Career
His first foray into show business was via Cambridge Footlights revues where he appeared alongside Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, David Hatch, Jonathan Lynn, Jo Kendall and Miriam Margolyes. He was offered a job as a BBC radio producer and soon afterwards put together the team who produced the BBC Home Service comedy show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (four series starting 1964). Moving to television, Barclay oversaw Associated-Rediffusion Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967–1969).
Following the ITV franchise changes of 1968, Barclay moved to London Weekend Television (LWT) for whom he produced the Doctor... series (1969–1977). One episode in that series involved a hotel proprietor and his wife and was written by John Cleese. Barclay said at the time that he thought there might be a series in the characters, but nothing came of it. Later, Cleese created Fawlty Towers for the BBC.
Barclay became Head of Comedy at LWT in 1977 and supervised various successful series including A Fine Romance (1981–1984). In May 1980 he unveiled Metal Mickey as a show "with the appeal of Star Wars, the Daleks and Mork and Mindy"
Following criticism at the Edinburgh International Television Festival of what was seen as casual racism the LWT series Mind Your Language (1977–1979; 1986), Barclay commissioned No Problem!, transmitted by Channel 4 during 1983-1985, the first original black-made sitcom for British TV (an earlier series featuring a black family, The Fosters (ITV, 1976–1977), had been a remake of a US show).
Barclay left LWT in 1983 and formed Humphrey Barclay Productions, which produced the media satire Hot Metal (ITV, 1986–1988), medical sitcom Surgical Spirit (ITV, 1989-1995), and black sitcom Desmond's (Channel 4, 1989–1994). In 1996, he returned to LWT as Controller of Comedy and, in 1999, became Head of Comedy Development for Granada Media International.
Though already in partial retirement, in April 2002, he joined Celador Productions as Development Executive.
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Famous quotes containing the word career:
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“They want to play at being mothers. So let them. Expressing tenderness in their own way will not prevent girls from enjoying a successful career in the future; indeed, the ability to nurture is as valuable a skill in the workplace as the ability to lead.”
—Anne Roiphe (20th century)