Before Count Binface became one of the UK’s most recognisable election candidates, the silver-caped 'space warrior' was taking on the former Maidenhead MP – albeit with a different look.

Jon Harvey, the comedian candidate preparing to take on Nigel Farage in the Clacton by-election, first stood against another political heavyweight, then-Prime Minister Theresa May, at the 2017 General Election.

Wearing a distinctive bucket-shaped helmet and black leather outfit, Harvey revived the character of Lord Buckethead and became an unlikely star of a high-profile Maidenhead election campaign.

The caped crusader stole the hearts of voters with a manifesto promising to nationalise singer Adele, to bring back Ceefax and provide 'strong, not entirely stable leadership'.

He secured 249 votes.

But the 'intergalactic space lord' Harvey portrayed was not new to UK politics – and the revival of the character created a legal dispute which would eventually lead to the birth of Count Binface.

Harvey was not the first person to pose as Lord Buckethead in a General Election, as the character faced off against Margaret Thatcher in 1987, and stood against John Major a few years later.

According to Harvey, he and his friends had hoped to find the original Buckethead and ask him to run in 2017, but when they could not find him, they decided someone else should take up the mantle.

The plan had been for a friend to don the homemade costume, but when he got a new job and did not want to risk being exposed, Harvey stepped forward as the next tallest in the group.

The Lord Buckethead story took an unexpected turn when Harvey announced he had stepped away from the character following a legal dispute with the original creator of Lord Buckethead, a spoof version of Darth Vader from the 1984 film Gremloids.

Rather than retire from political satire altogether, Harvey created an entirely new character – Count Binface – to stand in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat held by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2019.

Explaining the change at the time, the Count said: "My big news since that heady night at the Magnet Leisure Centre, Maidenhead, is that I have renounced my peerage.

"I am no longer Lord Buckethead. This is partly because I promised to abolish the Lords last time, and I'm a politician who keeps his promises.

"I predicted that Brexit would be a s**tshow and it is."

His policies included bringing back Ceefax and to 'reunite the country with another referendum about whether there should be another referendum'.

To further add to the confusion, the character of Lord Buckethead also stood against Johnson and Binface, this time portrayed by a different performer, David Hughes, with the authorisation of the original creator.

Hughes, in character as Lord Buckethead, has since endorsed Count Binface for the Clacton by-election.

But it is Harvey's take on the character, and his headline-making 2017 campaign, that will live long in the memory of many Maidonians.

He appeared at Glastonbury Festival, introduced the band Sleaford Mods on stage and even featured on the American television programme Last Week Tonight.

Schools also embraced the phenomenon, with pupils at Beech Lodge School donning homemade bucket helmets as part of lessons about politics.

Lord Buckethead collected a 'Being of the Year' award from the Maidenhead Advertiser in recognition of the impact he had on the town that year.

Following the election, Harvey's Lord Buckethead thanked residents for their support in an open letter published in the Advertiser, saying the town would 'always have a place' in his heart.

“An intergalactic space lord I might be, but I have been humbled by the warmth that I have been shown by the people of Maidenhead, both before and after that tumultuous night in the Magnet Leisure Centre,” he wrote.

“Maidenhead will always have a place in my internal-bodily-fluid-pumping organ.

“As for me, I have matters to attend to. I have heard rumour of some particularly querulous Gremloids agitating on Sigma VIII, and they will need to be promptly nipped in the bud.

“Even so, have no fear, Maidonians. If Britain calls, a space lord will answer. I stand by my manifesto, I stand ready to serve (and be served), and I will not rest until Ceefax is back.”

Since his reinvention, Count Binface has become a familiar face (or bin) at elections, standing against Rishi Sunak in Richmond and Northallerton in 2024 and Andy Burnham in the Makerfield by-election.

The character has emerged as the unlikely main challenger in the Clacton by-election following Nigel Farage's resignation as an MP, after all other major parties declined to field candidates.

Nearly a decade after his origins on the campaign trail in Maidenhead, the character's political journey continues...