Willie Rushton - Private Eye and The Satire Boom

Private Eye and The Satire Boom

He was still in contact with his Shrewsbury friends, who had added John Wells to their number, and were now running their own humour magazines at Oxford, Parsons Pleasure and Mesopotamia, to which Rushton made many contributions during his frequent visits. A cartoon of a giraffe in a bar saying “The high balls are on me“ was not met with approval by everyone in the university administrative quarters. It was Rushton who suggested that Mesopotamia could continue after they left university. During his time as a clerk he had been sending his cartoons out to Punch but none had been accepted. After being knocked over by a bus he quit his clerking, determined not to waste another day.

After almost-but-not-quite-being-accepted by Tribune (a Labour-supporting journal edited by Michael Foot, Paul’s uncle), Rushton found a place at the Liberal News, which was also employing Christopher Booker as a journalist. From June 1960 until March 1961 he contributed a weekly strip, “Brimstone Belcher”, following the exploits of the titular journo (a fore-runner of Private Eye’s Lunchtime O’ Booze), from bizarre skulduggery in the British colonies (where the squaddies holding back the politicised rabble bear a strong resemblance to privates Rushton and Ingrams), travelogues through the USA, and the hazards of by-electioneering as the independent candidate for the constituency of Gumboot North. After the strip folded, Rushton still contributed a weekly political cartoon to the Liberal News until mid-1962.

The Salopians finally found a financier and the first issue of Private Eye was published on 25 October 1961. Rushton put the first issue together in his bedroom in Scarsdale Villas using Letraset and Cow-Gumming illustrations onto cards which were taken away to be photo-lithographed. He also contributed all the illustrations and the mast-head figure of Little Nitty (who still appears on the cover, a blended caricature of John Wells and the Daily Express standard-head). One critic described the original lay-out of the magazine as owing much to “Neo-Brechtian Nihilism” although Rushton thought it resembled a betting shop floor. One feature in the early issues was the “Aesop Revisited”, a full-page comic strip which let him work in a wealth of puns and background jokes. With Private Eye riding the satire boom, Peter Cook soon took an interest and contributed two serials recounting the bizarre adventures of Sir Basil Nardly-Strobes and the Rhandi Phurr, both of which were admirably illustrated by Rushton, as was "Mrs Wilson‘s Diary". In the early days the team worked on two books, Private Eye on London and Private Eye’s Romantic England that make heavy use of his cartooning talents. One of the first Private Eye-published book was Rushton’s first collection of cartoons, Willie Rushton’s Dirty Weekend Book (banned in Ireland).

Reuniting with his Salopian chums had also reawakened Rushton's taste for acting. After they had finished university he had accompanied his friends in a well-received revue at the Edinburgh Fringe (Richard Burton even appeared one night in their parody of Luther). In 1961, Richard Ingrams directed a production of Spike Milligan’s surreal post-nuclear apocalypse farce The Bed-Sitting Room, in which Rushton was hailed by Kenneth Tynan as “brilliant”. But it was a cabaret at the Room At The Top, a chicken-in-the-basket nightclub at the top a department store in Ilford, that really launched his career. Rushton recalled meeting the Kray Twins in the audience one night and that fellow performer Barbara Windsor "wouldn't come out for a drink that night". The revue also starred John Wells. Rushton’s impersonation of the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan caught the attention of Ned Sherrin, a young BBC producer searching for talent to appear in a forthcoming TV satire series.

That was the Week That Was (aka “TW3“) ran from November 1962 until December 1963. It drew audiences of up to 13 million, making stars of its cast, particularly David Frost. Rushton became known for his impersonation of the Prime Minister, a daring novelty in those respectful days. “It‘s the only impersonation that people have ever actually recognised - so I‘m very grateful to the old bugger . . . But then I had voted for him, so he owed me something.” Rushton also appeared on the original flexi-discs of skits, squibs and invective that “Private Eye” gave away, having success with two self-penned songs: “Neasden” (“you won’t be sorry that you breezed in . . . where the rissoles are deep-freezed-en”) and the “Bum Song” (“if you’re feeling glum / stick a finger up your bum / and the world is a happier place”). He also wrote songs for TW3, many of which were revisited on later solo albums like "Now in Bottles" and "The Complete Works".

In the autumn of 1963 a health scare led Macmillan to resign and Sir Alec Douglas-Home became Prime Minister. It was necessary that Douglas-Home resign his peerage to find a safe Parliamentary seat. The “Private Eye” team were so disgusted by the Conservative Party’s machinations that they decided to run their own protest candidate in the Kinross and West Perthshire by-election. Since he was the most famous member of the team Rushton was the obvious choice to run. Rushton garnered much attention from journalists, since he ran under the slogan "Death to the Tories". Rushton polled only 45 votes, having at the last minute advised his supporters to vote Liberal, the Conservatives' only credible challenger. Douglas-Home won.