Entertainment

Paul Merton reveals how Scottish comic legend Stanley Baxter helped boost his career


Paul Merton has been such a staple on the BBC’s Have I Got News For You that it feels as though he’s been around forever.

In fact, the comic has been virtually ever-present since the show’s inception in 1990.

But he wouldn’t be celebrating his 30th anniversary on the prime-time Beeb programme if it wasn’t for Stanley Baxter.

Merton, 61, needed help from the comedy great when he was doing panto with another Scottish entertainment legend, the late Ronnie Corbett.

The Londoner claims witnessing the two funnymen sharing their knowledge and craft was one of his first experiences of Scottish humour and one he’ll never forget.

Paul, who co-starred with Corbett 20 years ago in ITV’s Christmas panto Cinderella, said: “There was to be a bucket of slosh where you are doing a wallpapering scene. The stuff has to have a certain consistency so that, when you pour the mix of wallpaper paste and shaving foam, it makes the right mess.

Ronnie Corbett and Paul Merton in Cinderella in 2000

“To check the recipe, Ronnie phoned Stanley because they had done a panto together back in 1961 in Glasgow. There had been a slosh scene in that panto and Stanley still had the recipe.

“It was a really amazing piece of pantomime knowledge that impressed me so much and spoke to the traditions of panto and comedy.

“Talking about comedy heritage, the Glasgow pantomimes have featured many people who wouldn’t have been known down south but were huge up there. People like Rikki Fulton didn’t care to do much in England.

“I remember an old programme called Nationwide doing a story about a comedian from Glasgow who was going to play the London Palladium and would anybody be able to understand him? The comedian was Billy Connolly, who wasn’t known in the south at that time.

 

“It was a strange novelty of a Scottish comedian who wanted to play in London. They wanted to know why he was doing this – and yet it doesn’t seem that long ago.

“The generation before Billy, there was Chic Murray, who was somebody I always looked forward to seeing. He was a joy to watch.

“There’s not that much of Chic on TV and that might be due to the fact that he was of that generation who didn’t want to give his material away on TV. He is certainly a major comedian
by any stretch.”

The comic is in Scotland for the latest leg of Paul Merton’s Impro Chums tour, along with Mike McShane, Richard Vranch, Lee Simpson and Paul’s wife Suki Webster.

Stanley Baxter in panto in 1975

The show heads to Aberdeen tonight and Inverness tomorrow night, before returning for a string of August dates at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Paul said: “Pantomime is one part of showbusiness that hasn’t changed. The appeal of impro as well is that you could be in a scene from panto asking the audience to sing.”

He added: “We’ve been doing Edinburgh for a long time. We took a year off a couple of years ago. It’s nice to take a year off because you regain the public appetite.

“This tour hasn’t been on the road for four years so the appetite and reaction is very strong. They’ve really enjoyed it. Glasgow audiences are very good. We have always had a good time there.”

 

The return to the Fringe in the summer will bring back memories of Paul’s early days in the capital, though back then he had to rough it because he was broke.

He said: “I first went to the Edinburgh Fringe with a friend of mine in 1980 as a non-participant because it was going to cost a lot of money to get involved in the Fringe.

“I wanted to see what people were doing so me and a friend went to stay at a B&B in Nicholson Street.

“We saw a lot of free shows, some of which were good and some appalling.

“I remember sitting for eight hours in the train station after getting kicked out of the B&B at 10am because the later train was cheaper.”

Scots comic genius Chic Murray

Paul hopes his chums will avoid causing offence by stereotyping audience members during their Scottish shows.

He said: “In the past, there’s been occasions in Scotland when someone in the group will be brave enough to attempt a generic Scottish accent.

“A couple of them are quite good at doing them but then they’ll challenge other people on stage and we’re like, ‘Oh, God.’ But that tends to happen in the second half because, before you play that kind of gentle joke on somebody, the audience have to be enjoying themselves.”

Paul also insists there’s little danger of him making the kind of mistake Danny Baker did recently. The 61-year-old was fired by the BBC over his misguided Twitter post about the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan’s baby Archie.

Paul doesn’t believe Baker was intentionally racist but says he did the right thing by apologising and also admitting it was offensive.

He claims the presenter’s rocky relationship with the BBC meant he had to go.

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He added: “I’m not a great follower of the Royal Family so I can conceive of a situation where he might make that joke without being fully conscious or aware of her background. But once that’s pointed out, you have to say it is completely and utterly wrong.

“I can conceive that Danny thought of it just as a funny image and a funny joke, particularly as I think he had used the image before and maybe didn’t think too much about it.

“I don’t believe he is racist but it is also true that he has a very rocky relationship with the BBC. Maybe another presenter would have got away with it. I don’t know.”

Paul has only tweeted twice, on the same day in 2014, despite having 5000 Twitter followers.

He said: “I don’t engage with social media in any shape or form. I don’t have a mobile phone. I don’t have a computer. I don’t do email or Twitter or anything.

“They don’t tell me but Have I Got News For You sometimes gets complaints. Thankfully, I don’t have to engage with it.

“I get the impression that one week people from the left are complaining and the next it’s people from the right. If true bias could be demonstrated, it would be taken off the air.

“It’s going well and audiences still laugh We must be doing something right.”





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