Barry Humphries at the BBC

The Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist Barry Humphries, who died last month at the age of 89, has been described as “the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin”.

Certainly his impact has been huge. His brand of humour was at times satirical, and often surreal to the point of Dadaism; using outlandish get-ups he poked fun at established societal norms.

Above all, though, Humphries was entertaining. He was best known for his characters, in particular the flamboyant housewife Dame Edna Everage and the offensive, obnoxious and uncultured ‘cultural attaché’ Sir Les Patterson.

Dame Edna’s history can be traced as far back as 1955, when Humphries joined the newly formed Melbourne Theatre Company, and created the character of Mrs Norm Everage for a sketch called ‘Olympic Hostess’.

Since then, she became one of the most recognisable faces on TV with just her glasses alone enough to recognise her.

Interestingly, Everage and Patterson are essentially polar opposites of one another, with the former’s warmth and wit and outgoing nature entirely at odds with the latter’s uncouth nature. This allowed Humphries to explore a wide range of characters from his own life in a comedic fashion.

In his book A Nice Night’s Entertainment, Humphries described how he developed Patterson’s character at cabaret nights in Hong Kong: “The English merchant bankers and commodity brokers and Australian accountants there all recognised Les as someone they knew in the Australian diplomatic corps”.

The comedian, who stopped drinking in the 1970s, also explained that “in Les I can release my alcoholism”, adding that of all his characters, it was Patterson who consistently caused the most offence.

Both characters and more (perhaps the underground film-maker Martin Agrippa, socialist academic Neil Singleton, sleazy trade unionist Lance Boyle or – hopefully, at least – the stereotypical “Aussie bloke” Barry McKenzie) will no doubt feature heavily in this welcome compilation of the late comedian’s appearances on BBC programmes across the years.

Alex Jones presents the programme, which serves to demonstrate exactly why his various alter egos were so loved by comedy fans across the world, while also highlighting how it was Humphries himself, not his caricatures, who was really one of a kind.

The programme is followed by both parts of the 2014 BBC Four documentary Rebels of Oz: Germaine, Clive, Barry and Bob, in which Howard Jacobson examines the impact of Humphries and fellow Australians Robert Hughes, Clive James and Germaine Greer on western culture.

Jacobson begins by exploring their backgrounds, and uncovering their time spent together as part of Sydney’s “Push”’movement, before moving on to explore how their successes overseas led to a low-key backlash Down Under – as Jacobson says in the film, “Australians are suspicious of poppies that grow too high”.