Danny Baker - Going Off Alarming

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.

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The Chuckle Brothers - Fifty Years of TO ME...TO YOU

Laurel and Hardy were once described as one stupid man and another stupid man who thought he was clever, which is exactly the dynamic on show when you watch the antics of Paul and Barry; The Chuckle Brothers. In fact, while I’m on the subject I would go so far as to say that The Chuckle Brothers are the nearest thing the world of comedy has ever produced that comes anywhere close to Stan and Ollie. Watch any old Laurel and Hardy film followed by an episode of Chucklevision and you’ll see what I mean.

As someone who only previously knew of the BBC series Chucklevision, the first surprise is right there in the title of this autobiography – Fifty Years of TO ME…TO YOU. Half a century of jokes from Paul and Barry all squeezed into one book. The book is written by Paul (the taller one) and follows the lives of the brothers born into something of a showbiz family, dad Gene Patton was a comedian once banned by the BBC for using the filthily obscene line “as smooth as a baby’s bottom”, with disgusting language like that it’s a wonder that his sons managed to carve out a successful career as a much loved staple of children’s television.

For fans of comedy history this provides a fascinating glimpse into an almost forgotten world. The slog of the working men’s’ clubs, summer seasons and pantomimes is all here along with the questionable boarding houses and long drives through the night to get home. The early taste of fame came via Opportunity Knocks, but opportunity didn’t knock again until Chucklehounds, a long forgotten predecessor to the classic Chucklevision. The television show that made them famous only gets one chapter, which seems odd at first but makes up a surprisingly small part of their story.

Although a fine comedian, Paul Elliott isn’t a great writer overall, the book is clumsy in places with too many attempts at a comic aside. Having said that he writes with a passion for the subject of family entertainment and this is a warm and enthusiastic look at the life of a much loved comedy act.

Fifty Years of TO ME…TO YOU is available from World’s Fair 

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