Little Man, What Now?

A star at eighteen and then-suddenly gone

The identity of the protagonist in Morrissey’s 'Little Man, What Now?' has never been revealed by the lyricist, leaving them nominally shrouded in mystery. One can logically deduce their identity. The song, which is the second track on Morrissey's debut album, Viva Hate (released 1988), poignantly relates the story of the rise and fall of a young television star.

While the song's title is likely taken from the 1932 novel Little Man, What Now? by German author Hans Fallada¹ (a book about the harsh life in Germany in the immediate aftermath of the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and the first years of the Great Depression), its subject matter is the fleeting nature of fame and celebrity as it involves an actor in a popular television series Morrissey sings about the star, whom he still admires (“Oh, but I remembered you”), being very popular in the late 1960s, but thereafter descending into obscurity:

“A star at eighteen and then-suddenly gone
Down to a few lines on the back page
Of a faded annual”

While Morrissey never mentions the name of the subject of the song, there is a general (although not unanimous) consensus that the person in question is English actor Malcolm McFee², who was best known for playing the character Peter Craven