Alan Carr – who stars in Amanda and Alan’s Greek Job today (Sunday, January 4) – once opened up about his regrets over his behaviour on Chatty Man.
The Celebrity Traitors winner Alan, 49, hosted Chatty Man for seven years between 2009 and 2016, before its cancellation.
Alan Carr on ‘punching down’ in Chatty Man
Between 2009 and 2016, Alan Carr: Chatty Man was a regular fixture on Channel 4, before its cancellation.
After being cancelled in 2016 due to low ratings, the show returned for a one-off Christmas special in 2017, before ending for good.
Back in 2023, during an interview with The Guardian, Alan briefly discussed the show, admitting that his behaviour on it still made him “wince”.
Every episode of the show would start with Alan giving a monologue, where he would make jokes about current affairs and celebrities. However, his jokes were a bit more…brutal…than what he would joke about today, as he admitted in the interview.
Alan explained that he used to watch Joan Rivers’ Fashion Police “regularly” – a show he described as “so harsh”. He then went on to admit that he used to say “awful things” in his monologues, where he would “punch down”.
‘No one wants to punch down’
Continuing, Alan said, “No one wants to punch down now. The world is so out of control, there are so many arseholes out there. Whereas I used to maybe slag off someone from X Factor, I think we’ve realised now who the enemy is. You should use your platform against someone worse than a poor reality star who can’t really sing. So now I punch across.”
When asked if he fears people trawling through his past work, he said: “I’ve been going now for 20 years. I’m sure there might be something out there, but people have to understand time. I haven’t got the time or the patience or crayons to explain time to them. And if they don’t understand how time works and how tastes change, then just don’t bother me.”
Sketch he regrets
Alan also revealed the one sketch he regrets making.
In 2008, Alan impersonated the late Amy Winehouse, something he admitted he feels bad about.
” Now I go, oh my God: in the public eye with addiction. I feel like such an [bleep]. Because that poor woman. But we were just dressing up. And now I’ve lived with someone with addiction [referring to his ex-husband, Paul Drayton, who battled alcohol addiction during their marriage] and seen how out of control it is, and the emotional turmoil. I was completely naive. Twenty-four years old, thinking, ‘Isn’t it funny – look at her, staggering around with her pumps’. Oh, Alan, you bloody idiot,” he said.
Amanda and Alan’s Greek Job airs today (Sunday, January 4) from 2.30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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