Henry Normal set up Baby Cow Productions with Steve Coogan, co-wrote the Royle Family, Coogan’s Run and Mrs Merton and produced Gavin & Stacy and Red Dwarf. He’s been a central plank in British comedy since the early ‘90s and, throughout it all, developed his own stage show built around poems and stories. He’s touring the UK with Brian Bilston. This podcast is full of hard-won insight into what makes comedy work and how the best poetry connects with “a greater truth”. And much besides including …

… what middle-class BBC execs wanted to change about the Royle Family and why it worked as it was.

… touring with John Cooper Clarke “who lived by a cemetery and had egg custard for breakfast”.

… putting on a Pensioners’ Disco, aged 14, that featured The March of The Mods played at 33.

... the influence of Roger McGough and the Liverpool poets.

… how, apart from the Office, American versions of British comedies mostly fail to get the point.

… seeing Juicy Lucy at the Nottingham Boat Club when he was 17.

… what made Spike Milligan’s Small Dreams Of A Scorpion so original.

… working with Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash and the Guardian’s first review – “three middle-class writers”.

… how to structure spoken word shows – “salad rather than soup”.

… and reflections about Mr Inbetween, Derry Girls, Clive James and Norman Gunston.

Get tickets for Henry Normal and Brian Bilston here: https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/henry-normal

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