COMEDIAN Norman Lovett, best known for his role in Red Dwarf, has a bit of a secret he wants to share.

“I’ve always told people I am from Windsor,” he begins, “and to be fair that’s where I was born. I suppose I thought it would give me an air of grandeur.

“But I actually grew up in Clacton. My parents moved there when I was two months old and I stayed in the town until my mid twenties, which is when I went to London.

“My old school was the secondary modern in Clacton, Parfields, and I also remember going to the Weeley Music Festival, which was a huge thing because Marc Bolan was there and the crowd booed him because they thought he had gone all commercial.

“The last time I went back was for my mother’s funeral at the Weeley Crem a few years back, so actually I know the area pretty well.”

Which means when Norman steps on to the Colchester Arts Centre stage next week to perform his latest touring show, Old and New, he will practically be on home turf.

Norman, 66, is most famous for his role as the computer “Holly” in the cult sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, a part which has taken him all over the world.

“Next month I’m off to Australia and New Zealand,” he tells me proudly. “I’m a guest at the Armageddon Expo events in Melbourne and Auckland, which is a great honour because they’ve got loads of big names going.”

The sitcom is still broadcast all over the world and Norman got the part when he was in his early forties.

He says: “I came quite late to comedy. I had just turned 30 when I started doing a few gigs in London, just to try it out, and it went from there.

“Back then we used to go on as a support act for these punk groups and one of the first gigs I did was for the Clash at the Derby Assembly Rooms.

“It was a pretty good night. I went down well with the crowd and then I got to watch the Clash afterwards. I remember there were quite a few pretty girls hanging around backstage in leather. That was nice too, although I don’t think they were hanging around for me. Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet the band themselves.”

As the alternative British comedy scene exploded in the Eighties, Norman was right in the thick of it.

“You could tell something huge was happening,” he says. “I suppose it was a bit like what punk did for music. “There were all these comedians out there doing the same old jokes and then these new guys had come along to challenge that.

“It was funny because I never had this political agenda or any agenda for that matter, I just wanted to do my stuff.”

And yet Norman was more than happy to be caught up in the new wave of British comedy that was sweeping the nation, especially when it netted him a part in one of the biggest comedy shows of the time.

“Red Dwarf was amazing,” he says. “Great characters, brilliantly written and the jokes still stand today. “It came at a good time for me because I think I was exactly the right age to play that character.

“Filming it was interesting because everyone else was in front of the studio audience but I was the only one round the corner backstage with just a bored cameraman.

“It’s been great for me because it continues to be really popular all over the world, which has meant the chance to go to lots of comic book conventions like the ones in Australia and New Zealand next month.”

But before that the 66-year-old is back to what he loves best – stand-up.

“I’ve never overworked,” he tells me. “I just keeping plodding along but I’m always keen to do more shows.

“Edinburgh wore me out a bit this year. “I did 21 shows on the trot and that was a bit mad but I also got to do lots of other things while I was up there, which was great, such as Richard Herring’s Edinburgh Fringe podcast.

“This is the third year I’ve been and I reckon I’ll be back next year. “There are so many comedians up there. You do tend to think am I getting too old for this now but I do enjoy it.

“This show I’m doing at Colchester is called Old and New because that’s precisely what it is. I went back and looked at some old material and thought ‘do you know what, I haven’t performed that for 35 years but it’s still pretty good’.

“The new bits are stuff that usually come to me on the night like when I was in Edinburgh and I started eating a Magnum Classic every day, which eventually led to a five minute routine on the Magnum Classic.”

 

Norman Lovett: Old and New
Colchester Arts Centre
Church Street, Colchester.
September 27. Doors 8pm, show 8.30pm.
£10, £8 concessions.
01206 500900.
www.colchesterartscentre.com