Richard Herring, standing up for his roots
Regional focus: The South-west
Somerset boy Richard is one half of comedy duo Lee and Herring. He tells Siobhan Dolan his story
Published: 30 September 2003
Comedian and writer Richard Herring was initially distraught at the prospect of moving south to Somerset as a young boy
Comedian and writer Richard Herring was initially distraught at the prospect of moving south to Somerset as a young boy. Not even the fact that it was to Cheddar, home to Britain's largest gorge and Gough's Cave where Britain's oldest complete skeleton (9,000 years old) was discovered, made any impression on the 8-year-old. "I remember crying when we had to move from Leicestershire," he says. "Then I asked my mum if it was near the sea. She said it was and I immediately stopped crying!"
"We used to go to Weston-super-Mare, which was great. We'd go on the pier and swim in the estuary." As for Cheddar itself, the Gorge quickly became a source of fascination. "I found the cave thing quite exciting and I worked in them for a bit. Jacob's Ladder, a big tower of steps you could climb up from the bottom of the gorge to the top, was good."
But it wasn't just the lure of this spectacular natural phenomenon that drew him there. "All the video games came in when I was a kid and I remember playing Space Invaders at the Cliff's Hotel, and when we were older, drinking cider and beer at the White Hart."
He went to school at the Kings of Wessex, where his dad was headmaster and where his career potential began to emerge. "Comedy was always something I was interested in. I always liked humour. I had a grandad who was very funny," he explains. "At school, we were all into comedy and did lots of revue sketches and shows, as well as acting - it was great."
Not surprisingly for an area that spurned the Seventies legends The Wurzels (the West Country's most notorious musical export, and founders of "Scrumpy and Western"), local references frequently crept in to his early work. "When we did Lee and Herring [comedy duo with partner Stewart Lee], we used to make jokes about Somerset being backward, so we did get some mileage out of it," he admits. "My early attempts at stand-up also featured Somerset characters. The audiences took it all in their stride - they don't beat me up when I go back there!"
Herring has just finished writing his first book, developing themes from his one-man comedy show, which was a big hit at the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year. It's largely based on the responses to an online questionnaire (8,000 to date) and has been translated and performed in more than 10 European countries. "There's a lot on thinking about what it means to be a man," Herring explains. "When you really look at the subject, things make a lot more sense because masculinity has had so much influence on the history of the world. So there's perhaps a social service to the show, but essentially I'm just trying to make people laugh."
Herring regularly returns to the South-west: "I like going to Wells; Wookey Hole is there too and it's even better than the Cheddar cave," he says, nervously, aware of his position as one of the village's most famous sons. "I still go to Bath quite a lot too. Also, Bristol is a brilliant town to hang out in, and the development by the Waterfront is great. It's a really cool and laid-back city: people are very friendly."
He retains happy memories of his childhood in the South-west: "It was a really, really great place to grow up. We were protected from things and we had the space and freedom to run around," he says. "Now I live in the city, which makes me really appreciate what's good about the countryside."
If the success of Herring's comedy show is anything to go by, he looks set to be back in the South-west - and all over the UK - very soon, promoting a best-selling book.
