David Baddiel on finding the comedy in his ‘dysfunctional and weird’ family

Virgin Radio

31 Jul 2024, 15:43

David Baddiel has spoken to Chris Evans about his new book, My Family: The Memoir.

In his latest book, the comedian, presenter, screenwriter and author explores his mother’s idiosyncratic lifestyle and his father’s dementia, and takes the reader through the story of his life.

Joining the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar, David said of his mother: “She had an affair with a golfing memorabilia salesman and then turned our lives over to golf and made a house into a golfing palace. And then, to prove that she was really in love with this man, set up a rival golfing memory memorabilia business with the same name, called Golfiana. I mean, all that is really quite mental!”

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The new memoir follows the comedy star’s acclaimed stand-up show, My Family: Not the Sitcom. He explained: “What is great about it for me, because I did do a show about it, and then wrote the book, is that it's a gift that keeps on giving, because I decided to do more research about it, and then I discover things I never knew. 

“So, I never knew, for example, that Willie Whitelaw, the ex… whatever he was… Home Secretary under Margaret Thatcher, wrote my mum a letter saying how much he loved her golf books, right? 

“And what I'm thinking is, ‘Willie, you don't know the half of it. You don't know why my mother likes golf. She likes golf because she's essentially eroticised golf memorabilia, because she's deeply in love with this bloke.’ I'd love Willie Whitelaw to have known that!” 

Describing his mum as “not an entirely reliable narrator,” he recalled a time when she spoke to his brother’s girlfriend about the golfing memorabilia salesman, David White. “My mum is just talking to my brother and talking about golf and mentioning David White, and then turns to this woman and says, ‘I've been his lover for 20 years’, and then carries on talking to my brother as if nothing has happened!”

He added: “Now, I think that's probably about true, but how much they actually met and got it on, I'm not entirely sure, except my mum charted almost everything in erotic poetry, in diaries and… she taped virtually every conversation with her lover on her answerphone!”

Regarding his mother’s affair, David told Chris: “My mum was a refugee from the Nazis, and I think in her own mind or in her subconscious, would have married some kind of Prussian Prince, because they were quite wealthy in Germany before they lost everything. And I think it was this other life that she thought she was going to lead, but couldn't have it, married my dad, who was a Welsh working class bloke, and then was always looking for glamour elsewhere. 

“And the only thing she could find in Dollis Hill in the 1970s was this rather smooth, pipe-smoking golf guy. And that was her Austrian prince, I think, in her mind.”

He continued: “Now, for him, it was all about golf memorabilia. Because one of the great things about their conversations that I love is, my mum gets very sexy and passionate with him, and he's always saying, ‘Yeah, but have you sold that statue of Lee Trevino? And can I get my 10 percent for it?’, which I really, really love.”

David - who has written four novels, two non-fiction books and ten middle-grade books for children, said: “I listened to Spare by Prince Harry. And I thought, one of the things about this book is it's very, very angry, and it doesn't have a lot of laughs in it. Now, I think he's got a lot of material, and I think it's just how you look at your family. Because I think if your family is quite dysfunctional and weird, which his family is as well, then what you can do is treat it as a comedy or not. And I think he doesn't, and I do, I think it's mainly funny, and that's salvational for me.”

He added: “Something else is that someone said to me about this book, said, ‘It’s so unjudgmental. Your mum had an affair and your dad was also angry, and you never judge them.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, because I'm interested in understanding them. And if you judge someone, then you stop understanding them.’ The minute you say, ‘That's a bad person,’ you're not really interested in asking any more questions. 

“The reason people are like they are, there'll always be reasons for it. And the reasons are complicated and poignant. As I say, my mum was a refugee from the Nazis. She had an incredibly traumatic early life. My dad's a Welsh working class bloke. His twin brother died when he was young. There's lots of reasons why people are like they are, and then you think, forgiveness comes in understanding that. And also, comedy comes from that.”

Read what David told Chris about how he inadvertently said the wrong thing to his musical hero, Peter Gabriel, and how he then "really annoyed" Harry Enfield here.

My Family: The Memoir is out now. 

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.