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Film will focus on unhappy childhood of DJ and comedy performer who died in 1995
He created a character called Cupid Stunt and told a filthy joke about Margaret Thatcher on Radio 2. But now the late Kenny Everett is in line for the latest in showbusiness establishment accolades – a BBC4 drama biopic.
The BBC is developing a 90-minute film called Number One in Heaven about Everett, who died of an Aids related illness in 1995 aged 50.
Written by playwright Tim Whitnall – best known as the author of hit stage play Morecambe, about comedian Eric Morecambe – the as-yet uncast biopic promises to focus on Everett's troubled childhood at his Catholic secondary school on Merseyside where he was picked on for his diminutive size and his effeminacy.
"He was so small it is hard to think of finding an actor who can play him," Whitnall told the Guardian. "It is possible he could be played by a woman in fact, which is something he may have appreciated. I knew him and I loved him – in fact the title refers to the moment I first saw him when he was dancing in Heaven nightclub."
Everett, born Maurice Cole in Seaforth, Lancashire, started his professional life as a pirate DJ for Radio London and Radio Luxemburg before joining Radio 1 in the mid 1960s. He befriended the Beatles and accompanied them on their 1966 tour of the US.
His TV work included stints for Thames TV from 1978 to 1980 and for the BBC between 1981 and 1988, where he is thought to have first coined the term "the Beeb" to refer to the corporation. Among his comic creations were the punk Sid Snot and the American chatshow host Cupid Stunt, whose catchphrase was: "It's all done in the best possible taste."
Regarded in the 1980s as a supporter of prime minister Thatcher, Everett once appeared at a Young Conservatives conference waving enormous foam hands and saying "Let's bomb Russia" and "Let's kick Michael Foot's stick away". However, friends of Everett now question whether he was in fact a supporter of the Conservatives.
The BBC confirmed that it is working on the film but declined to comment further. It is expected to be made by the BBC's in-house film department, where it will be overseen by BBC Films executive producer Jamie Laurenson.
