The comedian, who this week releases Josh Widdecombe Live: And Another Thing... on DVD, told Digital Spy that the broadcaster had always been supportive.
The Last Leg: Alex Brooker, Adam Hills and Josh Widdicombe
"Channel 4 has been really great in supporting the show and supporting disability... we are the kind of show that Channel 4 knows it set out to make," Widdicombe said.
"I'd hope that when Channel 4 started, The Last Leg was the kind of show it wanted to be putting out. I think they're really proud of it."
Asked if he ever expected the show's success, he replied: "I'd be a very arrogant man to have predicted this sort of thing.
"Essentially it was a round-up show. It's a bit like if Football Focus became one of the most popular comedy shows in Britain.
"It was meant to be a sports show and it's morphed into this uncontrollable beast, where we've ended up on Friday nights on Channel 4. A huge surprise really, we didn't expect this."
He added: "I think the reason it was successful was because we didn't expect it. We weren't thinking, 'How do we make this a long-running show?'
"We just did a show that we thought would be fun. That's actually taken the pressure off and allowed it to get its own voice."
Asked if being the only non-disabled person on The Last Leg panel gave him less licence to joke about the subject, Widdecombe said: "Because I'm clearly mates with Adam [Hills] and Alex [Brooker], I've got - not as much right as them - but certainly more right than if I made a joke on 8 Out of 10 Cats.
"I think I have got licence to do that because obviously we're all mates. There are certain things that Alex would say that I certainly wouldn't say for fear the Daily Mail would be down on me."
Asked if he took fears of being taken out of context into account when writing his stand-up material, he said: "I don't think you can go into it like that, because then they've won!
"The terrorists have won if you change your life. You've got to do the show you want to do and stand by it.
"Occasionally you'll get stuff wrong and there's nothing wrong if you say something and you think, 'I shouldn't have said that' - accepting it rather than just defending your position."
Widdecombe added: "We do a live comedy show, so far we've got away with it. We're not going to get away with it forever.
"At some point probably Adam Hills is going to make a dreadful remark and we'll all be forced to give up... it will be Adam, yes."
Asked how his stand-up differed from his work on The Last Leg, Widdecombe joked: "There's less talk about disability on the DVD!
"It's me complaining, hopefully in a funny manner, which I think is what stand-up is. It's just gripes really. It's not big issues, it's small annoyances."
On why comedy fans should buy his disc rather than any others available ahead of Christmas, he added: "As long as they don't buy Adam Hills's one, that's the main thing.
"Buy mine, or anyone's, but Adam's getting a bit big for his boot."
Josh Widdecome Live: And Another Thing... is out on DVD now (November 18)
> Alan Carr to play Soho sausage shop for Work in Progress shows
> Eddie Izzard, Jack Whitehall headline new 'Live at the Apollo' series
> Sandi Toksvig, Lucy Porter join Amnesty podcast shows at Edinburgh
via All - Digital Spy - Entertainment and Media News
0 comments:
Post a Comment