{"id":722883,"date":"2026-08-01T14:25:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/722883\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T14:25:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T14:25:20","slug":"frank-skinner-im-more-careful-now-that-my-bones-have-the-consistency-of-aeros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/722883\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank Skinner: \u2018I\u2019m more careful now that my bones have the consistency of Aeros\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Frank Skinner<\/a> exits the Starbucks bathroom and sits down opposite me. His publicist brings over our drinks; he sends her back, first for milk, and then for a stick to retrieve the teabag. \u201cSorry, I\u2019m not normally screaming at women to do things for me,\u201d he jokes. \u201cI blame Alexa<\/a>. She\u2019s got me into a bad habit. Anyway, hello.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something charmingly, transparently incorrigible about the West Bromwich-born comedian: his is a mind foraging constantly for a punchline. Everything Skinner says carries with it a sort of stealthy, amused irony \u2013 an irony that\u2019s stuck with him through his decades-long transmogrification from football-loving, filth-mongering figurehead of Nineties \u201cNew Lad\u201d culture to the proudly Catholic, poetry-referencing MBE recipient<\/a> that sits before me today. (Really, this was a shift more in perception than reality \u2013 Skinner was a sober, Christ-worshipping arts lover back in his rowdy heyday, and still now revels in football and sex jokes.)<\/p>\n

We start easy. How\u2019s life, I ask. Skinner grins: \u201cWell, Richard Madeley said to me about an hour ago that I was \u2018happier than ever\u2019. He didn\u2019t ask me, he just looked at me and said, \u2018You\u2019re happier than ever\u2019. He\u2019s very superficial, I was just laughing at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Richard Madeley\u2019s defence \u2013 a phrase I\u2019d never thought I\u2019d type \u2013 it\u2019s easy to see how he might have reached this conclusion. There\u2019s something boyishly upbeat about Skinner, a sort of impishness you don\u2019t necessarily expect from a 69-year-old. He doesn\u2019t seem to have aged at all in the last decade. He\u2019s buoyed too by his imminent stint at the Edinburgh Fringe, performing two different shows \u2013 and says he likes doing interviews like these \u201cbecause I don\u2019t have many friends\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get rubbish ones,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t know how this one\u2019s going to go, but you get the ones where they start digging, looking for weak spots for their knife. But even that\u2026 I think they\u2019re interesting.\u201d <\/p>\n

He grins, again. \u201cI was doing an interview recently and the woman started by saying, \u2018Do you want a cockapoo?\u2019 And I said, \u2018No, I\u2019ve got a dog already.\u2019 She\u2019d actually said \u2018Do you want copy approval?\u2019 and I\u2019d just misheard. I thought, \u2018I\u2019ve started an interview showing that I have become Grandpa Simpson.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\u2018I\u2019m\u2018I\u2019m a brilliant audience member\u2019: Skinner performing standup (Elis O\u2019Brien)<\/p>\n

Back in the late 1990s, when he hosted his own talk show on the BBC, Skinner would often ask his guests one question to break the ice: when did you last fall over? \u201cGod, it\u2019s been a while,\u201d he says, when I ask him this. \u201cNow that my bones have the consistency of Aeros, I\u2019m a bit more careful. And I think not drinking has taken a lot of the falling out of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

By this metric, Skinner\u2019s peak falling days are some four decades behind him; he got sober in the mid-Eighties, shortly before he gave up his career as an English lecturer to pursue comedy. (He was the child of a working-class upbringing, born Christopher Graham Collins; now, he\u2019s Frank Skinner to most of the world, including his wife.)<\/p>\n

The first of Skinner\u2019s Edinburgh shows is a work-in-progress standup residency; the second, Crowd Work, sees him lead a series of guest comedians in an hour of unrehearsed interactions with the audience. He\u2019s a good compere, he claims, in part because he is a \u201cbrilliant audience member\u201d. \u201cI really, really laugh,\u201d he says. \u201cIn fact, I got told off by my wife for clapping too loud at the circus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skinner notes that there is a strong \u201csupport network\u201d on the night between the three comics who join him \u2013 a culture far removed from the \u201csavage\u201d competition for laughs on something like Mock the Week. \u201cI don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever been to a trout farm,\u201d he says. \u201cBut there, you can get this feed that you walk around with in a cup. You throw it in the water and about 200 trout literally jump out the water, fighting over it. And that\u2019s what Mock the Week feels like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe New New Lad: Skinner poses after accepting an MBE for services to entertainment in 2023 (Getty)<\/p>\n

He\u2019s fond of an agricultural metaphor \u2013 later on, he likens panel shows to \u201cbattery farms\u201d as opposed to the \u201cfree range\u201d world of standup. There is a playful cleverness to Skinner\u2019s idiolect in general. (\u201cI like verbal dexterity; I like feeling the words on my lips.\u201d) For years, he was able to indulge his linguistic flights of fancy, and his love of literary esoterica, on his radio show, where \u201cworking clean\u201d is an Ofcom-mandated necessity. (Between 2009 and 2024, he hosted a Saturday show on Absolute Radio; since its cancellation in 2024, it has effectively continued as a podcast, Frank Off the Radio.) But translating this to the more resistant world of standup comedy is a Rubicon he\u2019s yet to cross.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me now, pushing the envelope means doing a joke where the punchline is the word \u2018syntax\u2019, rather than talking about masturbation or whatever,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d like to be able to talk about what\u2019s funny about TS Eliot\u2019s The Waste Land, but I\u2019ve tried it \u2013 audiences won\u2019t tolerate it. What usually happens is I\u2019ll do 10 warm-up gigs in Islington and think, \u2018Great! They\u2019re laughing at [the literary] stuff.\u2019 And then I\u2019ll go and do it in Oldham and think, no\u2026 Andy Burnham will never level this out.\u201d He laughs. \u201cFor all my hifalutin plans early on, I end up doing a lot more knob jokes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also coming up this month is the release of Thirty Years of Dirt, a filmed version of Skinner\u2019s previous standup show, recorded in April at the Soho Theatre Walthamstow. It\u2019s shot in black and white, a characteristically atavistic touch inspired, Skinner says, by the look of the 1973 Lenny Bruce biopic Lenny.<\/p>\n

We went for a walk on the day of the marriage and she said, \u2018Shall we not bother?\u2019<\/p>\n

Frank Skinner<\/p>\n

Even away from comedy, Skinner says he has long been inspired by Bruce\u2019s approach to radical, self-effacing honesty. \u201cThe last five minutes of Sunday Brunch yesterday was me talking about my career failures,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s one celebrity in a thousand that would have that conversation \u2013 you know, when people say things like, \u2018I\u2019m leaving Coronation Street and I\u2019ve got a big project lined up,\u2019\u2029I always think, \u2018It\u2019s a 1,000-piece jigsaw\u2019. But I was strangely wallowing in it. I like to put salt in my own wounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there are a few wounds that might spring to mind \u2013 TV and radio series cancellations, or the aborted novel (Thunder Man and Jeff Phillips, about a superhero whose sidekick refused to change his name) that he had to return the commission for \u2013 life seems, in general, to be going swimmingly. Last year, Skinner married his long-term partner, Cath Mason, after 24 years together, in a registry office ceremony with no church, congregation, wedding dress, or rings. \u201cWe went for a walk on the day of the marriage and she said, \u2018Shall we not bother?\u2019 I think there was a bit of snobbery \u2013 we\u2019ve been to weddings that feel a bit basic,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I have felt some mystical warm glow inside me since we got married. And our recovery rate from arguments has accelerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, he says, one eye as ever on the material: \u201cI find the rhythm and scan of gags works better with \u2018wife\u2019 than \u2018partner\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skinner and Mason share one son, Buzz, named after the astronaut Aldrin. Around the time Buzz was born in 2012, Skinner joked on the radio that the benefit of being an older father was that he \u201cwouldn\u2019t have to worry about the difficult teenage years\u201d. Morbid kidding aside, I ask, are there anxieties around being a father to a young teenager while you\u2019re nearly 70? \u201cI suppose I\u2019ve always thought I\u2019d like to get him to university,\u201d Skinner says. \u201cBasically, you get to a stage where your child doesn\u2019t necessarily want you around. I once went to a place called Kangaroo Island, off the coast of Adelaide. And there was a graveyard bit: when kangaroos knew their time was up, they instinctively went to this part of the island to die. And maybe I\u2019ll do that when I\u2019ve got my son into a good course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SkinnerSkinner and his now wife, Cath Mason, photographed in 2016 (Getty)<\/p>\n

Much is made of the \u201cmasculinity crisis\u201d facing boys and young men today; is this something Skinner butts up against as a father? \u201cWell, I definitely wouldn\u2019t want to go back to the old days,\u201d he says. \u201cI think at the moment, it\u2019s at the extreme end. I\u2019m hoping we can pick our way through the toxic masculinity stuff \u2013 but it is scary. I don\u2019t want my son to grow up apologising for his whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n

He seems to mull the question for a moment. \u201cDo I keep a real eye on what my kid is looking at on his phone? Probably not. Does that answer your question? I don\u2019t know if it does. Were you blaming me for toxic masculinity?\u201d I demur. <\/p>\n

Nonetheless, he argues, there was even back in the 1990s \u201ca lot more to the New Lads\u201d than just \u201cElizabeth Hurley in her underwear on the cover of Loaded\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was the first time I heard ordinary blokes talking about books, music, and fashion in a much more Nick Hornby-ish, thoughtful way.\u2029So a lot of stuff came with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A big part of what propelled Skinner into the thick of the New Lads stereotype was, of course, football \u2013 along with David Baddiel, he created and starred in the comedy series Fantasy Football League. (Their musical collaboration with the Lightning Seeds, \u201cThree Lions\u201d, is still a mainstay singalong at England matches.) <\/p>\n

These days, he remains a football obsessive \u2013 but from a distance. \u201cI realised that thing that no one must ever acknowledge, which is that football is much better on the telly than it is live,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause you see stuff about four times, and someone explains it to you. There\u2019s an old-fashioned view \u2013 it\u2019s almost like signing on the dole \u2013 that you\u2019re supposed to turn up. In that respect, I no longer qualify to call myself a football fan, even though I watch hours and hours of it, read about it and talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SkinnerSkinner celebrates at The Hawthorns, following West Brom\u2019s promotion to the Premier League in 2004 (Getty)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an irony, he says, in how little he actually understands the game he\u2019s devoted so much of his life to \u2013 adding that he \u201clongs\u201d for \u201cserious football analysis\u201d on TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like Match of the Day, Sky, everything has to have jokes in it, has to be lighthearted\u2026 lots of bants,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d like to see a deep, detailed heat map looking at the commentator and co-commentator, establishing how much laughter between them was genuine and how much is just punctuation. They don\u2019t really say anything funny, but there\u2019s lots of \u2018I don\u2019t think you went that far up the pitch, did you?\u2019 \u2018Ha ha ha.\u2019 It\u2019s grotesque.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skinner finishes his tea, but we keep talking for a while \u2013 about his love of Laurel and Hardy and WC Fields; about his recurring daydreams (\u201cIn my head, I\u2019m currently the player-manager of Barcelona\u201d); and about the cuts at the BBC, Skinner\u2019s on-again, off-again employer. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like adverts like \u2018What has the BBC ever done for me?\u2019<\/a>, as if it\u2019s a religious institution,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I just can\u2019t believe the BBC would [crumble]. I can\u2019t think of anything that\u2019s disappeared that was so deeply ingrained in British culture. I guess the New Lads. Will there ever be a trailer that says \u2018What have the New Lads done for me?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One final punchline \u2013 he pounces. \u201cActually\u2026 that could just be me in a big house in Hampstead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Crowd Work with Frank Skinner and Friends\u2019 at the Edinburgh Fringe runs daily from 17-26 August. Tickets are on sale now<\/p>\n

\u201830 Years of Dirt\u2019 is available on Sky and streaming service NOW from 14 August<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-722883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}