About this book:

Stanley Baxter delighted over 20 million viewers at a time with his television specials. His pantos became legendary. His divas and dames were so good they were beyond description.

Baxter was a most brilliant cowboy Coward, a smouldering Dietrich. He found immense laughs as Formby and Liberace. And his sex-starved Tarzan swung in a way Hollywood could never have imagined. But who is the real Stanley Baxter?

The comedy actor’s talents are matched only by his past reluctance to colour in the detail of his own character. Now, the man behind the mischievous grin, the twinkling eyes and the once-Brylcreemed coiffure is revealed.

In a tale of triumphs and tragedies, of giant laughs and great falls from grace, we discover that while the enigmatic entertainer could play host to hundreds of different voices, the role he found most difficult to play was that of Stanley Baxter.

Praise for Stanley Baxter

‘Stanley Baxter is my comedy hero. He had big ideas and he fought for the money to do them. Then when he’d had enough he just walked away.’

Alam Cumming

‘I don’t know anybody that doesn’t think Stanley Baxter is a genius.’

Jonathan Ross

‘I really don’t think the phrase ‘out of this world’ fits anyone better than it does Stanley Baxter.’

Ford Kiernan