After the 86-year-old comedian John Bird passed away, his former colleagues paid tribute to one of Britain’s “best satirists.”
He was most known for his sarcastic routines on the Channel 4 program Bremner, Bird, and Fortune with John Fortune and Bremner. Former coworkers from the show praised his “modest” demeanor.
Scottish impressionist Bremner, 61, wrote: “It’s an irony that one of our greatest satirists, so brilliant at portraying ministers, civil servants or high-ranking officials who exuded self-satisfaction, was himself so modest and self-effacing.”
In the end, John Bird was never satisfied with himself because he always felt he might have done better, been less sluggish, and gone through a late period “when everything was spare and abstract.”
“The reality was that he and his friend and collaborator John Fortune, together with Peter Cook, were pillars of the anti-establishment.”
Deeply saddened to hear that the great John Bird has left us. One of the most modest of men and most brilliant of satirists. And one of the last surviving pillars of the anti-establishment. 1/4
— Rory Bremner 💙🇺🇦 (@rorybremner) December 28, 2022
A statement announcing his passing stated that Bird passed away “peacefully” at the Pandean nursing home and that his life would be celebrated in the new year after a family funeral.
Bremner found it “interesting” that Fortune, who passed away at age 74 on New Year’s Eve in 2013, passed away on Christmas Eve, “nine years, nearly to the day” after Bird.
“Lord knows, satire has missed them this last decade and now that loss is permanent,” he added.
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“John may not have felt he got his life right, but by God he got it written.”
Bird and Fortune became well-known figures with The Long Johns comedy routines, in which the double-act portrayed clumsy politicians, military leaders, and businesspeople.
For their performance in 1997, they were nominated for four Baftas and took home the television prize.
Bird, Bremner, and Fortune also worked together on the Channel 4 series Rory Bremner, Who Else? and the BBC programs Now Something Else and The Rory Bremner Show.
In addition to the comedies Yes, Prime Minister, A Very Peculiar Practice, Chambers, and One Foot In The Grave, Bird also made appearances in the dramas Jonathan Creek, Inspector Morse, and Midsomer Murders.
According to him, the “highlight” of Bremner’s life was witnessing Bird and Fortune at work, and he still “marvels at the genius of it all.”
Before the cameras started rolling, he said, Bird might be reticent and anxious, but once he had to act, he would be “shamelessly playful.”
Bird and Fortune brought their show back to life in a special titled The Last Laugh that aired on ITV’s The South Bank Show in 2007.
Bremner added that watching the sketch with the comedians, playing an investment banker and an interviewer, was a way to “understand the madness behind the 2008 financial crash”, as it “ridicules the city culture that led to the crash with astonishing perspicacity.”
“They realized that true satire lay not in ad hominem attacks on politicians but in exposing the cant behind the ‘discipline of the market’ and the culture of privatization where chief executives were rewarded for success and equally compensated for failure,” he added.
I used to watch from the wings and marvel at how the two friends made it look so effortless, so blissfully funny, their skill and enjoyment in the moment making light of the seriously detailed research that went into each piece.
— Rory Bremner 💙🇺🇦 (@rorybremner) December 28, 2022
Bird, a Nottingham native, attended a grammar school before enrolling in Cambridge University, where he met Fortune, his comedy partner.
He also oversaw the 1959 Cambridge Footlights Revue, a yearly production of the university comic club that included David Mitchell, Richard Ayoade, and Eric Idle, which featured actors Eleanor Bron and comedian Peter Cook.
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The Bird then became an assistant director at the Royal Court Theatre, staged the premiere of Beyond The Fringe, oversaw the Austrian-American vocalist Lotte Lenya in a Brecht revue, and co-founded the Establishment Club in London and New York with Cook.
Final Lines
John Bird, an actor and comedian, passed away at 86. In the Channel 4 satire Bremner, Bird, and Fortune, Bird gained notoriety for skits he performed with Rory Bremner and John Fortune. In addition to occasional specials, the program aired for 16 seasons between 1999 and 2008.
Dan and Josh, his stepsons, are his only heirs. Follow us on Leedaily.com for more latest updates and recent news.
