Funny Way to be a Hero

"Oh, yes. Do lots of people choose this? That sounds right to me. I first got it when it came out in 1973. I was writing a biography of Dan Leno, the great Victorian star – the Henry Irving of the music hall. Just as Marie Lloyd was the Ellen Terry of the music hall. Dan Leno was, when he died, the most famous person in the country after the Queen. Have you even heard of him? When he died, people lined the 16-mile route of his funeral. It was a front page event. He was a national hero. I wrote his biography 50 years ago when he was still quite well known. He’s now totally forgotten. But I wanted to immerse myself in other music hall stars of the period, and discovered this book. John Fisher had done all that. He introduced me in his first edition to people from the Victorian, Edwardian age. Indeed on the original cover, it read: “John Fisher presents Funny Way to Be a Hero , being a penetrating analysis of half a century of British music hall comedy featuring Billy Bennet, Flanagan and Allen, Will Hay, Max Miller, Robb Wilton, Frank Randle, Dan Leno … and other distinguished entertainers in a modern vein.” I thought: this is the book for me. It brought the music hall to life in the way that Laurence Irving’s book about his grandfather brought Victorian theatre to life, and Jean-Louis Barrault brought French theatre to life. “A friend of mine, a member of parliament, borrowed this book and never returned it” He did another edition, a new edition, which is the one I now have, because my original edition was stolen when I was an MP. A friend of mine, another MP, borrowed it and never returned it. Do not lend books! But I do have the new edition from 2013, which is beautiful, with wonderful illustrations. It’s just fantastic. The greatest book on music hall comedy ever written. It tells you about everyone you want to know about, and gives you a flavour of what they were like. Because with people like Dan Leno, there’s no film of him. There are some audio recordings, but they’re very scratchy. So this is your gateway to music hall."