Obituary: Buff Hardie, Scottish entertainer known for Scotland the What!

Buff Hardie looms over George Donald and Stephen Robertson in 1989

Buff Hardie was the last of the North-easterners who comprised the celebrated entertainment team, Scotland the What?, his writing partner, Steve Robertson, having died in 2011 and pianist/composer, George Donald, in 2013.

When the comedy trio first appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1969, as the Nova Scotia Revue Group, they could accurately have been described as talented amateurs. By the time they retired in 1995, they were widely regarded as accomplished professionals.

They were not so much an act as a phenomenon, writing all their own material, verbal and musical. Indeed, it was in the field of writing that Buff first distinguished himself theatrically. True, he had appeared in a school play at Robert Gordon’s College, Aberdeen (where pals perpetuated his primary school nickname of Buffalo Bill or Buff) and later trod the boards in Aberdeen University’s charity shows at His Majesty’s Theatre. It was as a writer, however, that he made his mark, contributing sketches with his friend Rolly York and becoming known as a witty lyricist who took WS Gilbert as his model. Playing alongside him on stage in these shows was fellow student Steve Robertson, who was to become a lifelong friend.

While at Cambridge University, Buff did not become involved with the Footlights Company, an initial approach in that direction having proved unfruitful, and concentrated instead on adding a law degree to the honours in Classics he had obtained at Aberdeen.

A return to stage work came with the formation of Aberdeen Revue Group, a company put together in 1958 largely from graduate refugees from the charities show and teachers of speech and drama. The group owed its existence to the coincidence that as Buff returned to Aberdeen from Cambridge to take up hospital administration, a former writing partner also appeared in the city. This was Alfie Wood, with whom Buff had written shows in the army during National Service. It was not long, then, before the idea of a revue group took shape

George Donald, another student performer, was an early recruit, along with Alfie’s wife, actress Pat Leckie, Anne Brand (of singing duo Anne and Laura Brand) and later, a clever young performer called Margaret Simpson, who, before long, became Margaret Hardie. The business manager, James Logan,became the group’s producer and, ultimately, director of Scotland the What?

Revue was a dying genre but continued to flourish on the North-east amateur scene until 1969, with Buff specialising in droll monologues in the guise of gormless local dignitaries. Steve Robertson joined the group on his return from National Service, becoming especially known for The Scottish Plumber, Buff’s parody of Andy Stewart song The Scottish Soldier. Later, Steve replaced Alfie Wood as co-writer – despite his prolific imagination, Buff preferred to write with a partner, although song lyrics he found easier to write on his own. By 1967, though, the duo felt they had written themselves out, so the curtain came down on Aberdeen Revue Group.

In fact, it would be only two years before the writers and music man George Donald appeared on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and to such enthusiastic acclaim (“The funniest show on the Fringe”, said one reviewer) that they embarked on a long, semi-professional and then professional career in stage revue as Scotland the What? Their judgement that they had run out of steam had been a trifle premature. After a second Fringe appearance, His Majesty’s, Aberdeen invited them to put both Fringe offerings together, to make a full-length programme to run at the theatre for three nights.

Thereafter, they devised a show for His Majesty’s every two years, the length of the runs stretching first to a week and finally to four. What made Scotland the What? unique in the years which followed was that they carried their essentially North-east culture to the rest of Scotland, and indeed, to London. Audiences far and wide became acquainted with such North-east classics as the world’s first Doric-speaking parrot and a memorable item in which the Queen was rung up at Balmoral and invited to open the Oldmeldrum Sports.

The three protagonists, together with James Logan, gave up the day jobs (Buff, at the time, being Secretary to Aberdeen Regional Hospital Board). They continued as professionals for a further 12 years, adding TV performances for Grampian to their theatre work. James Logan’s sad death from cancer could have brought an end to the team’s careers, had they not found a replacement in Alan Franchi.

Buff, by this time, was not merely a performer of comic monologues but a slick straight man and as couthy an exponent of Doric humour as his partner, Steve. As a writer, his invention was endless. From parodies of Hamlet and of Greek myths such as Helen of Torry (the old fishing district of Aberdeen) to send-ups of Jamie Saxt and the wives of Henry VIII, his work was full of historical allusion as well as contemporary reference.

Buff, along with his partners in Scotland the What? was awarded the MBE by the Queen, an honorary degree from Aberdeen University and the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen. For Buff alone, at the age of 85, came an honour from Aberdeen Football Club, of which he had been a keen supporter for 75 years. Not only was his birthday announced at a midweek match at Pittodrie; he was presented with a Dons jersey, printed on the back with the number 85 and signed by all the players.

Buff is survived by Margaret, daughter Katharine and son John, a lawyer, who carries on the family’s entertainment tradition in comedy group, The Flying Pigs.

DOUGLAS KYNOCH

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