“I think we will be as disrespectful as you would hope,” said Forde, “and on stage we can be a lot more outrageous than we can be on telly. There will be a sense that the shackles will be off with the live show. There’s nowhere for anyone to hide, Prince Andrew included.”
Forde also hosts a podcast, British Scandal, which includes a recent episode on “Partygate”, and another on the “Coughing Major” from Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?
He said: “The thought that a PM is under investigation by the police has been great PR for the show!
“Britain is the ideal place for scandal because we have the veneer of respectability that we have as a country, our class system and the sense that we play by the rules. It’s like a blockbuster every week.”
Along with Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, Forde’s portfolio also includes Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Opposition leader Keir Starmer.
“I picked up on how Keir Starmer verbally underlines himself. He also sounds slightly annoyed. The tone is always through slightly gritted teeth, a slight blockage.”
“Lindsay Hoyle [the Speaker] has become a real character. He’s like your pub landlord, ‘Steady on now!’
“You have this squash match going on every wednesday between the three of them.
“It’s like he’s running the Rovers in Coronation Street, ‘Now steady on Baldwin!’ And he’s great for politics to have people like that — and he’s great for comedy.”
“Rishi Sunak’s delivery has been influenced by Tony Blair. He has that boyish kind of way, with a slightly, sharp ‘s’, not quite a lisp. It’s almost like he’s blowing kisses, he pouts his lips.
“He also has a wide-eyed thing going on, but I actually think he’s a ruthless political operator.”
Forde wouldn’t have told Jimmy Carr’s controversial Holocaust joke. “I just wouldn’t tell jokes like that. He’s a very talented comedian, a funny man but it’s just stuff I wouldn’t tell.
“Racist jokes were never okay. Most people in the Seventies weren’t okay with it ‑ including my mother. She was deeply offended by Bernard Manning.”
It’s a great time to be doing impersonations. “This is a golden era [for satire], and especially to do Trump has been great. At one point, everyone was doing Trump. He was like Elvis!
“I’m convinced I will end up one day at a Trump Impersonation Convention! Instead of Elvis jumpsuits, it will be people wearing big, long red ties.”
British Scandal is on Apple podcasts
Published at Sun, 20 Feb 2022 16:44:00 +0000
Prince Andrew will have ‘nowhere to hide’ in Spitting Image’s stage show, says Matt Forde
