Barry Cryer

Barry Cryer has penned jokes for Tommy Cooper, the Two Ronnies and Morecambe & Wise. He is a regular on Radio 4's 'I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue', and an Edinburgh mainstay since 'Two Old Farts in the Night', with Willie Rushton, in 1990

How has comedy changed since you started out?

It's more frenzied now, more commercialised. I feel for some of the young ones, because they might get a break before they're ready. But they do work harder than we did.

What are the current trends in UK comedy?

There is a strange backlash to 'alternative comedy' going on. 'Little Britain' is done with fat characters, black characters, gay characters. All with an ironic wink. It licenses us to do subjects that, in the Eighties, comics wouldn't have touched.

So is this a comedy golden age?

The golden age is usually the one you remember personally. But I don't remember comedy ever being such a big thing as it is now. So I hate people of my age who knock the young ones. I just say, you've got to get out more.

Barry Cryer's 'The Elephant in the Pub' is at the Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh, 11-18 August

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