Harry Enfield and No Chums: Loadsamoney and DJ Nicey come to Hull, Harrogate and Sheffield on tour
Harry Enfield is a comedy legend, famous for giving the world unforgettable comic characters including Loadsamoney, Stavros, Kevin and Perry, Smashie and Nicey, The Old Gits and Tim Nice-But-Dim. Breaking through on Channel 4’s Friday Night Live in the late 1980s, he went on to front numerous acclaimed BBC sketch shows and also appeared in comedies including The Windsors and Upstart Crow.
Breaking through on Channel 4’s Friday Night Live in the late 1980s, he went on to front numerous acclaimed BBC sketch shows and also appeared in comedies including The Windsors and Upstart Crow.
And he will stop by Yorkshire on his latest tour, Harry Enfield And No Chums. As the title suggests, this a solo show, with Enfield, 64, reflecting on his life in comedy.
It is his first since touring with Paul Whitehouse in 2015, and through a mix of storytelling and classic sketches, Enfield brings to life his characters while discussing the real-life inspirations and personal anecdotes that shaped them. He also revisits memorable duos like Smashie and Nicey and the Surgeons, and discusses how these characters were conceived, how they evolved, and the cultural impact they had.
"When I was young and used to do characters in clubs I was really nervous,” says Enfield. “That's why I stopped as soon as I could. Now I'm so old I don't care anymore. The tour with Paul was really fun, but we spent all our money on making it a slick show with loads of costumes and sets. I said to Paul afterwards people would love it if we just chatted and did a bit of this or whatever as a surprise. The next thing I know, he was doing that with The Fast Show reunion tour.”
Can he give us a flavour of who we will be seeing again?
"A lot of them. DJ Nicey is back! He has a podcast and it's very, very, very right-wing. He keeps getting cancelled and coming back. Angry Frank is still angry. And there are some new characters thrown in too.”
Loadsamoney remains relevant because “money is everything now,” says Enfield. “The rich have got richer. The poor have got poorer. I imagine that he now runs Pimlico Plasterers and he's gone to live in Dubai in case Labour tax him more.”
Enfield watched his old programmes to prepare for this tour, and was pleasantly surprised.
He says: “I thought they were really funny. Which surprised me, because at the time you do these things and you move on and don't really think about it anymore, but a lot of it I thought was really well written. We really got something right about a lot of things. And now I can see when I watch that stuff that Paul was a genius.”
We see less of him on TV these days, but he sounds happy doing other things.
“I like reading, walking and swimming in Hampstead Pond. But mainly I like arsing about with friends. I still write sketches, but not very often. I sold one to David Mitchell and Robert Webb for their Channel 4 show. It was David explaining to Rob the violent plot of John Wick, but with this fear of saying the word 'dead', saying 'sadly passed away' instead.”