Top comedy writer Henry Normal offers Escape Plan at Petworth Festival

Fairlight-based Henry Normal – a man with a comedy pedigree second to none – offers his Escape Plan at this year’s Petworth Festival (Friday, July 29, 7.45pm, Leconfield Hall).
Henry Normal. Picture by Jim HoldenHenry Normal. Picture by Jim Holden
Henry Normal. Picture by Jim Holden

“And I think we all need an escape at the moment whether it is for five minutes or longer.

"I don't know what the weather is like with you at the moment but it's gloomy and with the couple of years we've had with Covid, it is all a bit troubled, isn't it.

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“But the great thing is that you can escape into your imagination.

"There is that great quote ‘Stone walls do not a prison make’ and I'm taking that as my lead.

"You can escape into your imagination, and I do think that's something that we've all had to do more and more over the last couple years.

"Obviously you do have to come back but you come back refreshed and perhaps with a new perspective.

“I do think the pandemic has changed us.

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"I'm of that age where if you fall down it is called having a fall rather than falling over, and when that happens you have to address your balance and you have to address your speed so that it doesn't happen again.

"And in a way I think we've all had a fall with Covid.

"I think it makes us all just that little bit more conscious of our own fragility.

“It's very easy when everything is going well to think that you are the centre of the universe but when things start to go wrong, we realise that we all need each other, and I am very conscious of the fact that over the last few years we just don't exist as an island in that sense.”

As a comedy writer, Henry has co-written huge hit TV shows such as Mrs Merton, The Royle Family and much of Steve Coogan’s considerable output.

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He set up Baby Cow Productions in 1999, since when he has been one of the principal movers behind series such as Gavin & Stacey, The Mighty Boosh, Alan Partridge and much else besides. In June 2017 he was honoured with a special BAFTA for his services to television.

But things have now come full circle and he is returning to performance and poetry which is where he began: “I performed from about the age of 19, maybe about a thousand gigs until my late 20s when I got into television so for me this is coming home to be doing this. And the great thing with poetry is that it is a unique communication and perception between you and the person that is listening to the poem.

“When you're doing films like Philomena, it's about 300 people involved and it's a team effort but with poetry it's very personal. I do write a lot of funny stuff so that people don't want to slit their wrists listening to the rest but I do write a lot of personal poems as well.

"If I didn't write the funny ones I think people would be worrying for their health!”

Henry has recently moved to Fairlight from Brighton: “We were in Brighton for many years but we just thought it would be good to have more space around us.”

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