Ben Elton says picking up his Friday Night Live mic after more than three decades will be more than a little nerve-wracking.
Yes, he’s just finished a successful stand-up tour, and has a wealth of TV series, musicals and plays under his belt, not to mention a string of hit books.
But somehow returning to the gritty, fully live show, which launched scores of comedy careers back in the day, has given him some jitters – mostly because he’ll be showcasing brand new material.
“I guess I do know I can do it,” he says, when I tell him I can’t wait to hear his take on this month’s extraordinary Tory shenanigans.
“But that doesn’t mean I’m unaware of the possibility of failure. I mean, I’ve never actually died on stage, but I’ve had the odd whiff of embalming fluid.”
Elton, 63, will act as compere for the TV stand-up show on Friday, bringing on a stack of acts to a potential audience of a million.
It will feature some of the future stars he introduced back in the ‘80s like Jo Brand, Harry Enfield and Julian Clary. They’ll be joined by a raft of more recent stars for a 90-minute special which kicks off Channel 4 ’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
Elton, who wrote The Young Ones at just 23 and went on to create Blackadder with Richard Curtis, says it’s impossible to plan his biting political satire while everything’s so up in the air.
“It’s kind of a moving target,” he laughs. “I mean, in all the days I did it in the ‘80s, I was never in a position where you had no idea what and who the government would be at the end of the week.
“In many ways it is a great week to do it because everybody’s jaw is on the ground with astonishment and horror.
“But it’s also a bad week to do it because the situation is being so fully discussed by literally everybody.
“So me having a pop on Channel 4 is going to have a lot less bite than the days when I had a pop at Mrs Thatch.
“I’m going to have to dig deep to find an original observation. But don’t worry, I will.”
He hopes he can bring much-needed laughter, but says the current situation is properly dire. “We can’t understate the fact that we’re a global laughing stock and many, many families are facing ruin. It’s so distressing and depressing.”
Elton would love to see a full-time return for the show, which began as Saturday Live in 1985 and ended as Friday Night Live in 1988.
“The show literally changed British entertainment because it basically invented the stand-up boom,” he says.
“When we started there were two clubs in London and the odd pub comedy night everywhere else. That was it. By the time we finished three years later, there were two clubs in every town in the country.
“I said to Channel 4, ‘You should think about doing it again because there’s never been an edgy, proper live cabaret since on the TV’. I mean, with respect to a show like Live at the Apollo, it’s not a live gig, it’s recorded.”
A reboot would certainly be timely, just as BBC2 ends its long run of Mock the Week. Elton says a new version, compered by him, could mix comedy stars past and present. Of course what can and can’t be said has changed, but Elton reckons being woke – the new term for political correctness – is OK.
“There was a time when abolishing slavery and giving women the vote was political correctness gone mad.
“People think I invented political correctness, that I killed Benny Hill because I railed against sexism. But he was an incredibly successful bloke who got to the end of his career.”
He says there is a distinct difference between having a pop at those at the top and punching down for cheap laughs.
“Part of a satirist’s job is to speak truth to power. So you can certainly be rude. You can be angry. But bullying, I have never done. For me, most of what people call political correctness gone mad is just what we’re all going to be used to in 10, 20 years.”
One thing he does find difficult to deal with however, is Twitter. “Quoting people out of context, maliciously misrepresenting what was a much more nuanced argument and reducing it to ‘She’s a fascist. He’s a phobe,’ or whatever, is problematic.”
Last time he did Friday Night Live he did his routine to a lawyer before the show. “It was soul destroying,” he remembers. This time he thinks the vetting process might be different.
“It will be a kind of taste monitor.
“To get into gender or race, you’ve got to be really careful. I think they are overly sensitive as they’re scared of the T**ttersphere.”
He doesn’t fear Twitter because he’s not on it. “But they can trust me not to cause offence. I believe in inclusion, in diversity, but also in nuance and debate.”
Elton on his famous pals
Does Ben Elton have any chums who aren’t, like, incredibly famous?
“People used to say, ‘Oh, all your friends are famous,’ but we weren’t famous when we started,” he laughs.
“I mean, I met Ade (Edmondson) and Rik (Mayall) at university. And then in the next couple of years I met Jenny (Saunders) and Dawn (French) and Emma (Thompson), and everyone was just starting out.
I mean, I actually had dinner with Stephen (Fry) and Hugh (Laurie) last night and that was lovely. Yeah, we’re still very close.
“But we were a lucky generation; we got our break early and I think we did well.”
He says he’s pals with Jo, Julian and Harry in particular, who launched his character Stavros on the show. “With Harry it was close to being his first telly. So he was brand new and we became very close friends.
“It’s going to be a real privilege to introduce them now as the big stars they became.”
His late pal Rik Mayall suffered terribly with nerves when he went on stage because of the amount he put into it. “Rik used to love being on stage, and once he’d finished it was like an explosion of love.
"He came off and he felt genuinely like a rockstar, which is what he’d been on stage. And he paid that price with the nerves that preceded it, with his 20th fag of the hour. Whereas I never come off stage feeling like a rockstar. I always come off stage thinking, ’God, did I get it right? Did I make my points?’“
Elton admits that now, as he eases into his 60s, he’s enjoying people being a bit gentler with him. “What’s terrific fun for me now is – a lot of people had a pop over the years, which is fine, I was a big target, but I’ve finally become a bit sort of more venerable ie. old.
“It’s kind of nice now that people sort of say, ‘Do you know, I used to watch you.’”
Friday Night Live, Channel 4, Friday, 9pm. Ben Elton Live released on digital from 24 October. Please visit Altitude.Film for more information.
