What to expect from Rob Brydon and Jack Dee in Bradford

Rob Brydon is reflecting on A Night of Songs & Laughter, which fuses his stand-up comedy, dazzling range of impressions, and impressive singing, accompanied by an eight-piece band.

Rob, 54, got his TV break in dark comedies Marion and Geoff and Human Remains and went on to star as Uncle Bryn in hit sitcom Gavin and Stacey. A BAFTA-nominated actor, he has been in films such as as Blinded by the Light.

His love of music started when he was in Guys and Dolls at school. In 2009, alongside Ruth Jones - who was also in that production Guys and Dolls at Porthcawl Comprehensive School - he had a No.1 hit with Islands in the Stream, for Comic Relief, and he has performed with the likes of Neil Diamond and Sharleen Spiteri.

But because he’s known primarily as a comic and actor, Rob is aware that A Night of Songs & Laughter is a risk. “It’s a deliberate risk,” he says. “I’ve got to the stage where shows I’m in like Would I Lie To You? and The Trip and stand-up tours return. But I want to go outside my comfort zone. I went to see Jeff Goldblum play with his band, it was wonderful. He played his songs, but did other things as well, like film quizzes. I found that liberating, that you don’t have to follow the rules. You can make the show whatever you want it to be. So that’s what I’ve done with A Night of Songs & Laughter.”

Rob will be combining his love of music and comedy. Pic: Nick Rutter

Rob, who trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, recounts his life story through anecdotes and songs by such artists as Paul Simon, Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits. “In my teens I lived in Porthcawl, a coastal town in Wales, and all the cool boys were surfers. I had a go once, but hurt my knee. My musical taste was never cool. I loved David Bowie, but also Shakin’ Stevens and Cliff Richard.

“I’d see neanderthals from my class with their arm around a girl at the school disco and think, ‘How did he manage that? He can’t string a sentence together’. I talk about my bemusement. At the time, Joe Jackson’s song, Is She Really Going Out with Him? was a hit, and I sing a bit of that by way of illustration.”

He hopes audiences will leave his show “having forgotten about the world for two hours. As a performer, you really feel people just want to escape. It’s tangible. They want to go out and be entertained. In times of adversity, which you could definitely we’re in now, people want that more than ever.”

* JACK Dee is also returning to the stage with his tour, Off the Telly, which was cut off by the pandemic. “I’d just got it started then the curtain fell because of lockdown. That was annoying. People just don’t think about people like me in the pandemic, do they? It’s all about the doctors and nurses!” jokes Jack.

Next week he finally brings his tour, and grouchy on-stage demeanour, to Bradford, sharing his frustrations at the modern world.

Jack is bringing his deadpan humour back to Bradford. Pic: Aemen Sukkar

Jack was “excited but also daunted” about returning to live venues. “I thought, ‘What am I going back to?Are we all going to be so beaten up by the whole experience of the pandemic that it will be hard to enjoy life again?’ But people realised quickly that this is what makes life worth finding vaccines for. As soon as I got back on stage, I was re-energised.”

It’s the shared experiences we’ve missed, says Jack. “We get a strong remedial effect from going out. It helps us cope with the harder things in life. We’ve had 18 months of not being able to do that, the effect has been insidious. It created a vacuum that was filled with hysteria and panic.”

Jack, whose TV career includes Jack Dee’s Happy Hour and sitcoms Lead Balloon and Bad Move, has hosted Radio 4’s legendary quiz show I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue for 12 years. Returning to stand-up, he says he didn’t want to be the comic “who overdoes material on Covid”.

“At first I thought everything would need to be seen through the lens of Covid. I was saying to myself, ‘How long is this going to go on for? I was over-thinking things. People are actually more concerned with going out and having a good time. I make references to Covid - it would be odd not to - but move on. It’s been very tragic, but part of our coping strategy is to pick ourselves up and laugh about it. Comedy is a great way of helping us put things into perspective. It’s also be a good thing to help us rebuild and get back to something a bit more normal. There have been some farcical elements in the way Covid has been dealt with, and we owe it to ourselves to look irreverently at those. It’s a global tragedy. But so was the First World War and that didn’t stop us making sitcoms about it. That’s how we are as a species. Sophisticated enough to take two views at once and know that one doesn’t insult the other.”

One thing he does focus on is the way the government handled the pandemic: “We’ve had so many crass examples of hypocrisy. I’m too much of a libertarian not to want politicians to have a private life. But sometimes you think, ‘Hang on, this is more important than that. If you’re asking us to do this, you have to do it as well. Prior to his fall from grace, I found myself defending Matt Hancock who was having to deal with an incredibly difficult situation. But then he goes and breaks the rules.”

His show is called Off the Telly because of “my disenchantment with the kind of telly I get offered now. I really won’t do anything with ‘Celebrity’ in the title anymore.” So we won’t be seeing Jack on Celebrity Love Island, then? “Not this season. I’ll let everyone else get buffed up first. I don’t want it to be unfair. Other people have to have time to get fit so they can catch up with me. Otherwise I’d win too easily.”

l Rob Brydon’s A Night of Songs & Laughter is at St George’s Hall on Wednesday, May 4.

l Jack Dee Off the Telly is at St George’s Hall on Thursday, May 5. Call (01274) 432000 or visit bradford-theatres.co.uk