Known better as madcap silly man Keith Lemon, he of the flamboyant outfits and bonkers hats, Leigh Francis is, for a change, being interviewed as himself.
The zany entertainer, whose ridiculous masked mimicry on Bo’ Selecta! and subsequent panel show shenanigans as Keith Lemon, host of Celebrity Juice and Through The Keyhole, has lifted the lid on his actual life in his new memoir – Leigh, Myself And I.
Meeting him today over Zoom, Francis, 51, is still wearing silly stuff – quirky straw hat, baggy T-shirt and Andy Pandy-style blue and green wide striped trousers, which he shows me with relish.
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His decision to take a break from Keith Lemon, at least for the time being, came after Celebrity Juice ended after 14 years.
“I’m not saying I was handcuffed to Celebrity Juice because it was like the best party ever, but while it was going on I had to be Keith Lemon.
“Now, when I tell people in the street that I’m called Leigh, it’s like saying some truths about Santa Claus and you see their face, either puzzled or they laugh.”
Switching to his real self has never been an issue at home with his wife Jill, with whom he has two daughters, or with his friends. He always left Keith Lemon at the front door.
“I’ll have a little break from Keith Lemon, I don’t know for how long, but I just feel like character comedy is not in fashion, I don’t think panel shows are in fashion at the moment, and I really wanted to go in a different direction,” the Leeds-born entertainer continues.
“I don’t ever class myself as a comedian. I guess it’s like acting. When you are doing tomfoolery acting, you’re a pretend person.”
Bo’ Selecta! – his sketch show which ran from 2002-2009, in which he wore latex masks to do silly impressions of celebrities including Craig David, Michael Jackson, Trisha Goddard and Mel B – later got him into hot water. David spoke out about the impact it’d had on him, accusing Francis of “bullying” and saying that wearing black masks on the show was “racist”.
In the renewed focus of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 following the death of George Floyd, Francis posted a tearful apology on Instagram.
He and Channel 4 agreed to remove Bo’Selecta! from its online streaming service, and he said at the time: “Been talking to some people, I didn’t realise how offensive it was back then. I just want to apologise, I just want to say sorry for any upset I caused.”
Today, Francis has moved on: “I don’t regret anything, you just learn by it. If I could do things differently now, I might do things differently, but I don’t regret what I did. But that’s hindsight.”
The rules of comedy are changing all the time, he observes.
“The landscape changes all the time. I might do something tomorrow that I might think, ‘I wish I’d done that differently’ 10 years later.”
Does he think comedy is changing for the better?
“My concern is that comedy is taken so seriously, as though comedians are anarchists, not court jesters. I speak for myself – I’m a court jester.
“I’m only there to make you laugh. I never understand why comedy is taken so seriously at all when there’s real things like the recent riots, and then comedy is put in the same plateau as what’s going on out there, especially online.
“It’s ridiculous! It’s a TV show that you can choose to watch or not watch. It’s up to you whether you think it’s funny. Comedy is so subjective, in the same school as fashion and music, especially for how things change and come back round, but it’s up to you to choose to watch it.
“Why would you choose to watch something that is going to offend you? I once read a review about my tour that I did. [It said] ‘Leigh Francis seems to only write what he thinks is funny’. That’s exactly what I do.
“You hope that you can make other people laugh with your thoughts and ideas, but you can’t make everybody laugh. You can’t make everybody like you.”
He says he worries about being cancelled to a certain extent.
“But I feel lucky. I’ve had a really good career. I could go off now and do a totally different career. I think public cancellations are ridiculous,” he adds, “because even people who get cancelled still have their following that enjoys them.”
There are things he wouldn’t do now on screen, he admits.
“All I would do now is what I’m allowed to do now. You’re not going to come up with an idea you don’t think is going to get commissioned in the current climate. It’s pointless.”
How does he see himself now?
“I’m as normal as a cup of tea and biscuits, I’ve never really tried to grow up. I don’t believe in growing up. I believe in being responsible as an adult, but I’ve always wanted to keep that spirit of messing around. That’s what I do for a job.”
What has made him grow up a lot is death, he reflects. His father died from throat cancer at age 47 – Francis moved to London soon after.
“I was in shock, even though he’d been ill for two years. Initially I felt angry that I’d lost a parent. I stayed in for a while. I didn’t see anyone because I didn’t want to put upset on my friends. One of my friends said, ‘I didn’t call you because I didn’t want you crying and embarrassing yourself’, which I appreciated. He made me laugh.”
There were times when he disappeared into his fictional characters to escape the grief, he admits.
“There was guilt that I was using Keith Lemon to escape from the problem, but I felt I had to put on a brave face in front of Jill and her mum and dad.”
In later years, his friend, presenter Caroline Flack, took her own life . He discusses the impact that had on him in the book.
“She came up with the most profound hashtag, #bekind,” he remembers, recalling the online trolling she suffered.
“This is part of the cancel culture as well… there’s no mindfulness at all for cancellation. Everyone’s always going on about mental health. The world contradicts itself all the time.”
As a child, brought up in a working class family, the young Francis loved film – he grew up watching E.T., Gremlins and other classic movies – and was a talented artist who went to art college to study graphic design.
When he was first breaking into TV with Paramount, he would take storyboards he’d sketched to illustrate his ideas and created wacky animations. His peers included Dom Joly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Simon Pegg and Noel Fielding, Matt Lucas and David Walliams.
Art is definitely something he wants to get back into, he says.
Might he reinvent himself as an artist, going the same route as Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves), who has moved on to art programmes? Possibly, but in a more light-hearted way, he suggests.
“I’ve a few things in development bubbling away. I want to do something art-related, but still whimsical. I really feel that the art world projects elitism and the man on the street isn’t interested in art because of that. I’d like to bring a fun side to art.”
Leigh, Myself And I: The Autobiography Of Me by Leigh Francis is published by HarperCollins. Available now.
