Classic comedy and social commentary to meet at Harry Enfield's Milton Keynes show

Harry Enfield is a comedy legend, famous for giving the world unforgettable comic characters including Loadsamoney, Stavros, Kevin and Perry, Smashie and Nicey, The Old Gits and Tim Nice-But-Dim.

Breaking through on Channel 4's Friday Night Live in the late 1980s, he went on to front numerous acclaimed BBC sketch shows and also appeared in comedies including The Windsors and Upstart Crow. 

He is now heading to Oxford with his new show, Harry Enfield And No Chums. As the title suggests, this a solo show, with Enfield, 64, reflecting on his life in comedy, revealing the back stories of his characters and performing sketches featuring his iconic creations.

 As he ventured out on tour – his first since appearing with Paul Whitehouse in 2015 – Enfield spoke about performing live, which characters will be taking to the stage and their continuing relevance.

Do you enjoy performing live?

 When I was young and used to do characters in clubs I was really nervous. That's why I stopped as soon as I could. Now I'm so old I don't care anymore. The tour with Paul was really fun, but we spent all our money on making it a slick show with loads of costumes and sets. I said to Paul afterwards people would love it if we just chatted and did a bit of this or whatever as a surprise. The next thing I know, he was doing that with The Fast Show reunion tour. 

  Can you give us a flavour of who we will be seeing again?

 A lot of them. DJ Nicey is back! He has a podcast and it's very, very, very right-wing. He keeps getting cancelled and coming back. Angry Frank is still angry. And there are some new characters thrown in too.

Are you doing more recent characters too?

 I'll be doing one of The Surgeons that I did in the BBC series Harry & Paul. He's based on someone I met who told me stories about his life that were absolutely heartbreaking. His daughter died, and he said: '...and then she sadly died, "ah boo-hoo.”’ There's a whole bunch of people in this country who were sent to prep school aged seven and if they blubbed for their mummies they were beaten. So anything that's happened to them in their life, they just go, 'ah boo-hoo,' and carry on. There's none of this rubbish about ADHD and anxiety.

You sound like you've turned into one of your old gits, taking pleasure in having a moan about the modern world...

I have. I'm still embarrassing. My children find me embarrassing. They think I'm ridiculous. I just can't really grow up.

You are also revisiting Loadsamoney. Is he still relevant?

Yes, money is everything now. The rich have got richer. The poor have got poorer. I imagine that he now runs Pimlico Plasterers and he's gone to live in Dubai in case Labour tax him more. 

Those early BBC series were mostly written by you, director Geoffrey Perkins, Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson. That's a great team.

When I first started doing Stavros, Paul was still plastering and Charlie was painting with him. When I was interviewed and asked who my comedy heroes were I said 'Monty Python, Peter Cook and my friend Paul down the pub.' And Geoffrey Perkins said, 'this guy Paul, you keep on mentioning him in interviews, do you think he'd like to write for you?'

Did you watch your old programmes to prepare for this tour?

 Yes. I thought they were really funny. Which surprised me, because at the time you do these things and you move on and don't really think about it anymore, but a lot of it I thought was really well written. We really got something right about a lot of things. And now I can see when I watch that stuff that Paul was a fucking genius.

Are there any particular characters you are fond of?

 I love Wayne and Waynetta Slob. I love them all, actually. I'm very proud of them. I do a bit of Wayne and Waynetta in the show, they are probably great, great, great grandparents by now.

How do you respond to people who suggest the Slobs are 'punching down' or you shouldn't do foreign accents such as Stavros, who was based on your local kebab shop owner Adam?

 They are all just comic book characters. My thing is always mischief, not malice. Stavros is interesting because I did him again in 2022 when Channel 4 revived Friday Night Live. The Channel 4 people behind the scenes wanted me to take my make-up off. I told them that my make-up was exactly the same shade as Ben Elton's who was hosting. Anyone who wants to take offence has got no sense of humour as far as I'm concerned.

The world has changed during your lifetime...

 Onstage I show a picture of me as a baby eating coal. Why did my parents take a picture of me eating coal and not stop me?

What TV comedy makes you giggle?

 I'll watch Paul in something or David Mitchell. And I quite often watch something like Michael McIntyre's Big Show. It always makes me laugh. I'm more Michael McIntyre than Stewart Lee.

Were there characters you weren't ever able to do on TV?

There is one character that the BBC wouldn't go for. Geoffrey Perkins drew the line at that one. But I'm going to do it onstage, so if you buy a ticket you'll see that.

Harry Enfield comes to Milton Keynes Theatre on Thursday November 19. Visit atgtickets.com/MiltonKeynes to book.