Writer, presenter, comedian,
and broadcaster; Danny Baker can pick up and drop an occupation quicker than
Bert from Mary Poppins, and with a proper cockney accent.
One thing that Baker excels at though is reeling off anecdotes at a machine gun
speed. With him in the world it’s a shame that the An Audience With… format isn’t
still on television because his show would be up there with Kenneth Williams
and Billy Connelly’s.
Going Off
Alarming is the second memoir, picking up in
the early 1980s and the beginning of a burgeoning career in front of the
camera. Actually, it begins with a brief visit back to the 1970s to recount a
story he simply forgo to write about in Going to Sea in a Sieve;
he was shot. Twice. Dedicating the book to his brother Mickey, who died,
chronologically speaking, between the first and second volume without wanting
to write a tragic life story, (‘To put it simply: my brother died. How do you
think it fucking felt?’), we leap into the shooting story and really hit the
ground running with a tale of a destructive pet tortoise that made me laugh out
loud on public transport.
Rattling through stories about
working with Ken Dodd, Spike Milligan, Frankie Howerd, and Mel Brooks among
others, it is the mention of his dad ‘Spud’ that draws the biggest laughs,
especially his encounter with Harry Enfield.
A ridiculously successful
television career followed by a fall from favour before shaking radio by the
collar, via writing scripts and selling washing powder, this isn’t a mere
autobiography, it’s a collection of hilarious stories with a slight
biographical thread running through. This is the book version of the funny
bloke at work.
Ending with the ominous lines ‘Still.
As long as you’ve got your health eh? To be continued), book three can’t come
soon enough; this could be the best autobiography I have ever read.
Going Off
Alarming by Danny Baker is available from
today and is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Listen to The Sunday Alternative
here.
