ATV Icon: Dame Edna Everage

As we continue to celebrate 70 years of ITV the next ATV Icon is the legendary Dame Edna Everage…

Dame Edna Everage is an iconic comedy persona known for her flamboyant style and razor-sharp wit. Instantly recognisable with her lilac-purple coiffure, bedazzled cat-eye glasses, and a mischievous grin, she greeted audiences with the boisterous catchphrase “Hello, possums!”.

Draped in sequined gowns and often clutching a bouquet of gladioli (“gladdies”) to toss into the crowd, Dame Edna cut a larger-than-life figure. For decades, this fictional “housewife-turned-megastar” graced television screens and stages around the world, satirising celebrities and delighting fans with outrageous monologues and audience banter. Though Dame Edna is a fictional character, she became so real to the public that her memoir My Gorgeous Life was published as if by Edna herself – a testament to the complete identity creator Barry Humphries gave her.

Edna’s story begins in suburban Australia in the 1950s. Barry Humphries, a Melbourne-born actor and satirist, created Edna Everage in 1955 as a parody of the pretentious, sheltered housewives he observed in Australian suburbia.

At the time, Humphries was touring Victoria with a repertory theatre group and amused his fellow actors by improvising a character he named Mrs. Edna Everage – with the surname “Everage” slyly chosen as a play on “average,” reflecting her origin as an “average Australian housewife”. Edna’s fictitious roots were planted in Moonee Ponds, a humble Melbourne suburb, and Humphries gave her a rich personal backstory that audiences found hilarious and endearing.

Dame Edna, an early appearance on ITV / LWT

She had a devoted (if dull) husband, Norm Everage, prone to chronic “prostate troubles,” and several children – among them Valmai, Bruce and Kenneth – whose exploits Edna would proudly (and absurdly) boast about. Over the years Humphries even provided Edna with a perpetually mousy companion – her long-suffering bridesmaid Madge Allsop, who stood by silently as Edna hurled barbed zingers at her or used her as a comic prop. This elaborate private life made Edna feel “real” and gave Humphries endless satirical material to draw upon.

Edna Everage made her stage debut in December 1955 in a Melbourne sketch entitled “Olympic Hostess,” part of a revue called Return Fare. In this first incarnation she was billed as Mrs. Norm Everage, “an average Australian housewife” from Moonee Ponds. Clad in a demure apron and frock, the character comically gushed about suburbia and her home life, lampooning the complacency and parochial attitudes of 1950s Australia. The character was a hit with audiences, and Humphries soon realised Edna had potential beyond a one-off sketch.

As television dawned in Australia, Humphries gave Edna an even wider audience by appearing as her on the very first night of Australian TV broadcasting in 1956. Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, Edna popped up in theatre revues and the occasional telly spot in Australia, steadily building a following. Humphries took Edna to Britain in the 1960s, where the character’s absurd provincial pomposity found a new target in UK culture.

In London, Edna began shedding her dowdy housewife look in favour of more outlandish outfits and persona tweaks. What started as a drab suburban lady with “sensible” clothes evolved into a more eccentric figure – brighter wigs, flashy glasses, and bolder satire – especially as Humphries honed the act in London’s cutting-edge comedy scene. By the end of the 1960s, Edna Everage was gaining stature as a cult favourite, adored for her satirical sendups of social pretensions.

Dame Edna / LWT

The 1970s saw Dame Edna’s star truly begin to rise, first in Australia and then internationally. Humphries continued to develop Edna’s comedic voice – a unique blend of matronly charm, faux-gracious humility, and barbed insult – and took her to larger stages. A breakthrough moment came in the mid-1970s when Edna Everage: Housewife Superstar opened in London’s West End. This one-woman stage show  – billed pointedly as “Housewife Superstar” – featured Edna delivering uproarious monologues, performing cheeky songs, and engaging in one of her emerging trademarks: unscripted audience interaction.

Every night, Edna would step off the stage to mingle with spectators, poking fun at hapless audience members about their fashion or personal habits, as if they were old friends. London audiences roared at this interactive comedy, and the show was a hit. Barry Humphries had finally “cracked the big time” by letting Edna loose on the West End, proving that his Antipodean housewife could charm, and scandalise, sophisticates abroad.

Edna’s newly found fame was cemented by a defining moment of the era: her elevation to “Dame”. In a now-legendary gag, former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam appeared in Barry Humphries’ 1974 film Barry McKenzie Holds His Own and ostensibly knighted Edna, proclaiming her “Dame Edna”. This tongue-in-cheek damehood became part of Edna’s official persona, and thereafter she was formally billed as “Dame Edna Everage.” Armed with this grand honour, Edna’s ego and flamboyance only grew larger in the late 1970s. She took on the tongue-in-cheek moniker “Housewife and Superstar,” and began jokingly referring to herself as a global celebrity. Indeed, Humphries was already envisioning Edna as a “megastar” – a term he’d use in later shows as her fame snowballed.

On British television, the BBC aired a mockumentary in 1979 titled La Dame aux Gladiolas, a playful faux-profile celebrating Edna’s life and love of gladioli, this came after a run of half-hour comedy specials in the mid-70s on BBC Two, where the Dame wasn’t quite the telly star she would become in the following decade – but this Beeb offering did have several comedy highlights. It was live performance where Edna truly shone in this period. In 1976, she stole scenes at the Amnesty International Secret Policeman’s Ball benefit, belting out a song on stage amid rock stars and comedians.

Dame Edna / BBC

Barry Humphries also attempted to introduce Edna to New York in the late ’70s. A 1977 off-Broadway run of Housewife-Superstar garnered mixed reviews; one harsh New York Times critique prompted Humphries to joke later that he’d “wait till that critic is dead” before bringing Edna back to Broadway – a promise he literally kept, waiting 25 years before returning to NYC. Despite that hiccup, by 1979 Dame Edna Everage had firmly evolved from a local Australian in-joke into a full-fledged comic phenomenon, poised for even greater fame ahead.

Edna’s transition from stage to television stardom came at the dawn of the 1980s, and it was explosive. In 1980, the network ITV invited her to star in An Audience With… Dame Edna Everage (London Weekend Television), a televised special featuring Edna performing before an audience of celebrity guests. The format – essentially a televised stand-up show with famous faces in the crowd – was the perfect platform for Edna’s improvisational wit.

She treated the celebrity audience just like her theatre crowds, cheekily roasting actors, singers, and VIPs as if they were her suburban neighbours. The special was a sensation, introducing Edna to millions of UK viewers and proving that her humour translated brilliantly to television. She was so popular, in fact, that ITV brought her back for two more An Audience With… specials – in 1984 and 1988 -making Dame Edna the only performer to headline three instalments of the LWT franchise. By the mid-’80s, thanks to these specials, Edna Everage had become a household name in Britain.

The crowning achievement of Edna’s TV career came in 1987 with the debut of her very own talk show, The Dame Edna Experience (London Weekend Television). Ostensibly a send-up of the typical celebrity talk show, it featured Dame Edna as host – and undisputed star. She would sweep on in a glittering gown amid fanfare, then proceed to “interview” well-known guests in her inimitable style.

Dame Edna / LWT

In truth, as Edna herself quipped, it was “really a monologue interrupted by total strangers”. Each episode was an exercise in gloriously egotistical comedy: Edna would shamelessly name-drop her celebrity confidantes, dispense unsolicited advice, and affectionately mock her guests. Big names like Sean Connery, Mel Gibson, Joan Rivers, and even feminist icon Germaine Greer (an old friend of Humphries) braved the guest seat on The Dame Edna Experience. They inevitably became targets of Edna’s playful ridicule – be it about their looks, careers, or love lives – all delivered with a disarming giggle and faux-kindness that made the jabs hilariously biting.

Sitting off to the side was the ever-silent Madge Allsop, Edna’s sour-faced bridesmaid and “traveling companion”. The show was a hit for ITV, running for two series (1987 and 1989) and spawning specials set in various glamorous fictional places – all created at the LWT Studios in London. The Dame Edna Experience was later broadcast in the U.S. on PBS, expanding her international fanbase. By decade’s end, Dame Edna had become a global comedy diva, as likely to be seen schmoozing with Hollywood stars on television as she was to be lampooning average “possums” on stage.

Having conquered Britain’s airwaves, Dame Edna carried her momentum into the 1990s with new formats and a broadened global presence. In 1992 she headlined Dame Edna’s Neighbourhood Watch (London Weekend Television), a tongue-in-cheek reality/game show hybrid that put a twist on the era’s home-makeover craze. In this series, Edna would select unsuspecting audience members “by invitation only, ladies audience,” she insisted and literally invade their homes – inspecting their housekeeping and décor and gleefully shaming anything not up to her standards.

It was an outrageous spoof of nosy neighbour behaviour, with Edna’s gleeful judgement of a housewife’s clutter or cooking earning big laughs. Around the same time, Humphries attempted to crack American television more directly. Dame Edna’s Hollywood, which aired as specials in 1991–1993, placed Edna in a faux-Hollywood talk show setting. She would interview stateside celebrities in Los Angeles, bringing her British-Australian comic sensibility to American pop culture.

The Dame Edna Experience with Cliff Richard, Sean Connery and Mary Whitehouse / LWT

Though not a long-running series, Dame Edna’s Hollywood featured memorable moments – including Edna performing a duet of “I Got You Babe” with Cher on one episode – Edna also appeared as a guest on established American talk shows while enjoying stateside life.

Even as she spoofed the celebrity du jour on the telly, Dame Edna never abandoned her stage roots. In fact, the ’90s saw some of her most ambitious live shows. In 1997 Humphries premiered a new TV talk spoof, Dr. Dame Edna Kisses It Better, where Edna played a self-professed expert doling out advice – and cheeky “treatments” – to celebrity “patients” – a concept as zany as it sounds. That same year, Edna remained a beloved figure in her homeland: she made her fifth appearance as a special guest host at Australia’s TV Week Logie Awards, essentially becoming a perennial emcee for Australia’s TV industry gala.

Meanwhile, Humphries was preparing Edna’s next grand conquest: the international stage. In 1998 he created Edna: The Spectacle, a flamboyant stage production that toured England and then took Edna back to America. After years of growing cult status stateside, Edna was about to enjoy full-fledged American success on Broadway.

Dame Edna strutted into the new millennium at the peak of her powers – and finally conquered Broadway. In 2000, she opened her one-woman show Dame Edna: The Royal Tour in New York to rave reviews and sold-out houses. More of an “appearance” than a traditional play, the show consisted of Edna regaling the audience with her outrageous life stories and engaging in her trademark ad-libbed banter with spectators.

Night after night she plucked “lucky” audience members from their seats for impish interrogations, turning everyday people into comic sidekicks. The Royal Tour was a smash: it earned Dame Edna a prestigious Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show and even won a Tony Award. Humphries gleefully accepted these honours in-character as Edna, who insisted the awards finally confirmed her international “megastar” status.

The Dame Edna Experience with Jeffery Archer, Demis Roussos and Joan Rivers / LWT

Following this triumph, Dame Edna continued her Broadway reign with a follow-up show, Dame Edna: Back with a Vengeance, which opened in 2004. Even as she dominated the stage, Dame Edna kept one purple-painted toe in television during the 2000s. In 2001 she made a memorable appearance on the hit TV series Ally McBeal – not as herself exactly, but as a character named Claire Otoms; an anagram of “a sitcom role”. This quirky recurring character, a brash client-turned-secretary at the show’s law firm, was essentially the character of Dame Edna playing another character. She had Edna’s voice, Edna’s flamboyant style, and even got credited in the Ally McBeal titles as being played by “Dame Edna Everage” – with Barry Humphries only acknowledged in the closing credits.

This inside joke delighted fans and showed how fully Edna had entered the pop culture lexicon. In 2003, Edna appeared as herself in the film adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, in which she donned period costume to play a theatre actress, and in 2007, Dame Edna returned to British television with a new talk-show series, The Dame Edna Treatment (London Weekend Television).

This programme’s format placed Edna as the proprietress of a glamorous spa/health clinic, where each week various celebrities came for “treatment” – only to be lovingly lampooned and psychoanalysed by Edna. The run also saw a special edition which marked 50 Years of Edna in the gigaverse. Even in her seventies, Dame Edna’s comic timing and popularity had not dimmed: she continued to score prime-time slots and attract A-list guest stars from Boris Johnson to Robin Gibb – who sung the theme tune.

Dame Edna was not just a performer but a bona fide cultural icon; She was invited to participate in major events – often stealing the show. For instance, at London’s royal Party at the Palace (BBC) in 2002 – celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee – Edna appeared and cheekily referred to the Queen as “the jubilee girl,” earning laughs even from the royal box. It had been a long running joke across her talk show interviews that Edna was ‘dear friends’ with Queen Elizabeth II.

Dame Edna / LWT

In her native Australia, 2006 saw Edna literally larger than life: she was featured in a massive 7-meter-tall portrait made entirely of toast slices. Commissioned for an art installation on a Melbourne billboard. The same year, at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Dame Edna “appeared” via video to lead a stadium of 80,000 in a tongue-in-cheek sing-along, as a thousand performers dressed as mini-Ednas (complete with purple wigs and gladioli) paid homage to her in a spectacular display.

By the 2010s, after a career spanning more than five decades, Barry Humphries began to wind down Dame Edna’s active appearances – but not before a fittingly grand farewell. In 2012, Humphries announced he would “retire” Dame Edna, feeling that the character had earned a rest. This announcement kicked off a series of goodbye tours. In 2013, Edna embarked on a Farewell Tour in the UK, opening with a celebratory run at the London Palladium and touring around Britain to give her fans a last chance to bask in her glory. Not one to leave quietly, the Dame soon followed up with a globetrotting finale titled Dame Edna’s Glorious Goodbye – The Farewell Tour, which in 2015 travelled through the United States and even to Canada.

Of course, in classic Edna fashion, she couldn’t resist a few more surprise pop-ups: she appeared as a special Christmas guest on Michael McIntyre’s BBC comedy show in 2015 and had a cheeky cameo in the film Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016). Fittingly, one of Dame Edna’s final public appearances was on BBC Radio in 2019, when she crashed the Today news programme to humorously “interview” the outgoing host John Humphrys on his last day.

At the end of 2019, the character took her final major TV bow in a BBC One special titled Dame Edna Rules the Waves, a one-off mock-variety show set aboard Edna’s luxury yacht. In this special, Edna comically acknowledged the end of an era by announcing the off-screen death of her loyal bridesmaid Madge, whose ashes Edna attempted to scatter at sea – only to be thwarted by environmental rules. It was a fittingly absurd capstone to Edna’s story, allowing Humphries to cheekily tie up loose ends of the character’s lore.

There were guest spots on ITV shows such as Loose Women and This Morning where Edna’s unique ‘caring insults’ continued to raise a laugh. In April 2023, Barry Humphries passed away at the age of 89. He had portrayed Edna for an astonishing 68 years – a run which must possibly be unparalleled in the comedy world.

Dame Edna / LWT