When Harry Met... Bob Monkhouse

When Harry Met...

Bob Monkhouse

Harry Borden looks back on two shoots with the popular comedian, entertainer and game show host

In one week in February 2002, I was commissioned to do portrait shoots with the comedian and entertainer Bob Monkhouse by two separate publications. The fi rst, at Bob’s house in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, was for the Mail’s Night and Day magazine. The second, four days later, was shot in the very diff erent environment of a London studio.

I’ve now lost the negatives for the fi rst shoot, though I have the scanned image fi les. In the pre-digital era, negatives often went missing and I was doing so many jobs I often didn’t notice they were gone until years afterwards. I have other photographers’ negatives that were mistakenly sent to me in that period. Possibly the negs from the fi rst shoot were never returned to me, or were sent to another photographer. That doesn’t happen now. Both shoots were part of a publicity drive for a special TV autobiography Bob had written and performed in, Bob Monkhouse on Bob Monkhouse. It was widely known that he had been ill for some time, but what hadn’t been revealed was that he had terminal cancer. He died in December the following year, aged 75.

Bob had enjoyed a long career in show business, starting out as a comedy actor and later combining a career as a stand-up comedian with his role as host of game shows such as The Golden Shot and Family Fortunes . These shows were watched by millions every week. He was a true

‘He had a very expressive face, good to photograph: it was like shooting fi sh in a barrel’

Harry’s first shoot with Bob was at Bob’s large house in Leighton Buzzard professional, renowned for being very serious about the craft of comedy. Unlike some comics of his generation, he was enthusiastic about younger comics and they in turn respected him as both a writer and performer.

Professional to the end His professionalism extended to having his portrait taken. I remember going to his house, amusingly called ‘Claridges’, which was an impressive 17th-century house. I was given a warm welcome by him and his wife Jackie, who brought us cups of tea during the shoot. Bob was quite dapper and very conventionally good-looking. He got ready for the shoot in a dressing room, a bit like one you’d fi nd in a theatre.

On both shoots Bob had his own hair and make-up people and that grooming went on for at least an hour before he was ready to be photographed. Looking at the pictures now, I remember waiting around for every hair to be put in place.

We did shots both inside the house and in the garden and he was happy to do whatever I requested. He had a very expressive face, so was really good to photograph: it was like shooting fi sh in a barrel. Although superfi cially he was all charm and repartee, there was also noticeable vulnerability and selfawareness about him.

That self-awareness shows in the pictures because he was quite happy to look ridiculous or to act up and play a role for the camera. The fact that the initial shoot was at his home says quite a lot. He wasn’t guarded or putting on a shtick. The second shoot took place in Red Earth Studios in London EC1. It had a big skylight that let in beautiful light and created its own atmosphere. Most of the shots

Harry asked Bob for an ‘absence of thought’ for this quirky studio shot

I took were only lit by daylight. It was so easy to get interesting results there; the light took care of itself, so I could concentrate on having a good rapport with the subject and capturing that relationship in the pictures.

Quirky pose I was shooting on my two main cameras at that time, which were both medium format film cameras: a Fujifilm GW690, a 6x9 rangefinder, and a Pentax 67, sometimes described as an SLR on steroids.

Bob was wearing a light grey suit and patterned tie and again was happy to do whatever I asked. I shot him in a range of poses, some with him pulling a surprised face or smiling, and others where I asked him to have ‘absence of thought’. There was a white box in the studio and I asked him to sit on it and look to one side, his feet dangling above the floor. The pose was quirky but a little sad and vulnerable – a side that was very real, but one that TV viewers didn’t often see.

I remember saying to him that it was nice to photograph people like him because he was part of society’s collective consciousness after being watched by millions of people over many years. One of my portraits from this shoot has ended up going into the National Portrait Gallery collection. I’m pleased, because for his professionalism and dedication he deserves to be there. As told to David Clark

Harry Borden

Harry is one of the UK’s finest portrait photographers and his work has been widely published. He has won prizes at the World Press Photo awards (1997 and 1999), and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the RPS in 2014. The National Portrait Gallery collection holds more than 100 of his images. Visit www.harryborden.co.uk

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