Editing Harry Thompson (section)

==Biography==

===Early life and career: 1960–1989===
Harry William Thompson was born on 6 February 1960 in London.<ref name="Brown 2005">[[#Bro05|Brown 2005]].</ref><ref name="Telegraph 2005">[[#Tel05|''The Telegraph'' 2005]].</ref> His father was a marketing manager who worked for ''[[The Guardian]]'', while his mother was a teacher who campaigned for higher standards in education.<ref name="Brown 2005"/> He attended the private, fee-paying school [[Highgate School]] before going on to study History at [[Brasenose College, Oxford]]. There he became editor of the university newspaper, ''[[Cherwell (newspaper)|Cherwell]]'', working alongside arts editor [[Roly Keating]], the future controller of [[BBC2]].<ref name="Brown 2005"/><ref name="Telegraph 2005"/>

Leaving university, he joined the [[BBC]] as a trainee in 1981.<ref name="Brown 2005"/><ref name="Telegraph 2005"/> Here, he worked on the late-night news programme ''[[Newsnight]]'', later commenting that it was "the most awful experience of my life, full of people who barked into phones, professionally".<ref name="Telegraph 2005"/> Switching his focus to comedy, he worked as a researcher for BBC2's ''[[Not the Nine O'Clock News]]'' and for various comedy shows on [[BBC Radio]], including [[BBC Radio 4]]'s ''[[The Mary Whitehouse Experience]]''. Rising to the level of producer, he was responsible for the production of long-established show ''[[The News Quiz]]'' as well as [[Alexei Sayle]]'s new comedy series, ''[[Lenin of the Rovers]]'' (1988).<ref name="Brown 2005"/><ref name="Telegraph 2005"/> ''The Guardian'' would note that at this time he established himself as "a maverick" who pushed established boundaries with "outrageous jokes".<ref name="Brown 2005"/>

===Panel shows and early writing: 1990–98===
During the 1980s several independent producers realised that BBC Radio 4 had a number of comedy shows that could be successfully converted to television. Among them was the company [[Hat Trick Productions]], who decided to adapt ''The News Quiz'' for television in 1989. [[Jimmy Mulville]], the company's managing director, asked Thompson to produce this venture, which first appeared in 1990 as ''[[Have I Got News For You]]''. Thompson selected [[Angus Deayton]] to present the show, with [[Ian Hislop]] and [[Paul Merton]] as the team leaders. He oversaw the production of the show for 93 episodes over five series.<ref name="Brown 2005"/><ref name="BBC 2005">[[#BBC05|BBC News 2005]].</ref> He later remarked that when the show first began, he was extremely confident, considering it to be "the best comedy show on TV. It never occurred to me that anything else could be better… I know it sounds arrogant".<ref name="Telegraph 2005"/> ''Have I Got News For You'' initially screened on BBC2, but proved enough of a success that by 2000 it had been moved to [[BBC1]].<ref name="BBC 2005"/>

Moving on to produce other comedy panel shows, in 1995 he began work on ''[[They Think It's All Over (TV series)|They Think It's All Over]]'', a BBC sports show.<ref name="Brown 2005"/> He followed this in 1996 by the creation of a music quiz show, ''[[Never Mind the Buzzcocks]]''.<ref name="Brown 2005"/> In 1998 he was part of BBC Radio 4's five-part political satire programme ''Cartoons, Lampoons, and Buffoons''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/c/ca/cartoons__lampoons_and_buffoons.html |title=Cartoons, Lampoons And Buffoons |publisher=Radio Listings |access-date=4 March 2009 |archive-date=6 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106154019/http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/c/ca/cartoons__lampoons_and_buffoons.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Later comedy career: 1998–2005===
In 1998 Thompson produced and co-wrote the first series of [[Channel 4]]'s ''[[The 11 O'Clock Show]]'', where he was instrumental in the creation of the comic character [[Ali G]], played by [[Sacha Baron Cohen]]. Thompson later wrote for spin-off ''[[Da Ali G Show]]''.<ref name="Telegraph 2005"/> Defending the humour in the show, he publicly announced that "You'll never see anything [[political correctness|PC]] or right-on in my shows. I get accused quite a lot of straying into [[Taste (sociology)|bad taste]], but I think you can laugh at almost anything."<ref name="Telegraph 2005"/>

In 2003 Thompson, alongside [[Shaun Pye]], created and wrote the adult cartoon comedy ''[[Monkey Dust]]''.<ref name="Bennun">{{cite news |last=Bennun |first=David |title=Censorship? How I mourn for Monkey Dust |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2008/sep/05/howimournformonkeydust |access-date=18 September 2012 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=5 September 2008}}</ref> The programme was known for its [[dark humour]] and handling of taboo topics such as bestiality, murder, suicide and [[paedophilia]]. There were three series broadcast on [[BBC Three]] between 2003 and 2005; no further series were made following Thompson's death from lung cancer. In 2003 ''[[The Observer]]'' listed him as one of the 50 funniest or most influential people in British comedy, citing ''Monkey Dust'' as evidence: "the most subversive show on television. The topical animated series is dark and unafraid to tackle taboo subjects such as paedophilia, taking us to Cruel Britannia, a creepy place where the public are hoodwinked by arrogant politicians and celebrities. This edgy show doesn't always work, but when it does there is nothing quite like it".<ref>{{cite news |title=The A-Z Of Laughter (part two) |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2003/dec/07/comedy.thebestofbritishcomedy |access-date=17 September 2012 |newspaper=[[The Observer]] |date=7 December 2003}}</ref> More recently a ''Guardian'' critic called it "a wonderful programme... perhaps the best thing in Thompson's formidable CV".<ref name="Bennun"/>

Thompson's last broadcast work was the [[Channel 5 (British TV channel)|Channel 5]] sitcom ''[[Respectable (TV series)|Respectable]]'', on which he finished work the week before he died.<ref name="Alice">{{cite news |first=Alice |last=O'Keeffe |title='I don't know how I'm going to get through the next day, let alone the rest of my life' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/nov/13/broadcasting.observerfocus|access-date=17 September 2012 |newspaper=The Observer |date=13 November 2005}}</ref> Co-written with Shaun Pye, the programme was set in a suburban [[brothel]] and aired in 2006. ''The Guardian'' criticised the programme's "woefully old-fashioned, juvenile outlook" and called it "drearily unsophisticated".<ref>{{cite news |title=Review: Respectable |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/organgrinder/2006/aug/25/reviewrespectable |access-date=17 September 2012 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=25 August 2006}}</ref> The programme was also criticised in some quarters on the grounds that it made light of prostitution.<ref>{{cite news |title=Charity attacks Five brothel show |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5305112.stm |access-date=17 September 2012 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=1 September 2006}}</ref>

===Other work===
Harry Thompson also produced non-comedy documentaries for BBC Radio. He made several programmes with writer/presenter Terence Pettigrew, starting with anniversary tributes to Hollywood icons [[James Dean]] (''You're Tearing Me Apart'') and [[Montgomery Clift]] (''I Had The Misery Thursday''). Pettigrew and Thompson subsequently worked together on a second series of documentaries, including on national service (''[[Caught in the Draft]]''), and also about the evacuation of children from major British cities during the Second World War (''Nobody Cried When The Trains Pulled Out''). Both programmes were presented by [[Michael Aspel]].{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}

As well as writing for television, Thompson wrote biographies of [[Hergé]] (1991), ''[[Private Eye]]'' editor [[Richard Ingrams]] (1994) (of which ''[[The Independent]]'' said, "The problem is that Thompson simply worships Ingrams, and his biography melts steadily into hagiography... [an] overlong panegyric")<ref>{{cite news |last=Gaisford |first=Sue |title=Leader of a tiny, respectable gang: 'Richard Ingrams Lord of the Gnomes' – Harry Thompson |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/book-review--leader-of-a-tiny-respectable-gang-richard-ingrams-lord-of-the-gnomes--harry-thompson-heinemann-1750-1445195.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/book-review--leader-of-a-tiny-respectable-gang-richard-ingrams-lord-of-the-gnomes--harry-thompson-heinemann-1750-1445195.html |archive-date=9 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=17 September 2012 |newspaper=The Independent |date=27 October 1994}}</ref> and [[Peter Cook]] (1997). His novel ''[[This Thing of Darkness]]'', a historical fiction about [[Charles Darwin]] and [[Robert FitzRoy]], the captain of the ''[[HMS Beagle|Beagle]]'', was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005. Thompson described Fitzroy, rather than Darwin, as the book's hero: 
{{blockquote|At its heart, it is the true story of someone who epitomised a certain sort of person that this country produced in the 19th century. There was a fantasy of chivalric empire, run by Britons who were gentlemen and played the game. Of course the reality was that our empire was no better than any other. We were busy conniving in the extermination of tribes, robbing natives of their land and we sent droves of brilliant young men, brought up with the chivalric fantasy, to enforce what was in many cases a visibly corrupt system [...] But Fitzroy's morality was iron. He said no. And it destroyed him.<ref>{{cite news|last=Coren|first=Victoria|title=Having cancer is like a big hard bastard has invited me outside the pub, and when I get there he's brought two of his mates |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/jun/12/broadcasting.bookerprize2005|access-date=17 September 2012|newspaper=The Observer|date=12 June 2005}}</ref>}}

His final book, the semi-autobiographical ''[[Penguins Stopped Play]]'', was finished in 2005; it dealt with his amateur cricket team, the Captain Scott XI, and was published posthumously in 2006.<ref name="Brown 2005"/><ref name="BBC 2005"/>

===Personal life and death===
Thompson was married to Fiona Duff. They had two children, Betty and Bill. The breakdown of their marriage became public in 1997 when Duff wrote an article about Thompson's affair with a 25-year-old woman (later revealed to be [[Victoria Coren]]<ref>{{cite news|title=£1m blow for deathbed widow of Have I Got News For You writer|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/1m-blow-for-deathbed-widow-of-have-i-got-news-for-you-writer-7165319.html |date=23 September 2006 |access-date=14 August 2020|newspaper=The Evening Standard}}</ref>) in the ''[[Daily Mail]]''.<ref>{{cite news|last=Treneman|first=Ann|title=Not as sweet as she looks|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/not-as-sweet-as-she-looks-1295980.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/not-as-sweet-as-she-looks-1295980.html |archive-date=9 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=18 September 2012|newspaper=The Independent|date=24 November 1997}}</ref> In 2003, Thompson began a relationship with Lisa Whadcock; they met after she wrote a fan letter to him about ''Monkey Dust''.<ref name="Alice"/>

Despite never having been a smoker, Thompson was diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2005. He was treated at a London hospital, and married Whadcock on Monday 7 November 2005, before dying later that day.<ref name="BBC 2005"/> [[National Comedy Awards|The British Comedy Awards]] had planned to present him with a Jury's Award in December, with executive producer [[Michael Hurll]] stating that "It's sad he won't be there to receive it, but the legacy of his enduringly popular series lives on".<ref name="BBC 2005"/> Upon learning of his death, BBC One controller [[Peter Fincham]] said Thompson was "that rarity in television – the talented, single-minded, subversive maverick" and that his death would "leave a big hole in the comedy world".<ref name="BBC 2005"/> Fincham's comments were echoed by BBC Two controller Roly Keating, who stated that "Harry was a truly independent spirit and one of the funniest people I've ever known".<ref name="BBC 2005"/> His literary agent Bill Hamilton told BBC News that Thompson had been "plainly a genius".<ref name="BBC 2005"/>

In a 2005 episode of ''Have I Got News For You'', featuring [[Alexander Armstrong (comedian)|Alexander Armstrong]] as host and [[Fi Glover]] and [[Ian McMillan (poet)|Ian McMillan]] as guest panellists, a message stating "In Memory of Harry Thompson, the first producer of ''Have I Got News For You'' (1960–2005)" was displayed.