A seaside town has insisted it will not remove the name of disgraced sex pervert Rolf Harris from one of its most iconic attractions. Blackpool’s ‘Comedy Carpet’ was unveiled in 2011 opposite the resort’s famous Tower and boasts the names of more than 1,000 writers and comedians including from Tommy Cooper, Morecambe and Wise, and Sir Ken Dodd.
Created in the style of a traditional music-hall playbill, and at staggering 2,200 square-metres, is one of the UK’s largest public art installations with over 160,000 granite letters embedded into concrete. Years after the artwork was created, one of the stars – the once popular entertainer and musician Rolf Harris – was unmasked as a sex pervert and jailed, yet his name remained on the promenade.
This week former community leader Eddie Fewings, 61, said Harris’s name should have been removed “years ago”, adding: “It does Blackpool no favours when he’s still included in the town’s tribute to comedy heroes.”
But Blackpool Council – which unveiled the Comedy Carpet in 2011 – told the Express that although Harris’s acts “were despicable”, his name remaining in no way “condones” his crimes.
They explained: “After much careful consideration in 2014, Blackpool Council – as commissioners of the artwork – and Gordon Young, as the artist that created the original design, decided not to erase Rolf Harris’s name.
“Mr Harris’s acts were despicable but his name being on the carpet in no way condones those acts. At the time of the Comedy Carpet being created and installed there was no reason to question the inclusion of Rolf Harris.
“His name appears on the Comedy Carpet along with a thousand others due to his links to comedy sketches and songs. There are no references to his work other than his name.
“As commissioners of the artwork, we have respected the decision of the artist and are mutually in agreement not to erase Rolf Harris’s name.
“The artist felt that the reason he is there is because he wanted to reference all the comedians that had performed in Blackpool over the years and Harris was one of those performers, a fact that cannot be erased.”
The Australian-born entertainer’s name was added in the 2011 artwork as a nod to his appearances in the resort’s summer season shows back in the mid-1980s.
But in July 2014 at Southwark Crown Court he was convicted on 11 counts of indecent assault on three female victims aged from eight to 19 at the time of the offences.
Harris was jailed for five years and nine months in 2014 and released from prison in 2017 – but never apologised to his victims.
Mr Fewings said: “Quite frankly, I think it’s out of order that Harris’s name is still there.”
Mr Fewings added that “it doesn’t seem right to celebrate” someone convicted of the offences in light of calls for an inquiry into grooming gangs in the town.
Harris died on 10th May 2023, seven years after his release from prison. According to his death certificate, he died of neck cancer and “frailty of old age” at his home in Bray, Berkshire.
Before his crimes came to light, Harris had been a fixture of family entertainment in Britain and Australia.
He arrived in London in 1952, aged 21, and went on to host a string of children’s TV and variety shows as well as series about animals and art. Harris painted a portrait of the late Queen to mark her 80th birthday in 2006.
Harris was also well known for a number of hit songs, including Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport; Two Little Boys and a cover of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven.
During his career he was made an OBE, MBE and CBE and awarded a Bafta fellowship, but he was stripped of the honours following his convictions.
At his sentencing, the court heard he was a “sinister pervert”, who used his fame to get close to young women and girls.
“You have shown no remorse for your crimes at all,” the judge told him. “Your reputation now lies in ruins, but you have no one to blame but yourself.”
Harris was initially found guilty of 12 attacks on four girls, mainly in the 1970s and 1980s – but one conviction, relating to an allegation he indecently assaulted an eight-year-old girl, was later overturned. The victims included two girls in their early teens and a friend of his daughter.