Bradley Walsh's Comedy Legends

Bradley Walsh interview

Bradley Walsh is presenting a three-part series in which he looks at the best sitcoms, stand-up comedians and double acts that Britain has to offer.

You have been working in comedy for 40 years. What made you want to make this series?

I was asked originally if I liked the idea, and I did. Comedy has changed so much, and a lot of the great comedy legends have been lost in translation and sort of lost to the archives. Whereas you look at the comedians of today and how they're doing and, what they're doing, for example in America, and it's nice to show people how it was back in the day.

I quite like the fact that you can track how comedy used to be as well as how its changed. Speech patterns have changed, and poetry has changed, and I've really enjoyed rewatching the journey. That's a very old cliche thing to say, but I seriously have. I think it's been fantastic. I've thoroughly enjoyed that. I've enjoyed going back and watching some wonderful bits of archive.

I've even seen myself a couple of times - clips of me, as a young man. It's quite extraordinary looking back at myself thirty-odd years ago, like you're there again. It's very peculiar thing.

Could you have made this documentary series about how comedy works at any other point in your career?

I think I possibly could have, but looking back on it now, and chatting with the people I'm talking to about it; I just think that I've got so much more experience now. What I've been through in the industry - ups and the downs, you can add certain aspects to it. You can add salience to the points made as well. You can join in the conversation as opposed to just interview and listen - you can have banter back and forth with the interviewee. That's been very good, and I've thoroughly enjoyed that.

I interviewed Alison Steadman. It was about comedians back in the day and mostly about sitcoms, of course, because Alison has Gavin & Stacey. What was fantastic was how Alison alluded to the fact that she loved a very old vaudeville comic called Max Wall. He was so surreal for his day and really mad. I love the fact that she was talking about Max Wall. She tells us his jokes and she remembers going to see Max Wall as a young lady in her teens. She could remember a few of the jokes that she saw him do. She told me them and it really made me laugh because I loved him too. And people now say, "Who's Max Wall?" No one. No one, really, in this day and age would know. So getting to chat about these people, with people like Alison, it was really great!

And what made you want to get into comedy in the first place?

Well, I don't know. I don't really know. I was always the kid at school that was messing around and got told off for messing around. And when I was playing football for a living, I was always getting in trouble. I was always messing around in a football changing rooms. And then when I was in a factory working for Rolls Royce, I was always messing around. And then once I left that to get into the entertainment industry and become a blue coat, I got sacked from being the bloke that was messing around. I thought that was the job! In the end I thought to myself, "Why don't I just get paid for messing around?". That was a very conscious decision. So, I've got myself a routine together. I was a very physical comic, bit like Norman Wisdom, not so many jokes. I was a very physical comic. And that's where it all started...

You explore so many aspects of comedy in this series, from stand-up, to sitcoms, to double acts - what is your favourite form of comedy to watch?

All of them, all of them. I love, love sitcoms. I love Dad's Army. I love those sort of class structured sitcoms that British television produces so well. I love stand-up comedy, but I love it zany. I'm not a massive fan of Monty Python, for instance. Everyone says they are but there's a lot of hit and miss stuff in there. Whereas I was more into Spike Milligan and Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Someone very funny to listen to and watch, who was just a pure stand-up joke teller, was Frank Carson... the great Irish comedian Frank Carson. I just thought he was great.

You wouldn't really class people like Des O'Connor and Bruce Forsyth as stand-up comics, or Ronnie Corbett or any of those guys but they were all my heroes. Jimmy Tarbuck! Tarbuck was a stand-up comic. But Bruce Forsyth, Des O'Connor and Ronnie Corbett were all-rounders. They were entertainers. You'd call them entertainers more than stand-up comics I think.

Do you think British comedy is unique?

I don't think it is. I don't think it is unique. I think comedy in sitcom form was very unique because its very class structured. For instance, people used to rave about the show Friends, but I've never got it. Never touched me in the slightest. I've never watched The Simpsons. I've never watched American comedy because it's very different. British comedy has been steeped in that class structure thing, which I quite like. It's why Only Fools And Horses works so well. Although you do have the upwardly mobile Boycie, it's not really upper middle class he is aspiring to be there. Del Boy is fighting against that but also wants to be on that higher echelon side of society. It's all sort of smoke and mirrors. Dad's Army with Wilson and Mainwaring - that's very funny. Are You Being Served? and 'Allo, 'Allo!, all those shows are brilliant and genius. Blackadder and Steptoe And Son are just so brilliant.

Stand-up for me is different. One of my favourite comedians at this moment is an American guy called Bill Burr. Bill Burr really makes me laugh. I love Bill Burr. He's not a political correspondent so much in that he just takes jabs at everyone. And I really like that.

And normally you are the one performing comedy, but what is it like to talk with other comedians about comedy?

Oh, it's great. I mean, I'm big fan of self-deprecating comedy. I love when we do The Chase, they take the mick out of me all the time, but I quite enjoy that. I like it. Because if you're going to be able to give it out, you have got to be able to take it. I love comedy. I just love things that are funny... things that will make me laugh; you know. But talking to other comedians was great fun. I just really get their perspective of it. I loved it!

What about the future of comedy? Do you think the industry will continue to have these legends?

I am not sure you know - really not sure.

Comedians go on tour and I think it's mainly about the psyche of the generation at the time. So, for instance, Bruce Forsyth, Des O'Connor, and Jimmy Tarbuck were around at a time when there were only ever two channels on television. No internet, no nothing, no mobile phones, nothing. So, if you went on the show Sunday Night At The London Palladium, it was watched by 20 million people. Not just one week, but every week. So, if someone like Tarbuck, at the age of 23, hosted Sunday Night At The Palladium for 10 weeks, he's being seen by 200 million people. And you know whether they're repeat audience or not, is neither here nor there. It's 200 million hits in respect. So, he became a gigantic, gigantic star. They were like movie stars.

Now, everyone is so much more accessible. When you can see comedy on TikTok, should I bother going to see them when they do these arena tours? That's all new and that is all great, but are they going to remain? Are they going to become 'legends'? I really don't know. It's hard to say. It's hard to say, "Are they going to be remembered like Bruce Forsyth is when he was 90?". People still talk about Bruce Forsyth. We know who he is. It's quite extraordinary. Are they going to talk about me or maybe Michael McIntyre, or John Bishop or Frankie Boyle when we're all 90? I don't know. I doubt it very much.