A former zookeeper and cabaret performer who was once described as the ‘bad taste king’ for his act which involved stuffing live rats down his pants has died at the age of 79.
Ken Edwards, from Glossop but spent most of his life in Hyde, made a name for himself in the 1980s as one half of the variety act ‘Ratman and Robin’.
As the ‘Ratman’ himself, Ken would often bemuse audiences by eating live cockroaches on stage and putting rats down his trousers.
Born in 1943, Ken started his career as a projectionist at the Hyde Hippodrome before moving to the Ritz Cinema in Hyde.
By the age of 18, he was already acting and performing on the stage in productions at venues such as the Plaza Stockport and Theatre Royal Hyde.
He decided to buy a concertina and started touring concert halls across the north telling 'mother-in-law jokes' - but demand soon dried up.
He then spent around 15 years 'prowling' the sewers and cellars for a living as a ratcatcher.
Alongside this, he also spent some time working as a zookeeper at Belle Vue Zoo in the 1960s and 70s, where he would be responsible for looking after lions, tigers, emus, hippopotamuses and giraffes.
He was also a member of the Belle Vue Circus, and joined the Board of Directors in 1963.
One day, while working as a ratcatcher, he was asked to set traps at a glove factory in Stockport when he met worker David Potts.
The two struck a quick bond and David would later go on to be the Robin to his Ratman and the act was born then.
‘Ratman and Robin’ toured the UK extensively throughout the 1980s and appeared on a number of television shows including The Russell Harty Show, Over The Top (OTT) and Just Amazing.
The shocking act featured a number of stunts involving animals, including the eating of cockroaches and ‘stripping’ while live rats roamed his trousers.
When asked one time what cockroaches tasted like, Ken simply said: “They taste awful.
“I just cannot describe them. I just think of England and a pint."
In another interview, he described it as "like having an anesthetic at the back of your throat".
The record number of rats Ken was able to stuff into his trousers at any one time was 47 - earning him a place in the 1988 Alternative Book of Records.
He earned another Guinness World Record years later in 2001 for the most cockroaches eaten - 36 - in one minute while appearing on The Big Breakfast.
Ken was of the mantra that any publicity was good publicity, and held onto all newspaper clippings of the time - even when it involved criticism from the RSPCA and PETA.
In 1987, the RSCPA attempted to ban the act but were unsuccessful in their efforts.
In 1990, RSPCA Inspector Dale Eaton described their act as 'barbaric'.
Ken would often catch the rats in traps from Manchester’s sewers, and then clean them up and look after them in his six garden sheds before enlisting them in the act.
"Our rats are really well treated," Ken told reporters in 1985.
"The rats are all caught from sewers, shampooed, deloused, and kept in special galvanised cages."
Speaking of the act, he told the Liverpool ECHO in 1988: "I put the rats down my trousers, it's boring but the audience loves it."
His home, described by his comedy partner as a 'mini Belle Vue Zoo', would often contain around 150 rats, a pet mink and even a Mexican coatimundi - a type of racoon.
One of ‘Ratman and Robin’s’ most controversial acts revolved around a ‘Coffin of Blood’ performance, which involved Ken being handcuffed inside a Perspex coffin.
Assistant David would inflict several wounds to his body and then introduce 30 wild rats into the coffin, while audiences watched in horror as he fed off his open wounds.
Ken once said he loved to take himself ‘to the limits of disgust’ with the act.
"I just think of the money," he told the Liverpool ECHO in 1988. "But I soon realised people love to be disgusted."
Describing Ken in 1989, one reporter said: "Quite simply, rat-catcher Ken is an eccentric.
“He loves offending people, piercing pomposity and giving his audiences a belly laugh."
It wasn’t just cockroaches he ate either - he once took part in a slug-eating competition to raise money for Hyde United football club.
He also assisted on a number of television and film productions, including the Krypton Factor and a number of Hammer Horror movies, where he would provide rats and the like for crucial scenes.
His own publicity card in 1990 even featured accolades from journalists, such as a “very complex man”, “that strange man” and simply “yuk”.
Ken even appeared on Britain's Got Talent in 2012, where he ate cockroaches out of a paper bag in front of the judges.
Sadly, he never got through to the next round but he did leave a lasting impression on David Walliams, who later said his children's book Ratburger, particularly the character Burt, was inspired by Ken's audition.
"In a way, I was slightly disappointed that he didn’t go through to the next round because he was such an amazing character," David told the Irish Daily Mirror in 2017.
“But he got me thinking. I created this whole imaginary life for him. I imagined that he had a burger van, used his cockroaches to make special sauce and turned rats into burgers.
“I had so much fun with the idea. It was a seed of truth that grew into the tree of this story.”
Ken's family said he, along with fellow record-breaker Peter Dowdeswell, raised thousands of pounds for charity, including those looking after handicapped children.
"He was one of the best," Peter said in tribute to Ken.
"He will be missed by a lot."
Ken died last Sunday (January 9) at the age of 79.
