Joe Wilkinson interview

Joe Wilkinson has been busy creating comedy... TV, radio and live stand-up: he's performing across all mediums this autumn. We chat to the charming comic to find out more...

Hi Joe. Thanks for chatting to us. You're touring your stand-up show "My Mum's Called Stella And My Dad's Called Brian" this October and November. It's about not a lot?

Basically the premise of the show is that I haven't really done anything that interesting in my life. My parents are very nice - my dad isn't an alcoholic and my mother isn't wayward - so I don't really have an interesting back story to my life. I've just had a very nice, normal upbringing.

I haven't been travelling, I haven't got married, I haven't got any kids... so I talk about why, and what I have been doing. It's glamorising the ordinary I guess. I haven't got married because I think people dread going to weddings, and I talk about the reasoning behind that. Weddings are an honour to be invited to obviously, but they're a pain in the arse really aren't they?

Whilst people have been climbing Everest, I've been sorting out my wardrobe.

Ha ha. Your stage persona creates smiles and laughs from the audience without you even having to say anything. How have you developed that style?

I guess there's an element of 'the loser' about the way I do stand-up. It's never been a deliberate choice to come across that way though! When I first did stand-up I tried it in the way that I thought would be most me really... With most stand-ups, I think what you see on stage is actually a version of who they really are really, to a degree. But, no, never a deliberate choice to be downbeat... unfortunately it's the way I am! Ha ha.

But hopefully you're not really like Dan, the popular but rather weird character you play in hit BBC Three sitcom Him & Her?!?

Oh, God, no! Well, I hope not anyway. Dan is a character who, if I'm totally honest, I've based on someone I've met. He's a lovely person but does lack self confidence. I'd never say that to him, because it'd be really horrible to find out you've had a 'loser' character based on you.

My mum did ask if, in the second series, they could clean me up a bit... but they didn't allow me to do that. Unfortunately I'm contractually obliged to grow my hair and my beard for three months before filming begins. My girlfriend tends not to be around as much during that period.

Series 2 starts shortly. What can fans expect?

I never know what I'm allowed to tell people. One thing I will say is that when I read through the script I was really blown away by how everything had moved on. Stefan Golaszewski, the writer, did a brilliant job on the first series, but I think the second series is particularly good. He's obviously learnt more about the characters, and understands them inside out now.

The new series has still got the same ethos, but there's a lot more happening and there's a couple of brilliant storylines that I probably shouldn't talk about yet... but I can say that Dan is maybe in the middle of a love triangle.

I haven't actually seen it yet. I'm going to see it at a screening soon - I'll phone you back if it turns out to be rubbish. Ha ha. No, it's going to be great, obviously. I loved the first series but I feel Stefan's gone even further this time - I'm really proud to be involved in the show.

You've been popping up on a number of panel shows recently. We thought you were great on Have I Got News For You by the way - a tough show to do a good job on. Are these appearances off the back of Him & Her, or were they always in the pipeline?

I think it's a combination of a lot of things. Him & Her clearly has had an impact. I think when you do stand-up you are on people's radar as to whether they think you're funny or not, but then there's this awful sort of 'profile' game. Doing something like Him & Her gets your profile up, and they go 'oh, we can put him on that now because people will recognise him'.

What you do live, they're going to book you on the strength of that - but with these things they do tend to require a certain profile too... does that make sense? It's sort of: 'oh yeah he's funny... but who the bloody hell is going to know who he is?' When you do something like a sitcom people can then go, 'ah, ok, we can use him now'. I think being in Him & Her defintiely helps. It all goes hand-in-hand really. I'd like to say I did an amazing gig to get a TV job, but it's more 'ah, we'll use him now'. Ha ha.

Not only are you on telly, you're on radio too. Two Episodes Of Mash, the Radio 2 sketch show you write and perform with Diane Morgan, has just returned...

Yeah, same premise as the pilot: myself and Diane dicking around. We've got a bit more of a storyline now though. One of the major factors in the series is we've got David O'Doherty joining us, which is amazing. He basically plays our technician - an utterly useless one, and I think that marries really well. He does all the music and we basically treat him like crap. Ken Bruce is in it too! He's our boss in it, and we're terrified of him.

So, yeah, same sort of premise as before - sketches and a bit of a running story - but now with the wonderful David O'Doherty and Ken Bruce as our stooges. I still can't believe they agreed to do it. We must have asked them when they were hungover or something.

'Two Episodes Of Mash' is on Radio 2 at 10pm on Saturdays. 'Him & Her 2' is coming soon to BBC Three. To find out more about Joe's stand-up show and see tour dates click here