Josh Widdicombe has written his autobiography

Saturday 10th April 2021, 11:24am by Jay Richardson

Josh Widdicombe

Josh Widdicombe has written his first book, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.

Watching the Nineties is described as "part-childhood memoir, part-comic history of Nineties television and culture".

It will be published on the 16th of September by Blink Publishing, whose titles include the Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing book and Katherine Ryan's forthcoming autobiography, The Audacity.

Using a different television show as the starting point for each chapter, Watching the Nineties will discuss "everything from the dangers of recreating Gladiators in your front room, to Widdicombe's belief that Mr Blobby is one of the great comic characters, to being the only vegetarian child west of Bristol."

The Last Leg presenter and host of Quickly Kevin, the nineties football podcast, only realised his childhood was weird when he left home and started telling people about it - from only having four people in his year at school, to living in a family home where they didn't just not bother locking the front door, they didn't even have a key.

"Read any history of the Nineties in Britain and you will read about Britpop, Blair, the birth of the Premier League and the rise of new lads" Widdicombe said. "I played no part in any of these events. Growing up in a tiny rural village on Dartmoor, no bands came within 100 miles, all the local farmers voted Tory, our nearest football team was in the fourth division, and the closest I got to being a new lad was when my older brother let me drink some of his Hooch."

The Plymouth Argyle fan is currently set to resume his Bit Much... stand-up tour on the 10th of September in Dudley.

Josh Widdicombe - Watching Neighbours Twice A Day...: How '90s TV (Almost) Prepared Me For Life

"Read any history of the Nineties in Britain and you will read about Britpop, Blair, the birth of the Premier League and the rise of new lads. I played no part in any of these events. Growing up in a tiny rural village on Dartmoor, no bands came within 100 miles, all the local farmers voted Tory, our nearest football team was in the fourth division, and the closest I got to being a new lad was when my older brother let me drink some of his Hooch."

In Watching Neighbours Twice A Day, much-loved comedian Josh Widdicombe tells the story of a strange rural childhood, the kind of childhood he only realised was weird when he left home and started telling people about it. From only having four people in his year at school, to living in a family home where they didn't just not bother locking the front door, they didn't even have a key.

Using a different television show of the time as its starting point for each chapter, Watching Neighbours Twice A Day is part-childhood memoir, part-comic history of 90s television and culture. It will discuss everything from the dangers of recreating Gladiators in your front room, to Josh's belief that Mr Blobby is one of the great comic characters, to being the only vegetarian child west of Bristol.

Together it tells the story of the end of an era, the last time when watching television was a shared experience for the family and the nation, before the internet meant everyone watched different things at different times on different devices, headphones on to make absolutely sure no one could watch it with them.

First published: Thursday 16th September 2021

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