This is bad – to leave it this long – I know – it’s bad. Neil Gaiman once told me that to not put at least a ‘Hullo’ or ‘Bollocks’ or ‘ Bear with’ on your web page was akin to being represented at a really important party by a void… so I apologise. Nice...

Hey. It has come to my attention that a few of you are pissed off at me because I said some stuff about Bafta the other night at the Sony Awards. Don’t be pissed off at me. BAFTA is a massive organization that awards excellence in our industry – to quote from their web site: The...

  I have been chatting recently about my ‘Connections play’ with the National Theatre. It’s called SOUNDCLASH and it’s about two rival schools (a working class one and more middle class one I guess) having an old fashioned style sound system competiton. The DJ...

  I have very fond memories of Bath from when I was here with Northern Broadsides’ Othello on tour in 2009. The town was very welcoming – business was good and the theatre was a joy to play. In existence since 1805, the Theatre Royal is one of the oldest theatres in the country....

  We go to a pub just after Chrimbo and settle in , everyone’s chatting away , Guinnes? Yeah, alright- double G and T- cheeky Mare, just water? Tight bastard! And alla that – big smelly dog just kinda sitting there – huge , size of a small water bed – just lying there doing...

  I was guest of honour at the Aldeburgh ‘Switch on the Xmas lights celebration at the weekend. My friend and sometime co-writer Jon Canter had asked me to do the honours and I said ‘Yes’, not quite knowing what I was letting myself in for…   My girlfriend Lisa and I...

  Lost in Stockton with a whole heap of interviews to do…     I’m sitting in the auditorium of the theatre in Whitley Bay. It’s a really nice space and although it has none of the festoonery of some of the theatres we’ve been in, cherubim and...

    I’m always being asked by young people about how to be a stand up comedian – what are the things you need to know etc. My advice would be – have friends who don’t mind you trying out stuff on them. my best friends, Greg, Mac and Tom are the...

  Hey ya’all – Rudy’s was an idea that I’d always wanted to do – I love situation comedies such as ‘Steptoe and Son’ or ‘Frazier’; fathers and sons, they get me every time. When Frasier, Niles and Dad go on the camping trip in that big...

  Redditch Palace theatre is a tiny tiny venue.   Holds 400 or so normal punters and several thousand Borrower sized people.   The audience are really close to me and I can see every detail in their faces.   Normally I’d be freaked because the audience should be in the...

  Leeds City Varieties is a beautiful theatre, hugely atmospheric; it was built in 1865 – a long rectangle with boxes down either side upstairs.   I felt incredibly honoured to tread the boards in a theatre where performers such as Charlie Chaplin, Marie Lloyd and Harry Houdini...

  I’m really looking forward to the tour of Pop Life. I’ve spoken about it a lot recently on TV and radio and I feel that actually performing the show is a joy. Sometimes you feel – when you’re doing promotion- that you have to explain yourself; why do this show now?   I’m...