EXCLUSIVE: Rachel Parris on comedy channel Dave’s ‘reimagining of the classics’ and the importance of World Book Day

Virgin Radio

3 Mar 2022, 07:00

To celebrate World Book Day today (Thursday 3rd March) comedian Rachel Parris and the funny minds over at Dave are trying to figure out why so many of us are ‘literary liars’. 

Comedy channel Dave and the research team from St Andrews University asked 2,000 Brits about their reading habits, and the results show we’re a nation of fibbers when it comes to the classics. 

46% of us have lied about reading top books in a bid to impress others, while a staggering 95% of Brits say flicking through a hefty classic novel, such as War and Peace, is too much like hard work. 

Hamlet and Moby Dick were also labelled a bit too tiresome to continue with, and 67% of people say they’d be more likely to read the classics if they had a comedy makeover. 

That’s where Dave came in! They assembled a team of comedy writers to revamp a number of lengthy stories to inspire new readers, and each book even gets its own illustrated cover. 

Rachel, who starred in Late Night Mash on the channel, is the face of Dave’s campaign to get everyone reading, but she confessed exclusively to virginradio.co.uk that she’s been known to tell porkies about her reading habits too.

When asked if she’s ever lied about reading a classic, Rachel said: “I think I've lied more about reading my friends’ books and reading very important, big feminist books and things like that, than I have about reading classics. 

“I've definitely lied about reading a few classics over the years. Certainly, when I started doing a show that was about Jane Austen, we all had to lie about how many Jane Austen books we'd read, which I think was half of one when we started it.”

One of the reimaginings is of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. In Dave’s version, troubled character Heathcliff attends a counselling session for anger management and toxic masculinity. 

Rachel, who is bringing out her own book ‘Advice From Strangers’ later this month, admitted a rejig of the classic Bronte tale might’ve helped her when she tried to tackle the very serious story. 

She explained: “I would have thought I would love Wuthering Heights right because I love dramatic, historical romance. Like that is absolutely my thing that I love. And yeah, I find Wuthering Heights incredibly hard to get through. 

“Even people like me who absolutely love reading, I think there's just a few who, you know, we studied them at school, we were sort of forced to do them at A level and GCSE and some of them are a bit overlong…I think what Dave were trying to do is to take these great works, and just inject a bit of fun into them for World Book Day.”

Rachel is married to fellow comedian Marcus Brigstocke, and the couple welcomed their first baby together in August 2021. 

While obviously World Book Day celebrates reading and encouraging everyone to pick up a book, there is the fun fancy-dress element too, which often leaves parents scrambling for costume ideas the night before. 

For Rachel though, she’s already thought about the World Book Days to come for her little one. 

“Already, we're planning costumes for the baby,” Rachel added. “That's the best thing you can possibly do with the baby, is plan how to dress them. 

“I've got all of the joy of dressing them up as a famous character to come. I've already got an idea of how to dress him as a tiny Mr. Darcy.”

To learn more about Dave’s World Book Day celebrations and read the reimagined stories, click here.

Rachel’s debut book ‘Advice From Strangers’ is out 17th March.