The Alberts clown Tony Gray dies at 86

Influence on Milligan and the Bonzos

Tony Gray, one of Britain’s more eccentric and best-known clowns of the Fifties and Sixties, has died at the age of 86.

With his younger brother Douglas, they were known as The Alberts and their achievements included a year-long run in the West End and several appearances on several of Spike Milligan’s television shows.

Their anarchic act incorporated mechanical dummies, exploding camels and a chaotic cacophony of ad-libs, shouting and blowing of musical instruments.

They appeared alongside Ivor Cutler on the opening night of BBC Two 50 years ago this weekend, and have been cited as a major influence on Vivian Stanshall and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. They were also instrumental in the founding of light-hearted jazz group The Temperance Seven.

At the height of the satire boom of the early 1960s, they had a residency at Peter Cook’s Establishment Club in London. Lenny Bruce met them there and invited them to perform in the States. They travelled across on the Queen Mary entertaining and annoying other passengers with their antics which included riding penny-farthing bicycles around the decks. But they arrived in New York to find Bruce had been arrested on obsenity charges. Nonetheless, their show was deemed a hit.

In 1963, together with Cutler, William Donaldson and others, they presented An Evening Of British Rubbish, which Princess Margaret attended twice over its year-long run, and which was released on an LP by Beatles producer George Martin. They later played at the Royal Court in their own version of The Three Musketeers

Offstage the brothers were said to be just as eccentric, filling the East Anglian rectories where they lived with collections of books, toys and old vehicles.

Blogger John Fleming yesterday recalled one visit to the pair at home in the Eighties: ’I do remember Douglas played bagpipes indoors (a commendably eccentric thing to do, though never a good idea to experience) and Tony was dressed in full cricketing outfit… Neither did either of these things for any discernible reason.’

• For more, read the Daily Telegraph obituary.