EP.274 - HARRY ENFIELD

Adam talks with British comedian Harry Enfield about cringey behaviour as adolescents, coincidental similarities between their Dads, why Chrissie Hynde called Harry 'sperm of the devil', whether satire actually makes any difference, King Charles' reaction to TV comedy show The Windsors in which Harry played Charles and why Paul McCartney has seen Harry's genitals. There's also a brief taste of Adam's new comedy series SUCCESSPOD https://www.audible.co.uk/search?keywords=successpod&k=successpod - 2026 (Audible) Conversation recorded face-to-face in London on 6 April, 2026 SUBMIT QUESTIONS FOR Q&A EPISODE: [email protected] mailto:[email protected] Thanks to Diggory Waite and Claire Broughton at Hattrick and Séamus Murphy Mitchell for production support. Podcast illustration by Helen Green https://helengreenillustration.com/ UPCOMING SHOWS ADAM BUXTON BAND https://www.eventim.co.uk/artist/the-adam-buxton-band/#calendar-start=2026-06 @ Hoxton Hall, London, 23 & 24 June, 2026 (Eventim) BUG BOWIE SPECIAL https://lightroom.uk/whats-on/bowie-nights-adam-buxton-presents-bug-bowie-special/ @ The Lightroom, London, 17 June, 2-4 July, 2026 (Lightroom) LATITUDE 2026 https://www.latitudefestival.com/line-up/ Line Up and day splits (Adam Buxton Band on Friday 24 July, 2026) ADAM BUXTON PODCAST LIVE WITH MAWAAN RIZWAAN https://www.roundhouse.org.uk/whats-on/adam-buxton-podcast-cf/ @ Roundhouse, London, 5 August, 2026 (Roundhouse) RELATED LINKS HARRY ENFIELD & NO CHUMS TOUR 2026 https://www.fane.co.uk/harry-enfield?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23261377574&gbraid=0AAAAAqnQ-aRc3ytQ_dwA9CGwQ-zGDCByb&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlqTRBhCBARIsANrkrxhAHpzI8OtnVT9eRPz4BHZkOYX-gEdw5eXeX0aKpcRK9IRquPPTX1MaAqEHEALw_wcB DESERT ISLAND DISCS https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00944cw with Harry Enfield - 1997 (BBC) HARRY ENFIELD AND NO CHUMS https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/mar/29/harry-enfield-and-no-chums-review-uk-tour-stavros-loadsamoney Review of Harry's 2026 live show - 2026 (Guardian) REVISIONIST HISTORY - THE SATIRE PARADOX https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/the-satire-paradox - 2016 (Pushkin website) SINKING GIGGLING INTO THE SEA https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n14/jonathan-coe/sinking-giggling-into-the-seaJonathan Coe on satire - 2013 (London Review of Books) THE LOVE BOX IN YOUR LIVING ROOM https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001dk9y/the-love-box-in-your-living-room Harry and Paul's Adam Curtis spoof/story of Britain's evolution over the last century through the life of the BBC - 2022 (BBC i-Player) HARRY AND PAUL'S STORY OF THE TWOS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOlSHw_y0Lw - 2014 (YouTube) WHERE'S THE BLOKE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv0ueEI4OBQ Harry and Paul with Catherine Shepherd - 2011 (YouTube) THE WRITER AND THE LANDLADY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDP_cPHTeK4 (Complete) Harry and Paul (YouTube) SAW YOU COMING https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AGSMJojAM4 Ruddy Hell! It's Harry And Paul - 2008 (YouTube) THE SURGEONS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45LloHyviSo Harry and Paul Compilation (YouTube) RICKY GERVAIS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2FToyZil3I Harry and Paul (YouTube) THE SELF RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhoijd_ZU8E&list=PLYBynLxPIFVWpnLEip9BNjqi5sAktNIHd&index=1 Harry Enfield and Chums - 1994 (YouTube) ANGRY COUPLE IN CAR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrny-FBSCjA Harry Enfield And Chums - 1994 (YouTube) THE PALACE OF RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqdcn7mmlXc Harry Enfield's Television Programme - 1990 (YouTube) HARRY ENFIELD'S NORBERT SMITH - A LIFE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNRCadHsUqM - 1989 (YouTube) FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZftCCnuzxWo Channel 4, including Stavros and Loadsamoney - 1988 (YouTube) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Adam Buxton?

  I added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin. Now you have plucked that podcast out and started listening. I took my microphone and found some human folk. Then I recorded all the noises while we spoke. My name is Adam Buckston, I'm a man. I want you to enjoy this, that's the plan.

• 0:31Adam Buxton?

  Hey, how are you doing, podcats? It's Adam Buckston here, joining you from a crunchy Norfolk farm track in early June 2026, just pausing to look back at my dog friend Rosie, who is currently standing rooted to the spot with a look on her face that says, "Uh, no thanks." As far as this walk goes, I found her in the office of my wife, where she was lying very comfortably in her doggy bed with her nose tucked between her furry paws.

• 1:14Adam Buxton?

  And I think she's quite sad to be out on this walk on a day which is kind of crazy weather-wise. The last episode of this podcast featured myself and Rosie going for a dip in the stream nearby because it was such a hot day. It's not like that anymore. Couple of weeks later, "Come on, Rose, we need to get out before the next deluge arrives." Anyway, how are you doing, podcats? I hope you've been all right wherever you are. Now, I'm very excited about the fact that this week, Thursday, the 11th of June, is launch day for Success Pod.

• 1:55Adam Buxton?

  My new six-part comedy podcast series, which I've been working on intensively for the last few months, actually a bit longer than that, off and on. Anyway, it's finally ready for you. You can hear it on Audible, the audiobook platform. And it is six half-hour episodes, featuring a series of conversations with me and some of my favourite previous podcast guests. Louis Theroux, Sam Campbell, Jessica Knappett, Romesh Ranganathan, Cathy Burke, Gus Khan, all talking to me, partly about my efforts to stay relevant in the changing podcast landscape. That is the semi-serious premise.

• 2:38Adam Buxton?

  And in between, there are podcast parodies and sketches and songs and also doses of valuable perspective from Rosie, right Rosie? Yeah, I was acting. Sure, yeah, I was very good acting too. If you're not already an Audible member, you can do a free trial on there. So you can listen to Success Pod that way with the trial. But if you are already an Audible member, Success Pod comes free with your subscription. I'm going to be talking to Louis Theroux in a forthcoming episode of this podcast about, whoa!

• 3:16Adam Buxton?

  So hard to see those guys when they're hiding in the grass. Yes, I'll be talking to Louis about Success Pod, which he played a part in producing. And in that conversation, I'll probably play a few off-cuts and early attempts at things we did for the series and bonus nuggets. But before I get on with the intro for today's guest, here's a brief taste of Success Pod for you right now.

• 3:45Adam Buxton?

  Welcome back to Success Pod. My guest today is the French maker and creativity thought leader, Kirk Brotrunk. Yeah. Kirk, what do you think is the job of creativity?

• 4:00Speaker 01

  The job of creativity is to be dangerous, is to terrify you. Failure and success, they're two cheeks of the same, can I say this, horse?

• 4:09Adam Buxton?

  The same horse.

• 4:10Speaker 01

  The same horse, because i- if you're.

• 4:13Adam Buxton?

  The two cheeks of the same horse.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  Horse.

• 4:16Adam Buxton?

  Horse.

• 4:17Speaker 01

  It's a A or S E, horse.

• 4:21Adam Buxton?

  Ass.

• 4:21Speaker 01

  They say, or you say the ass, I don't know. But it's, the ass is there and I'm slapping failure, I'm slapping success and uh the, the whole ass vibrates with the creative energy of that.

• 4:34Adam Buxton?

  I just understand what you're saying.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:36Adam Buxton?

  The two cheeks, like the tox, of the same ass.

• 4:39Speaker 01

  The two.

• 4:40Adam Buxton?

  The two cheeks of the same.

• 4:41Speaker 01

  Cheeks of the same ass and you say, one is failure, blam, one is success, blam, but it's creativity is the hand that is slapping them.

• 4:48Adam Buxton?

  You can't just have one cheek because then everything would fall out.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying and I'm saying it um very well.

• 4:58Adam Buxton?

  Hmm. After the break, I'll be asking Kirk if creativitai can take the place of surgery.

• 5:09Adam Buxton?

  There you go, that's Yan Drew, who is the host of Success Pod, the show within the show, Adam Buxton's Success Pod, and he was talking to Kirk Brotrunk, played by Kieran Hodgson, one of the excellent performers I was lucky enough to work with on Success Pod. And you can hear the whole series from Thursday, the 11th of June, only on Audible. Okay, come on, let's get to podcast number 274, which features a rambling conversation with British actor and comedian Harry Enfield. Harry facts. Harry was born Henry Richard Enfield in Horsham, West Sussex, in the south of England, in 1961.

• 5:54Adam Buxton?

  After studying politics at the University of York, Harry began his comedy career in the mid 1980s, at a time when the so-called alternative comedy scene was thriving, following the success of TV sitcom, The Young Ones and the comic strip films, amongst other things. After landing a job writing. On Radio Four's topical comedy programme Weekending, Harry joined the cast of comedic voice talent on the satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image. But it was in nineteen eighty-six, on Channel Four's comedy showcase Saturday Live, then frequently hosted by stand-up comedian and young ones writer Ben Elton, that Harry broke through to a wider audience after appearing regularly

• 6:39Adam Buxton?

  as his kebab shop owner character Stavros. Hello everybody, pips. First of a number of clearable clips I'll be doing for you to remind you of Harry's characters. And then, as the banknote wad-waving poster boy for Thatcher's Get Rich Quick Generation, Loads of money, loads of money. There you go, that's another one. In nineteen eighty-nine, Harry got to make Norbert Smith a life, an elaborate television profile of a fictional actor in the style of arts programme The South Bank Show, complete with introduction and narration from South Bank Show host Melvin Bragg, as well as clips from Norbert's imaginary filmography, giving Harry the chance to play even more characters and parody all kinds of TV shows and films.

• 7:24Adam Buxton?

  There's a link to that show, as well as lots of other clips that I'm going to mention in the description of this podcast. In nineteen ninety, Harry was given his own BBC sketch show, Harry Enfield's Television Programme, with a cast that also featured the talents of Harry's longtime friend and creative collaborator, Paul Whitehouse, as well as multi-talented actor, writer and theatre director Cathy Burke, who, as well as popping up in Success Pod, will also be on this podcast soon, talking about her excellent memoir, A Mind of Her Own. Harry Enfield's Television Programme returned in subsequent series as Harry Enfield and Chums, a title that nodded at the importance of Harry's collaborators

• 8:07Adam Buxton?

  with whom he created characters like Smashy and Nicie, Poptabulas, the slobs, I'm smoking a fire, the Scousers, Oh aye, hey ho, hey hey. Nah, that was not quite that. The lovely, wobbly, randy old ladies, Young man. And Kevin and Perry. I hate you. Hello, Mrs Patterson. Who, at the turn of the millennium, had become so popular they went on to star in their own film. But by the early two thousands, the British TV comedy landscape had shifted. And the success of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's sitcom The Office, shot and performed in naturalistic documentary style, made a lot of nineties comedy look rather quaint by comparison.

• 8:52Adam Buxton?

  TV had become a multi-channel digital shopping mall, with internet platforms poised to fracture the audience's attention even further. This is, I'm writing my tits off here. I didn't use Claude for this, by the way, this is hundred percent buckles. That feeling of post-office malaise was one of the things I spoke to Harry about. As well as the fact that for him, the characters in Matt Lucas and David Walliams' show Little Britain were part of what encouraged him to return to TV comedy in two thousand and seven, reunited with Paul Whitehouse, and this time sharing equal billing as Harry and Paul. Over four series up to twenty twelve, Harry and Paul's shows spawned characters like Marcus,

• 9:37Adam Buxton?

  who sells overpriced tat to clueless Trustafarians from a shop called Saw You Coming. And The Surgeons, representing one of Harry and Paul's favourite areas for satire, the aging British upper classes. How long have you been with your wife?

• 9:53Speaker 02

  Forty, forty-five years, forty, forty-five.

• 9:56Adam Buxton?

  Again, in case my impressions aren't quite hitting the spot, there's links to the real thing in the description. For my money, some of Harry and Paul's most inspired moments can be found in their one-off specials. Twenty fourteen's The Story of the Twos, made as part of BBC Two's fiftieth anniversary celebrations. And The Love Box in Your Living Room from twenty twenty-two, which charted Britain's evolution over the last century via the output of the BBC, all told in the style of an Adam Curtis documentary. Both specials gave Harry, Paul and a collection of brilliant comedy performers the opportunity to take the piss out of BBC personalities and programmes from the preceding decades,

• 10:39Adam Buxton?

  with a madly eclectic array of note-perfect impressions and parodies that included Have I Got News For You, The Young Ones, Strictly Come Dancing, Bake Off, The Singing Detective, Nevermind the Buzzcocks, The Office, and even Harry and Paul's own shows. My conversation with Harry was recorded face to face in London at the beginning of April this year, 2026, soon after Harry had returned from Australia and New Zealand, where he had been performing Harry Enfield and No Chums, his critically acclaimed solo theatrical show, filled with anecdotes and characters from his career thus far, which continues its run in the UK through to November this year. There's a link for tickets in the description.

• 11:24Adam Buxton?

  As well as talking about our respective cringey behaviour as adolescents, plus some coincidental similarities between our dads, we spoke about the time in the late 1990s when Harry enraged many anti-fox hunting activists, including pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hind, when he said he would rather be pro-fox hunting than be one of the hypocritical meat-eaters calling for a ban on the practice. Oh, it's windy now. Harry's position provoked Chrissie Hynde to write him a letter in which she called him "the sperm of the devil", though, as you'll hear, thanks to Harry's response, the pair ended up becoming friendly.

• 12:07Adam Buxton?

  We also discussed whether satire actually makes any difference at all, King Charles's reaction to TV comedy show The Windsors, in which Harry played Charles, and how Paul McCartney came to get an eyeful of Harry's Crown Julies. Back at the end for some brief waffle, but right now with Harry Enfield. Here we go.

• 13:10Adam Buxton?

  Hello.

• 13:11Speaker 03

  Hello, Adam.

• 13:12Adam Buxton?

  How are you doing, Harry?

• 13:13Speaker 03

  Adam Buxton.

• 13:14Adam Buxton?

  Hey.

• 13:15Speaker 03

  Off the podcast. It's very nice to be here. Thank you for having me.

• 13:18Adam Buxton?

  Oh, man, I'm delighted you're here. This is something we've talked about off and on for a

• 13:22Speaker 03

  Off and on.

• 13:23Adam Buxton?

  A little while.

• 13:24Speaker 03

  Yes, we have.

• 13:25Adam Buxton?

  But I'm really glad to have pinned you down.

• 13:27Speaker 03

  Well, thank you for pinning me down on a public holiday, too.

• 13:30Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, this is Easter Monday.

• 13:33Speaker 03

  Now, you've dated the programme.

• 13:34Adam Buxton?

  Easter Monday, 2026. How's that for dating the programme?

• 13:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:38Adam Buxton?

  Carbon dated.

• 13:39Speaker 03

  What if someone wants to listen to it in two years' time and they go, I can't listen to that?

• 13:43Adam Buxton?

  Well, that's their problem. I am a big believer in dating everything, quite specifically. I like the fact that it's an archive that you can dip in and out of. Personally, I don't mind going back in time to listen to a bit of archive interview.

• 13:57Speaker 03

  No, I don't actually. That was one of those lovely things when Desert Island Discs went online for the first time.

• 14:05Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 14:05Speaker 03

  And you could listen to old ones. My son, I think, was about 13 or something, and I'd been walking, I'd been out walking, we were on holiday somewhere. And I'd listened to a couple and I thought, oh my God, so good going back and listening to Ruthie Rogers and Michael McIntyre, I think was one. I came back saying, it's just brilliant. I didn't get any of these people. Then I made the mistake of telling my son, he asked me, have you ever done it? And I said, yes, but don't listen to it. It's embarrassing. And of course, he just gave me that look of, that's exactly what I'm going to do right now. And he came back an hour later and went, God, I'm really glad I never knew you then.

• 14:45Adam Buxton?

  1997 you were on.

• 14:48Speaker 03

  Really?

• 14:48Adam Buxton?

  I haven't actually listened to that one.

• 14:50Speaker 03

  No, I haven't since he said that. I'm really glad.

• 14:54Adam Buxton?

  Did he give you any specific info about?

• 14:56Speaker 03

  I didn't ask him any. He just looked at me like, you're pathetic.

• 15:02Adam Buxton?

  What would you have been like back in? I mean, you were.

• 15:06Speaker 03

  Ninety seven.

• 15:07Adam Buxton?

  You were big by then. You were huge. You had had a massive decade of.

• 15:12Speaker 03

  Yes, that was my swan song.

• 15:14Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, a pretty much non-stop hit after hit after hit TV shows. You were on top and so.

• 15:23Speaker 03

  That was the end of my career. Then I went on that and everybody who'd ever liked me listened to it and that was me done.

• 15:31Adam Buxton?

  I've got to listen to it. I've got to find out.

• 15:34Speaker 03

  No.

• 15:34Adam Buxton?

  Why it killed your career.

• 15:36Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 15:36Adam Buxton?

  What would you have been like then though? Can you remember?

• 15:39Speaker 03

  Probably quite optimistic. I know it was Sue Lawley.

• 15:44Speaker 03

  Because she did me and she was very nice. And then a few weeks later she did Paul.

• 15:49Adam Buxton?

  Paul Whitehouse.

• 15:50Speaker 03

  Yes, and she was so flirty with him. I was a bit jealous.

• 15:57Speaker 03

  So flirty and it was like listening to Love Making on BBC Four.

• 16:04Adam Buxton?

  Why did, why was she so attractive? She likes a bit of rough.

• 16:07Speaker 03

  I likes a bit of rough, someone with a cheeky accent, a cheeky sort of cockney sounding fellow.

• 16:12Adam Buxton?

  Did you sound posh, do you think, when you went on there?

• 16:14Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 16:15Adam Buxton?

  Your accent is a little, is it changed much?

• 16:18Speaker 03

  Probably because I went to school with bigger boys. I went to a school called Worth, which was Catholic Benedictine school for two years. Hated it, went to the local school and then after that I was like that for the next fucking ten years, all right? And then I sort of grew up a bit.

• 16:36Adam Buxton?

  But did you start out being a bit more um nice, middle class?

• 16:40Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:41Adam Buxton?

  Boy from Horsham, Sussex.

• 16:43Speaker 03

  Yes, exactly. Horsham.

• 16:44Adam Buxton?

  I feel like there's, that there's some strange coincidences in our lives that I feel connect us beyond my appreciation for your work, which is considerable.

• 16:53Speaker 03

  And Lisa's.

• 16:57Adam Buxton?

  Lisa, if you're out there, was a girlfriend of mine in the mid eighties. And turns out to have been a school friend of Harry's now partner. So I wish you all the best, Lisa. I'm sorry, I was a bit of a shitty boyfriend. And I think your parents had my number. I think one time I got a pretty long lecture from Lisa's mum, yeah, yeah.

• 17:18Speaker 03

  Well, quite right.

• 17:20Adam Buxton?

  Absolutely, yeah.

• 17:20Speaker 03

  But how old were you, sixteen or something?

• 17:22Adam Buxton?

  Seventeen.

• 17:23Speaker 03

  I mean, none of us are great at that age, are we?

• 17:25Adam Buxton?

  No.

• 17:26Speaker 03

  You know, settling down with a nice girl is not our priority in life, is it?

• 17:31Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 17:31Speaker 03

  You know, for you, it was the Pixies and things like that, wasn't it?

• 17:35Adam Buxton?

  I was very interested in the Pixies, David Bowie films, me and Joe.

• 17:40Speaker 03

  Did you like The Cure?

• 17:41Adam Buxton?

  I liked The Cure, yeah.

• 17:42Speaker 03

  Robert Smith, who went to the same Catholic junior school as my friend Dave Cummings.

• 17:48Adam Buxton?

  Oh, yeah.

• 17:48Speaker 03

  Who I wrote Kevin and Perry with, who was in Delamitri.

• 17:52Adam Buxton?

  Was he in Delamitri?

• 17:53Speaker 03

  Yes, and Lloyd Cole and the Commutions. He was guitarist.

• 17:57Adam Buxton?

  Dave Cummings was?

• 17:58Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 17:59Adam Buxton?

  Wow.

• 18:00Speaker 03

  He was in Delamitri, I promise.

• 18:01Adam Buxton?

  I wrote a horrible review of a Delamitri gig, I think.

• 18:05Speaker 03

  Really?

• 18:06Adam Buxton?

  At our.

• 18:07Speaker 03

  He probably said the guitar is awful, and it was Dave Cummings.

• 18:09Adam Buxton?

  I apologize, Dave.

• 18:11Speaker 03

  Well, that's all right. Serves you right for writing a review. But just in their singer, when I first met him, I was at a party and the first thing he said to me was, I hear your mum's a cunt.

• 18:23Speaker 03

  I went, oh. But it was a story from school, when I was at school in Horsham. And there was some very nice posh girl who was having a party. But you had to wear something your mother wouldn't like. And he thought, oh, God, we want to go there because it's going to be posh girls. But we really don't want to dress up as, you know, something my mother wouldn't like. So I just dressed in my normal, then sort of punk, new agey clothes. But I made a little badge that said, my mum's a cunt on it. So I wore that badge. That was how I dressed up and how old are you? Fifteen, something I suppose. And of course, I'd forgotten completely about that, but Dave hadn't.

• 19:08Speaker 03

  And Dave had told this story much better than I've just told it because his dad was Irish. Well, his parents are Irish. So he's very good at the long story. And he'd obviously told it to Delamitri and they'd remembered it. So this is like twenty years later. You've got the singer of this band saying, I hear your mum's a cunt.

• 19:28Adam Buxton?

  At fifteen, I don't think I I definitely would not have done that about my mum. I don't think I would have worn that.

• 19:35Speaker 03

  No, well, I'm afraid I didn't have any boundaries and I don't really still. I'm not very good at boundaries.

• 19:43Adam Buxton?

  Oh, really? Whose fault was that?

• 19:45Speaker 03

  I think Catholic boarding school with Benedictine monks, things like that. You know, teachers who were tossers.

• 19:51Adam Buxton?

  Okay.

• 19:52Speaker 03

  Really. And the hypocrites and, you know.

• 19:56Adam Buxton?

  They pushed you too far in the wrong direction.

• 19:58Speaker 03

  I mean, that's the thing about teachers, isn't it? You know, you get some very good, from my experience and probably yours.

• 20:05Speaker 03

  You have some very good teachers who want to teach children. Then there are a lot of teachers who didn't know what they were going to do with their life. And they couldn't go back into their mother's womb, but they could go back to school and be a big fish in a small pond. And those ones are the ones that were the majority of mine. And so that gives you a set of rebellious nature, doesn't it?

• 20:27Adam Buxton?

  Combine that with a Benedictine monk.

• 20:30Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 20:31Adam Buxton?

  And you've got.

• 20:32Speaker 03

  They end up there with a little paddle to spank your bottom with.

• 20:36Adam Buxton?

  Did you get paddled by some monks?

• 20:38Speaker 03

  Nasty little monks.

• 20:41Adam Buxton?

  Oh, mate. So in a way, we have possibly the monks to thank for. Your um temperament.

• 20:49Speaker 03

  No, I don't think so.

• 20:50Adam Buxton?

  No, you're not connecting those dots?

• 20:51Speaker 03

  No, I hate the idea of that.

• 20:54Speaker 03

  I'd give them credit for nothing, those vile people.

• 21:01Adam Buxton?

  What were you, what were your parents like though? Did you get on okay with them?

• 21:04Speaker 03

  No, they thought I was awful.

• 21:06Adam Buxton?

  Oh, in what way?

• 21:07Speaker 03

  Well, I was just, you know, because I went to the school with the bigger boys. And they all talked like that. Dave, well, Ted Cummings is Dave's brother. You know, he talked like that, and Fatboy Finnamore and all these people. In fact, Fatboy had already been expelled.

• 21:22Adam Buxton?

  Fatboy?

• 21:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, Fatboy. Uh, he'd been expelled for, um, calling Mr. Green a green-skylated reptile. And I saw him recently, and he looked at me really affronted. He said, I didn't call him a green-skylated reptile. I chanted it. Green-skylated reptile. Green-skylated reptile. And he did it exactly as he'd done it then, full of pride.

• 21:47Speaker 03

  Anyway.

• 21:48Adam Buxton?

  But you ended up being okay with your folks, is that right?

• 21:51Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 21:52Adam Buxton?

  Like, your dad, he sort of joined your media world for a while?

• 21:56Speaker 03

  Yes. What happened, I think, Adam, is, how old are you? Do you mind me asking?

• 22:01Adam Buxton?

  I'm fifty-seven.

• 22:02Speaker 03

  Okay, so I'm four, five, six, seven years older than you.

• 22:06Adam Buxton?

  Actually, I'm nearly fifty-seven. I'm nineteen sixty-nine.

• 22:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, so I'm sixty-one. And suddenly punk happened, that was the big thing. So I'd arrived at this school, the local school, with local boys who were going, give him a row, give him a fucking row.

• 22:21Adam Buxton?

  Because you were so baby-faced.

• 22:22Speaker 03

  Yeah. Hello, I'm Harry and I'm fifteen years and two months.

• 22:25Adam Buxton?

  Give him a fucking row.

• 22:26Speaker 03

  Give him a row. And, uh, then I thought, God, I love you, big boys. And I needed to make friends with them, but I knew they weren't going to be my friend, because I was just this stupid boy. But I engineered a way where one day, Pairs, Dave Perry, or Pairs, he'd missed the train home to Crawley, and it was raining, so he'd had to come back. And there was the debating society was on. Because I was fifteen and very keen on things. I was at the debating society, and Mr. Slim, the headmaster, was adjudicating. And the thing was, I think there should be freedom of speech in school or something. And I saw Pairs there and thought, right, I'm going to oppose this.

• 23:08Speaker 03

  And Pez was just sitting there, like, looking really pissed off because he'd missed a train and had to come to this stupid debate in society. And when it got to my turn to speak, I said, well, I oppose it because I don't think we should be able to swear. You know, at school. I mean, if I could say fuck and shit and wanker. You know, if everyone went around saying that and I saw Pez's little eyes, look at me like that. And the headmaster sort of raised his eyes, thinking, I know what you're doing. And the next day, all the bigger boys would talk to me.

• 23:40Adam Buxton?

  Nice.

• 23:40Speaker 03

  And I became their friend.

• 23:41Adam Buxton?

  Yes, Harry smuggled some filth into the debate.

• 23:45Speaker 03

  Yes, he said fuck and shit and wanker in front of Mr. Slim. He's all right. He can join our club. And then I spent a lot of time in Crawley and then going up to gigs in London. You know, I'm going out to borrow the book. The homework book. I'm not coming back tonight. And yeah, we go to London and see the Clash and the Boscocks.

• 24:05Adam Buxton?

  Oh, wow.

• 24:06Speaker 03

  All sorts of people.

• 24:07Adam Buxton?

  How exciting.

• 24:07Speaker 03

  So, yeah.

• 24:08Adam Buxton?

  What was your first gig?

• 24:10Speaker 03

  My first gig was Courtney Rebel in seventy five.

• 24:13Adam Buxton?

  So you're going yet.

• 24:14Speaker 03

  What were the things that are small world that you were going to talk about many?

• 24:16Adam Buxton?

  Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 24:18Speaker 03

  As Courtney Rebel.

• 24:19Adam Buxton?

  We can come back to music later on because we are both music fans and I think I like music chat.

• 24:24Speaker 03

  I know you like music.

• 24:26Adam Buxton?

  Um, okay, the the coincidences in my mind are the fact that my dad was born in Horsham.

• 24:33Speaker 03

  Was he?

• 24:34Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, and.

• 24:35Speaker 03

  When was he born?

• 24:36Adam Buxton?

  He was born in nineteen twenty four.

• 24:41Speaker 03

  Oh, okay, yes.

• 24:42Adam Buxton?

  A little bit before you.

• 24:43Speaker 03

  Yes, my dad was nineteen twenty nine, but he was born in London.

• 24:46Adam Buxton?

  Okay, yeah. And the other coincidence is that my dad went to a school, which he writes about in his memoir. A self-published memoir. And he says.

• 25:01Adam Buxton?

  At the age of eleven, I finished with the village school and started at Colliers. A sixteenth century Merseyside company foundation of the kind that used to be among the finest educational establishments in the kingdom. Now, to the rougher of my village contemporaries, I became a quote grammar school puppy dog. An object of disdain distinguished principally by a regulation cap and tie.

• 25:25Speaker 03

  Quite right.

• 25:26Adam Buxton?

  And you also went to.

• 25:27Speaker 03

  I did, but by then it had been um comprehensivised.

• 25:32Adam Buxton?

  Right, okay.

• 25:32Speaker 03

  But yes, I it was in the same building. I would have walked the same corridors as your hallowed dad.

• 25:38Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, isn't that mad?

• 25:39Speaker 03

  Isn't that crazy? Wow.

• 25:41Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, he was teased for suddenly being a grammar school boy, which was very posh.

• 25:46Speaker 03

  Well, he would have done and having a cap.

• 25:48Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 25:49Speaker 03

  We had a tie, you know, but all schools did then.

• 25:52Adam Buxton?

  Right.

• 25:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, that was like seventy six, yeah.

• 25:55Adam Buxton?

  And then did you go to boarding school?

• 25:58Speaker 03

  That was before.

• 25:59Adam Buxton?

  That was before.

• 26:00Speaker 03

  Was worth for boarding school for two years.

• 26:02Adam Buxton?

  Is that what your parents were like? Were they determined to make you into a good upper middle class boy?

• 26:07Speaker 03

  Yes, what they hoped I would be. Because my dad said I am of the generation that slumbers.

• 26:14Adam Buxton?

  Okay.

• 26:14Speaker 03

  Because he he worked for the local council in in, well, in the education department. But then he wrote a thing one day. I just read Oberon War's autobiography and I said, that's really good. And he said, well, I read a bit in the paper and it's all the usual stuff about how your parents. Are awful and ruin your life. I'd like to write something about how my children ruined my life. So I said, well, why don't you? And about a month later. He sent me this big letter through the post, saying, well, I don't like being nasty about your sisters, but I've written this about you. And it was just a four page diatribe about how awful I was in every way. So I sent it to Richard Ingram, who was just starting the Oldie magazine.

• 26:58Adam Buxton?

  Uh huh.

• 26:58Speaker 03

  And Richard published it word for word and gave him a column. So he sort of got a second career.

• 27:04Adam Buxton?

  Oh, that's right. So this was late nineties, wasn't it?

• 27:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, mid nineteen, oh, early nineteen, actually about ninety three.

• 27:09Adam Buxton?

  Okay, okay.

• 27:10Speaker 03

  Hmm hmm.

• 27:11Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 27:12Speaker 03

  So he got a new sort of lease of life.

• 27:14Adam Buxton?

  Was he grateful to you for that? Did he enjoy that?

• 27:17Speaker 03

  He was, yeah, he was grateful.

• 27:19Adam Buxton?

  My dad really enjoyed being a minor celebrity, having appeared in our TV show.

• 27:23Speaker 03

  Yes, and also he was a musician, your dad, wasn't he?

• 27:26Adam Buxton?

  Oh, no, I don't think so. No, he liked music. He liked a bit of Wagner. But I don't think he, I'm not aware of him ever having played anything. He liked to sing very loud and in.

• 27:37Speaker 03

  Maybe that's what I thought, he could sing.

• 27:39Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, I've still got a recording of him somewhere where he's singing much louder than everyone else. He would tape the carol service. Cause he loved, he found it so moving, the carol service at our prep school. And he just loved the idea that he got his children into this.

• 27:53Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 27:53Adam Buxton?

  Sort of utopian liberal prep school. And here they were in the lovely. Restored chapel where the carol service was happening every Christmas and and then he would. He would record it on his dictaphone so he could play it back. And all you could hear though was him just bellowing over the top.

• 28:12Speaker 03

  In the deep mid winter.

• 28:16Adam Buxton?

  Except it was quite, his voice was quite high. In the deep mid winter.

• 28:24Speaker 03

  Do you miss him?

• 28:26Adam Buxton?

  I do, actually. I miss him more and more in a weird way.

• 28:29Speaker 03

  When did he die?

• 28:30Adam Buxton?

  Twenty fifteen, at the end of.

• 28:32Speaker 03

  Still very young.

• 28:33Adam Buxton?

  Twenty fifteen. He was old.

• 28:34Speaker 03

  Eighty seven, is that?

• 28:36Adam Buxton?

  Uh, ninety, nearly ninety two.

• 28:38Speaker 03

  Nearly ninety two?

• 28:39Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 28:40Speaker 03

  Twenty six. Oh, I suppose he was, yes, yeah. Sorry, twenty four.

• 28:44Adam Buxton?

  Yeah. So I do really miss him and um, there's so much, you just. The older you get, the more you just wanna put the puzzle pieces together, or you think that maybe they have the answers to. Some of your weird hangups and. Do you know what I mean? That's the way I think about it. Do you think that way?

• 29:03Speaker 03

  No, I don't miss my dad. I should do. I mean, I do miss him, but I don't.

• 29:09Adam Buxton?

  When did he go?

• 29:10Speaker 03

  Regret him. He was eighty nine when he snuffed it.

• 29:15Speaker 03

  And he'd only had a short illness and he said, I'm ready to cross the finishing line. So he was fine about it.

• 29:20Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 29:20Speaker 03

  You know, literally the day before he was sitting up drinking.

• 29:23Adam Buxton?

  Okay.

• 29:24Speaker 03

  And then dead. So he had a good life. I think they were lucky that, Jenna. My dad said, I feel I was born at the perfect time. I was too young for the war and too old for the internet.

• 29:37Adam Buxton?

  Aha, good point.

• 29:39Speaker 03

  There is a good point to that.

• 29:40Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, man. That's the good old days.

• 29:43Speaker 03

  I'm not big on the internet. You are. I worry about you. When I do, I think, oh, God, you know, you must be at home and where's daddy? Oh, he's he's with his other lover, the internet. And he's out there going, hmm, looking up a obscure records thing. It's true, isn't it?

• 30:03Adam Buxton?

  I do use it a lot. It's a good tool. But I am wary of it. I mean,

• 30:08Speaker 03

  How many hours a day do you spend on the internet and the world wide web? And are you on Instagram and all that?

• 30:14Adam Buxton?

  I have an account on Instagram.

• 30:15Speaker 03

  Do you do X twittering?

• 30:17Adam Buxton?

  No, I'm off. I call it twittering, but it's X, isn't it? I came off Twitter in twenty twenty. I have never used my Instagram account.

• 30:26Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 30:27Adam Buxton?

  I'm on YouTube. Some people would consider that to be social media, but I very seldom.

• 30:31Speaker 03

  You're very funny on YouTube.

• 30:33Adam Buxton?

  Anymore.

• 30:33Speaker 03

  In fact, I had a DVD of all your best internet.

• 30:38Adam Buxton?

  Oh, okay. Adam Buxton's old bits.

• 30:40Speaker 03

  Yes, Adam Buxton's old bits. And that was like, it's the lovely thing about comedy.

• 30:48Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 30:48Speaker 03

  It is how it can make you really close to your children, you know, and that, me and my son watched that. And that was a sort of real plus. Cause we were pissing ourselves. And the other one was um Dark Place, which he'd never seen, Garth Marenghi's Dark Place. And I said, you have to watch this.

• 31:08Adam Buxton?

  I'm nothing to do with that.

• 31:09Speaker 03

  No, you're nothing to do with that. I'm just saying about bonding with my son. It's not all about you, Adam.

• 31:13Adam Buxton?

  Oh, fuck.

• 31:14Speaker 03

  Um, sorry about that. But and.

• 31:16Adam Buxton?

  I don't wanna talk about stuff that isn't anything to do with me. Peep show, still nothing to do with me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Peep show. So those are your big bonding things. What about the bush?

• 31:24Speaker 03

  Those are the ones I really, oh, yeah. I mean, but the bush was. It it happened at the time.

• 31:30Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 31:31Speaker 03

  So that was sort of slightly different. This was like discovering things that he hadn't seen.

• 31:35Adam Buxton?

  Okay.

• 31:35Speaker 03

  You know, mine mining, mining for gold.

• 31:38Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, man.

• 31:39Speaker 03

  Is what we call it.

• 31:40Adam Buxton?

  Well, I've had a similar experience with my children. In fact, I wrote about it in my first memoir.

• 31:47Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 31:47Adam Buxton?

  A moment with my son when he was around sixteen. And he was deep in a kind of long, moody hellscape. That was really painful for me because I always felt like I was such a fun dad. Like such an easygoing guy. How could I possibly be disliked by my own children who I love so much? And then suddenly, you know, there's nothing you can do about it. One day they just think you're a shitbag. And they don't want to talk to you. And one day, I think it was maybe during the lockdown, I thought it would be a good idea to show him, Kevin, the teenager. And it's the sketch where he, the clock strikes.

• 32:28Speaker 03

  Thirteen.

• 32:29Adam Buxton?

  Thirteen and suddenly, suddenly he transforms into the nightmare version of Kevin. Having been the sweet little brother.

• 32:39Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 32:39Adam Buxton?

  Saying, uh.

• 32:40Speaker 03

  I do show that little bit on my tour, actually.

• 32:43Adam Buxton?

  I genuinely thought that my son would find it funny and would go, okay, I see, I see what I look like to you.

• 32:51Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 32:52Adam Buxton?

  I mean, what an idiot that I thought he would think that. And instead, I think he felt, he's like, oh, okay. So you're using YouTube to bully me now, are you? That's, that's a cool move, dad.

• 33:04Speaker 03

  Good for him. I'm on his side. Now, I get a lot of people coming up saying, oh, you know, we called our son Kevin. We call him Kevin now. And you see this poor boy staring at me with utter hatred, you know, and I think quite right, you know. Cause I I do understand it. One day, you know, they slightly get a crush on someone of their own generation. They realise how old you are. And there's nothing you can do about it. And you just have to back off for a bit. And, you know, but I, yeah, I I've had that. My children looking at me like you're a massive tit. You really are.

• 33:44Speaker 04

  What don't you fucking understand? Kick your fucking ass! Let's go again! What the fuck is it with you? I want you off the fucking set, you prick! No! You're a nice guy! The fuck are you doing? No! Don't shut me up! No! No! Ah, da-da-da-da, like this. No! No! Don't shut me up! Ah, da-da-da-da, like this. Fuck's sake, man, you're amateur. Seriously, man, you and me, we're fucking done professionally.

• 34:11Adam Buxton?

  Here's another coincidence.

• 34:13Speaker 03

  Oh, yes.

• 34:13Adam Buxton?

  Speaking of dads.

• 34:14Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 34:15Adam Buxton?

  Was that my dad, once, when me and Joe Cornish were doing the Adam and Joe Show, we flew to America and because my dad still had travel connections, because he was a travel writer, he managed to get himself upgraded to first class on this flight to LA. And he was sat next to Chrissie Hynde.

• 34:36Speaker 03

  Oh, lovely Chrissie.

• 34:37Adam Buxton?

  And after a while, she asked to be moved.

• 34:41Speaker 03

  Really?

• 34:42Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 34:42Speaker 03

  Maybe he was eating beef?

• 34:45Adam Buxton?

  Well, that's possible, yeah, I guess.

• 34:47Speaker 03

  Because in first class, they'd give you like a Chateau Brie, something nice, wouldn't they?

• 34:52Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 34:52Speaker 03

  And she would not like to be next to the smell of that.

• 34:56Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, he loved a steak, uh, so that's, that's, I'd never considered that possibility.

• 35:00Speaker 03

  Why is that a coincidence?

• 35:02Adam Buxton?

  Because I know that she got in touch with you to tear you off a strip about something you wrote or something.

• 35:08Speaker 03

  Sperm of the devil, she called me.

• 35:10Adam Buxton?

  What was that?

• 35:10Speaker 03

  Oh, it was so nice. It was the time when Labour were banning fox hunting and I'd written a piece, not pro-fox hunting, but I just found it hypocritical that people who eat meat could vote on this thing. You know, they're all going, you know, you enjoy killing animals, you enjoy killing animals to go, you people who dress up in this gear. Felt to me like a class war thing, which I never particularly liked. Uh, but anyone who eats meat enjoys killing animals for pleasure. They just don't like to see it. You know, I'm sure there are lots of Nazis who... Just didn't never wanted to visit a concentration camp, but it didn't make them nicer people than other Nazis.

• 35:55Speaker 03

  So anyway, I'd sort of written a piece about that.

• 35:59Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, okay.

• 36:00Speaker 03

  And she wrote to me and said, I was the sperm of the devil. It was like a six page letter. It was amazing. And I wrote back and said, Dear Chrissie, I've like literally kissed every word. I saw you at the Pearlyodion in nineteen seventy nine and here's your plectrum. Cause I still had her plectrum in my desk. So I sent her her plectrum back and it said pretenders on it and everything. And then she wrote back again and then she came and did something on Kevin and Perry for me.

• 36:27Adam Buxton?

  Right. How were you able to mend the fence then?

• 36:31Speaker 03

  I just said, I just absolutely adore you. You're my hero. And the idea that you could even know who I am is so great.

• 36:38Adam Buxton?

  So she's like, oh, that's okay then. You're not sperm of the devil.

• 36:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:43Adam Buxton?

  I'll table my uh.

• 36:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:45Adam Buxton?

  My fox hunting.

• 36:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, but it wasn't really, I think it was, I don't mind her being anti fox hunting because she's a vegan.

• 36:52Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 36:52Speaker 03

  But or a vegetarian or whatever, but I I I kind of, it always leaves a nasty taste in my mouth banning things, you know, whether it's smoking or or.

• 37:01Adam Buxton?

  Are you a libertarian?

• 37:03Speaker 03

  Not re- no, I I don't know. But there were things I'd probably be stronger on, like litter bugs I would shoot. In the street. Whereas smoking, I don't think it's, you know, it's up to people. There's something about labour that I always feel. They think they can make a difference and they can't make a difference because we live in a capitalist world and capital has the power. But what they can do is ban the odd thing and then they feel they've done something. And yeah, I I sort of feel that really. So I'm I'm usually against them banning things, especially when it takes time and space and there's so much to be done. You know, there's so much to spend money on rather than the police.

• 37:49Adam Buxton?

  Yes.

• 37:49Speaker 03

  Going around stopping a bunch of people, whoever they are.

• 37:53Adam Buxton?

  You don't like the nanny state?

• 37:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't like the nanny state, do I? I fucking do like the nanny state, I just think there are things to be nannied and foxes aren't one of them.

• 38:02Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, okay.

• 38:03Speaker 03

  You know, but it's that thing, isn't it, that we do, we go, I wouldn't like to be a fox torn to pieces by some.

• 38:10Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, also, I don't agree with the idea.

• 38:11Speaker 03

  But you know, I'd sooner be a fox being chased and have a one in six chance of being torn to pieces. If you're gonna give them human feelings than be a cow going to the equivalent of Auschwitz with its brothers and sisters.

• 38:27Adam Buxton?

  Hmm. Yeah, I agree. I mean, but there's like, take your pick of things that don't make sense in the world and one rule for one thing and.

• 38:36Speaker 03

  Well, that's it. You see, now you're just being bland about it. The kind of thing your father would have been disappointed.

• 38:42Adam Buxton?

  That's true, actually. Yeah, yeah. I I found an article that he wrote about his contempt for anyone that would sit on the fence. And as I was reading, I was like, shit, man, this is pretty much describing me. I'm. I mean, I'm not like a fence sitter on everything. I do have opinions, but I am a massive believer in trying to. Establish and populate some kind of central space where we can be together as human beings without fucking tearing each other apart.

• 39:10Speaker 03

  You're a peacemaker, aren't you?

• 39:12Adam Buxton?

  I guess so.

• 39:12Speaker 03

  And I agree. I mean.

• 39:14Adam Buxton?

  But there's a fine line between peacemaker and appeaser, isn't there? That's the problem.

• 39:18Speaker 03

  I, yes, and I think the, for me, you see, I think.

• 39:25Speaker 03

  Life is grey. It's not black and white.

• 39:27Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 39:28Speaker 03

  And I celebrate life for being grey. So if you have to say, okay, fox hunting is everyone who fox hunts is evil and everyone's like that. But people who eat meat are not evil. That to me doesn't quite tell the whole story. That's all it is, really. So I'm not trying to say, let's bring back fox hunting and let's do this. Let's do that bear baiting or, you know, cockfighting or whatever. I just think things are never quite as simple as they seem. So in a way, it's trying to be inclusive because like we were talking about before slightly, but you know, the internet has made people more binary, I feel.

• 40:10Speaker 03

  That, you know, if I write on the internet, Harry Enfield's a wanker and I get fifty likes, then, oh, I've got fifty people who like me for thinking Harry Enfield's a wanker. So that makes me want to say something else about what a wanker he is, you know, and and it becomes a war, doesn't it? And not that, just let's experiment with life and let's sort of, you know, it's like my comedy, I think, is I've always said it is mischief, not malice. So anyone who says, oh, you can't say that, you can't do that. I said, well, is it malicious? And I am what I doing? And there are lots of people, you know, I think someone like Stuart Lee,

• 40:51Speaker 03

  who I really like, but he's malicious and I would never do that. That's my choice. But he's seen as a snowflake or he calls himself that.

• 40:59Adam Buxton?

  Which bits are you thinking of when you think about him being malicious?

• 41:03Speaker 03

  Oh, he did a thing once about Ben Elton, who I think is really good, of hands up who likes Hitler or something, hands up who likes Ben Elton and it was sort of hates or something. And it was like, I'm misquoting it, but you know, people go to see where he'll slag someone off. Ricky Gervais, he slagged off for a long time.

• 41:24Adam Buxton?

  You've done some funny sketches about Gervais that made me think maybe.

• 41:27Speaker 03

  Yes, I have, but they're not malicious.

• 41:30Adam Buxton?

  No, but they've got pointed.

• 41:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, we did one where Paul and I were trying to be more like Ricky Gervais.

• 41:36Adam Buxton?

  Uh huh.

• 41:37Speaker 03

  But so that we could be more popular.

• 41:39Adam Buxton?

  But the deconstruction.

• 41:40Speaker 03

  Didn't have any, we, you know, he had friends like David Bowie and all we could get was Nigel Farage.

• 41:46Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 41:46Speaker 03

  Before he was.

• 41:48Adam Buxton?

  But then there was another sketch, the way you sort of deconstructed the office and reduced it to like, you know, gives look to camera, um Hobbit says something.

• 41:58Speaker 03

  Yeah. Hobbit, yeah, we did, yes.

• 42:01Adam Buxton?

  Was that affectionate?

• 42:02Speaker 03

  Yes, I think so. I love the office.

• 42:05Adam Buxton?

  Do you know Ricky Gervais?

• 42:06Speaker 03

  No, I've met him once on The Heath.

• 42:09Adam Buxton?

  And did he?

• 42:09Speaker 03

  He was, he was very nice, but I can completely understand why anyone is allowed to like or not like someone. And to feel very strongly about it, but to be malicious, I, I would never be malicious about someone in my humour, I hope.

• 42:25Adam Buxton?

  Mm hmm. Although there's.

• 42:27Speaker 03

  Mischief, as you see exactly what you said, Hobbit this, that's mischief.

• 42:31Adam Buxton?

  Okay, okay.

• 42:32Speaker 03

  It, and you know, because I love the office. I did stop for a bit after The Office, so I thought, well, this is brilliant. This is the way it's going. It's not what I do. This is just a different league and it was a different league.

• 42:46Adam Buxton?

  You felt that it had changed comedy and people's appetites for comedy sufficiently that you didn't fit anymore?

• 42:52Speaker 03

  Funny, ha, ha, ha, studio audience and.

• 42:55Adam Buxton?

  You felt irrelevant.

• 42:56Speaker 03

  Characters, yeah. I felt like that's my zeitgeist is over. And I think, and, and we only did Harry and Paul after Little Britain, really. I mean, I wouldn't have done it had it not been for the fact that Little Britain could come along and be silly.

• 43:10Adam Buxton?

  Uh huh.

• 43:10Speaker 03

  That made me think, oh, well, maybe we could be silly again, you know.

• 43:15Adam Buxton?

  But you could always be silly. How, that, the stuff you did towards.

• 43:18Speaker 03

  I found it so impossibly cool, The Office in a way, and also what Armando was doing.

• 43:24Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, okay.

• 43:26Speaker 03

  You know, I just thought this is, I'd love to be able to do this, but that ship has sailed because I'm, this is my little pigeonhole. So I could have been bitter then, but I don't think I was. I just thought that, you know, that's what they do and Chris Morrison, everyone.

• 43:41Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, but the sharpest bits of the story of the twos, for example, are exactly the kind of things that those people do.

• 43:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, but that was just, you know, being asked by the BBC, would you do this? And you go, yes, I would do it. But pitching an idea that's political and, and, you know, right up my street, that I would really want to watch like that. I don't have the skill to do that. And I don't have the skill to write a sitcom like that.

• 44:14Adam Buxton?

  Is it something you would want to do though, if you could?

• 44:16Speaker 03

  No, I mean, I probably would have done 20 years ago, but now I'm happy just, just, I'm resting on my old decaying laurels.

• 44:25Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 45:08Adam Buxton?

  Some of the characters, particularly the, do you remember the argumentative couple? The, the, the married couple who are sniping at each other.

• 45:15Speaker 03

  Still married after all these years.

• 45:16Adam Buxton?

  Yeah. And it's, it's vicious and painful. Was that the atmosphere when you were growing up?

• 45:23Speaker 03

  Uh, I don't think so.

• 45:25Adam Buxton?

  No.

• 45:26Speaker 03

  You know, I've seen it though in other people and you think, gosh, you're unhappy.

• 45:30Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 45:30Speaker 03

  You know, I mean, my parents' friends, I could see in some of them, that sort of dreadful silence. And yeah, there's a very good one where she goes the wrong way on the map, but the poor son is in the back.

• 45:45Adam Buxton?

  David.

• 45:46Speaker 03

  We end up at a dead end. So I drive up to a dead end. So the left that you said was left wasn't the left that normal people think it's left. It's the exclusive left to you, something like that. And then she's just silent, then she goes, you've never made me come.

• 46:06Speaker 03

  Which was Paul's line, and he thought, God, that's so cruel, isn't it?

• 46:11Adam Buxton?

  I remember that one. I think my parents were not getting on well at all when that show came out. And I remember finding it hard to laugh at that.

• 46:19Speaker 03

  Most marriages probably go through that stage.

• 46:21Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 46:22Speaker 03

  And you're dead.

• 46:23Adam Buxton?

  Do you remember any of the conversations around that sketch? Like, did you think, is this too dark? Is it too bleak? Is it so?

• 46:28Speaker 03

  Love, I love dark.

• 46:30Adam Buxton?

  Okay.

• 46:33Speaker 03

  I don't know why. Well, it's the thing that fear, I suppose, dark horror films, you know, it's all related in a way.

• 46:40Adam Buxton?

  Because that sketch, there's so, there's so much tragedy in it, not to be too serious about it. But obviously that, that they're kind of heartbreak from both members of the couple, really. And the terrible things they're saying to each other and the fact that the son is there and they're saying, they're arguing over who loves the son more. And meanwhile, this poor son is growing up in this atmosphere.

• 47:00Speaker 03

  Yeah. I remember when Harry Potter started, I made a real pitch to David Hayman saying, please can I play? Cause I'd read them to my son already. I really want to be Mr. Dursley and I want Julia St. John, who played my wife, to be Mrs. Dursley. I think we'd be perfect.

• 47:17Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, that would have been good.

• 47:19Speaker 03

  He sort of looked at me like, uh, no, we've already got Richard Griffiths.

• 47:25Speaker 03

  But I just remember reading it, thinking, oh God, yes, that's our couple, these people, these guys. You know, it's like taking something off the page and making it more real.

• 47:35Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 47:35Speaker 03

  You know, just giving it a reality.

• 47:37Adam Buxton?

  I mean, the old Gitz were vicious, but it was so cartoonish.

• 47:41Speaker 03

  Yes, yeah.

• 47:42Adam Buxton?

  They were really, really.

• 47:43Speaker 03

  I think the I saw you coming was the only other one I've done is vicious, who was on the Harry and Paul thing, who had a shop in Notting Hill.

• 47:51Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 47:51Speaker 03

  It's just so misogynist.

• 47:54Adam Buxton?

  He was horrible and, and, uh, and cynical, like, well, I was gonna say actually that I heard you talking in an interview in nineteen ninety. And you were, you were promoting the first series of the Harry and Field television show. And you were talking about the fact that in the course of doing the show, you had talked to other writers to think about the possibility of getting other people to bring characters to the table.

• 48:24Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 48:24Adam Buxton?

  Which in the end you didn't do, you kind of stuck with your core.

• 48:27Speaker 03

  Pretty much, yeah. I think actually Graham and Arthur wrote a couple of things.

• 48:31Adam Buxton?

  Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews.

• 48:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 48:33Adam Buxton?

  And also Charlie Higson and Paul Whitehouse.

• 48:36Speaker 03

  I mean Charlie and Paul.

• 48:37Adam Buxton?

  They were your.

• 48:38Speaker 03

  They were the core team.

• 48:39Adam Buxton?

  They were your guys.

• 48:40Speaker 03

  Perkins.

• 48:40Adam Buxton?

  But you were saying that you'd met some other bloke who had, who you said was really nice and he had a funny character, but you said it's a middle class character who's worried about not being sexist and it's like, what are people going to make of this? It's a bit niche was the implication.

• 48:56Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 48:57Adam Buxton?

  And yet, to, you know, later in your life, when you yourself changed your kind of social environment, you've got lots of characters who are not recognisable to a lot of people.

• 49:09Speaker 03

  Absolutely. Total hypocrite.

• 49:11Adam Buxton?

  Like the surgeons.

• 49:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:15Adam Buxton?

  And.

• 49:16Speaker 03

  It's funny though, I do them on tour and people like them.

• 49:19Adam Buxton?

  Well.

• 49:19Speaker 03

  The surgeons.

• 49:19Adam Buxton?

  Because I thought.

• 49:20Speaker 03

  They have a sort of charm to them, I think.

• 49:22Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 49:22Speaker 03

  And that's what people like.

• 49:23Adam Buxton?

  Also because I don't think it matters.

• 49:26Speaker 03

  No.

• 49:26Adam Buxton?

  Whether it's a person you know, those characters, there's something intrinsically relatable about the way you do them.

• 49:33Speaker 03

  Just, just in my defence, slightly.

• 49:37Adam Buxton?

  By the way, I wasn't accusing you of hypocrisy.

• 49:39Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no, no, it's not an attack, I know. I'm just saying that the reason was with the first series, it was like, right, when we were doing Harry and Villain Chums and that sort of stuff, it was like, gosh, we'd been offered a television show, you know, I was 29, a sketch show. There'd been a few sketches since sort of not nine o'clock news, but none of them had really taken off. So it was like, we want to do the viz of sketch shows. We want old, young, we want all these different characters and we need catchphrases so the kids do it, get, get through the playground because.

• 50:13Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 50:14Speaker 03

  Everyone only had one telly. So there was quite a lot of marketing, you know, thinking of marketing about it because we want that one television that everyone had in their house to be dominated by us for that half hour. So we need the children and then give everyone else something else. Whereas later on, when we did Harry and Paul, it was much more, what do we like? What do we think's funny? Uh, we think the writer and the landlady is someone going splim. I'm a, I'm a, I guess, I'm a seller of confectionery. Uh, with mintables, bum gum. And me being a landlady sort of go, oh, oh.

• 50:59Speaker 03

  You know, it just made us giggle and so, yeah, niche.

• 51:03Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, I love it. Who else is churning out the characters that are still so memorable?

• 51:09Speaker 03

  I think I was very lucky, Adam, because there weren't that many people. When I was on the circuit, it was still quite new, the whole comedy circuit. You know, alternative comedy, all that rubbish. And so the same people you came across again and again, there weren't many of us and no one was really doing characters. So for me, it was like, well, what's my niche? What's my USP as people say these days? And okay, well, I'll do some characters and then if they wanted characters, I was the one. There wasn't anyone else doing it, you know, because now there are hundreds of people, aren't there? I don't think I would make it today. And there are hundreds of channels now, you know, you're not forced to watch me.

• 51:50Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 51:51Speaker 03

  So it's a, it's a very different environment and things, but.

• 51:54Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 51:55Speaker 03

  I was lucky. But when you started doing it, was it like all your peers? Did you all take off at the same time?

• 52:03Adam Buxton?

  Um.

• 52:04Speaker 03

  Did you meet Louis at, uh, was that at school or university?

• 52:07Adam Buxton?

  Met Louis at school.

• 52:09Speaker 03

  Right.

• 52:09Adam Buxton?

  So we met Louis when we would have been twelve or thirteen, thirteen, I think. And he always seemed like he was gonna do fine. And then he was the first person to get a job in the media. He was out in the States and he started working for magazines and he worked for Spy Magazine in New York, which was a satire paper. And then he got a job with Michael Moore doing TV Nation, this sort of political prank show.

• 52:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:39Adam Buxton?

  So he was making a name for himself way before we were. And he was a big, important part of us getting our, our show in my mind. Like, we, we would check in with him the whole time and say, what do you think? What should we do?

• 52:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:54Adam Buxton?

  Have you got any ideas? And he was so supportive.

• 52:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:57Adam Buxton?

  With us. It was great.

• 52:58Speaker 03

  It's funny, I was, I was talking about him the other day saying, I wonder, you know, on his deathbed, whether he'll go, well, was life worthwhile? I've, I've, I've met so many horrible people.

• 53:10Adam Buxton?

  I've platformed so many monsters.

• 53:12Speaker 03

  So many awful dreadful people. How that would feel, I don't know.

• 53:18Adam Buxton?

  I think he, I remember him saying very early on, and very sincerely, one drunken night, I really love people. I really think that they're worthwhile. And I, I, I, maybe he might not remember this, but I definitely do. And he made a very, very impassioned speech about how he thought that pretty much everyone was worthwhile in some way.

• 53:40Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 53:41Adam Buxton?

  And he was interested in them.

• 53:42Speaker 03

  That's interesting.

• 53:43Adam Buxton?

  And he wanted to know what made them tick.

• 53:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, what, what makes them? I mean, that's the only way forward really, isn't it? If you just say, well, they're bastards, then there's nothing you can do for the world.

• 53:57Adam Buxton?

  Yes.

• 54:01Adam Buxton?

  Yes, please.

• 54:06Adam Buxton?

  Yep.

• 54:11Adam Buxton?

  Ten years ago.

• 54:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 54:12Adam Buxton?

  I listened to a podcast with you and Malcolm Gladwell.

• 54:16Speaker 03

  Oh, yes.

• 54:17Adam Buxton?

  Talking about satire and the toothlessness of satire. It was called The Satire Paradox, and it was an episode of his podcast Revisionist History. Have you ever listened back to that? Did you listen back to the finished thing?

• 54:30Speaker 03

  No, but I found it all rather difficult because I didn't really know about podcasts. And then everyone said you should do it. And I remember Nicholas Holt, Nick Holt, saying, God, you've got to do this podcast. It's great. Because I told him, and then he was very nice about it afterwards. I don't think I listened to it.

• 54:49Adam Buxton?

  It was a good listen.

• 54:50Speaker 03

  I don't really like listening to my own voice saying that.

• 54:52Adam Buxton?

  Okay.

• 54:52Speaker 03

  Course I will listen to this one.

• 54:54Adam Buxton?

  Well, it did strike me as unusual. I was like, oh, I don't hear Harry Enfield talking as himself very often. And I don't think I've heard him talking about loads of money. And you started the episode. It was you talking about the impact that loads of money had had. And basically Gladwell's thesis in this episode was that satire fails when comedians prioritize getting a laugh over having the courage to make an actual political point. And he talks a lot about Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live.

• 55:28Speaker 03

  Right.

• 55:28Adam Buxton?

  Who had been doing Sarah Palin around the elections in two thousand and eight, when Sarah Palin was running as the vice president to John McCain.

• 55:39Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 55:40Adam Buxton?

  And, you know, it was a big deal, her impression of of Sarah Palin. And it became really popular on SNL and up to the point where they actually got the real Sarah Palin to come on.

• 55:55Speaker 03

  Ah.

• 55:56Adam Buxton?

  And it was all quite sort of collegiate and friendly and jokey jokey, but there were a lot of people who were very upset and outraged by what Sarah Palin represented and the prospect that she would.

• 56:06Speaker 03

  Tea party.

• 56:07Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, the prospect that she would become the vice president was genuinely alarming for for many people. And so Gladwell's point was that this was kind of cowardly. It was just chasing laughs and at the end of the day, it was probably doing more harm than good. It was turning her into a bit of a.

• 56:25Speaker 03

  A good bloke, a good sort.

• 56:26Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, like the the sort of Farage factor, you know, Farage definitely benefited from a lot of people thinking, oh, he's he seems fun and.

• 56:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 56:34Adam Buxton?

  Seems like a fun guy to have a drink with.

• 56:36Speaker 03

  That was our fault.

• 56:37Adam Buxton?

  Well, I don't know. I mean, this is, I think Gladwell is saying that this is the danger of satire a lot of the time, the danger of the ki- the kind of especially political satire, people doing funny impressions of monstrous political figures or whatever, and it ends up making, having the effect of making them quite approachable and non-threatening.

• 56:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, that sounds right. That sounds a good theory.

• 56:59Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 57:00Speaker 03

  I'm glad he made that. I I seem to remember when I did it, I mean, I haven't changed my opinion, which is.

• 57:09Speaker 03

  I probably did it because I did Spitting Image for a few years. Hmm. From the eighties and Mrs Thatcher was elected three times while Spitting Image was on. And the newspapers all the time go spitting mad, they've gone too far this time, you know, always these headlines. People going, God, what's it like being on the most dangerous show? And then Maggie gets in again and then John Major gets in. And then um Spitting Image got the Queen's Award for industry, I think. And that made me realise, you know, that actually it it it doesn't really change anything. And also people were, when I was doing Loads of Money.

• 57:51Speaker 03

  And I stopped doing it because he was two dimensional, I didn't know what to do. But The Guardian, of course, did their bloody thing that they used to do of. It's a very middle class lefty thing to say, well, when he realised that the very people he was satirising loved it. He was horrified and stopped, which is absolute rubbish, it's patronising rubbish. You know, it's like I did the Scousers who were, you know, thieving swearing. Scousers, basically based on Brookside. But then all the Scousers, they'd go to the Liverpool games with our wigs on, kind of thing, being like that. People love having the piss taken out of them.

• 58:33Speaker 03

  So of course, people who were like Loads of Money wanted to say, oh, God, that's just like me. So many people have said, you know, did you base Tim Nice but Dim on my friend or me or someone, you know? But The Guardian sort of thing was, oh, no, the working, you know, Harry didn't expect these people to like it. Because he doesn't understand the working classes like we do, basically. Which uh I I find terribly frustrating, you know, it's a it's a problem with the left, really. I mean, I'm a lefty, I'm much more lefty than The Guardian, I think, but um. It it's a real problem with not understanding that we're all actually the same. And we all like the same sort of things, or certainly blokes.

• 59:18Speaker 03

  You know, like having the piss taken out of them, and exactly like you're saying, that Malcolm Gladwell was saying, that. If Sarah Palin, who probably didn't like having the piss taken out of her, but if her people said you should come on, then it'll make you look like you are a normal human being who likes having the piss taken out of themselves.

• 59:38Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 59:38Speaker 03

  Then immediately that that gets rid of it.

• 59:41Adam Buxton?

  The thing is, you could spin it either way, really. You could say that that there is evidence that was not included in Malcolm Gladwell's episode for the fact that Tina Fey's impression of Sarah Palin actually turned a load of people off her, made Sarah Palin seem like an unelectable mad.

• 1:00:01Speaker 03

  Joke.

• 1:00:02Adam Buxton?

  Joke, yeah. So so her popularity cratered after the SNL impression. So you could definitely spin it that way if you wanted to, as far as spitting image goes and the fact that Thatcher kept on getting in. I'm sure there are people who would say that the impression of Thatcher on spitting image was very attractive for a lot of people.

• 1:00:25Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:00:25Adam Buxton?

  She was this kind of bully boy who was in charge of her party.

• 1:00:29Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:00:30Adam Buxton?

  And she ruled with an iron fist. And as we now know, people are attracted to those kinds of personalities in politics.

• 1:00:37Speaker 03

  Yes, even when they're completely odd like her.

• 1:00:40Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:00:41Adam Buxton?

  So you can always make the argument one way or another. There was, you know, there's in the Revisionist History episode as well, they talk about All in the Family, the American sitcom, which was based on Till Death Do Us Part, Alf Garnett and all that. The kind of racist old bigot character that ended up being quite beloved, you know, that was supposed to be a satire on look at this horrible racist old guy. And it ends up becoming a well-loved character.

• 1:01:11Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:01:11Adam Buxton?

  And so there is, you know, you can find some people who will say, actually, those shows written by liberals in order to satirize right wing reactionary points of view ended up emboldening a lot of those people themselves and and making those bigots seem really quite sympathetic.

• 1:01:29Speaker 03

  Yes, okay. Well, you've cured me of my revisionism.

• 1:01:33Adam Buxton?

  Here I am on the fence again.

• 1:01:35Speaker 03

  Yes, I want to ban these things.

• 1:01:36Adam Buxton?

  I'm playing both sides.

• 1:01:37Speaker 03

  I've always thought, you know, it's a terrible thing. Yes, there you are on the fence. It's a terrible thing, though, that you can't have things like love thy neighbour that explore the issue somehow.

• 1:01:48Adam Buxton?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:01:49Speaker 03

  Without what you're saying is quite, you know, till death us do part, that these days exploring the issue is seen as something it's best not to even bring up the issue. And my children would argue that because they'd say there really isn't an issue. Say something like trans, they'll say there is no issue here.

• 1:02:08Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:02:09Speaker 03

  And then, of course, you get these mad people saying we're living in woke Britain, you know, the lovely Liz Truss, people like that. Saying, you know, my mission is to free woke Britain. You think it's rubbish. There's nothing woke about this. You know, whatever they mean. Um, I do think AI might be good at running the world.

• 1:02:31Speaker 03

  Because you look at these, you know, I've become a royalist recently. I'd never really thought about it or cared about it.

• 1:02:38Adam Buxton?

  How did that happen?

• 1:02:39Speaker 03

  It happened because Liz Truss became Prime Minister and she came out and made this speech. And it was like, oh my God, I mean, it sounded literally like the work experience person reading this thing for the cameras, you know, and sound so they could get their focus and the sound levels right. And you thought, my God, if that was our president, if that was our head of state.

• 1:03:04Adam Buxton?

  Yes.

• 1:03:05Speaker 03

  And then I thought, God, if Boris was our head of state or, you know, whoever it is.

• 1:03:08Adam Buxton?

  Have you met the King?

• 1:03:09Speaker 03

  No, I don't think he'd ever want to meet me. I've played him and.

• 1:03:13Adam Buxton?

  You've played him and you were aware of the fact that he thought the Windsors was

• 1:03:18Speaker 03

  Cruel.

• 1:03:18Adam Buxton?

  A cruel show.

• 1:03:20Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 1:03:20Adam Buxton?

  Mm hmm. Did that give you pause?

• 1:03:22Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:03:24Speaker 03

  I I just think he's wrong about that. I think you could say that about the the other one, the Crown, because it pretends to be true.

• 1:03:32Adam Buxton?

  He doesn't come out well from The Crown, Prince Charles.

• 1:03:35Speaker 03

  No, you could argue that The Crown is prurient.

• 1:03:39Adam Buxton?

  Yes.

• 1:03:39Speaker 03

  Um, but I think the wind is, you know, I've always seen it from the moment that Burton George first wrote it as dynasty, basically, that they've given the writers of dynasty in L A, they said, look, you've got to write a new drama about the English royal family. And they've given them all the red tops and said, these are the English tabloids. If you know nothing about the royal family, just read these and it'll fill you in and then write a drama around it. So obviously none of it is true.

• 1:04:09Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:10Speaker 03

  Literally nothing.

• 1:04:11Adam Buxton?

  I mean, it is obviously ludicrously, over the top, crazy, grotesque comedy. And, yeah, The Crown very much blurs the line because you sort of assume as a viewer, like, well, they couldn't be just making all these big facts up, could they? And they do. And what's the other drama that I haven't watched that people have been talking about, about the Kennedy clan?

• 1:04:33Speaker 03

  Oh, God, yes, Love Story.

• 1:04:35Adam Buxton?

  Love Story.

• 1:04:35Speaker 03

  I haven't seen it.

• 1:04:36Adam Buxton?

  And I read a piece by Daryl Hannah, who was involved in that real situation. I don't know anything about that world, but I but I read the piece she wrote. She is a character in the drama, in Love Story, and she is portrayed as a kind of drug fiend, nightmare, terrible person. And she writes in this piece, like, they have literally made up loads of stuff that never, ever happened, just because it suits the narrative of this drama.

• 1:05:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:05:05Adam Buxton?

  And how does this work? And I think the model now, for a lot of the streaming platforms, especially post Baby Reindeer.

• 1:05:13Speaker 03

  Yes, yeah.

• 1:05:14Adam Buxton?

  Is they just go, never mind, we'll take the hit. You know what I mean? Even if we're just gonna make stuff up.

• 1:05:21Speaker 03

  Yes, and also if people are dead, then you can't, they can't sue.

• 1:05:25Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:26Speaker 03

  And the royal family can't sue. You know, they have to be above all that stuff, otherwise they'd be suing everyone. They won't do the same thing about Donald Trump. I mean, they had that film about Donald Trump, but obviously the lawyers were all over it.

• 1:05:39Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, it was a good film, by the way.

• 1:05:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, but he doesn't come across as the person we know he is in it. You know.

• 1:05:46Adam Buxton?

  He didn't come across well.

• 1:05:48Speaker 03

  He didn't come across well, but Jeremy Strong comes across as worse and.

• 1:05:53Adam Buxton?

  Yes.

• 1:05:53Speaker 03

  Oh, I, you know, let's blame him for everything. This, this guy has no real personal responsibilities at all for this guy.

• 1:06:01Adam Buxton?

  Well, actually, by the end of that, the film, by the way, it's The Apprentice is the name of the film, and I really recommend it if you haven't seen it. And.

• 1:06:08Speaker 03

  There's a scene in it. You know how he's, Jeremy Strong's a method actor and there was a disgusting drink he had to drink at the end in the last programme.

• 1:06:19Adam Buxton?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:06:20Speaker 03

  Succession. But they're on holiday.

• 1:06:22Adam Buxton?

  That's right. They make, they make the most revolting.

• 1:06:25Speaker 03

  And it was like, did you, cause he's a method actor, did you drink it? And he said, oh, yes. And then I'd have to go and be sick and then I'd have to go and wash in the sea and then do another take. And there's a scene, a really raunchy scene where he is being, um, sexed upon by this gentleman in a club in that show.

• 1:06:44Adam Buxton?

  Yes, he plays, uh, Trump's lawyer.

• 1:06:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:06:47Adam Buxton?

  Roy Cohn.

• 1:06:48Speaker 03

  Yeah. And he's being seriously, it looks very, very raunchy. And cause he's a method actor, I want to know if that was part of the deal.

• 1:06:59Adam Buxton?

  Whatever the part requires.

• 1:07:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's what I sort of imagined. But gosh, it looked crikey.

• 1:08:19Adam Buxton?

  Once you played an old git.

• 1:08:21Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:08:21Adam Buxton?

  And now you are an old git.

• 1:08:23Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:08:23Adam Buxton?

  How much of an old git are you?

• 1:08:26Speaker 03

  Hmm. Um, yeah, it's a frame of mind, isn't it?

• 1:08:31Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:31Speaker 03

  Being an old git.

• 1:08:32Adam Buxton?

  I suppose so.

• 1:08:32Speaker 03

  I suppose, but they were like just naughty. But I would genuinely shoot litter bugs.

• 1:08:40Adam Buxton?

  Okay.

• 1:08:41Speaker 03

  Where, you know, if I see someone just doing that.

• 1:08:44Adam Buxton?

  I agree with you, that is maddening. I don't think I-

• 1:08:45Speaker 03

  Okay, just kneel down, bullet in the head. Right.

• 1:08:49Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:49Speaker 03

  And the world will definitely be a better place. But then when I'm not in that mood, I don't believe in the death penalty.

• 1:08:57Adam Buxton?

  Okay, good, glad to hear it. I think if you were confronted by-

• 1:09:00Speaker 03

  Oh, that's so sitting on the fence, you'd glad to hear it.

• 1:09:02Adam Buxton?

  Listen, if you were confronted by the reality of having to execute a litter bug, Harry, I don't believe that you would go through with it.

• 1:09:10Speaker 03

  You don't know me well, Adam.

• 1:09:11Adam Buxton?

  Shoot them in the head. You're gonna be armed, you'd see someone, what if it's just like a a teenager, he's just come back from McDonald's, he's discarding the a box in a, in a hedge row in a leafy-

• 1:09:22Speaker 03

  Yes, I'd go, excuse me, could you just-

• 1:09:25Adam Buxton?

  Kneel down.

• 1:09:26Speaker 03

  Take that now and put it in a bin. And then if he used a bunch of expletives, I'd say, oh dear.

• 1:09:32Adam Buxton?

  I had to execute you.

• 1:09:33Speaker 03

  I'm afraid you're a bunch of, there's no mercy for you, I don't know what we do about-

• 1:09:37Adam Buxton?

  Have you ever confronted-

• 1:09:38Speaker 03

  What do we do about-

• 1:09:38Adam Buxton?

  A litter bugger?

• 1:09:40Speaker 03

  No, never, I'm too scared, I just-

• 1:09:41Adam Buxton?

  Cowardly.

• 1:09:42Speaker 03

  Dream of shooting them. And people who play really loud music with their windows open in cars.

• 1:09:50Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, this is pretty standard old git stuff.

• 1:09:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's just that, you know, really. I think the thing that really happens to you is you think, well, my childhood was better. You know, my dad thought his childhood was better, and I think that mine was. I liked saving up. You know, fifty p to buy a record and now you're just gonna, that record on Spotify.

• 1:10:12Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, when you say better, sort of more meaningful, more kind of.

• 1:10:16Speaker 03

  It felt.

• 1:10:17Adam Buxton?

  Spiritually nourishing somehow.

• 1:10:18Speaker 03

  It felt like that.

• 1:10:19Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:10:20Speaker 03

  I mean, I I definitely think I'm glad I didn't have a phone or a smartphone or anything. Uh, you know, I was very happy just cycling around, seeing my friends and swearing, going to see the Buzzcocks.

• 1:10:32Adam Buxton?

  I think it is tough for the younger generation.

• 1:10:35Speaker 03

  They don't.

• 1:10:36Adam Buxton?

  Feel it. I think they do.

• 1:10:37Speaker 03

  They do, actually.

• 1:10:38Adam Buxton?

  In some ways they do.

• 1:10:39Speaker 03

  They do. They've all been mint and elf fishes, haven't they? Most days.

• 1:10:44Adam Buxton?

  That's true, they do.

• 1:10:45Speaker 03

  They're cunts.

• 1:10:49Adam Buxton?

  Post-COVID, but you, like me, I hope you don't mind me pointing this out, are a hat wearer.

• 1:10:55Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:10:56Adam Buxton?

  At this point, because we are both getting a little bit thin on top.

• 1:11:01Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:11:02Adam Buxton?

  And I heard you talking about the fact that a member of the media elite, who will remain nameless, recommended to you the services of a transplant guru. And I think maybe I met the same guy and he gave me the same recommendation. And um, I have for the last couple of years been taking the position that I don't think I will get the transplant. But then I heard you expressing some regret that you didn't.

• 1:11:31Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:11:32Adam Buxton?

  So do you think I should go ahead?

• 1:11:33Speaker 03

  Cause it felt like, I thought, well, it's all over for me. It has been for years.

• 1:11:38Adam Buxton?

  Cause this was like fourteen, fifteen years.

• 1:11:39Speaker 03

  Two thousand and eight or two thousand and nine.

• 1:11:42Adam Buxton?

  Oh, right, okay.

• 1:11:42Speaker 03

  Ten. And I look at the certain gentleman now, and I think he still looks great. He still looks really good. So I slightly regret it because whenever I wear a wig, I think, gosh, I I don't look as bad as I thought I looked. But literally this morning, you know, there's a place in Primoz where I get a discount. They give a discount to old age pensioners. And when I went in this morning, I took my hat off and went, I'm an old age pensioner. And when we came out, my partner said, you don't have to take your hat off to do that.

• 1:12:16Speaker 03

  You can just say it, but I did get thirty two p off. It was three pounds twenty and it went down to two pounds.

• 1:12:24Adam Buxton?

  Win, and you wouldn't have made that saving if you'd had the transplant.

• 1:12:27Speaker 03

  I don't think I would have done.

• 1:12:28Adam Buxton?

  You wouldn't have been wearing a hat.

• 1:12:29Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:12:31Adam Buxton?

  You would have been proudly.

• 1:12:31Speaker 03

  There's so many things, you know, where do you stop then? Cause then there's the transplant, then there's the teeth. The one I really liked was um Dunga Balatine.

• 1:12:42Adam Buxton?

  Duncan Balatine, Banatine.

• 1:12:44Speaker 03

  I used it to me. You are male, put in ballers. Uh, go to his block in Manchester, I tell him, and he'll do it for you for free if he can use you for publicity.

• 1:12:56Speaker 03

  And I thought, I I did say, okay, you've got so much money, you get it for free. He said, I.

• 1:13:04Adam Buxton?

  Was that tempting at all?

• 1:13:05Speaker 03

  Male, put in balls. What have you said? It was Scotsman. Male, put in balls. Okay, thank you.

• 1:13:13Adam Buxton?

  Did you think about it?

• 1:13:15Speaker 03

  No, I did. I I didn't. I was just brought up like, you know, my dad was sort of Bobby Charlton like by the age of thirty. And and I I suppose I've been brought up to think that it's vanity and that vanity is a sin, I think.

• 1:13:30Adam Buxton?

  I think I have the same prejudice, but it's so alien to a modern generation, you know. They post memes of like, this is what fifty year old people used to look like. Isn't it insane?

• 1:13:42Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:13:42Adam Buxton?

  That they didn't bother to get a hair transplant or do something about their teeth and, you know, then they post a picture of like, you know, Ryan Reynolds or whoever it might be who is in their fifties and they look about thirty.

• 1:13:55Speaker 03

  Yes. I mean, I'm the same age as George Clooney, I think.

• 1:13:58Adam Buxton?

  Uh huh.

• 1:13:59Speaker 03

  You know, and he looks gorgeous and I look decrepit, but I don't mind.

• 1:14:03Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, do you not?

• 1:14:04Speaker 03

  I don't think so.

• 1:14:06Adam Buxton?

  Would you advise me to just carry on?

• 1:14:09Speaker 03

  I think you should go with how you feel and I certainly don't say to that chap. I I thought the chap who said that was perfectly fine to say that.

• 1:14:20Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:14:20Speaker 03

  I don't respect him less for having had it done. And why should I?

• 1:14:25Adam Buxton?

  Absolutely not, no.

• 1:14:26Speaker 03

  And women spend a fortune having their hair changed colour and this and that and the other, you know, and why wouldn't you?

• 1:14:34Adam Buxton?

  Yeah, I'm I'm genuinely conflicted, but I think as we've established, I'm conflicted about nearly everything.

• 1:14:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, what does your wife think?

• 1:14:43Adam Buxton?

  No, I have, I mean. She says, I I couldn't care. I'm like, don't lie. Of course you could. You'd like me to look younger, wouldn't you? And I would look younger if I had it. That's the fact. I would look probably about ten years younger.

• 1:14:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:14:56Adam Buxton?

  And she's like, I honestly don't care. She swears blind that she.

• 1:15:00Speaker 03

  She doesn't care about you anymore. That's why. I think you should.

• 1:15:05Adam Buxton?

  Oh, God.

• 1:15:08Adam Buxton?

  Do you really?

• 1:15:08Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 1:15:11Speaker 03

  Really? I think you'd look great.

• 1:15:15Adam Buxton?

  I told myself I was gonna ask you this question, and I told myself I would go with what you said, but I can't tell if you're joking now or not.

• 1:15:21Speaker 03

  Hmm. I don't know. I think if you had like. Hair and it was black and then you cut it short like a footballer at the side.

• 1:15:30Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:31Speaker 03

  And your beard, you'd look pretty jazzy.

• 1:15:35Adam Buxton?

  All right, I'm gonna give it some more thought.

• 1:15:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:15:38Adam Buxton?

  Over the years, you must have met some of your heroes.

• 1:15:41Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:15:41Adam Buxton?

  In comedy and music.

• 1:15:42Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 1:15:43Adam Buxton?

  Who were some of the most satisfying and memorable people that you met?

• 1:15:47Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, I mean, I met George Harrison. It's amazing.

• 1:15:50Adam Buxton?

  When did you meet him?

• 1:15:51Speaker 03

  In about nine, in the nineties. He rang up one day and said, I'm having a party. Would you like to go? It's like, what? Yeah, and Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney seen me naked.

• 1:16:04Adam Buxton?

  Oh, how come?

• 1:16:06Speaker 03

  Well, uh, yes, exactly.

• 1:16:08Adam Buxton?

  Oh.

• 1:16:09Speaker 03

  I was in a gym that I go to sometimes, and it was a Sunday and there was no one else changing. I'd done the gym and I'd had a shower and I tossed. My towel into the towel bit that you put the towel in, and then there was someone trying to get in the door. It was one of those ones that go pee pee pee if you get it wrong, you know, a fingerprint one.

• 1:16:30Adam Buxton?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:31Speaker 03

  So I went and opened it for them, and this was it. Oh, the door's been opened for me by a naked man. Oh, it's a naked Harry. How are you? You know, it's like, oh, hi, yeah. And of course, what you can't do, because he's a beetle, you've got to be so cool. You can't put your hands in front of your private bits.

• 1:16:50Speaker 03

  Because that wouldn't be cool, would it? So you've got to put your hand in your thing and go, yeah, how's it going? I didn't know. Yeah, I've seen James here a couple of times, that kind of shit.

• 1:17:00Speaker 03

  And then I went home and publically said, "Me, Nicky, oh my god."

• 1:17:04Adam Buxton?

  And he got home and said, "Yeah, I met Harry Enfield. He just stood there showing me his cock. It was really weird."

• 1:17:10Speaker 03

  Really weird. Really big. Couldn't believe how big it was. Yeah.

• 1:17:17Adam Buxton?

  Big and weird.

• 1:17:25Adam Buxton?

  Wait.

• 1:17:26Speaker 01

  Continue. Congratulations, you have been chosen to join us in our sexy bed for sex time.

• 1:17:36Adam Buxton?

  What?

• 1:17:38Adam Buxton?

  Did you mean to say that?

• 1:17:40Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 1:17:41Adam Buxton?

  Is it okay with you if we get this promo back on track now?

• 1:17:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's okay with me.

• 1:17:45Adam Buxton?

  Okay, good. Hi, this is James.

• 1:17:47Speaker 01

  And this is Julia.

• 1:17:49Adam Buxton?

  And we're the hosts of Julia and James Just Talking. What kind of stuff do we talk about, Julia?

• 1:17:54Speaker 01

  Oh, you know, the usual.

• 1:17:56Adam Buxton?

  Do you want to narrow it down a little bit?

• 1:17:59Speaker 01

  I don't know.

• 1:18:10Adam Buxton?

  Julia and James Just Talking. New episodes drop every hour.

• 1:18:24Adam Buxton?

  Hey, welcome back. That last ad you heard there was another taster of success pod for you. And of course, before then, you heard Harry Enfield talking to me. I'm very grateful indeed to Harry for making the time.

• 1:18:40Adam Buxton?

  There's several links in the description to remind yourself of a few highlights from Harry's work over the years. Really recommend those Harry and Paul specials, The Story of the Twos and The Love Box in Your Living Room, if you haven't seen those before and you're a fan.

• 1:19:03Adam Buxton?

  You're gonna love them. Also in the description, you'll find a link to tickets for Harry's live show, Harry Enfield and No Chums, in which he is onstage as himself going in and out of characters, but also talking about how those characters came to be, along with other entertaining anecdotes from his career thus far. You'll also find a link to a rave review of that show from The Guardian. Alright, now I'm not gonna waffle too long at the end here. Ah, look, there's the techno bird, Rosie, hovering very close.

• 1:19:46Adam Buxton?

  Uh, because we've got the wind at our backs now with a big rain cloud at our heels, I would say just a few hundred yards away, it is pissing it down. So, uh, yeah, we'll head back, even though we've got blue sky over us right now. Feels like there's a lot to tell you about, but I'm gonna keep it brief and say instead that there's still time to get questions in for my Q and A episode, first one that I've ever done on this podcast. If you want to ask me anything at all, send your questions in to the address that you'll

• 1:20:25Adam Buxton?

  find in the description of today's podcast. And probably towards the end of this current run, in a few weeks, we'll put that episode out. And if it goes well, then it'll be part of a new Patreon subscription area that we are working on. When I say we, I mean Diggery Wait and myself and Claire Broughton from Hat Trick, who have been helping me along with Seamus, as usual, over the last few weeks with the podcast. Alright, I should wrap up, but I just wanted to remind you quickly. About the Adam Buxton Band's last two shows from the tour in London,

• 1:21:07Adam Buxton?

  Hoxton Hall on the 23rd and 24th of June, that's quite soon. And don't forget the Bug David Bowie special at the Lightroom. 17th of June is sold out, but there are still tickets for shows on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of July. This is a somewhat enhanced version of the Bug David Bowie special with extra projection effects for some of the sections to cover the walls of the Lightroom. It's gonna be fun.

• 1:21:39Adam Buxton?

  Don't forget to explore Success Pod. I think you'll enjoy it. I hope you will.

• 1:21:46Adam Buxton?

  I really enjoyed doing it and I'm happy with the way it's turned out.

• 1:21:52Adam Buxton?

  If you do enjoy it, and now I am going to sound like a parody of one of the people on Success Pod, but please share your enthusiasm with everyone you know. Everything is numbers driven these days and the more people that check it out and enjoy it, the likelier it is that I'll get to do more.

• 1:22:15Adam Buxton?

  So yes, if you do enjoy it and you have time, give it all the stars and nice comments that you can muster. I appreciate it. And that's why I am now about to lean in for Am Creepy Hug. Watch out. Hey, how's it going? Good to see you.

• 1:22:34Adam Buxton?

  Get inside before it starts pelting. And until next time, you and I share the same outer space. Please take care because it's nuts out there and for what it's worth, I love you.