The cover of the 1992 CD reissue of the live album made from the A Poke In The Eye show. The cover is based on the original artwork created for the show in 1976.

A Poke In The Eye (With A Sharp Stick) is the title of the first show in what became the iconic Secret Policeman's Ball series of benefit shows for human rights organization Amnesty International. The Secret Policemans Ball — The Complete Edition (2004 DVD box set - cover) The Secret Policemans Balls is the collective name informally used to describe a long-running series of benefit shows staged in England to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... Amnesty International symbol Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) comprising a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights.[1] Essentially it compares actual practices of human rights with internationally accepted standards and demands compliance where these have not...

The landmark 1976 show starring the Monty Python, Beyond The Fringe and The Goodies teams led directly to the 1979 show The Secret Policeman's Ball - which in turn triggered the involvement of major rock stars such as Sting, Bono, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Geldof in working for human rights cause. Monty Python, or The Pythons, is the collective name of the creators of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. ... Album of Beyond the Fringe Published by EMI in 1996 Beyond the Fringe was a British comedy stage revue written and performed by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller. ... The Goodies — Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden — a screenshot from the title sequence of the BBC TV series For information about the The Goodies television series, see The Goodies (TV series) The Goodies are a trio of British comedians (Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie), who... The Secret Policemans Ball was the third of the benefit shows staged by the British Section of Amnesty International to raise funds for its research and campaign work in the human rights field. ... For other uses, see Sting (disambiguation). ... This article or section may be confusing or unclear for some readers, and should be edited to rectify this. ... Peter Brian Gabriel (born February 13, 1950, in Chobham, Surrey, England) is an English musician. ... Bruce Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. ... Robert Frederick Zenon Bob Geldof, KBE (born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer, songwriter, actor and political activist. ...

The show took place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday April 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 1976 as a series of late-night galas at Her Majesty's Theatre – a theatre in London’s West End theatre district. The show was directed by Beyond The Fringe alumnus Jonathan Miller. 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... A perfomance at Opera House, Haymarket, predecessor of Her Majestys Theatre in circa 1808. ... // West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre in London, or sometimes more specifically for shows staged in the large theatres of Londons Theatreland . Along with New Yorks Broadway Theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of theatre in the... Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller, CBE (born July 21, 1934) is a British physician, theatre and opera director and television presenter. ...

The event was a comedy show featuring the cream of Britain's comedic performers of the 1960s and 1970s. The event was recorded for an album of the same name released in November 1976 by Transatlantic Records. Transatlantic Records was an independent British record label. ...

The event was also the subject of a film that documented the rehearsals and show performances. The resulting film was titled Pleasure At Her Majesty's. It premiered in November 1976 at the 20th annual London Film Festival held at the National Film Theatre. The film was then screened on British TV by the BBC in December 1976. Subsequently the film received a modest theatrical release at ‘’art-house’’ cinemas in 1977. Pleasure At Her Majestys was the name given to the filmed release of A Poke In The Eye With A Sharp Stick, the first of the Amnesty International comedy benefit shows. ... The Times bfi London Film Festival is the UKs largest public film event, screening 300 films from 60 countries. ... The used book sale in front of the National Film Theatre The National Film Theatre is located on the South Bank of the river Thames in London. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is one of the largest broadcasting corporations in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of more than £4 billion. ...