OBITUARY: Kenny Everett

Your obituary of poor Kenny Everett [by Anthony Hayward, 5 April] reminds me that 31 years ago, when I was the producer of Midweek, I took the risk of transmitting "The Maurice Cole Quarter of an Hour Show" in its entirety, thus bringing the wrath of the entire BBC establishment down on my head, writes Wilfred De'Ath. On the same programme Maurice (later Kenny) was interviewed by Donald Fletcher, deputising for Jack de Manio, and predicted his own disfavour with the powers that be or, rather, were.

The experience left me with a contempt for BBC authority which has never left me. They agreed, with reluctance, to pay Kenny's rail-fare from Liverpool, but I was obliged to put him up in a hotel at my own expense.

Then 18, Maurice came over to my flat and drank gin and tonic like water and put his bread on the plate and cut it into small pieces. My then wife somewhat snootily observed, ``He has never been with middle-class people before." But he was a genius; I loved him.