Director & Broadcaster Ned Sherrin Dies, Aged 76Date: 2 October 2007
Theatre director, producer and author Ned Sherrin (pictured), whose credits included Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell and Side by Side by Sondheim, died last night (1 October 2007) after a year-long battle with throat cancer. The star, best known outside theatre circles as a broadcaster and presenter of BBC Radio Four’s Loose Ends, was 76.
As an author, Sherrin had a long collaboration with the writer and critic Caryl Brahms, which resulted in much of his theatrical output, not least the musicals I Gotta Shoe, Sing a Rude Song, Liberty Ranch, Nicholas Nickleby and The Mitford Girls, which transferred from Chichester Festival Theatre, starring Patricia Hodge, to the West End.
Sherrin also wrote the narration for Stephen Sondheim revue Side by Side by Sondheim and directed and appeared in the original production which, care of then-fledgling producer Cameron Mackintosh, transferred to the West End and on to Broadway in 1977. In New York, it was nominated for five Tony Awards, amongst them one for the entire company, which also included Millicent Martin, Julia McKenzie and David Kernan. The show was revived this summer at The Venue off Leicester Square.
In 1989, Sherrin directed the premiere of his most successful play, Keith Waterhouse’s Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell, a warts-and-all tribute to Sherrin and Waterhouse’s mutual heavy-drinking, Soho-dwelling journalist friend (who died in 1997). Peter O'Toole created the title role, succeeded by Tom Conti. After its initial season at the Apollo Theatre, the play was revived in the West End in 1991 at the Shaftesbury, in 1999 at the Old Vic and in 2006 at the Garrick, all under Sherrin’s direction.
Sherrin’s other stage directing credits included A Saint She Ain’t, A Passionate Woman, Salad Days, Bookends, Our Song, Bing Bong, Good Grief and Iolanthe, which won him a Laurence Olivier Award.
Born on 18 February 1931 to a farming family at Low Ham in Somerset, Sherrin discovered a love for theatre during his time at Exeter College, Oxford, where he took part in various productions. He trained as a barrister, but soon after being called to the bar in 1955, he got his first job in TV, working as a producer at Associated Television.
In 1957, Sherrin joined the BBC, where he continued to work for the remainder of his career, specialising in satirical comedy programmes. His shows over the years included That Was The Week That Was, hosted by a young David Frost, Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life, We Interrupt This Week, Counterpoint and, perhaps most famously, Loose Ends, which he presented for 20 years from 1986 to Christmas 2006, when he had to step down due to his illness.
Sherrin also directed films such as The Virgin Soldiers, Up Pompeii and National Health; wrote two volumes of autobiography and several collections of quotations, essays and anecdotes including Ned Sherrin's Theatrical Anecdotes: A Connoisseur's Collection of Legends, Stories and Gossip; and was a sought-after raconteur and speaker, even winning the Benedictine Award for After Dinner Speaker of the Year in 1991. He was made a CBE in 1997.
Sherrin died on 1 October 2007 at his home in Chelsea, south-west London. Deke Arlon, his manager for 35 years, paid tribute to him as “one of the great bon viveurs of the world, with a tremendous ability to enjoy … He was just a great writer and a great entertainer … He was today’s Noel Coward and one of the great men of the entertainment industry. He will be missed by so many people.”
- by Terri Paddock
NOTE: Please feel free to add your own tributes to and memories of Ned Sherrin on the Whatsonstage.com Discussion Forum.
Related Content
