Larry Stephens
| Larry Stephens | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Lawrence Geoffrey Stephens 16 July 1923 West Bromwich, England |
| Died |
26 January 1959 (aged 35) St Pancras, London |
| Cause of death | Cerebral haemorrhage |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Scriptwriter |
Lawrence Geoffrey Stephens (16 July 1923 – 26 January 1959) was a BBC radio scriptwriter, best remembered for co-writing The Goon Show with Spike Milligan. Stephens was a regular writer of the show for the first two years, and then returned to The Goon Show to assist Milligan, during the latter's tougher moments. From his association with Milligan, Stephens became involved with Associated London Scripts (ALS), and was said to have been "one of the most eye-catching characters, in the earliest days of the company...he played a significant cameo role in the first phase of success for ALS".
Trained as an accountant, Stephens distinguished himself as a jazz pianist before the onset of World War II. Following service in the war, during which he served as a Commando captain, he returned to England, and began writing for British comedian Tony Hancock before Hancock became well known, and was Hancock's best man at the comedian's first wedding. In turn Hancock and his new wife Cicely were witnesses at Larry's marriage to Diana Forster a few days later. Both of the brides were models for the French fashion house Lanvin. Milligan once remarked that "Larry and Tony were like brothers". In 1952, he developed a potential radio series for Hancock, which was designed to run for a full half-hour without musical breaks, then usual, called Welcome to Welkham. Some sources suggest the series was originally to be called Vacant Lot, but it did not advance beyond the completion of a pilot script as a Hancock project. The one script was broadcast by the BBC as Welcome to Welkham, but with Brian Reece, instead of Hancock, but this received relatively poor audience feedback. The script was re-discovered in 2015.
Undeterred, Stephens wrote for a number of popular comedians and shows in the 1950s. He wrote for Hancock again on The Tony Hancock Show (1956–57), which was screened on ITV by Associated-Rediffusion. Stephens also wrote for other popular television series too, such as The Army Game.
According to a BBC Radio 4 programme on Stephens' life, it was while working on the second season of The Goon Show that Stephens, doubling both as a key contributor and as Milligan's agent, began to drink so heavily it affected his work. McCann (2006) states that Stephens' partnership with Milligan "foundered initially in the early 1950s – when he was drinking more than four bottles of rum and a couple of bottles of whisky each week". In February 1954, the BBC asserted that Stephens had violated the terms of his contract by failing to deliver scripts for The Goon Show on time, and that, thereafter, his work would only be considered on spec. Insulted, Stephens refused to have anything further to do with The Goon Show. Two years after the BBC cancelled his contract, Milligan managed to rehire Stephens for The Goon Show on the condition that Milligan, not the BBC, pay his salary. Per McCann (2006), Stephens was
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