Bennett Arron returns to Radio 4

Bennett Arron should have been at the Edinburgh Festival until 29 August. He had the venue booked, somewhere to stay and a stand-up show befitting his Welsh-Jewish heritage, enticingly titled Mazel Taff.

But Bennett isn’t in Scotland. After 15 minutes into a preview of the show, the audience were laughing, but it didn’t feel right to him. “It has to be 100% the best I can do and I’ve got to look forward to doing the shows,” says the comedian, who is serious about a craft he’s been honing for 25 years. “Thank God past shows have gone really well.”

‘Really well’ for a comedian translates as big audiences and the opportunity to do other things, which is true in his case as he has written and starred in BBC radio series, been nominated for awards and presented two documentaries- The Kosher Comedian, in which he traced his family’s roots from Lithuania to Port Talbot, and the even more dramatic How Not To Lose Your Identity on Channel 4, which detailed his alarming first-hand experience of identity fraud. Bennett also penned a very honest and jocular novel about the nightmare, which he sent to me after our chat. A chat that to my embarrassment revealed the paltry research I’d done before speaking to this very funny and forgiving fellow. Until we spoke I knew Bennett only by reputation as a hot warm-up man (that’s comedy) who only last week was putting crowds, celebs and stuntmen at ease at the first London Action Festival. I also see from his smart, sympathetic and occasionally explosive Facebook posts that he is one of those energising funny folk of the faith who doesn’t hide in the shadows, hence Mazel Taff, which will appear next year.

Fortunately you won’t have to wait that long to hear Bennett, as he is one of the star voices in Moray Hunter’s Radio 4 comedy Alone about five single middle-aged neighbours including his character,t he nerdish and needy Morris.,

Now in its fourth series, which began on Tuesday, the show is recorded in front of a live audience and, thanks to Bennett promoting this fact on Facebook, I got to see his nebbish Cymry portrayal in person alongside fellow cast members Angus Deayton and Abigail Cruttenden. Deliciously British and old fashioned in the best way, Bennett enjoys performing Alone as much as the audience enjoys listening.

“What was interesting to me at the live recordings was the number of people with their eyes close,” he says. “Initially, I thought they were sleeping, but that’s how they listen to it on the radio, so they really didn’t want to see us performing with scripts.”

Bennett was 12 and at school when he wrote his first scripts and was told by his drama teacher that he was a good actor. This stuck with him and paved his way to the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in South London for a three-year drama course, but he was kicked out after 18 months.

“It’s a long story,” he says, and one he’d prefer you read in his book, as it was followed by the comedy sketches he wrote and pitched to TV in the days when unsolicited material was accepted. “I wrote for Hale & Pace and Freddie Starr, and one of the sketches I wrote for The Real McCoy was recently voted the best of all time or something like that. They did contact me to ask if they could give me money to show it on TV, so that was great.”

Not all of Bennett’s comedy hit the sweet spot, but when a producer threw a sketch back at him deeming it unfunny, he was so convinced the material was strong he decided to try it out as a stand-up.  “The thought of doing it filled me with dread because I’m naturally phenomenally shy. Invite me to a party and I’ll start shaking weeks beforehand, but I needed to prove to myself I wasn’t mad and that the material was funny.”

With his ‘gem’ woven into five minutes of stand-up, Bennett made his debut at The King’s Head in Crouch End in March 1997, fully intending to do no more than three gigs. But at gig no 3, fate delivered a rep from BBC’s New Comedy Awards who took Bennett forward to the heats, which he won, and eventually the Edinburgh Festival, where he was runner up to Peter Kay at the awards. Not just impressive, it was like being shot out of a rocket for Bennett. “But it was misrepresentation because I thought ‘this is it now, I’ll get my own TV series.’ It’s only been 25 years, so any day now…”

That he has made a living making people laugh is undeniable, however, as he proved to his now 19-year-old-son some years ago.” He had glibly said to me ‘you’re not very funny’ so I pointed to his Playstation and clothes and said, ‘If I wasn’t funny, you wouldn’t have any of these things.’ But I made an impression on both my kids because my daughter, who is 23, has done a degree in film production and my son is doing English and acting at university.”

As he said, Bennett intends to launch Mazel Taff in 2023. We will embrace it, while he braces himself for those with views about Jews. “Over the past few years, it’s been really weird because friends I’ve known on the circuit for a long time who are meant to be non-racist and open-minded have expressed borderline opinions. I’ve had to block people on social media who have suddenly shown their true colours and I’ve been in green rooms where occasional snide comments are made that wouldn’t have been said years ago. That this has raised its head again is upsetting and worrying.”

One thing Bennett won’t have to worry about is our absence at Mazel Taff. And not just because I need to get my book signed.

Heard the One About Identity Theft? by Bennett Arron (Amazon.co.uk)

Alone season 4 is on Radio 4, Tuesdays 6.30pm. Previous seasons are on www.bbc.co.uk