Griff: When I had to queue to get into own show

GRIFF Rhys Jones will be in High Wycombe tonight (Friday) regaling his audience with tales from his years fronting travel programmes and the early days of Alas Smith and Jones with Mel Smith.

The 70-year-old comedian, writer, actor and presenter says that one thing about travel shows that surprised him was the idea of “jeopardy”.

He says: “When I first started doing them, the executive producers would start talking about jeopardy.

“Of course Michael Palin didn’t, and David Attenborough doesn’t really get himself in jeopardy, does he? I mean, he might sneak up on animals but he doesn’t sort of confront them, you know, he’s not Ray Mears. But anyway, jeopardy was the watchword, so I was doing a lot of that.

“Things really become funny when you’re shooting and somebody says, ‘Griff, we’re going to swim through Perth in November’ —Perth in Scotland. We got in the water and swam in a relay. The first bloke they pulled out was literally bright red, I mean, the cold had been so extreme, he was sort of red turning blue.

“I turned to the woman who was about to go in, because I would be third in, and said to her, ‘Do you usually do this in November?’ and she said, ‘We never do it in November. We’re only doing it in November because of you — your producer insisted on us doing this swim.’ I went, ‘Ooh, ‘I’m so sorry about that’ and then of course it’s my turn and I have to jump in.

“They said, ‘Griff, don’t worry, the most you’ll be in is three minutes while we just get the shots’. Ten minutes later, I’m still in there…”

There have been some embarrasing occasions, with one memorable pre-show moment in Tring.

Griff says: “I wear tartan shirts permanently now and I just wanted to change from one shirt into another so I went out into the car park and found myself locked out of the theatre.

“I had to literally come in through the front door, saying hello to the audience. “Some of them were going, ‘Who are you pushing, mate?’ and I was going, ‘I’m sorry, I’m just…’

“I got in a queue to get indecorously into my own show holding a spare shirt in my hands and going, ‘Oh, excuse me, I’m so sorry, thank you, thank you very much’.

“I came back in and a woman turned to me and she said, ‘Oh, it’s you!’ and I said, ‘Yes, yes, it is me’. She said, ‘Well, I hope you’re going to be good tonight — we had such difficulty parking’.”

• Griff Rhys Jones: The Cat’s Pyjamas is at the Old Town Hall in High Wycombe tonight at 8pm. Tickets cost £26. For more information and tickets, visit trafalgartickets.com/
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