner bards', a technique that demanded they wear pingpong balls, or as Campbell had it 'bollocks', in their eyes. 

"This... is actually the second... School of Night" he droned, "the first... was started by Sir Walter Raleigh". This grandiosity was undercut slightly by the sleeping teenager Campbell noticed in the front row.

I got back from Latitude determined to follow Campbell more closely, and then all of a sudden he was dead. 

I always thought that if I ever got William Blake, Taxi Driver turned into an animation, Ken Campbell would be my first choice for Blake's  voice. It was only when he died that I realised how much he'd influenced my take on Blake, not only in his shiny head and scary eyebrows but in his occasional bursts of irrascibility. 

So long Ken!