Heroes of Comedy explained

Heroes of Comedy is a British television series, produced by Thames Television, and broadcast on Channel 4, which devotes each episode to a legend of British comedy. It was produced by John Fisher. Beginning in 1995, it followed a 2½ hour more general programme from 1992.

Episodes

Series one

Episode number	Subject	Original air date
Pilot		1 January 1995
1		13 October 1995
2		20 October 1995
3	Max Miller	27 October 1995
4		3 November 1995
5		17 November 1995

Contributions from Roy Hudd and Bob Monkhouse. An animatronic Miller was created for the programme and performed by David Barclay, Dave Chapman and Mike Quinn.

Series two

Episode number	Subject	Original air date
1		16 April 1997
2		23 April 1997
3		30 April 1997
4	The Goons	7 May 1997

The first group subject, and the first where two of the performers covered (Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe) were alive at the time of broadcast.

Series three

Episode number	Subject	Original air date
1		12 January 1998
2		19 January 1998
3		26 January 1998
4		2 February 1998

This series examined dead performers.

Series four

Episode number	Subject	Original air date
1		25 September 1999
2		2 October 1999
3		9 October 1999
4		16 October 1999
5		30 October 1999

All subjects in this series were living at the time of broadcast.

Series five

Episode number	Subject	Original air date
1		7 October 2000
2		11 November 2000
3		28 December 2000
4		27 December 2001

This series examined living and dead performers.

Series six

Episode number	Subject	Original air date
1		16 February 2002
2		23 February 2002
3	Spike Milligan	2 March 2002
4		9 March 2002
5		16 March 2002
6		13 April 2002

Previously covered as part of the Goons episode. Aired three days after Milligan's death.