THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.274 - HARRY ENFIELD

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

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 - 2026 (Audible)Conversation recorded face-to-face in London on 6 April, 2026SUBMIT QUESTIONS FOR Q&A EPISODE: [e-mail] to Diggory Waite and Claire Broughton at Hattrick and Séamus Murphy Mitchell for production support.Podcast illustration by Helen GreenUPCOMING SHOWSADAM BUXTON BAND @ Hoxton Hall, London, 23 & 24 June, 2026 (Eventim)BUG BOWIE SPECIAL @ The Lightroom, London, 17 June, 2-4 July, 2026 (Lightroom)LATITUDE 2026 Line Up and day splits (Adam Buxton Band on Friday 24 July, 2026)ADAM BUXTON PODCAST LIVE WITH MAWAAN RIZWAAN @ Roundhouse, London, 5 April, 2026 (Roundhouse)RELATED LINKSHARRY ENFIELD & NO CHUMS TOUR 2026DESERT ISLAND DISCS with Harry Enfield - 1997 (BBC)HARRY ENFIELD AND NO CHUMS Review of Harry's 2026 live show - 2026 (Guardian)REVISIONIST HISTORY - THE SATIRE PARADOX - 2016 (Pushkin website)SINKING GIGGLING INTO THE SEA Jonathan Coe on satire - 2013 (London Review of Books)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 - 2014 (YouTube)WHERE'S THE BLOKE Harry and Paul with Catherine Shepherd - 2011 (YouTube)THE WRITER AND THE LANDLADY (Complete) Harry and Paul (YouTube)SAW YOU COMING Ruddy Hell! It's Harry And Paul - 2008 (YouTube)THE SURGEONS  Harry and Paul Compilation (YouTube)RICKY GERVAIS Harry and Paul (YouTube)THE SELF RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS Harry Enfield and Chums - 1994 (YouTube)ANGRY COUPLE IN CAR Harry Enfield And Chums - 1994 (YouTube)THE PALACE OF RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE Harry Enfield's Television Programme - 1990 (YouTube)HARRY ENFIELD'S NORBERT SMITH - A LIFE - 1989 (YouTube)FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE Channel 4, including Stavros and Loadsamoney - 1988 (YouTube) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Buxton I'm a man I want you to enjoy this that's the plan Hey, how are you doing, Podcats? It's Adam Buxton 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 doggie bed,

with her nose tucked between her furry paws. 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. A 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. 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 favorite previous podcast guests. Louis Thoreau, Sam Campbell, Jessica Napet, Romish, Ranganathan, Kathy 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. 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 SuccessPod that way with the trial.

But if you are already an audible member, SuccessPod comes free with your subscription. I'm going to be talking to Louis Theroux in a forthcoming episode of this podcast about... Whoa! So hard to see those guys when they're hiding in the grass. Yes, I'll be talking to Louis about SuccessPod, 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. Welcome back to SuccessPod. My guest today is the French maker and creativity thought leader, Kirk Browtrunk. Yeah. Kirk, what do you think is the job of Creativity? The job of creativity is to be dangerous.

It's to terrify you. Failure and success. There are two cheeks of the same. Can I say this? The same horse. The same horse. The same horse because if you're... The two cheeks of the same horse.

Horse. Horse. It's a A-R-S-E. Horse. Ars. 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 the whole ass vibrates with the creative energy of that. I just understood what you were saying. Yeah. The two cheeks, like Beotox,

of the same ass. The two cheeks of the same ass. And one is failure, blam, one is success, blam, but its creativity is the hand that is slapping them. You can't just have one cheek because then everything would fall out.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. And I'm saying it very well. After the break, I'll be asking Kirk if creativity can take the place of surgery. There you go, that's Yandrew, who is the host of SuccessPod, the show within the show, Adam Buxton's SuccessPod. And he was talking to Kirk Brow Trunk, played by Kieran Hodgson, one of the excellent performers I was lucky enough to work with on SuccessPod. 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 Fax. Harry was born Henry Richard Enfield in Horsham, West Sussex, in the south of England, in 1961. 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 4's topical comedy program, week-ending, Harry joined the cast of comedic voice talent on the satirical TV puppet show, Spitting Image. But it was in 1986, on Channel. Channel 4's comedy showcase Saturday Live, then frequently hosted by stand-up comedian and young one's writer Ben Elton, that Harry broke through to a wider audience after appearing regularly 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 There you go. It's another one. In 1989, Harry got to make Norbert Smith a life, an elaborate television profile of a fictional actor in the style of arts program, 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. There's a link to that show, as well as lots of other clips that I'm going to. to mention in the description of this podcast. In 1990, Harry was given his own BBC sketch show Harry Enfield's television program with a cast that also featured the talents of Harry's long-time friend and creative collaborator Paul Whitehouse, as well as multi-talented actor, writer and theatre director Kathy Burke, who, as well as popping up in Success Pod, will also be on this podcast soon, talking about her excellent memoir, a mighty

of her own. Harry Enfield's television program returned in subsequent series as Harry Enfield and Chums, a title that nodded at the importance of Harry's collaborators with whom he created characters like smashy and nicie, pop tabulas. The slobs, I'm smoking, eh fag. The scouses. Oh, hey-ho, he-hoy. No, it 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 2000s, the British TV comedy landscape had shifted. And the success of Ricky Jervais and Stephen Merchant's sitcom, The Office, shot and performed in naturalistic documentary style, made a lot of 90s comedy look rather quaint by comparison. TV had become a multi-channel digital shopping mall

with internet platforms poised to fracture the audience's attention even further. I'm writing my tits off here. I didn't use Claude for this, by the way. This is 100% 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 Williams' show Little Britain

were part of what encouraged him to return to TV comedy. in 2007, reunited with Paul Whitehouse, and this time sharing equal billing as Harry and Paul. Over four series, up to 2012, Harry and Paul's shows spawned characters like Marcus, who sells overpriced tat to clueless trustafarians from a shop called Saw You Coming, and the surgeons, representing one of Harry and Paul's favorite areas for satire, the aging British upper classes. How long have you been with your wife? 40, 45 years, 40, 45. 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, 2014's The Story of the Two's made as part of BBC Two's 50th anniversary celebrations, and The Love Box in Your Living Room from 2022, 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 programs from the preceding decades, 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,

never mind 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. As well as talking about our respective cringy behaviour as adolescence, 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 Chrissy Hind,

when he said he would rather be pro-fox hunting than be one of the hypocritical meat-eathing. as calling for a ban on the practice. Oh, it's windy now. Harry's position provoked Chrissy Hind 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. 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 eyefall of Harry's Crown Julees back at the end for some brief waffle but right now with Harry Enfield here we go

Adam How you doing Harry Adam Buxton off the podcast It's very nice to be here thank you for having me Oh man I'm delighted you're here This is something we've talked about

Off and on for a Off and on A little while Yes we have But I'm really glad to have pinned you down. Well, thank you for pinning me down. On a public holiday, too. Yeah.

This is Easter Monday. No, you've dated the program. Easter Monday, 26. How's that for dating the program? Yeah. Carbon dated. What if someone wants to listen to it in two years' time? And they go, I can't listen to that.

Well, that's their problem. I am a big believer in dating everything quite specifically. Okay. 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. No, I don't actually. That was one of those lovely things

when Desert Island Discs went online for the first time. Yeah. 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 on a holiday summer. And I'd listened to a couple.

And I thought, oh my God, so good going back and listening to Ruthie Rogers and Michael Magintar, 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 my God, I'm really glad I never knew you then. 1997 you were on. Really? I haven't actually listened to that one.

No, I haven't since he said that. I'm really glad. Did he give you any specific info about... I didn't ask him any. He just looked at me like, you're pathetic. What would you have been like back in? I mean, you were... 97.

You were big by then. You were huge. You had had a massive decade of... Yes, that was my swan song. Yeah, pretty much non-stop hit after hit after hit TV shows. Yes. You were on top. And so Desha Island Dix was...

That was the end of my career. Then I went on that and everybody who'd ever like me listened to it. That was me done. I've got to listen to it. I've got to find out. No. White killed your career. I don't know.

What would you have been like then, though? Can you remember? Probably quite optimistic. I know it was Sue Lawley because she did me and she was very nice. And then a few weeks later she did Paul. Paul Whitehouse. Yes. And she was so flirty with.

I was a bit jealous. So flirting. And it was like listening to Love Macon on BBC 4. Why was she so attracted? She likes a bit of rough. A likes a bit of rough. Someone with a cheeky accent. A cheeky sort of cockneyy sounding fellow.

Did you sound posh, do you think, when you went on me? Probably. I don't know. Your accent is a little... Is it changed much more? 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 10 years, won't I? You know? And then I sort of grew up a bit. But did you start out being a bit more nice middle class boy from Horsham, Sussex? Yes, exactly. Horsham. I feel like there's some strange coincidences in our lives that I feel connect us beyond my appreciation for your work, which is considerable.

And Lisa's s' ****. Lisa's if you're out there, was a girlfriend of mine in the mid-80s. And it 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. One time I got a pretty long lecture from Lisa's mom. Yeah, yeah.

Well, quite right. Absolutely. But how old are you? 16 or something? 17. I mean, none of us are great at that age. No. You know, settling down with a nice girl, it's not our priority in life, is it?

Yeah, that's true. You know, for you it was the Pixies and things like that, wasn't it? I was very interested in the Pixies, David Bowie, films. Me and Joe. The Cure, did you like The Cure? I like The Cure, yeah. Robert Smith, went to the same Catholic junior school as my friend Dave Cummings. Oh, yeah.

Who I wrote Kevin and Perry with her, who was in Delamitri. Was he in Delamitri? Yes, and Lloyd Cole and the Commusians. He was guitarist. Dave Cummings was? Yes. Wow. He was in Delamitri, I promise.

I wrote a horrible review of a Delamitri gig, I think. Really? You probably said the guitar is awful. And that was Dave coming. I apologize, Dave. Well, that's all right. It deserves you right for writing a review. But just in their singer, when I first met him, that was at a party.

And the first thing he said to me was, I hear your mom's a cunt. 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 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 mom's a cunt on it so I wore that badge that was how I dressed up and how old are you 15 something I suppose and uh of course I'd forgotten completely about that but Dave hadn't and Dave had told this story much better than I've just told it because his dad was Irish well his parents were Irish so he was very good at the long

story and he'd obviously told it to Delamitri and they'd remembered it So this is like 20 years later, you've got the singer of this band saying, I hear your mum's account. At 15, I don't think I definitely would not have done that about my mum. I don't think I would have worn that. No. Well, I'm afraid I didn't have any boundaries,

and I don't really still. I'm not very good at boundaries. Oh, really? Whose thought was that? I think Catholic boarding school with Benedictine monks, things like that. You know, teachers who were tossers, Okay.

Really. And the hypocrite. They pushed you too far in the wrong direction. I mean, that's the thing about teachers, isn't it? You know, you get some very good, from my experience and probably yours, 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 sort of rebellious nature, doesn't it? Combined that with a Benedictine monk. Yes. And how did they end up there with the little paddles to spank your bottom with? Did you get paddled by some monks?

Yes, nasty little monks. Oh, mate. So in a way we have possibly the mugs to thank for your temperament. No, I don't think so. No, you're not connecting those dots? No, I hate the idea of that. I'd give them credit for nothing, those vile people. What were your parents like, though?

Did you get on okay with them? No, they thought I was awful. Oh, in what way? Well, I was just, you know, because I went to the school with the bigger boys, and I all talked like that. Dave, well, Ted Cummings, his Dave's brother, you know, he talked right that, and Fat Boy's Finn and all these people. In fact, Fat Boy had already been in.

expelled. Fat boy. Yeah, fat boy. He'd been expelled for calling Mr. Green a green scaly reptile. And I saw him recently and he looked at me really affronted. I said, I didn't call him a green scaly reptile. I chanted it. Green scaly reptile. Green scy reptile. And he did it exactly as he'd done it then. Full of pride. Anyway. But you ended up being okay with your folks. Is right? Yes. Like your dad, he sort of joined your media world for a while. Yes. What happened, I think, Adam, is how old are you? Do you mind me asking? I'm 57. Okay, so I'm 4, 5, 6, 7 years older than you. Actually, I'm nearly 57. I'm 1969. Yeah, so I'm 61. And suddenly punk happened, that was the big thing. So I'd arrived at this school, the local school with local boys

are going, give me a row. Give him a fucking row. you were so baby-faced. Yeah. Hello, I'm Harry and I'm 15 years and two months. Give me a fucking rattle. Give him a wrestle. And 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, Pears, Dave Perry or Pears, he'd missed the train home to Crawley and it was raining. So he'd have to come back and there was the debating society.

was on, because I was 15 and very keen on things, I was at the debating society and Mr. Slinn, the headmaster, was adjudicating. And the thing was, I think there should be freedom of speech in school or something. And I saw Peirce there and thought, I'm going to oppose this. And Peirce was just sitting there, like, looking really pissed off because he missed the train and had to come to this stupid debating 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. Nice. I became their friend. Yes. Harry smuggled some filth into the debate. 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 and Ted's 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 bus clubs. Oh, wow. All sorts of people. How exciting.

So, yeah. What was your first gig? My first gig was Courtney Rebel in 75. So you're going, yeah. What were the things that a small world that you were going to talk about many? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's Courtney Rebel. We can come back to music later on.

because we are both music fans and I like music chat. I know you like music. Okay, the coincidences in my mind are the fact that my dad was born in Horsham. Was he? Yeah. When was he born? He was born in 1994. Oh, okay, yes.

A little bit before you. Yes, my dad was 1929, but he was born in London. 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, At the age of 11, I finished with the village school and started at Colliers, a 16th century Mercer's 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.

Quite right. And you also went to colliers. I did, but by then it had been comprehensiveized. Right, okay. But yes, it was in the same building. I would have walked the same corridors as your hallowed to dad. Yeah, isn't that mad? Isn't that crazy?

Wow. Yeah, he was teased for suddenly being a grammar school boy, which was very posh. Well, he would have done them, having a cap. Yeah, yeah. We had a tie, you know, but all schools did then. Right. Yeah, that was like 76, yeah. And then did you go to boarding school?

That was before. That was before. That was worth for boarding school for two years. Is that what your parents were like? Were they determined to make you into a good upper middle class boy? Yes. Well, they hoped I would be because my dad said, I am of the generation that slumbers.

Okay. Because he worked for the local council. Well, in the education department. but then he wrote a thing one day I just read at Oberyn Waugh'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 ruin my life so I said well why don't you and about a month later he sent me this big letter through the post say 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 Ingrams, who was just starting the oldie magazine. And Richard published it, word for words, and gave him a column. So he sort of got a second career. Oh, that's right. So this was late 90s, wasn't it? Yeah, midnight. Oh, early 90s. Actually, about 93.

Okay, okay. Yeah. So he got a new sort of lease of life. Was he grateful to you for that? Did he enjoy that? Yes, he was. Yeah. He was grateful.

My dad really enjoyed being a minor celebrity, having appeared in our TV show. Yes. And also he was a musician, your dad, wasn't he? 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.

Ah, maybe that's what I thought he could sing. 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 because 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 sort of utopian liberal prep school. And here they were in the lovely restored chapel where the carol service was happening every Christmas. And then 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. In the deep midwinter. Except it was quite, his voice was quite,

High. And the deep mid went. Do you miss him? I do, actually. I miss him more and more in a weird way. When did he die? 2015. I was still very young.

2015. He was old. 87? Is that? 19. Nearly 92. Yeah. 26.

Oh, I suppose he was, yes. Yeah. Sorry, 24. Yeah. So I do really miss him. And there's so much, you just, the older you get,

the more you just want to put the puzzle pieces together, or you think that maybe they have the answers to some of your weird hang-ups. Do you know what I mean? That's the way I think about it. Do you think that way? No. I don't miss my dad.

I should do. I mean, I do miss him, but I don't regret him. He was 89 when he snuffed it. 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.

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

Uh-huh. Good point. There is a good point to that. Yeah, man. That's the good old days. I'm not big on the internet. You are. I worry about you.

Well, I do. I think, oh, God, you know, you must be at home. And where's daddy? Oh, he's with his other lover, the internet. And he's out there going, looking up a obscure records and saying, it's true, isn't it? I do use it a lot. It's a good tool, but I am wary of it.

How many hours a day do you spend on the internet and the World Wide Web? And are you on Instagram and all that? I have an account on Instagram. Do you do X Twitter? Is it still Twittering? I call it twittering, but it's X, isn't it? I came off Twitter in 2020. I have never used my Instagram account.

I'm on YouTube. Some people would consider that to be social media, but I very seldom. You're very funny on YouTube. In fact, I had a DVD of all your best internet. Oh, okay. Adam Buxton's old bits. Yes, Adam Buxton's old bits.

And that was like, it's the lovely thing about comedy yeah it's 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 because we were pissing ourselves and the other one was some dark place

which he'd never seen Garth Marangy's dark place and I said you have to watch this I'm nothing to do with that no you're nothing to do that I'm just saying about bonding with my son it's not all about you at oh fuck sorry about that I don't want to talk about stuff that isn't anything to do with me Pete Show, still nothing to do with me

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Pete Show So those are your big bonding things What about the Bush? Those are the ones I really Oh yeah, I mean, but the Bush was It happened at the time Yeah So that was sort of slightly different

This was like discovering things That he hadn't seen Okay You know, mining Mining for gold Yeah, man That's what we call it Well, I've had a similar experience

With my children In fact, I wrote about it in my first memoir, a moment with my son when he was around 16, 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 shit bag.

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 13. 13. And suddenly he transforms into the nightmare version of Kevin. Having been the sweet little brother. Yes.

Saying, uh, I do show that little bit on my tour, actually. I genuinely thought that. my son would find it funny and would go, okay, I see, I see what I look like to you. 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 a cool move, Dad.

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. Because I do understand it. One day, you know, they slightly get a crush on someone of their own generation, and they realize how old you are.

There's nothing you can do about it, and you just have to back off for a bit. And, you know, but, yeah, I've had that. My children looking at me like you're a massive tit. You really are. Right, let's go again. 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.

I like this. No. Seriously, man. You and me, we're fucking done professionally. Here's another coincidence. Oh, yes. Speaking of dads. Yes.

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 L.A. And he was sat next to Chrissy Hind. Oh, lovely Chrissy. And after a while, she asked to be moved. Really? Yeah.

Maybe he was eating beef? Well, that's possible, yeah, I guess. Because in first class, they'd give you like a Chateaubriand, something nice. Yeah, that's true. And she would not like to be next to the smell of that. Yeah, he loved a steak. So I'd never considered that possibility. Why is that a coincidence?

Because I know that she got in touch with you to tear you off a strip about something you wrote or something? Spirma the Devil, she called me. What was that? Oh, it was so nice. It was the time when Labour were banning fox hunting and I'd written her 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 you people who dress up in this gear. It felt to me like a class war thing, which I'd never particularly like. But anyone who eats meat enjoys killing animals for pleasure. They just don't like to see it. You know, I'm sure there were lots of Nazis who just didn't never want to visit,

concentration camp, but it didn't make them nicer people than other Nazis. So anyway, I'd sort of written a piece about that. Yeah, okay. 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, I said, Dear Christy, I've literally kissed every word. I saw you at the Perliodian in 1979, and here's your plectrum,

because I still had her plexrum 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. Right. How were you able to mend the fence then? 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. So she's like, oh, that's okay, then you're not sperm of the devil. Yeah. I'll table my fox hunting. Yeah, but it wasn't really, I think it was, I don't mind her being anti-finding. something because she's a vegan. Yeah.

But, or a vegetarian or whatever. But I, I kind of, it always leaves a nasty taste in my mouth banning things, you know, whether it's smoking or. Are you a libertarian? Not, no, I don't know. But there are things I'd probably be stronger on, like litter bugs I would shoot in the street.

Whereas smoking, I don't think, you know, it's up to people. There's something about labor that I, 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 sort of feel that, really. So 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. Yes. Going around stopping a bunch of people, whoever they are.

You don't like the nanny state. Yeah, I don't not a nanny state, do I. I fucking do like the nanny states. I just think there are things to be nannies, and foxes aren't one of them. Yeah, okay. 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.

Yeah, also I don't agree with the idea. 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 going to give them human feelings, then be a cow going to the equivalent of Auschwitz with its brothers and sisters. 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.

Well, that's it. You see, now you're just being bland about it. The kind of thing your father would have been disappointed. That's true, actually. Yeah, yeah. 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. You're a peacemaker, aren't you? I guess so. And I agree. But there's a fine line between peacemaker and appeaser, isn't there?

That's the problem. I, yes. And I think that for me, you see, I think life is grey. It's not black and white. Yeah. And I celebrate life for being grey. So if you have to say, okay, fox hunting is everyone who fox hunting 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 yeah 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 that you know if i write on the internet harry nfield's a wanker and i get 50 likes then oh i've got 50

50 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. 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's mischief, not malice. So anyone who says, you can't say that, you can't do that. I said, well, is it malicious?

and what I'm doing. And there are lots of people, you know, I think someone like Stuart Lee, 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. Which bits are you thinking of

when you think about him being malicious? Oh, he did a thing once about Ben Elton, who I think's 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, Ben, I'm misquoting it.

but you know, his people go to see where he'll slag someone of Ricky Jervais he slagged off for a long time. You've done some funny sketches about Javees

that made me think maybe... Yes, I have, but they're not malicious. No, but they felt pointed. Yeah, we did one where Paul and I were trying to be more like Ricky Javis.

Uh-huh. But so that we could be more popular. But the deconstruction... But we didn't have any... You know, he had friends like David Bowie and all we could get was Nigel Farage. Yeah.

before he was, you know. But then there was another sketch where you sort of deconstructed the office and reduced it to like, you know, gives look to camera, Hobbit says something. Yeah. Hobbit. You know, he did, yes. Was that affectionate? Yes, I think so.

I love the office. Do you know, Ricky Javez? No, I've met him once on the Heath. And did he? 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 would never be malicious about someone in my humour, I hope. Although there's mischievous, you see exactly what you've said, Hobbit this, that's mischief. Okay, okay. And, you know, because I love the office. I did stop for a bit after the office, because 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. differently. You felt that it had changed comedy and people's appetites for comedy sufficiently that you didn't fit anymore. Yeah, and for funny ha-ha-ha, studio audience and... You felt irrelevant.

Yeah. I felt right, that's my zeitgeist is over. 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. Uh-huh. That made me think, oh, well, maybe we could be silly again, you know. But you could always be silly.

How, that, the stuff you did towards... I don't know it. I found it so impossibly cool, the office in a way, and also what Armando was doing. Yeah, okay. 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 Morris and everyone. Yeah. But the sharpest bits of the story of the twos, for example,

Paul are exactly the kind of things that those people do. 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, you know, write up my street that I would really want to watch like that. I don't have the skill to do that. I don't have the skill to write a sitcom like that. Is it something you would want to do, though, if you could? 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. Yeah. Some of the characters, particularly that, do you remember the argumentative couple, the married couple who are sniping at each other? Still married after all these years. Yeah. And it's, it's vicious and painful. Was that the atmosphere when you were growing up?

I don't think so. No. You know, I've seen it, though, in other people, and you think, gosh, you're unhappy. Yeah. 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 we... She goes the wrong way on the map. But the poor son is in the back. David. We end up at a dead end. So I drive up to a dead end. And 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. Which was Paul's line. And he thought, God, that's so cruel. 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. Most marriages probably go through that stage. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Or did. 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? I love dark. Okay. I don't know why.

Well, it's the thing that fear, I suppose, dark horror films, you know, it's all related. Yeah. Because that sketch, there's so much tragedy in it, not to be too serious about it. But obviously, the 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 sun is there and they're arguing over who loves the sun

more and meanwhile this poor son is growing up in this atmosphere. I remember when Harry Potter started I made a real pitch to David Heyman saying please can I play because I'd read them to my son already I really want to be Mr Dursley and I want Julius St John

who played my wife to be Mrs Dersley I think we'd be perfect Yeah, that would have been good He sort of looked at me like No, we've already got Richard Griffiths That's it But I just remember reading it Thinking oh god, yes

That's our couple of these people You know, it's like taking something off the page And making it more real Yeah You know, just giving it a reality I mean the old Gits were vicious But it was so cartoonish Yes

They were really really Yeah I think the eyes saw you coming Was the only other one I've done vicious, who was on the Harry and Paul thing, who had a shop in Notting Hill. Yeah. It was just so misogynist. He was horrible. And cynical, like, well, I was going to say, actually, that I heard you talking in an

interview in 1990, and you were promoting the first series of the Harry Enfield 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, which in the end you didn't do. You kind of stuck with your core. Pretty much, yeah. I think actually Graham and Arthur wrote a couple of things. Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews.

And also Charlie Higson and Paul Whitehouse. I mean, Charlie and Paul. They were the core team. They were all guys. 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. And yet, 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. Absolutely. Total hypocrite. Like the surgeons.

Yes. And it's funny, though, I do them on tour and people like them. Well, surgeons. Because I thought. They have a sort of charm to them, I think. Yeah. And that's what people like. Also, because I don't think it matters whether it's a person you know.

Those characters are, there's something intrinsically relatable about the way you do them. Just, just in my defense, slightly. By the way, I wasn't accusing you of hypocrisy. 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 N. Fiddle and Chums and that sort of stuff it was like gosh we'd been off at a television show you know I was 29 a sketch show there'd been a few sketches since sort of not 9 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 catch phrases so the kids do it get through the playground because everyone only have 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 is funny? We think the writer and the landlady is someone going, Splem. I'm a... I know. And a salad of confectionery. Oh. With mintibles, bumgum. And me being an aunt lady, sort of going, oh. Oh.

You know, it just made us giggle. And so, yeah, niche. Yeah, I love it. Who else is churning out the characters that are still so memorable? I think I was very lucky at them 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 there were 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 was 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. Yeah. So it's a very different environment than things. Yeah. I was lucky. But when you started doing it, was it like all your peers? Did you all take off at the same time?

Did you meet Louis? Was that at school or university? Met Louis at school. Right. So we met Louis when we would have been 12 or 13. 13, I think. And he always seemed like he was going to 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 kind of satire paper. And then he got a job with Michael Moore doing TV Nation, this sort of political prank show. 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 yeah if you got any ideas and he was so supportive yeah with us it was great it's funny I was I was talking about him

the other day saying I wonder you know on his deathbed where they'll go well was life worth well I've met so many horrible people I've platformed so many months So many awful, dreadful people, how that would feel. I don't know. 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 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. And he was interested in them. And he wanted to know what made them tick. Yeah, what makes them. I mean, that's the only way forward, really, isn't it? If you just say, well, they're bastards. Yeah.

And there's nothing you can do for the world. Yes. Yes, please. Yep. Ten years ago, I listened to a podcast with you and Malcolm Gladwell. Oh, yes. 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? 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. It was a good listen. I don't really like listening to my own voice saying. Okay. Of course I would listen to this. Well, it did strike me as unusual.

I was like, oh, I don't hear Harry Nfield 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, prioritised getting a laugh over having the courage to make an actual political point. And he talks a lot about Tina Faye on Saturday Night Live, who had been doing Sarah Palin around the elections in 2008 when Sarah Palin was running

as the vice president to John McCain. Yes. And, you know, it was a big deal, her impression of Sarah Palin. and it became really popular on S&L, and up to the point where they actually got the real Sarah Palin to come on. Oh. And it was all quite sort of collegiate and friendly and jockey, jokey. But there were a lot of people who were very upset and outraged by what Sarah Palin represented.

Yes, the prospect that she would... Yeah, the prospect that she would become the vice president was genuinely alarming 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 A good bloke

A good sort of, yeah, like the sort of Farage factor You know, Farage definitely benefited From a lot of people thinking, oh, he seems fun And yeah, it seems like a fun guy to have a drink with Well, that was our fault 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 kind of, the kind of, especially political satire, people doing funny impressions of monstrous political figures or whatever, and it ends up having the effect of making them quite approachable and non-threatening. Yeah, that sounds right. That sounds a good theory. Yeah. I'm glad he made that. I seem to remember when I did it, I mean, I haven't changed my opinion, which is,

I probably did it because I did spitting image for a few years from the 80s. and Mrs. Satcher was elected three times while Spitting Image was on. And the newspapers all the time ago, spitting mad, they've gone too far this time. You know, they've always these headlines. People go, what's it like being on the most dangerous show? And then Maggie gets in again, and then John Major get in. And then Spitting Image got the Queen's Award for Industry, I think. And that made me realize, you know, that actually,

It doesn't really change anything. And also people were, when I was doing loads of money, 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. It's a very middle-class lefty thing to say, well, when he realized that the very people he was satirising loved it, he was horrified and stopped.

It's just absolute rubbish. It's patronising rubbish. You know, it's like I did the scousers who were, you know, thieving swearing, scouses, basically based on Brookside. But then all the scouses, 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. 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've based 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 I find terribly frustrating you know 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'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, you know, like having the piss taken out of them. And exactly like you're saying that Malcolm Gladwell was saying,

that if Sarah Palie, 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. Yeah. Then immediately that gets rid of it.

The thing is, you could spin it either way, really. You could say 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 joke 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. Yes. She was this kind of bully boy who was in charge of her party. Yes. And she ruled with an iron fist. And as we now know,

people are attracted to those kinds of personalities and politics. Yes, even when they're completely old like her. Yeah. Yeah. 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, Alvinanit 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. 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 making those bigots seem really quite sympathetic. Yes, okay. Well, you've cured me of my revisions. Here I am on the fence again. Yes, I want to ban these things. I'm playing both sides. 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 Neighbor that explore the issue somehow without what you're saying is quite, you know, till death us too 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. Yeah, yeah. And then, of course, you get these mad people saying we're living in woke Britain, you know, the lovely Liz Trust, people like that, saying, you know, my mission is to free woke Britain.

You think it's rubbish. It's nothing woke about this. You know, whatever they mean. I do think AI might be good at running the world. Because you look at these, you know, I've become a royalist recently. I've never really thought about it or cared about it. How did that happen? 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 he thought, my God, if that was our president, if that was our head of state. Yes. And then I thought, God, if Boris was our head of state or, you know,

it is. Have you met the king? No, I don't think he'd ever want to meet me. I've played him. You played him and you were aware of the fact that he thought the Windsors was a cruel show. Did that give you pause? No. I just think he's wrong about that. I think you could say that about the other one, the crown, because it pretends to be true. He doesn't come out well from the crown, Prince Charles. No, you could argue that the crown is prurie. Yes. But I think the winters 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. Yeah. Literally nothing. 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?

Oh God, yes. Love story. Love story. I haven't seen it. 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 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. Yeah. And how does this work? And I think the model now for a lot of the streaming platforms, especially, post baby reindeer.

Yes. Yeah. Is they just go, never mind. We'll take the hit. You know what I mean? Even if we're just going to make stuff up. Yes. And also, if people are dead, then they can't sue.

Yeah. And the royal family can't sue. You know, they have to be above all that stuff. Otherwise, they'll 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. Yeah.

It was a good film, by the way, do you? Yeah, but he doesn't come across as the person we know he is in it. You know. He didn't come across well. He didn't come across well, but Jeremy Strong comes across as worse. And, oh, you know, let's blame him for everything. This guy has no real personal responsibility. It's all the fault of this guy.

Well, actually, by the end of 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. There's a scene in it. You know how is it? Jeremy Strong's a method actor. And there was a disgusting drink. He had to drink at the end in the last program of succession.

But they're on holiday. That's right. They make the most revolting. And it was like, did you, because 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 tape. And there's a scene, a real.

really raunchy scene where he is being sexted upon by this gentleman in the club in that show. Yes, he plays Trump's lawyer. Yeah. Roy Cohn. Yeah. And he's being seriously, it looks very, very raunchy. And because he's a method actor, I want to know if that was part of the deal.

Whatever the part requires. Yeah, that's what I sort of imagined. But gosh, it looked quakey. Is that real melody? Have you seen my phone charger? What? I'd have it right down. Woof.

Did you see it? Have you got it? What? My charger gone. Who's my phone shot through it's about to die? It was on the table. Round and round in their heads There are the chord progressions,

the empty lyrics and the impoverished fragments of tune, and boom goes the brain box at the start of every bar at the start of every bar it's the brain box once you played an old git and now you are an old get how much of an old get are you

yeah it's a frame of mind isn't it being an old get I suppose so I suppose but they were like just naughty but I would genuinely shoot litter bugs.

Okay. You know, if I see someone just doing that. I agree with you. That is maddening. I think, okay, just kneel down, bullet in the head. Right. Yeah. 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. Okay. Glad to hear it. I think if you were confronted by... Oh, that's so sitting on the fence. You glad to hear it. 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. You don't know me well, Adam. Shoot them in the head. You're going to be armed. You'd see someone. What if it's just like a teenager? He's just come back from McDonald's. He's discarding the box in a hedgerow and a leafy. Yes, I'd go, excuse me, could you just kneel down? Take that now and put it in a bin. And then if he used a bunch of expletives, I'd say, oh, dear. I have to execute you. I'm afraid you're a bunch of, there's no mercy for you. I don't know. Have you ever confronted, what do we do about it? It's a bugger. No, never.

I'm too scared. Too cowardly. Dream of shooting them. And people who play really loud music with their windows open. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, this is a pretty standard old good stuff. 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, 50p to buy a race. And now he's just going to that record on Spotify. Yeah, when you say better, sort of more meaningful, more kind of, it felt spiritually nourishing somehow. It felt like that. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I definitely think I'm glad I didn't have a phone or a smartphone or anything. You know, I was very happy just cycling around, seeing my friends and swearing, going to see the buscocks. I think it is tough for the younger generation. They don't. I think they do. Oh, they do, actually. In some ways they do. They do.

They've got what mint and elfishies, isn't I? These days. That's true, they do. They can'ts. Post-COVID. But you, like me, I hope you don't mind me pointing this out, are a hat wearer at this at this point because we are both getting a little bit thin on top.

Yes. 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 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. Yes. So do you think I should go ahead? Because it felt like I thought well it's all over for me. It has been for years.

Because this was like 14, 50 weeks? 2008 or 2009? Oh, right. Okay. 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 don't look as bad as I thought I looked. But literally this morning, there's a place in promoter 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 I'm an old age of pensioner. And when we came out, my partner said, you don't have to take your hat off to do that. You can just say it. But I did get 32P off. It was £3.20.

It went down to £2. Win. And you wouldn't have made that saving if you'd had the transplant. I don't think I would have done. You wouldn't have been wearing a hat. No. You would have been proudly wearing around. There's so many things.

You know, where do you stop then? Because then there's the transplant. Then there's the teeth. The one I really liked was Dunga Ballotin. Dukkin Balletown. You said to me, you are Mielbarton Bowles. Got his walk in Manchester. I tell him, and he'll do it for you for free if he can use you for publicity.

And I thought, I did say, Ducky, you've got so much money. You get it for free. He said, I. Was that tempting at all? Mel Poppin Bowles. What have you? said it was Scotsman, male put and boss. Okay,

thank you. Did you think about it? No, I didn't. I was just brought up like, you know, my dad was sort of Bobby Charlton like by the age of 30 and I suppose I've been brought up to think that it's vanity and that vanity is a sin, I think.

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 50-year-old people used to look like. Isn't it insane 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 50s.

And they look about 30. Yes. I mean, I'm the same edge as George Clooney, I think. Uh-huh. You know, and he looks gorgeous and I look decrepit. But I don't mind. Yeah, do you not? I don't think so.

Would you advise me to just carry on? I think you should go with how you feel. And I certainly don't say to that chap, I thought the chap who said that was perfectly fine to say that. Yeah, yeah. I don't respect him less for having had it done. Absolutely not. You know, and women spend a fortune having their hair changed colour and this and that and the other.

You know, and why wouldn't you? Yeah. I'm genuinely conflicted. But I think as we've established, I'm conflicted about nearly everything. Yeah. What does your wife think? No, I have. She says, 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 10 years younger. And she's like, I honestly don't care. She swears blind that she doesn't care about you anymore.

That's why. I think you should. Oh, God. Do you really? Mm. Really? I think you look great. I told myself, I was going to 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. 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. Yeah. And your beard. You look pretty jazzy.

All right. I'm going to give it some more thought. Yeah. Over the years, you must have met some of your heroes in comedy and music. Who were some of the most satisfying and memorable people that you met? Well, yeah. I mean, I met George Harrison. It's amazing.

When did you meet him? In the 90s, he rang up one day and said, I'm having a party. Would you like to call him? It's like, what? Yeah. And Paul McCartney. And Paul McCartney see me naked. Oh, how come?

Well, yes, exactly. Oh. 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'd 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, peep, peep, peep, if you get it wrong, you know, a fingerprint one. Yeah. So I went and opened it for them.

And this was, oh, the door's been opened for me by a naked man. Oh, it's a naked hurry. How are you? You know, and say, oh, hi, yeah. And of course, what you can't do, because there's a beetle, you've got to be so cool. You can't put your hands in front of your private bits. Because that wouldn't be cool, would it? So you've got to put your hand in your thing and go, oh, yeah, how's it going?

I didn't know. Yeah, I've seen James here a couple of signs, that kind of shit. And then I went hang And he got home and said, Oh, Bacardi see me naked And he got home and said Yeah, I met Harry Enfield He just stood there showing me his cock

It was really weird Really weird Really big Couldn't believe how big it was Yeah Big and weird Continue Congratulations

You have been chosen You have been chosen To join us in our sexy bag For sex time. What? Did you mean to say that? I don't know. Is it okay with you if we get this promo back on track now?

Yeah, that's okay with me. Okay, good. Hi, this is James. And this is Julia. And we're the hosts of Julia and James just talking. What kind of stuff do we talk about, Julia? Oh, you know, the usual. Do you want to narrow it down a little bit?

I don't know. Julia and James just talking. New episodes drop every hour. 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. 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, you're going to 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 on stage, 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. He'll also find a link to a rave review of that show from The Guardian. All right, now I'm not going to waffle too long at the end here. Ah, look, there's the techno bird, Rosie, hovering very close. 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, 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 going to keep it brief and say instead that there's still time to get questions in for my Q&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 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, dig, Wight and myself and Claire Broughton from Hattrick, who have been helping me, along with Seamus, as usual, over the last few weeks with the podcast. All right, 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, 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 light room.

It's going to be fun. Don't forget to explore Success Pod. I think you'll enjoy it. will. I really enjoyed doing it and I'm happy with the way it's turned out. If you do enjoy it and now I am going to sound like a parody of one of the people on SuccessPod, 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. 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 an creepy hug. Watch out. Hey, how's it going? Good to see you. Get inside before it starts pelting. And until next time, you and I share the same out of space.

Please take care. because it's nuts out there. And for what it's worth, I love you. Bye!