Last August, Ken Campbell was a guest “director” and provocateur in the Edinburgh Fringe production Showstopper! – The Improvised Musical, in which critics were invited to present reviews of imaginary musicals that the company (The School of Night) would then turn into reality, egged on by Ken wearing a tea cosy topped with a knitted duck. His death on 31 August, two days after leaving Edinburgh, was a great shock to his legions of friends and fans. It was unexpected, like most things he did. He was “one of the most original and unclassifiable talents in the British theatre of the past half century,” wrote Michael Coveney, “a genius at both producing shows on a shoestring and inculcating the improvisational capabilities of the actors who were brave enough to work with him.”


Kenneth Victor Campbell was born in Ilford in 1941, the son of Colin Campbell, a Liverpudlian Irishman who worked for the cable company ITT, and his wife Elsie, née Handley (who died when Ken was 12).