Penguins Stopped Play

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Harry William Thompson (6 February 1960 – 7 November 2005) was an English radio and television producer, comedy writer, novelist and biographer. He was the creator of the dark humour television series Monkey Dust, screened between 2003 and 2005.

A biographer and novelist, Thompson wrote six books: an investigation into the story of The Man in the Iron Mask; a biography of Hergé with a commentary on his Adventures of Tintin series; biographies of Peter Cook and Richard Ingrams; a novel, This Thing of Darkness; and the semi-autobiographical Penguins Stopped Play. Harry William Thompson was born on 6 February 1960 in London. [1] [2] His father was a marketing manager who worked for The Guardian, while his mother was a teacher who campaigned for higher standards in education. [1] He attended the private, fee-paying school Highgate School before going on to study History at Brasenose College, Oxford. There he became editor of the university newspaper, Cherwell, working alongside arts editor Roly Keating, the future controller of BBC2. [1] [2] Gaisford, Sue (27 October 1994). "Leader of a tiny, respectable gang: 'Richard Ingrams Lord of the Gnomes' – Harry Thompson". The Independent. Archived from the original on 9 May 2022 . Retrieved 17 September 2012.blow for deathbed widow of Have I Got News For You writer". The Evening Standard. 23 September 2006 . Retrieved 14 August 2020.

Harry Thompson also produced non-comedy documentaries for BBC Radio. He made several programmes with writer/presenter Terence Pettigrew, starting with anniversary tributes to Hollywood icons James Dean ( You're Tearing Me Apart) and Montgomery Clift ( I Had The Misery Thursday). Pettigrew and Thompson subsequently worked together on a second series of documentaries, including on national service ( Caught in the Draft), and also about the evacuation of children from major British cities during the Second World War ( Nobody Cried When The Trains Pulled Out). Both programmes were presented by Michael Aspel. [ citation needed] A leopard seal, perhaps the most fearsome predator of the southern ocean, hauled itself up on an ice floe to take a gander. Ignore the "seal" bit — think "leopard"... Imagine the head of Ridley Scott's Alien atop the body of Mike Gatting after a particularly hefty tea. As well as writing for television, Thompson wrote biographies of Hergé (1991), Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams (1994) (of which The Independent said, "The problem is that Thompson simply worships Ingrams, and his biography melts steadily into hagiography... [an] overlong panegyric") [10] and Peter Cook (1997). His novel This Thing of Darkness, a historical fiction about Charles Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, the captain of the Beagle, was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005. Thompson described Fitzroy, rather than Darwin, as the book's hero:Thompson's book does roam wider. When Berkmann left to start a splinter club, Thompson carried on captaining Captain Scott, so he has several more years of club memories to milk. And the world tour carries him away from the village greens of England to take in Singapore, Buenos Aires and Antarctica. Sketching each stop with deft relish, Thompson almost launches another genre - the picaresque comic memoir of sporting incompetence. Coren, Victoria (12 June 2005). "Having cancer is like a big hard bastard has invited me outside the pub, and when I get there he's brought two of his mates". The Observer . Retrieved 17 September 2012. In a 2005 episode of Have I Got News For You, featuring Alexander Armstrong as host and Fi Glover and Ian McMillan as guest panellists, a message stating "In Memory of Harry Thompson, the first producer of Have I Got News For You (1960–2005)" was displayed.