Sad news of the passing of Dave Allen in England on Thursday at the age of 68. For many years through the 1970s, Friday nights at our place was defined by watching either The Two Ronnies or Dave Allen At Large on the ABC.

Dave Allen was a wonderful, laconic, Irish stand-up comic, except that he did all his TV shows sitting on a stool, and generally drawing on a fag at the same time (that's in the toxicity sense, not the Public School sense). For more than one reason, his show would never cut it in prime-time TV these days.

I'll leave the obituaries to others. I'm intrigued to learn that he toured on the same bill as The Beatles before any of them became famous:

• The Observer, obit by Sean O'Hagan, 13.3.05
• The Guardian, obit by Richard Jinman, 12.3.05
• BBC Online obit with a stack of links
• Sun-Herald (Sydney), obit 13.3.05