Pete McCarthy

Peter Charles McCarthy Robinson (9 November 1951 – 6 October 2004) was an Anglo-Irish comedian, radio and television presenter and travel writer.

McCarthy was born on 9 November 1951 in Warrington, Lancashire.

His Irish mother had moved to England during the Second World War to work as a nurse and met her future husband at a dance.

They had four children, of whom Peter was the first.

McCarthy was educated at West Park Grammar School in St Helens, a Roman Catholic institution run by the Christian Brothers.

He later described this experience as "a mixture of hellfire and brimstone, Corporal Punishment and awakening sexuality".

The Christian Brothers' authoritarian education methods, which McCarthy said included "a fair bit of random brutality", he described as "carrot and stick without the carrot".

As a child, he spent his school holidays in Drimoleague in West Cork, Ireland, and stayed with relatives on the farm called "Butlersgift" where his mother had grown up, a place that he later described as "straight from a story book".

This time spent in Ireland inspired a fascination with the country that was evident later in his travel writing.

In his teenage years he considered becoming a member of the Roman Catholic clergy, but was dissuaded by his local priest.

After reading James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist at the age of 14, he decided instead to be a writer.

McCarthy attended Leicester University and earned a first-class degree in English literature.

He studied at a teacher training college and taught English and Drama at a comprehensive school on the coast of Suffolk.

The Brighton Argus reviewer wrote, "The hour-long tour-de-force begins with an apparently hungover Peter in bed, surrounded by empty bottles, and transfers to the living room, where he sports a revolting 1970s stretch burgundy outfit, threatens a striptease and then fortunately changes his mind....In between he delivers a quick-fire monologue which develops from the perils of drinking to tragicomic stuff touching on loneliness, death and unrequited love."

In 1975, McCarthy moved to Brighton, East Sussex, and worked in a community arts project in nearby Shoreham-by-Sea, which led to his first television appearance, on Tommy Tractor's Triffic Toyshop Show (1977), a show for primary school children.

He moved into comedy, co-founded Cliff Hanger Theatre with friends Robin Driscoll, Steve McNicholas, Tony Haase and Rebecca Stevens, and discovered a talent for verbal repartee.

He was described as "a brilliantly funny writer and performer".

The company toured the country performing in pubs, and their first show, The Featherstone Flyer (1978), was premiered in the Hope and Anchor in Islington, North London.

The Featherstone Flyer was followed by Dig for Victory (1980–81), Captive Audience (1981–82), They Came From Somewhere Else! (1982–83), Gymslip Vicar (1984-85), which was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award, and James Bond (1988).

The success of the stage shows led to the creation of two television series, They Came From Somewhere Else (1984) for Channel 4 and Mornin' Sarge (1989) on BBC Two.

In 1987, McCarthy began performing solo stand-up comedy, adopting his mother's surname as his stage name after learning of another actor using the name Peter Robinson.

For the 1987 Brighton Festival he created Boredom and Black Magic in Hove, a three-hour coach tour and pub crawl.

McCarthy acted as guide, inventing surreal explanations for the sights of Hove.

Audiences "had to jump across the border from Brighton to Hove, where they were handed a glass of sweet sherry. Pete then took them on a tour around Hove, making up the sights as he went along."

The show won the best cabaret act in the 1987 Zap Club Awards.

McCarthy took his next show, Live in Your Living Room, from 1987–8 to the Edinburgh, Melbourne and Brighton festivals.

He performed in people's homes in bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms to audiences of 10-20.

The subject of the show was the metaphysical effects of a hangover.

He became a solo stand-up comic and comedy writer, and after success with The Hangover Show in 1990 he presented television and radio shows.

In 1990 McCarthy explored this theme further in The Hangover Show, directed by John Dowie.

He was awarded the Critic's Award for Best Comedy and a Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The show was developed into a one-off television special for BBC Scotland which was broadcast on New Year's Day 1991.

He was noted for his best-selling travel books McCarthy's Bar (2000) and The Road to McCarthy (2002), in which he explored Ireland and the Irish diaspora around the world.

Born in Warrington, Lancashire to an English father of Irish descent and an Irish mother, McCarthy spent much of his early life in Ireland and developed a love for the country.

He decided to become a writer and studied English at Leicester University.

After a brief stint as a teacher he moved to Brighton, where he became involved in local art community projects.

He discovered a talent for comedy and co-founded a successful comedy troupe, in which he wrote and performed for ten years.

In 2000 he published McCarthy's Bar, an account of his travels around Western Ireland.

He followed McCarthy's Bar in 2002 with The Road to McCarthy.

A third book remained unfinished when he died of cancer in 2004.