Ben Elton says his angry 1980s stand-up persona was ‘a useful lie’

Ben Elton has insisted he is nothing like the brash, loudmouth stand-up comedian that made him famous in the 1980s.

The writer and comedian got his television break appearing on Saturday Live and later Friday Night Live when his quickfire, left-wing, Margaret Thatcher bashing act – accompanied by his shiny suit – brought him headlines.

He had grown up in south London and Surrey and at university in Manchester met fellow comics Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson.

After graduating he had joined the BBC as a script writer but turned to stand-up to earn a living after a gap in his work.

“I mean, I had no idea what I was doing when I put on that sparkly suit and started as a stand-up that I would be defining myself in the public eye for the rest of my life,” Elton said.

“Every novel I’ve ever written, less so now, but for 30 years was viewed through the prism of the Thatcher bashing man in the sparkly suit.

“It was not possible for anything I did to not be looked at through, ‘What do I think of that bloke on Friday night?’.”

Elton was in conversation with his long-time friend Richard Curtis at the Cheltenham Literature Festival to talk about his autobiography What Have I Done? in which he discusses his 40-year career.

Curtis, who co-wrote three series of Blackadder with Elton, said the television image of “a very, very self-confident, very left-wing, very angry person, was never the person I knew”.

He added: “I always used to say about Ben, he’s not like that at all, he’s almost the most politically intelligent and balanced person that I know.

“And I do think that in some ways you track the disadvantage that having a very famous false public persona has had on your life.

“You do think that the public think they know you because of who your stand-up is, and that is not – it’s a wonderful persona, it interlinks a lot with you – but it isn’t you.”

Elton said that he thought the politics in his act had always been “balanced” but because of the “fury” in which he delivered it, it appeared to be more “aggressively left”.

“I’m Labour, I’m welfare state, but when I was at university, I was considered worryingly right-wing, because I supported the Labour Party,” Elton said.

“That was in the days of pious lefties who thought James Callaghan was a Conservative, well I’m telling you what, Thatcher turned up and showed them what a Conservative was.

“For what it’s worth, my politics are basically welfare state Labour. I think Clement Attlee was the greatest peacetime leader we ever had, and Churchill was the greatest wartime leader.”

Elton said he turned to stand-up to showcase his writing.

“I learned very quickly in a school of very hard knocks at the Comedy Store,” he said.

“It was a bear pit and a hellhole. It was the only place in Soho with a late licence.

“I very quickly learned to speak fast, speak aggressively, deal with the wallies very quickly.

“I developed this apparently aggressive, angry, very righteous – none of which I am – and Richard’s been kind enough to say that.

“It doesn’t resemble me at all. But the material was true. The persona was a lie. But it was a very useful lie.

“Anyway, when I got my break on television, that was it. I never knew that I would define myself in this.

“But because I’d become a stand-up comic, that was it… stand-up comedian writes a new sitcom… stand-up comedian…

“I had no regrets, of course. You know, there’s no point wanting it differently and it’s been wonderful to have a life as a stand-up comedian.

“But it wasn’t me then and it’s still not quite me. Everyone has a stage persona, but the material is me. It was then and it is now.”

Elton described his comedy as a “one person play” in which he weaves together a set of ideas and a comic conclusion.

“It’s whatever I’m excited about at the time in my life, whatever I’m outraged about and put into my stand-up.

“Stand-up is an art form and it, it can be, I say just a craft, it can be an exquisite craft of telling jokes.

“Stand-up as I pursue it is a one man play basically. I’ve spent my life trying to make, make some funny things with words and create some interesting stories with words.

“But, in stand-up comedy it is entirely subjective. This is me. It’s a slightly heightened, slightly more sweary version. Too sweary.”

Elton said his mother, who was an English literature teacher, liked his sitcoms, but not his stand-up.

“The subject matter was confronting her, you know, a man shouting about menstruation for 20 minutes,” he said.

“But she gave me one wonderful piece of advice, I wish I’d known how to follow it better.

“She said, ‘Benji, the F word is all very well as an exclamation mark, but it’s very little use as a comma’.

“And that was her reaction to my act.”