Watch The Secret Policeman's Balls

Name: The Secret Policeman's Balls
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1976-12-29

1976
1 Season

The Secret Policeman's Balls is a series of benefit shows organized by Amnesty International to raise funds and awareness for human rights issues. The shows feature a mix of comedy, music and political satire performed by a lineup of celebrities and comedians from around the world.

The first show in the series took place in London in 1976 and was titled "The Secret Policeman's Ball". It was organized by comedian John Cleese and producer Martin Lewis, who wanted to create a unique way to support Amnesty International. The show featured performances by Monty Python, Peter Cook, Rowan Atkinson, and Tracey Ullman, among others, and was a huge success, raising over Â£30,000 for Amnesty International.

The success of the first show led to a series of follow-up performances over the years, each featuring a different lineup of comedians and musicians. Some of the shows included "The Secret Policeman's Other Ball" (1979), "The Secret Policeman's Private Parts" (1984), "The Secret Policeman's Third Ball" (1987), and "The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball" (1989).

The shows became known not only for their comedic performances but also for the serious message behind them. The performers used their platform to raise awareness for human rights issues and highlight the work of Amnesty International. The shows also featured powerful testimony from human rights activists and victims of human rights violations.

Over the years, the Secret Policeman's Balls have featured a who's who of comedy and music talent, including Eddie Izzard, Jon Stewart, Russell Brand, Sarah Silverman, Billy Connolly, Sting, and many others. The shows have also inspired other similar events around the world, including "Comic Relief" and "Red Nose Day" in the UK, and "Comic Relief USA" and "Stand Up To Cancer" in the US.

The Secret Policeman's Balls continue to be an important and impactful way to support Amnesty International and raise awareness for human rights issues. The shows are a unique blend of comedy, music, and activism, and provide a platform for some of the world's most talented performers to use their voices for good.

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Seasons

6. Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball? (2004)

December 4, 2004

In 2004 Britain's BBC commissioned a documentary to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1979 Amnesty show - the first to carry the "Secret Policeman's Ball" title. By that time there had been no less than 11 Amnesty galas - including performances by literally scores of comedians and musicians. With such a vast treasure trove to draw on, the resulting film was rich in anecdotes and extracts, though inevitably rather subjective. The memories of the original participants were somewhat shaky, but what emerges clearly is the rich pioneering spirit of the first wave of shows (1976-1981) and how those events helped inspire the explosion of benefit shows that followed - including Live Aid and the many subsequent Amnesty galas.

5. The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball (1989)

September 1, 1989

The 1989 show returned to the roots of the series with an emphasis on comedy and eschewing the music that, by the 1987 show, had come to be an equal component of the Balls. The cast was a blend of the 1960s and '70s generation of performers (John Cleese, Michael Palin, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) with '80s newcomers such as Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Lenny Henry, Rory Bremner, Ben Elton, Robbie Coltrane and Adrian Edmondson (The Young Ones). The show took place over four nights in late August through early September 1989 at London's Cambridge Theatre and was directed - in a demonstration of cross-generational entente - by John Cleese and Absolutely Fabulous cocreator/star Jennifer Saunders. The show was the last Ball to feature any of the original performers. When the Amnesty shows resumed in the 1990s and 2000s, the Ball had passed to a new generation.

4. The Secret Policeman's Third Ball (1987)

March 1, 1987

Victims of their own success in recruiting stars to appear at fund-raisers, Amnesty took a six-year sabbatical from producing benefit shows in the mid-1980s as a multitude of other good causes staged charity concerts that took the limelight. Amnesty returned in 1987 with refreshed zeal. A new generation of British comedians took up the Amnesty mantle, including Robbie Coltrane, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and the Spitting Image puppets. On the musical side, Amnesty show veteran Bob Geldof was joined by several newcomers including Kate Bush, David Gilmour, Joan Armatrading and Duran Duran, as well as three musicians who had recently performed for Amnesty in the USA: Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed and Jackson Browne. The two evenings of comedy and two separate nights of music at the London Palladium in March 1987 were subsequently fused into one TV special - and the Ball continued rolling.

3. The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (1981)

September 1, 1981

The 1979 Secret Policeman's Ball show had yielded a successful film and two albums (of comedy and music), and the same production team banded together in September 1981 for an even more triumphant four-night reprise at London's Theatre Royal. Once more John Cleese lined up most of the comedic talents - the by-now usual mixture of "Oxbridge" stalwarts and promising newcomers. Martin Lewis parlayed the success of Pete Townshend's 1979 appearance to recruit more musicians to the Amnesty cause: Sting, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Donovan - and, most fortuitously, Bob Geldof, who made his first-ever benefit appearance at the 1981 show. The concept of entertainers banding together for a good cause apparently left an impression on him.

2. The Secret Policemanâ' Ball (1979)

June 1, 1979

The first show to bear the legendary "Secret Policeman's" title took place over four nights in June 1979. It was held - like the 1976 show that inspired it - at Her Majesty's Theatre in London. John Cleese again secured most of the talent and (in his own words) "slightly directed" the stage show. In addition to Peter Cook, Eleanor Bron and half of Monty Python, Cleese introduced audiences to newcomer Rowan Atkinson. Coproducer Martin Lewis suggested that the show feature acoustic interludes from rock musicians and recruited Pete Townshend and Tom Robinson to the cause. The resulting film was released theatrically with great success in the U.K. and Australia - and the Secret Policeman's Ball was truly rolling

1. Pleasure At Her Majestyâ' (1976)

December 29, 1976

The very first show in what came to be called the "Secret Policeman's Ball" series took place over three late nights in April 1976 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London. The show was instigated by John Cleese, who volunteered to "round up a few pals" to perform for Amnesty International's benefit. These pals transpired to be most of Monty Python, Beyond The Fringe and The Goodies (three of the U.K.'s most successful humor ensembles) - together with leading solo performers. It was a gathering of the British comedic tribes. Cleese titled the show "A Poke In the Eye (With a Sharp Stick)." The film documenting this comedy summit was titled Pleasure At Her Majesty's - a wordplay on the formal British expression for imprisonment in which convicts are "detained at Her Majesty's pleasure."

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