Pictures from the Yorkshire Evening Post archives capture a visit in 1995 to promote shows by his most famous character, Dame Edna Everage, at Leeds Grand Theatre that autumn. In a 2004 interview with the Yorkshire Post, then Leeds Grand Theatre manager Warren Smith shared one of his memories of the performer. He said: “Barry Humphries is a very cultured man. The work of an artist he was interested in was showing at a Leeds gallery so we went straight from the theatre to have a look. Barry was in full Dame Edna costume and people there were suspicious of what he was up to. He didn't buy any art.”
Humphries would return to the theatre for the last time in early 2014 for what was billed as his Farewell Tour. It gave audiences the chance to say goodbye to Humphries and his cast of characters, which also included the lecherous Sir Les Patterson and Sandy Stone, an elderly, childless man living in the Australian suburbs.
On another memorable visit covered by the YEP in 1996, Humphries joined the millionaire