...says Ben Elton

Ben Elton has blamed the rise in TV panel shows for what he sees as slipping standards in comedy.

He says shows such as Mock The Week and 8 Out Of 10 Cats are often the only way for comics to get onto TV – and the climate of fierce competition they foster encourage comedians to be brutally mean.

Elton – who is quitting the UK to live in Australia – told the Daily Mail: ‘Nobody’s allowed to do a proper routine any more. It’s all down to these damn game shows. Comics are brought on and have to quip.

‘They have to be mean to each other and about absolutely everything. They all have to desperately compete to say something mean - so you get a culture doing just that.’

Elton apparently overlooked primetime shows such as Live At The Apollo and Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, which do feature full stand-up routines, to make his point.

The comic – who is married to Australian saxophonist Sophie Gare – is emigrating the picturesque Western Australian town of Fremantle next month.

The couple and their three children had been splitting their time between the two countries but Elton, who has dual British/Australian citizenship, told the Daily Mail: ‘We are going to relocate back to Australia and live in Freeo for a while.

‘Being an international citizen of the world with a carbon footprint the size of goodness knows what, I will still be travelling back and forth to Britain and America. But we are going to be based in Australia.’

Despite all his family’s flying, Elton tried to demonstrate his environmental credentials by putting solar panels on the two-storey heritage-listed house he owns in Fremantle – but failed to secure planning permission.

He was originally told to remove them or face a AU$50,000 fine, but the local council relented and allowed him to keep them for the next 25 years.

Published: 10 Nov 2009