Actors Keith Allen and Mathew Horne on bringing The Homecoming to York

It is the third time that Allen has appeared in The Homecoming but it is his debut playing misogynist Max. “It’s a part I’ve always wanted to play,” he admits, although co-star Mathew Horne, one of the people behind the production, didn’t think Allen would go for it. “We had wanted to put on another of Pinter’s plays, The Caretaker,” says Horne, best known for playing Gavin Shipman in the hit TV series Gavin and Stacey. “But for one reason or another, we weren’t able to but were offered The Homecoming instead. We really wanted Keith to play the part of Max but I knew he’d been in it twice already and didn’t think he’d want to do it again, but I was thrilled when he said he would be happy to play Max.”

It may have been written in the 1960s but the themes of The Homecoming could not be more salient. As Allen explains: “Misogyny is very present in the play, as is generational jealousy within a family. When the play was first performed, I don’t think anyone had seen anything quite so vicious and measured before. Now it’s interesting for different reasons because we’re living in a time where women are becoming far more recognised and are on a far more equal footing. There are things in the play that could be misconstrued as being abusive to women and, because of the times we’re living in, audiences might react very quickly to certain things which they wouldn’t necessarily have reacted to before.” He says he was particularly interested in his 15-year-old daughter’s reaction to the production. “She obviously comes from a very different generation to me and I found her reaction to it very interesting. She said it was like she’d eaten a curtain. It made her very uncomfortable.”

Allen normally doesn’t like to talk about his family (he has six children to four different women), but it seems it is more his eldest daughter, singer and actress Lily Allen, that he doesn’t like to talk about. Their relationship is reported as being “troubled” and he declines to comment further.

Welshman Allen never had any aspirations to be an actor and admits that it was a happy accident. “I did go to drama school but only because I thought it would be a great place to meet girls, and it was. When I left, I became a silkscreen printer for three or four years so there was no ambition to go out there and be an actor.” He moved from job to job; he was a tyre-fitter, a butcher, a window cleaner and a coal miner at Brynlliw Colliery, near Gorseinon. “I had so many jobs. But I always knew I was a performer in the truest sense of the word.” But it was while he was living in London that the Comedy Store opened close by. “I thought I can do that,” and so he did, becoming one of their first breakthrough artists.

However, Allen says it was the creation of Channel 4 that really led to his career becoming established. “At the time they were looking for young people to present shows and I got a job presenting Whatever You Want, which was an interesting mix of politics and live music.” He then met Peter Richardson, who founded Comic Strip Presents, and Allen wrote and performed in a number of their films alongside the likes of Adrian Edmondson, Jennifer Saunders and Robbie Coltraine.

“Being in the right place at the right time has played a massive part in my success. I never have a plan, I just won’t do anything boring.” Although he started out in comedy, more recently Allen’s TV work has been much darker, including playing a serial killer in The Pembrokshire Murders.

However, Horne, who plays Max’s son Lenny in The Homecoming, finds moving on from his television success in Gavin and Stacey a little harder to shake off, which is why he loves doing theatre.

“Lenny is a character that I always wanted to play so it felt like a no-brainer. It’s the danger and menace that’s innate in him which attracted me to this character because it’s not something I’m generally allowed to play on television or in films.

“I’m used to it now. It’s just the way that section of the industry works. It’s much less open to taking risks but it doesn’t frustrate me because I have this wonderful other form within the industry, namely theatre, which doesn’t place those restrictions on me. Gavin and Stacey is one of those things I can’t believe has happened to me in my life and in my career so far,” says Nottingham-born Horne. “It was a real joy and privilege to be part of something like that. It has afforded me so many opportunities. At times it’s been restrictive but I wouldn’t take it back for the world.”

Horne studied drama at the University of Manchester where he met Bruce Mackinnon and they became the comedy double act Mat and Mackinnon – first performing at the Edinburgh Festival in 2000. He was spotted at the festival by Catherine Tate, who invited him to perform in BBC TV programme The Catherine Tate Show. He has continued to appear in several of Tate’s Nan specials including the recent film.

From 2007 to 2010, he starred in double-Bafta-winning series Gavin and Stacey alongside co-creator James Cordon. The pair have done a number of collaborations since then and Horne hopes they may do something again soon after Cordon announced that he will be returning from America next year when he finishes on The Late Late Show.

“We speak a lot. In fact the last time I spoke to him was at Christmas and he’s really well and in great spirits. We’ve talked about working together again and now he is planning to return to the UK, I would really love that to happen.”

The Homecoming is the first time that Horne has been back in the theatre in four years mainly due to the pandemic. “Stepping out in front of an audience for the first time in four years was a mixture of terror and excitement. But above all there was this massive sense of relief and freedom that we were back doing what we loved to do.”

While The Homecoming asks a lot of its audience both Horne and Allen believe post-pandemic audiences are up for it. “It is a comedy after all – even if the subject matter asks a lot of people,” says Allen.

The Homecoming by Harold Pinter opens at York Theatre Royal on Monday and runs until May 21. yorktheatreroyal.co.uk