Heroes of Comedy is a British television series, produced by Thames Television, and broadcast on Channel 4, which devotes each episode to a legend of British comedy. It was produced by John Fisher. Beginning in 1995, it followed a 2½ hour more general programme from 1992.

Episodes

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Series one

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Episode number Subject Original air date
Pilot Frankie Howerd 1 January 1995
1 Tommy Cooper 13 October 1995
2 Joyce Grenfell 20 October 1995
3 Max Miller* 27 October 1995
4 Arthur Haynes 3 November 1995
5 Terry-Thomas 17 November 1995

Series two

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Episode number Subject Original air date
1 Les Dawson 16 April 1997
2 Kenny Everett 23 April 1997
3 Alastair Sim 30 April 1997
4 The Goons* 7 May 1997
  • The first group subject, and the first where two of the performers covered (Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe) were alive at the time of broadcast.

Series three

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Episode number Subject Original air date
1 Benny Hill 12 January 1998
2 Peter Cook 19 January 1998
3 Arthur Askey 26 January 1998
4 Tony Hancock 2 February 1998

This series examined dead performers.

Series four

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Episode number Subject Original air date
1 Norman Wisdom 25 September 1999
2 Ken Dodd 2 October 1999
3 Eric Sykes 9 October 1999
4 Thora Hird 16 October 1999
5 Barry Humphries 30 October 1999

All subjects in this series were living at the time of broadcast.

Series five

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Episode number Subject Original air date
1 Kenneth Williams 7 October 2000
2 Bernard Manning 11 November 2000
3 Ronnie Barker 28 December 2000
4 Leonard Rossiter 27 December 2001

This series examined living and dead performers.

Series six

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Episode number Subject Original air date
1 Mike Yarwood 16 February 2002
2 Sid James 23 February 2002
3 Spike Milligan* 2 March 2002
4 Hattie Jacques 9 March 2002
5 Ronnie Corbett 16 March 2002
6 Dick Emery 13 April 2002
  • Previously covered as part of the Goons episode. Aired three days after Milligan's death.

Series seven

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Episode number Subject Original air date
1 Max Wall 2 January 2003
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