Editing Marty Feldman (section)

==Career==
===Early career===
Leaving school at 15, Feldman worked at the [[Dreamland Margate|Dreamland]] funfair in [[Margate]],<ref name="six" /> but had dreams of a career as a [[jazz]] trumpeter, and performed in the first group in which tenor saxophonist [[Tubby Hayes]] was a member.<ref name="Chilton">{{cite news |first=Martin |last=Chilton |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8894915/Marty-Feldman-The-Biography-Of-A-Comedy-Legend-by-Robert-Ross-review.html |title=Marty Feldman – The Biography Of A Comedy Legend by Robert Ross: review |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=17 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119071340/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8894915/Marty-Feldman-The-Biography-Of-A-Comedy-Legend-by-Robert-Ross-review.html |archive-date=19 November 2015}}</ref> Feldman joked that he was "the world's worst trumpet player."<ref name="Chilton" /> By the age of 20, he had decided to pursue a career as a comedian.

Although his early performing career was undistinguished, Feldman became part of a comedy act—Morris, Marty and Mitch—who made their first television appearance on the [[BBC]] series ''Showcase'' in April 1955.<ref name="Oliver" /> Later in the decade, Feldman worked on the scripts for ''[[Educating Archie]]'' in both its radio and television incarnations, with [[Chesney and Wolfe|Ronald Chesney]] and later, Ronald Wolfe.

In 1954, Feldman met [[Barry Took]] while both were working as performers, and with Took, he eventually formed an enduring writing partnership which lasted until 1974.<ref name="Oliver" /> They wrote a few episodes of ''[[The Army Game]]'' (1960) and the bulk of ''[[Bootsie and Snudge]]'' (1960–62), both situation comedies made by [[Granada Television]] for the [[ITV (TV channel)|ITV]] network. For [[BBC Radio]] they wrote ''[[Round the Horne]]'' (1964–67), their best-remembered comedy series, which starred [[Kenneth Horne]] and [[Kenneth Williams]].<ref name="six" /> (The last series of ''Round the Horne,'' in 1968, was written by others.) This work placed Feldman and Took 'in the front rank of comedy writers', according to [[Denis Norden]].<ref name="six" />

Feldman then became the chief writer and script editor on ''[[The Frost Report]]'' (1966–67). With John Law, he co-wrote the much-shown [[Class sketch|"Class" sketch]], in which [[John Cleese]], [[Ronnie Barker]] and [[Ronnie Corbett]] faced the audience, with their descending order of height, suggesting their relative social status as upper class (Cleese), middle class (Barker) and working class (Corbett).<ref name="six" />

===Ascent===
The television sketch comedy series ''[[At Last the 1948 Show]]'' raised Feldman's profile as a performer. The other three participants (future [[Monty Python]] members [[Graham Chapman]] and [[John Cleese]]; and future star of ''[[The Goodies (TV series)|The Goodies]]'' [[Tim Brooke-Taylor]]) needed a fourth cast member, and had Feldman in mind.<ref name="six" /> In a sketch broadcast on 1 March 1967, Feldman's character harassed a patient shop assistant (played by Cleese) regarding a series of fictitious books, achieving success with ''Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying''. His character in ''At Last the 1948 Show'' was often called Mr. Pest, according to Cleese.<ref>[[BBC Radio 2]] programme ''East End Boys'', 2014</ref> Feldman was co-author—along with Chapman, Cleese and Brooke-Taylor—of the sketch [[Four Yorkshiremen sketch|"Four Yorkshiremen"]], which was written for ''At Last the 1948 Show'', later adapted by Monty Python for their stage performances.<ref name="six" />

Feldman was given his own series on the BBC, ''[[Marty (TV series)|Marty]]'', in 1968;<ref name="six" /> it featured Brooke-Taylor, [[John Junkin]] and [[Roland MacLeod]], with Cleese as one of the writers.<ref name="six" /> Feldman won two [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts|BAFTA]] awards. The second series in 1969 was retitled ''It's Marty'' (this title being retained for the [[DVD-Video|DVD]] release of the series).

''Marty'' proved popular enough with an international audience (the first series winning the Golden Rose Award at Montreux) to launch a film career. Feldman's first feature film role was in ''[[Every Home Should Have One]]'' (1970).<ref name="six" />

===After 1970===
[[File:Marty Feldman 1972.JPG|thumb|250px|Promotional photo for ''[[The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine]]'', 1972]]
''[[The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine]]'' (1971–72) was a television series co-produced by [[Associated Television]] (ATV) in the UK and the [[American Broadcasting Company]], produced at ATV's [[BBC Elstree Centre|Elstree Studios]], near London. This vehicle lasted for just one series.<!-- See talk. --><ref>{{cite news|title=Marty Feldman Comedy Machine (The): The Complete Series|url=http://networkonair.com/shop/2243-marty-feldman-comedy-machine-the-the-complete-series-5027626436049.html|work=Network ON AIR|date=1 November 2015|access-date=9 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504000815/http://networkonair.com/shop/2243-marty-feldman-comedy-machine-the-the-complete-series-5027626436049.html|archive-date=4 May 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1974, [[Dennis Main Wilson]] produced a short BBC sketch series for Feldman titled ''Marty Back Together Again''—a reference to reports about the star's health—but it never captured the impact of the earlier series.

On film, in [[Mel Brooks]]' ''[[Young Frankenstein]]'' (1974), Feldman played [[Igor (Young Frankenstein)|Igor]] (pronounced "EYE-gore", a comic response to [[Gene Wilder]]'s claim that 'it's pronounced FRONK-en-steen'). Many lines in ''Young Frankenstein'' were improvised. Wilder said he had Feldman in mind when he wrote the part.<ref name="six" />

Feldman's performances on American television included ''[[The Dean Martin Show]]''.

In 1976, Feldman ventured into [[Cinema of Italy|Italian cinema]], starring with [[Dayle Haddon]] in the [[sex comedy]] ''40 Gradi All'Ombra del Lenzuolo'' ''([[Sex with a Smile]]''). He later appeared in ''[[The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother]]'' and Brooks' ''[[Silent Movie]]'', as well as directing and starring in ''[[The Last Remake of Beau Geste]]''. He also guest-starred in "Arabian Nights", an episode of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' in which he was teamed up with several ''[[Sesame Street]]'' characters, especially [[Cookie Monster]], with whom he shared a playful cameo comparing their eyes side by side.

===Recording career===
During the course of his career, Feldman recorded two albums, ''Marty'' (1968) and ''I Feel a Song Going Off'' (1969), re-released in 1971 as ''The Crazy World of Marty Feldman''. The songs on his second album were written by [[Denis King]], John Junkin and Bill Solly (a writer for [[Max Bygraves]] and ''[[The Two Ronnies]]'').<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.thekettering.co.uk/?p=53 |title=Marty – The Whowrotewhat Wotnot (series 1) |journal=The Kettering |issue=4 |access-date=30 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810224024/http://www.thekettering.co.uk/?p=53 |archive-date=10 August 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It was later released as a [[Compact disc|CD]] in 2007.