BBC Radio 2 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Light Programme.

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Barbara Windsor's Funny Girls

Documentaries

Factual: Life Stories

Comedy

Barbara Windsor celebrates the lives and careers of influential female comedy icons

Barbara Windsor's Funny Girls: Series 2

Barbara Windsor's Funny Girls: Series 2: Episode 3: Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Diller

Episode 3

Episode 3: Phyllis Diller

Series 2

BBC Radio 2 - Barbara Windsor's Funny Girls, Series 2, Phyllis Diller

Barbara Windsor continues her celebration of American comedy icons with Phyllis Diller.

Barbara Windsor continues her celebration of American comedy icons with this week's subject, Phyllis Diller, talking from her glamorous Brentwood home in LA.

To mark the life of the irrepressible Phyllis Diller, the first female stand up comedian, who died on August 20th this year, BBC Radio 2 returns to a recent documentary, recorded with Diller in her glamorous Brentwood Home in LA, when she was still going strong aged 94. 

The programme features interviews with Roseanne Barr, David Sedaris and Roby Wax, and Barbara Windsor takes you back to the early days when Diller was flat broke, working as a copywriter in San Francisco. She had a natural talent for making people laugh and urged by her out of work husband, Diller decided to pursue a career as the first female standup comedian. This was no mean feat in the early 1950s - her role models were all men, in particular Bob Hope who she would later befriend and regularly perform with. She had a small army of children to feed and the lure of big money dazzled her - leading standups on the circuit, touring the Cocoabana and Playboy Clubs and the borscht belt resorts could be earning $40,000 dollars a week - then! Her determination and her ability to make people laugh, would bring her fame in the early 1960s when she appeared on the Jack Paar show and she never looked back. 

Mixed in with archive recordings of Diller's great live performances, the remarkable achievement of this extraordinary woman becomes clear, along with her contagious humour and love of life. She was a major influence on all female stand up comedians, in particular, Joan Rivers.

Amazing music. Played by an amazing line up.

Radio 2: Amazing music. Played by an amazing line-up. The home of great music, entertainment and documentaries

Barbara Windsor celebrates three trailblazing female American comedy icons

Barbara Windsor returns to celebrate the lives and careers of three female comedy icons from across the pond

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Episode 3: Phyllis Diller

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