Become a Member
Life

Matt Lucas: J is for Jewish

“I don’t look down on people who do believe, but I can’t pretend to feel something when I don’t feel it. I don’t want to be a hypocrite and I don’t want to be fake.”

October 10, 2017 09:26
95217986
5 min read

Comedian Matt Lucas has written a book of his life with one chapter for every letter of the alphabet. Picking it up, I expect it to reflect the humour that made him and co-star David Walliams famous. O for over the top, S for sneers, B for blacking up, and C for chav jokes, perhaps.

But the book, though funny, is much more than a warmed-up episode of the show. And the man I speak to on the phone is pensive, softly spoken and reserved.

Perhaps he’s cautious because I am a journalist, but I get none of the frivolity I expected from the man who has maintained that his own “fatness” and “baldness” are funny. Then again, Little Britain was 10 years ago and Lucas has said that society and humour have moved on since then.

We start with what I think are gentle questions about his Jewish background. He’s not in the mood for superficial answers.