Ian Louis Harris

I am writing this 20 years to the day since the sudden and tragic death of Ivan Shakespeare, who collapsed and died of a heart attack while jogging.

Ivan was a friend through and fellow writer for NewsRevue.

His career as a comedy writer was well documented some years ago on the comedy collective writers project website – now, like Ivan, no longer with us. But that site, including the excellent Ivan Shakespeare biography piece, has been preserved on the Wayback Machine click here.

I learnt of Ivan’s passing a few days later, I believe.

I recall John Random phoning me and also asking me what I thought he should say in the Independent newspaper obituary piece he had been asked to write. I remember saying that I thought the irony, dying while undertaking activity to try and get fit, would not have been wasted on Ivan. I was chuffed that John used that idea at the start of his obituary – transcribed in the biography above and scanned, with thanks to John Random, below.

John has also, kindly, scanned one or two other obituary pieces:

I have extracted the relevant page from The Stage, which shows not only Ivan’s obit but the good company he kept that week.

Along with several other fellow NewsRevue writers, I attended Ivan’s funeral at Hoop Lane Crematorium. I remember the comedic touch of Ivan’s trademark hat sitting atop the coffin. I remember feeling so very sad for Elspeth, Ivan’s partner.

I remember how awkward everyone felt; we were a comedic lot, struggling to deal with a tragic situation. To what extend could/should we make light of any part of the event? To be sure it was not a time for mordant or sardonic humour. I concluded that many comedy writers are, at heart, amongst the most maudlin people on earth.

Yet a magnificent thing emerged from this tragedy.

A few week’s before his untimely death, Ivan sent an e-mail to the few of us who were already e-mail friendly, suggesting that, although several of us had started to drift away from the regular NewsRevue gatherings, it would be nice to meet occasionally in any case, perhaps dine together, perhaps watch the show or perhaps both.

A few of us at the funeral concluded that we really must implement that lovely idea. John Random picked up the mantle and we have met several times a year, every year, since.

We have named those gatherings Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinners.

The first was, I think, around May 2000. I’ll write it up in the fullness of time. I have written up most of the more recent ones – see above link (repeated here). The next one (at the time of writing) is scheduled for early April 2020.

Ivan would have loved those events. He would also have loved the idea that he initiated and caused them.

20 years gone and still missed. Ivan Shakespeare.