Ep 184 with Alan Davies Pt 1: Comedy Became My Family

What The F Is Going On? with Mark Steel

Carousel Studios

News, Society & Culture, Comedy, Politics

4.7 • 888 Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2026

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week Mark is joined by comedian, actor, cricket obsessive and national treasure Alan Davies for a conversation that covers childhood trauma, football VAR, council bureaucracy, working-class warehouses, stand-up comedy in the 80s, Peter Snow in a BBC toilet, and why comedians instinctively know when someone is “not really a comic”. Alan talks candidly about the deeply personal experiences behind his memoirs Just Ignore Him and White Male Stand-Up, including grief, abuse, anger and the strange way comedy became both an escape and a substitute family. Along the way there are stories about Barry Manilow on the motorway, being buried under coat hangers in a van, fights in comedy clubs, the glory days of the circuit, and why every workplace secretly survives because everyone is covering for each other. We're currently sponsored by BT - behind brilliant things! Search 'Why BT' to find out more or click on the following link: https://www.bt.com/broadband/why-bt You can hear the second part of the interview in next week's episode – but if you can't wait, why not join us on Patreon? For £4 a month you can listen or watch the whole interview straight away. www.patreon.com/wtfisgoingonpod For media, press & guest enquiries please email mikey@carouselstudios.co.uk Follow What The F*** Is Going On? with Mark Steel on Instagram @wtfisgoingonpod Follow Mark Steel @mrmarksteel Follow Alan @alandaviescomic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We risk becoming an island of strangers.
0:04.0	We will strive for the denopsification of Ukraine.
0:07.0	Because you can't grow, can't grow, can't
0:10.0	Yes, you can.
0:11.0	They're eating the dogs.
0:12.0	They're eating the dinosaurs.
0:14.0	Under the a year, we weren't allowed to eat in critics.
0:17.0	I just think everyone should be sure.
0:19.0	What the fuck is going on? Hello, I just don't get it. I just like that you're going on.
0:23.5	Hello, I'm Mark Still. Welcome to my podcast where each week we ask the question that has engaged and baffled philosophers for literally a thousand billion years. What the fuck is going on?
0:42.5	This week, my guest is Alan Davis.
0:46.3	Everybody knows Alan Davis.
0:48.0	You will know him from being QI, the man who gets the answers wrong.
0:52.1	Or you will know him from Jonathan Creek, or you know him from being a brilliant stand-up,
0:57.0	from a thousand different things he's been on.
1:00.3	But from now on, people will say, Alan Davis, the bloke who was on, what the fuck is going on?
1:07.5	Alan has a book out of the moment called White Male Stand Up, which is his second book. It's a sort of sequel
1:12.9	to the book called Just Ignoring that came out a few years ago about the really rather harrowing
1:20.8	business of his upbringing. And I wouldn't say despite this, maybe because of this,
1:26.9	certainly alongside this,
1:28.7	he has been one of the funniest people in this country for a very long time.
1:34.3	And I often sit and watch cricket with him.
	...

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