Sunday Feature: Ken Campbell as Never Heard Before

When Ken Campbell died in 2008, the world lost a madcap genius with a singular approach to acting and directing, partly summed up by his own maxim - Is it heroic? His comedic genius was further reflected in an observation - 'No performance was ever the worse for the inclusion of a live pig.' 2018 marks the 10th anniversary of Ken Campbell's death yet his influence lives on through the acting talent is inspired - including Jim Broadbent, Sylvester McCoy, whose ferret/ trouser antics have gone into the Guinness Book of Records, and Toby Jones, regarded Ken's one man show 'Pigspurt' as the show he had been waiting for all his life. Ken changed lives, careers and acting abilities (Act louder! Act better!) and presenter David Bramwell was no exception, tracking him down to help with a one man show that needed to be shaken up. So what were Ken's specific techniques when it came to directing, and why did ' the most audacious talent in British theatre' finally retreat with his dogs and parrot to an isolated house in Epping Forest? Bramwell, a fervent but late convert to Cambellism, meets the Campbell Clan - his daughter Daisy and granddaughter Dixie, who have both inherited the brilliant storytelling skills, and Prunella Gee, (Ken's ex-wife) and delve into the unopened archive of Ken - a lifetime's worth of monologues, scripts poems and writings