Ta-ra, Dame Edna — Barry Humphries bids goodbye to his chattier half

Dame Edna is hanging up her tiara. From now on the ‘failed comedian’, as Edna calls her alter ego Barry Humphries, will have to make do without her. Her current tour includes a run at the London Palladium but after she’s graced the provinces, it’s adios, possums. Her last ever live show is currently bringing (I paraphrase her website) a spooky old resilience to people’s lives through laughter, prayer and a life-enhancing enzyme called Vitamin E —  that’s E for Edna.

The truth is, Barry can’t face touring any more. He is 79 and sick to the back teeth of trendy hotels with their moody lighting and minimalist nonsense. The last straw came when he was unable to turn off the bedside phone’s flashing message light and was obliged to drape his pants over the blinking thing. The current farewell show (directed by Simon Phillips, an Aussie big shot) is, by his standards, mega-budget, he tells me in a boutique Soho hotel suite of precisely the sort that has driven him to retire.