David Baddiel started out as one of the UK’s most successful comedians, selling out stadiums in the 1990s with funnyman partner Rob Newman, followed by another successful TV double act with Midland comic Frank Skinner with the wildly popular TV show Fantasy Football League. Oh and not to mention their hit single ‘Three Lions’ with Ian Broudie.
But the 57-year-old is now a best-selling author, – however becoming a writer was not something he had planned.
“There is nothing I’ve done in my life that has been a career-based decision,” he tells the Times. “I had an idea for a book one day after my eight-year-old said: ‘Why didn’t Harry Potter run away from the Dursleys and find better parents?’. He was talking about Harry’s adopted muggle family in the book. And I thought that was a good idea for a book.
“So I wrote the Parent Agency – a world in which a child goes through his bedroom wall to a world where he can choose his own parents.
“It has now sold more than million copies, and as I like children’s books and storytelling, I guess I am now an author.”
However, his latest literary work is non-fiction and ‘Jews Don’t Count’ tackles the far more serious subject of antisemitism.
“It happened in not too dissimilar a way to when I started writing children’s books, which I only did as I had children and that gave me ideas,” he explained. “As I was on social media, it became clear to me that antisemitism was on the rise and much more vocalised.
“Being openly Jewish I was always aware about racism about Jews and had seen it anyway, but on Twitter I was getting a lot of it.
“One of the issues I felt strongly about was that there were Jews feeling ashamed for being Jewish, so I reacted and talked about it.
“Then three years ago I was asked to write an essay book and because I had a lot of energy devoted to talk about antisemitism, in particular coming from quarters you would not expect it and not just the far right, such as the Corbyn Labour party. But it has much deeper roots and a much wider malaise on why the Jews are left out when talking about racism,” he says.
But the former TV funnyman insists his Tunbridge Wells show will not be without humour.
“While antisemitism is a serious subject, that does not mean it cannot be funny,” he adds.
While he is in Tunbridge Wells to visit the festival it is not a town that is unfamiliar to the comedian turned author.
“I am pretty sure I have gigged here at the Assembly Hall, but I also used to live not too far in Sittingbourne,” he says. “We had a house there and we would always come to Tunbridge Wells as it was the posher part of Kent – well posher than Sittingbourne anyway – and I’ve always thought it a really nice place.
“So I am very pro-Kent even though I do not have a house here anymore, but I am looking forward to coming back. I like to think of myself as an honorary Kentish Man.
“I am looking to seeing the legendary Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells who I do hope come to my show.”
You can see David Baddiel at the Assembly Hall on Friday, April 29 at 8pm.
Jo Brand is a British comedian who came to prominence as part of the 1980s alternative comedy scene, where she became big enough to write and headline her own shows, as well as gaining a following as a writer, publishing half a dozen books.
The comedian is also a former Tunbridge Wells schoolgirl and is looking forward to returning to the town she says she is ‘very fond’ of to discuss her book ‘Born Lippy: How to Do Female’. But as she tells the Times, this is not a last word, and not even an authoritative word…
“I can’t speak from an academic point of view. It’s personal stuff, in terms of my experiences as a woman, I can only speak from my own perspective.
“There was a loose kind of structure when starting off and a brainstorm of issues I wanted to cover – the difference between me when I was a teenager and the different issues teenagers have these days.”
Ultimately, she said, ‘it’s not meant to be an intellectual tour de force. My purpose is to make people laugh.’
Her book tackles some dark themes, such as dysfunctional families, and physical and mental abuse.
“I don’t see why you can’t put those sorts of things in comedy. Most of my stuff contains something dark. Recently, there’s been an awful lot of very personal comedy, and the very difficult times people have been through,” she explains.
In the past, comedians’ material was not so personal, to the point that it was not even owned, ‘which is why jokes were passed around,’ she suggested, admitting her material was not universal.
“I am very aware that there is a real continuum of different types of comedy and I’m an acquired taste,” she said. “But literary festivals are very different from comedy. It’s highly unlikely people will be heckling.”
Although Jo adds that a crowd at a literary festival in Frome, Somerset, had been drinking, which she described as ‘interesting’.
“There was a holdup. People had been queuing for some time, and the queue was going past the bar. Their behaviour was interesting.
“Someone even sat in my lap – he walked right around the (book-signing) table,” she says, adding. “At least they didn’t hit me.”
Jo was a natural headliner for the Tunbridge Wells Literary Festival, having spent formative and happy years at Tunbridge Wells Girls’ Grammar School (TWGGS), and she retains fond memories of the place itself.
Asked whether the organisers had to go begging to her agents or throw loads of money and flattery at her, she said: “Neither! I like Tunbridge Wells a lot and I agreed.
“I really liked it at TWGGS. I had to travel a very long way (to school) but I had very good friends there. I was very fond of it.”
You can see Jo Brand at the Assembly Hall on Saturday, April 30 at 8pm.
