Russell Harty
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Frederic Russell Harty (5 September 1934 – 8 June 1988) was an English television presenter, with a distinctly camp turn of phrase; his name has been used as Cockney rhyming slang for party.
Born in Blackburn, he attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School on West Park Road and Exeter College, Oxford, where he obtained a first-class degree in English Literature. He worked as an English teacher at Giggleswick School, where one of his pupils was Richard Whiteley, the future TV presenter and host of Countdown.
He got his first break in 1970 presenting the arts programme Aquarius that was intended to be London Weekend Television's response to the BBC's Omnibus. A memorable programme involved a typically bizarre clash of cultures as Harty travelled to Italy to unite on camera the singer Gracie Fields and the classical composer William Walton.
In 1973 he was given his own series Russell Harty Plus on ITV which placed him against the BBC's Parkinson, conducting lengthy celebrity interviews. Parts of Russell Harty's interview with The Who in 1973 were included in Jeff Stein's 1979 film The Kids Are Alright, providing some of its most memorable moments, such as Pete Townshend and Keith Moon ripping off each other's shirt sleeves. The show lasted until 1981.
In 1983, Harty moved to the BBC with an early evening celebrity chatshow, which gained some notoriety when he was smacked in the face by Grace Jones on live TV. He had offended Jones by turning away from her to talk to another guest. This show was cancelled in 1985.
Harty began working on a new series Russell Harty's Grand Tour for the BBC in 1987; the few interviews completed before his death included Salvador Dalí and Dirk Bogarde. His partner from 1982 to 1988 was the novelist Jamie O'Neill. He died of AIDS related Hepatitis B in 1988 in Leeds.
Russell Harty was a good friend of the playwright Alan Bennett, who talks about him and his family, in relation with Bennett's own family, in the episode "Written on the Body", taken from his semi-biography "Untold Stories".
