Kevin Turvey
Kevin Turvey was a British television comedy character created by actor and comedian Rik Mayall for the BBC sketch show A Kick Up the Eighties in 1981.
Turvey was a self-styled "investigative journalist" who lived with his mother, wore a shapeless blue anorak, fancied a local girl called Theresa Kelly (who was never depicted), and rarely ventured outside Redditch. Each week, his "investigations" amounted to no more than an over-excited, rambling, uninformed monologue delivered to camera.
The theme is the third movement alla marcia from the Karelia Suite by Sibelius; the first movement, intermezzo, was the theme of ITV's This Week current affairs programme.
In 1982 a one-off mockumentary, "Kevin Turvey - The Man Behind The Green Door" was broadcast. In this, a BBC 'fly-on-the-wall' camera crew followed Kevin for a week as he went about his "investigations." Robbie Coltrane played Mick the lodger (who was AWOL from the Army), Adrian Edmondson played Keith Marshall, and Gwyneth Guthrie Kevin's mum. Roger Sloman appeared as a psychotic park-keeper. Making guest appearances as part of Kevin's band "20th Century Coyote" were Simon Brint and Rowland Rivron, known as Raw Sex.
Mayall described Turvey as "an accent and a mood from south-west Midlands" where he (Mayall) had grown up.
A subsequent "accent and mood" character called Siadwell appeared on the TV series Naked Video. John Sparkes, the comedian behind the Welsh Siadwell, was inspired by Kevin Turvey.
[edit] External links
- Kevin Turvey "Leisure" sketch reproduced at YouTube
- Kevin Turvey "Advice" sketch reproduced at YouTube
- Kevin Turvey "Work" sketch reproduced at YouTube
