Barry Fantoni

Barry Fantoni was born in London’s East End in 1940 to an Italian father and a Jewish mother of French and Dutch extraction, both gifted musicians. Aged just fourteen, he was awarded the Wedgewood Scholarship for the Arts and was sent to Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts where he formed the first art school jazz band, a film society and pioneered a drama group. Then got expelled. In 1963, following a period of travel and the sell out of his first one man show in London, Fantoni joined Private Eye magazine as a member of the editorial staff. He would appear in all but 31 issues of the magazine in its 50 years. In 1966 Barry was given the job of creating and presenting a TV show exploring popular trends in the arts called A Whole Scene Going. Featuring everything from skateboards to some girl called Twiggy it won Fantoni TV Personality of the Year and gave him carte blanche to be pretty well whatever he wanted be whether it was jazz musician, script writer, art critic for The Times, cartoonist or playwright. Barry Fantoni now lives in Calais where he writes plays, books, poetry and is looking to Paris to form a theatre company.