Question for Angel - I always thought Baxter was absolutely brilliant; why did he drop out and what's he doing now?

There was a documentary on him recently, a very talented man and regarded a national hero up here. Used to do lots of theatre once the TV work dried up. Dabbles behind the scenes but generally retired. You only really see him during the Hogmany repeats. Did you know him JK?

No but I knew his long time Producer David Bell and always thought Stanley was close to genius.

This is one connection...

news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&...&pg=5895,1268418

He is mentioned a lot positively in Kenneth Williams' diaries.

Williams had quite an eclectic mix of friends, one side Stanley Baxter, the other side Gordon Jackson!

He teams up every now and again with another really nice man, Richard Briers, to co-star in Radio 4's 'A Two Pipe Problem' comedy detective series. I think the problem on TV was that ITV pushed him into a corner by limiting him to hugely expensive Christmas specials, then - typical of ITV - it was decided it was too expensive to make any more. Stanley was always better off making more modest but very inventive shows at the BBC, but once he got drawn into that MGM-set-style 'comedy spectacular' it swallowed him up and spat him out.

Williams mentions Baxter in this clip from his stint on Wogan back in 1986. Here Williams interviewing a severely young upstart called Stephen Fry. Williams proving that he was a much better 'guest' on chat shows than host. Fry's brilliance at speaking and telling anecdotes (very much like Williams in the reverse role)gets him through what could have been an extremely awkward experience for anyone else. Quite fascinating television.