Tony Allen, who has died of cancer aged 78, was one of the founders of the “alternative comedy” movement and credited by other practitioners with pioneering the opinionated, politically correct anti-Thatcher radicalism that became its hallmark in the 1980s.
Benjamin Zephaniah, who has died of a brain tumour aged 65, was a writer and dub poet, often intoning his words over a reggae backbeat; he went from the streets of Handsworth to become a treasured figure on the UK’s literary scene, described as “the people’s laureate” and celebrated for his works on race. His mission, he said, was “to take poetry everywhere” and he described his technique as “dub ranting”, adding: “I do it because there is no justice.”