Eleanor Bron - Confession - from The Secret Policeman's Ball, 1979

Eleanor Bron was a true pioneer in UK comedy history - the first woman to appear in the cast of a Cambridge Footlights show, in 1959, alongside Peter Cook. Before that, female parts were played by men in drag. She was very much part of the 1960s comedy scene with Cook, John Bird and John Fortune, and is the final survivor from that group, at the age of 86 (at the time of writing). She is also a very fine actress.
Here she performs a monologue in the form of a confession to an all-knowing God.
The vinyl LP of The Secret Policeman's Ball was a very important part of my comedy upbringing and my ambition to become involved in comedy - along with Monty Python At Drury Lane (which I knew - and still know, I expect, although I haven't tested it lately - off by heart) and Rowan Atkinson's brilliant LP Live In Belfast. It was a great era for comedy LPs.
To quote Wikipedia, "The Secret Policeman's Ball took place over four consecutive nights in London on 27-30 June 1979. It was a successor to the 1976 show A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick) (the film of which was titled Pleasure at Her Majesty's) and the 1977 show The Mermaid Frolics.
The shows were...filmed by a rudimentary 16 mm documentary crew and the resulting 100-minute film - also titled The Secret Policeman's Ball was released theatrically by ITC in June 1980 heralded by a special preview attended by many of the show's participants. (A one-hour television special drawn from the performances aired on Britain's ITV network by London Weekend Television in December 1979, to coincide with the release of The Secret Policeman's Ball record album on Island Records, produced by Lewis, of the comedy performances.)
A second record was released to coincide with the release of the film, a 12-inch EP containing eight musical performances from the show including three Townshend songs."
As well as the whole show in its entirety, I am also uploading other clips from The Secret Policeman's Ball.
Please subscribe to my channel / @billbobmatthews , which is home to many rarely seen comedy gems from the early to mid 1980s, when only early adopters had VCRs - as well as my own work as a writer and producer in TV and radio since that period. There are also riches from other decades too. The best way to navigate all the videos on the channel is via the Playlists... / @billbobmatthews