Barry Fantoni dead: BBC star dies at home as tributes pour in

Barry Fantoni, who wrote scripts for That Was The Week That Was and presented A Whole Scene Going On for the , has died at the age of 85, following a heart attack. He died on Tuesday May 20 at his home in Turin, Italy. The news was confirmed by Private Eye magazine where he also made his mark as a cartoonist.

Have I Got News For You star and Private Eye editor Ian Hislop paid tribute. “Barry was a brilliant multi-talented writer, artist and musician. He was an integral part of Private Eye’s comic writing team from the early days in the sixties and I hugely enjoyed collaborating with him when I joined the magazine later on.

"He created formats and characters and jokes that are still running and he was for a long time the voice of the great poet and obituarist E J Thribb. So farewell then Barry.”

A man of many talents, Fantoni rose to prominence during the 1960s, carving out a unique space in British pop culture. He began his artistic journey at just 14, attending Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts on a Wedgewood Scholarship.

His creative spirit flourished early, eventually making him a key figure in the UK’s vibrant pop art scene of the 1960s.

Fantoni's sharp wit and writing skills landed him a spot on the writing team of the influential satirical programme That Was The Week That Was, hosted by David Frost.

Later, in 1966, he stepped into the spotlight himself, hosting the BBC’s youth-focused music and fashion programme A Whole Scene Going. The show, which featured acts like The Spencer Davis Group and Pete Townshend, became a cultural touchstone for Britain’s under-21s.

In addition to his work on Private Eye, where he was a mainstay from 1963, Fantoni was a cartoonist for The Times, a caricaturist for Radio Times, and later, a record reviewer for Punch magazine in the 1970s.

His caricatures captured the likeness and spirit of some of Britain’s best-known personalities, including Sir Bruce Forsyth, DJ Tony Blackburn, and comedian Sir Ken Dodd.

Fantoni formally retired from Private Eye in 2010 after nearly five decades. Speaking about his decision to step back, he told The Independent: “It was just time to leave. I’d done it. The establishment isn’t even worth puncturing any more.”

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