Two comedy legends are out on the road showcasing their poetry and comedy on tour as they come to Oxfordshire.
Henry Normal co-wrote The Mrs Merton Show, The Royle Family, all three of Steve Coogan’s live tours and the BAFTA winning Paul and Pauline Calf Video Diaries.
Nigel Planer was an original member of the ‘Alternative Comedy’ movement in the 1980s and starred as Hippie Neil in the BBC 1980s comedy 'The Young Ones' and The Comic Strip Presents.
Both are published poets and bringing an evening of poetry, stories, jokes, Q & A, fun, "knitwear and a few surprises".
Mr Normal said: "We met back in the late 80s early 90s and we did some poetry gigs back then and then I gave up poetry for a while and concentrated on television as a producer.
"But I retired about seven years ago and caught up with Nigel who had been doing lots of television and musicals and all sorts of things and we rekindled our love for poetry. So we’re back to an early passion.
Mr Planer's latest book, Jeremiah Bourne in Time – a strange and funny take on time-travel - came out this summer.
"That’s right," he said. "I’ve got a time travel book that I read from. It’s kind of, I call it anecdotage with the emphasis being very much on the word dotage.
"We talk a lot."
"We do like to talk," Mr Normal agreed.
"And we do a Q and A at the end," said Mr Planer. "I prefer to think of it as being ‘peppered’ with poetry because if you say it’s just a load of poetry reading people might think it’s going to be a bit more serious than it is."
Mr Normal added: "Yes, it’s not Seamus Heaney.
"We run the full gamut – so lots of funny poems and some serious poems. Viewed from our years of pain, it’s all very accessible that’s the main thing."
And of course the pair will be sharing showbiz anecdotes from their incredible careers.
Mr Planer said: "People ask me about Young Ones and The Comic Strip a lot and they’re a bit tentative, thinking oh he won’t want to talk about that. But in fact I talk about that quite a lot in our show.
"I show some of the history of the character Neil that I played in The Young Ones because he was around five or six years before The Young Ones – he used to be my act.
"So I do a bit of very old material which is the first routine Neil ever did on stage. I’m quite happy to talk about all those years."(Image: Photos 12)
Although alternative comedy has become mainstream now, neither thinks they influenced the current crop of young comedians.
"I don’t know that I see our influence but my favourite at the moment is Colin From Accounts," said Mr Planer.
"I like a rom com personally and it’s very romantic, very touching. It’s an Australian show and there were a couple of episodes where as well as being very funny it brought me to tears.
"His dad dies and his dad is not a nice man at all and he gets angry with everyone saying when are you going to start crying about your dad dying. It absolutely tore me up while laughing which to me you can’t get better than that.
"I love a comedy that emotionally hits you as well."
He added: "We’re quite old now. I’m not sure if all the young comedians are all aware of quite how amazing we are."
"Probably some of their mums liked it," offered Mr Normal.
"Yeah, my dad used to think you were great, that kind of idea," said Mr Planer.
As founder of Baby Cow Productions Ltd in 1990, Mr Normal executive produced all and script edited many of the hit comedy shows of its 17 and a half year output including the Oscar nominated film Philomena, Gavin and Stacey, Marion and Geof, Nighty Night, The Mighty Boosh, Red Dwarf and Alan Partridge.
He was pivotal in the early careers of 'Mrs Merton' Caroline Aherne and Steve Coogan, who gave an uncanny performance as disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile.
Mr Normal said: "Steve Coogan works very hard. He’s got a new thing coming on television about the interview with Margaret Thatcher that possibly led to her downfall.
"He’s got a strange gift has Steve in that he could do every male voice there is. I’ve seen him meet someone for two minutes and he’ll be able to do their voice. He doesn’t do the face but he has an uncanny ability to do the voice.
"Working with Caroline Aherne was absolutely great. Of course we were very young at the time so it was very much an adventure and of course she was very irreverent so when people would come to Granada we were on the sixth floor and the BBC bosses would leave the building and she would shout down to them ‘do a silly walk’.
"And all these BBC channel heads would do a silly walk."
He added: "To me the thing about comedy is, it’s a little bit like salt or sugar. It’s lovely to make things taste better but you wouldn’t necessarily eat salt or sugar all your life.
"It’s nice to get into deeper things and have an array of things that you’re involved with. There’s always a little bit of salt or sugar to make things taste better."
Mr Normal, who lives in Fairlight, near Hastings with his wife and screenwriter Angela Pell and their son Johnny, said of all his achievements he's proudest of his wife’s film.
He said: "She wrote a film with Sigourney Weaver called Snow Cake in which Sigourney Weaver plays an autistic woman which is based on my son who’s autistic.
"It’s a brilliant film and deserves greater exposure and I think it’s possibly the best portrayal of an autistic woman ever on film."
He added: "My son is 26 now. Back when he was about two people wouldn’t really talk about autism and they’d only say oh, I’ve seen the film Rain Man.
"Since we found out we’ve tried very much to bring it to the fore and nowadays if you find out your son or daughter is autistic there’s a lot more information around so I think it’s a good thing.
"I was very lucky when Johnny was young because I was working for the BBC so I got all the documentaries out and I was able to learn a lot from those.
"All the autistic people I know have changed since they were two years old so we need to instil a bit of optimism in there."
The duo are playing almost every night all over the country but "try and conserve our energy so that we do a lovely two-hour show," said Mr Normal, 68.
"It’s nice to get into a rhythm and a gear. I do the driving and Nigel does the talking."
Mr Planer said: "Well, you do quite a lot of talking. I promise not to nod off."
But unlike the heady 80s days they don't go out partying after the show.
"Our joint age comes to nearly 140 years," said Mr Planer. "I’m hoping we’ll still be alive for Banbury."
Henry Normal and Nigel Planer are at The Mill Arts Centre, Spiceball Park Road, Banbury on Wednesday, October 30.
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