Arthur Smith: I got arrested for breach of the peace and possession of a megaphone
2/20/202657 min
From the bomb sites of post war South London to the stages of the Comedy Store and the studios of Radio 4, Arthur Smith’s life has been driven less by ambition than by curiosity. The son of a Second World War prisoner of war turned police officer, and a grammar school girl who filled the house with books and poetry, Arthur grew up in a home where humour and humanity went hand in hand.
In this episode of Full Disclosure, James O’Brien sits down with the comedian to trace a journey that begins in Bermondsey and winds its way through the birth of alternative comedy, and the strange alchemy that turned a literature graduate into one of Britain’s most distinctive comic voices. Arthur reflects on discovering the thrill of laughter as a child playing Captain Hook, on being elected head boy, and on why poetry and stand up share more in common than most people realise.
They revisit the early days of the Comedy Store, the emergence of a new kind of comedy in the 1980s, and the moment television fame arrived via Grumpy Old Men. Arthur speaks candidly about the seductions of drink, the shock of acute pancreatitis, and how a brush with mortality reshaped his relationship with success. For Arthur, comedy has never been about domination or design, but about delight: finding the precise word, the perfect pause, the unexpected turn.
Find out more about Arthur Smith’s upcoming gigs here
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[upbeat music] This is a Global Player original podcast.
James O'Brien· Host0:06
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to Full Disclosure, a podcast project conceived entirely to let me spend more time with interesting people than I would ever get on the radio. Arthur Smith, welcome.
Arthur Smith· Guest0:22
I'm delighted to be here.
James O'Brien· Host0:24
Right, it's a pleasure to have you.
Arthur Smith· Guest0:24
Are we finished now?
James O'Brien· Host0:25
That is it, yes. Congratulations- [laughing] ... and good luck!
Arthur Smith· Guest0:28
Cheers. Bye-bye.
James O'Brien· Host0:29
[laughing] Um, I never know where to start conversations. I never worry about it unduly, but occasionally, I'm presented with a nugget of information, which, if true- [chuckles] ... leaves me with no option but to begin there. And- Oh, no, you're not going to reveal that I'm a hitman, are you? [laughing] Not till the end. But I a- I am going to reveal that your, your father was in Colditz.
Arthur Smith· Guest0:49
Yes. Yeah, he was, uh... My father was, uh, captured at the Battle of El Alamein. Uh, he spent a year, more than a year working as sort of slave labour down a copper mine.
James O'Brien· Host1:03
Crikey.
Arthur Smith· Guest1:04
And then he- and then, but he did end up in Colditz, so he ne- never quite knew why he was sent there, because it was mostly for posh people and, uh, and people who tried to escape before. But h- his job was just to sort of sweep up and make tea for some of the posh guys there, like Earl Haig's son and, uh, Charles Romilly, who was, uh, Winston Churchill's w...