Neil Innes, who wrote the songs for Monty Python And The Holy Grail, is bringing his new one-man show, Another Chance To Get It Right, to Bradford next week.

It’s going to be very different from his previous one man show, A People’s Guide To World Domination, as he explained in a phone conversation about life, the universe and the Hollywood Bowl.

“When you’re young you crash through beauty and tranquillity because everythings happens so fast. As you grow older (he’s 68) you wonder: ‘What was all that about?’ “After 40 years at the coalface of comedy I am in a state of graceful futility, but you’ve got to go on. As a satirist you poke fun hoping to improve things.

“I spoke to John Cleese about this. He used to think there was mostly sanity with pockets of insanity. Now it’s the reverse. Is humanity capable of making the world a better place?”

Evidently he thinks it’s possible because he declared: “We are in the middle of a miracle”, a belief reinforced by reading books by Dutch primotologist Frans de Waal, who writes in The Bonobo And The Atheist: ‘I’ve argued that many of what philosophers call moral sentiments can be seen in other species. In chimpanzees and other animals, you see examples of sympathy, empathy, reciprocity, a willingness to follow social rules...

‘To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us.

‘Atheism will need to be combined with something else, something more constructive than its opposition to religion, to be relevant to our lives. The only possibility is to embrace morality as natural to our species.’ None of which explains why the man who wrote I’m The Urban Spaceman for the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band is bringing his show to the backstreet New Bradford Playhouse.

He said: “I have managed to avoid the worst aspects of fame. It’s funny to be in show business and be frightened of crowds. Small rooms of 200 people are cozy.

“I have done it. I have done the Hollywood Bowl with the Pythons. I’ve done the Albert Hall; but it’s all frightening because you don’t get individuals...

“We are social animals and we need to interact,” he said genially, which is why the man who wrote the song How Sweet To Be An Idiot, wants to set up a social network site called The Institute of Cognitive Stupidity.

That’s why his show will include lots of friendly audience participation, some of which will be filmed for a not-for-profit movie, and recorded for an audio-memoirs project he’s been working on at home for more than a year. There’s method in his nuttiness.

“I always get ticked off if I don’t do certain songs,” he said, referring to his back catalogue. “So there’s a new prop, The Wheel of Fortune, a bicycle wheel on a stool based on a piece by Marcel Duchamp.

“There will be four coloured envelopes containing four of my songs. Whatever colour comes up I will do the song.”

Neil Innes is at The New Bradford Playhouse on Friday, May 31, starting at 7.30pm. For tickets, ring (01274) 308727.