Margaret Thatcher and naked men at a Trades Union conference in Blackpool

Mrs Thatcher & Greatest Show On Legs in 1982 Sun cartoon

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died yesterday.

The late ‘godfather of alternative comedy’ Malcolm Hardee remembered in his 1996 autobiography I Stole Freddie Mercury’s Birthday Cake various occasions when he was part of The Greatest Show On Legs, performing their naked balloon dance:

“We even performed at a TUC Conference in Blackpool where Neil Innes of the Bonzo Dogs got booed off for being sexist: he was singing a song about a woman with tits and they didn’t like him. But they liked The Greatest Show on Legs naked with balloons.

“Except that we didn’t use balloons: we used photos of Mrs Thatcher to cover our genitalia and, after we turned round, our penises were sticking out of her mouth.

“They loved it.”