Kenny Everett (Born Maurice Cole) came to prominence in the 1960s on the pirate radio station, Radio London. In 1967, the BBC started its own pop music station, Radio 1, and Kenny was among the first intake of new DJs recruited from the pirates.

Kenny developed a unique style of humorous presentation from the start, using zany characters and voices, along with jingles, drop-ins and trailers of his own. However, he soon got himself into trouble by making an unguarded remark about the transport minister's wife's inability to pass the driving test, and was sacked in 1970.

He was reinstated in 1972, but at that time, the government had legislated for new commercial radio stations in the UK, and the first of these, Capital Radio, began broadcasting in 1973. Kenny was given his own show on the new station, where he further developed his own distinctive format.

In 1978, he started a new venture in television, with his ground-breaking Kenny Everett Video Show. This was a vehicle for Kenny's characters and sketches, interspersed with pop hits of the day, which were often presented through the very risqué (for the time) dance group, Hot Gossip.

It also featured an animated cartoon version of his popular radio spot, Captain Kremmen — a thinly disguised Kenny travelling the galaxy with his voluptuous sidekick Carla. Other memorable characters created for this show or the later version he did for the BBC were the giant-breasted American starlet Cupid Stunt ("all done in the best PAAASSIBLE taste!"), the sexually frustrated businessman Angry of Mayfair, the punks Sid Snot and Gizzard Puke, and the French boulevardier Marcel Wave.

The Video Show, made by Thames Television, ran for four series on ITV, and was incredibly popular, being required viewing for any teenager of the time. Kenny continued with Capital Radio while also doing his television work.

While his radio shows continued in the same vein and were as popular as ever, by the late 1980s the TV show format had run its course, and Kenny's personal life was becoming increasingly complicated. His homosexuality was something he never fully came to terms with, and he suffered bouts of severe depression. He died of an AIDS-related illness in 1995.