...by Les Dennis

People who go into comedy often have a hidden dark side, game show host Les Dennis has admitted.

He says comedians have a desperate need to be accepted, and will risk humiliation at the hands of an audience to get it.

His comments came in a conversation with Anne Diamond in the Big Brother house.

"It is a scary thing to do - to stand there alone on a stage," he said.

"There's a great book called The Comic Inquisition and in it the writer interviewed everyone from Steve Martin to Bernard Manning and the thing that really came across was that a lot of genius comedians have a father-figure problem.

"So a need for approval?" asked Anne.

"Yeah," replied Les. "The scariest thing is that you can go out on stage and sing a song and if they don't like it they'll still clap. But if you stand there and try to be funny and die, the audience can't fake their reaction to it."

Talking of Michael Barrymore, he said: "[His] talent was hiding a massively dark side. You used to be able to say 'Wow, watch Michael walk that tightrope and not fall into the danger zone!' but now"

Dennis also said he didn't like the divide that opened up between mainstream comics like himself and alternative comics in the Eighties.

"Mainstream comedians like me had to keep our heads down as there were real missile attacks on us. Now it's more merged. "

Published: 25 Nov 2002