Can You Tell What it is Yet?

Rezensionen / Stimmen

At one time, Bob Monkhouse was derided as the worst kind of smarmy, lightweight family entertainer. His reinvention as a cult figure for the young came about through his canny tailoring of his material for a new audience. Rolf Harris is similarly enjoying a popularity with an audience that once would have rejected him, but this is almost entirely due to the naffness of his image. His new admirers are laughing at him, rather than with him. Nevertheless, there is no gainsaying the entertainer's longevity, and being slightly skilled at a whole variety of things (painting, singing, etc.) has ensured that he has never been out of work. For those who can take the cloying aspects of the entertainer (in everything from the nauseating Two Little Boys up to Animal Hospital), this is a frank and diverting autobiography, reminding us that Harris worked with such stellar company as Tony Hancock, Woody Allen and John Lennon. The style is standard for this kind of memoir, and whether or not Rolf is the ultimate Renaissance man as his publishers claim, this is definitely the work of a survivor.