Stand-up says that when it comes to God 'I'm with the weirdo mystics'

Frank Skinner is planning to write a religious book A Comedian’s Prayer Book, featuring his invocations to God.

The comic, who became a practising Catholic in his twenties, says he wants to celebrate his ‘unfashionable’ belief in a higher power.

He says he is drawn to religion precisely because it is illogical, explaining in an interview with today’s Times:  ‘I am not someone who has bought into the sort of apology-style Christianity where you have to pretend that there’s no such thing as the virgin birth and there are no angels and the wine doesn’t turn into the blood. 

‘The magic of it is what draws me in. I like the strangeness.

‘If you believe in God I think all bets are off. You can’t say, "I believe in God, but I don’t think someone can come back from the dead". I think there’s something in the Anglican church, but also the English Catholic church, about trying to meet the secular society halfway and ending up going about 98 per cent of the way with not much give on the other end. I am with the weirdo mystics myself.’

The 63-year-old also joked that he  wasn't happy that his friend David Baddiel had got into science, saying: ‘He’s started reading science books, which I cannot tolerate...David has bought into that and to me he has betrayed his literary roots.’

In response, Baddiel tweeted:

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This accusation about me from Frank Skinner is completely untrue, as can be seen from the equation E=iℏ/√2 ∯▒〖[c^4/(4πK_μ ) (R-2Λ+G)+L_m ] Γ_νσ^μ (dx^ν)/ds (dx^σ)/ds〗 d^4 x × ((|├ ψ〉⨂|├ ψ^* 〉-|├ ψ^* 〉⨂|├ ψ〉)/√(|det⁡(g) | )). pic.twitter.com/0GPzffrlW9

— David Baddiel (@Baddiel) September 30, 2020

The article was to promote Skinner’s Sky Arts series Boswell & Johnson’s Scottish Road Trip, in which he and novelist Denise Mina as they recreate Samuel Johnson and James Boswell’s famous 1773 grand tour.

In the series, which starts at 9pm onTuesday, they  travel around the coast of Scotland via carriages, horses and boats in keeping with the 18th-Century voyage.

Skinner has also just published a book about poetry, How to Enjoy Poetry (Little Ways to Live a Big Life), which is available here.

Published: 30 Sep 2020