By Telegraph Obituaries 7 March 2021 • 1:21pm
Tony Hendra, who has died aged 79, was one of the most brilliant satirists of the post-war period. He formed the link between the Cambridge Footlights team, in which he collaborated with John Cleese and Graham Chapman, and American institutions such as the satirical magazine National Lampoon and the NBC show Saturday Night Live where he was instrumental in launching the careers of John Belushi and Chevy Chase.
In Rob Reiner’s classic 1984 “mockumentary” This is Spinal Tap, Hendra plays the band’s clueless manager Ian Faith who carries a cricket bat which he uses to immobilise troublesome bystanders and (in one of the film’s most memorable scenes) to trash a television set. (“In the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful.”)