Rob Beckett on his book, A Class Act: Life as a Working-Class Man in a Middle-Class World

Virgin Radio

15 Oct 2021, 10:38

The comedian joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about his new book, which is part memoir, part exploration of class.

A Class Act: Life As a Working-Class Man in a Middle-Class World is out now. Rob told Chris: “When you come from a working class background, books aren’t for you. You don’t think you can write a book, you don’t think you can be a comedian, or work on the radio and stuff… that’s why I didn’t want a ghost-writer, because a lot of my heroes growing up were sports stars, and normally [their books] are ghost-written, which is fine, if that’s what they want to do, but I felt I needed to do it to, not prove a point as such, but make sure people could hear my voice rather than a middle class ghost-writer’s voice.”

Rob Beckett has two daughters aged four and two with his wife Lou, who he married in 2015. He said: “Lou is very middle class. Growing up she saw Prince William and Prince Harry playing polo, whereas I, as a kid, once saw a horse being put in the back of a transit van, so it’s different angles on stuff. 

“The book’s not a love letter to the working classes and a hate letter to anyone else. It’s just looking at the different perspectives, and because Lou is so middle class and my family aren’t really. Now my kids have arrived, and they are a weird mix of that.

“I’d never been into a John Lewis until I met Lou, and now our house is dominated by John Lewis stuff!”

Discussing other topics that the book covers, the comedian, TV and podcast star told Chris about how even things such as going on a nice holiday to Barbados caused him inner conflict. “I felt sort of guilt and shame that I was being flash and losing touch,” he said.

“It was February, just before lockdown, and we went Premium Economy, which I was like, ‘Oh my god, extra legroom!’ and on the way back we could upgrade to Business for a really small amount, because they knew the pandemic was coming, and it was all cheaper. But I upgraded to Business, and I was like, ‘I can’t believe I’ve done this.’ It was the best flight ever, but I didn’t want to tell anyone, and then when I was getting the girls ready for school, I was like, ‘What was the favourite bit of your holiday?’ and they went, ‘When my chair turned into a bed,’ and I was nearly physically sick and like, ‘Oh my god, they’re going to tell everyone at school, and everyone’s going to hate me, and I’m ashamed.’ I still can’t really cope with it.”

Rob added: “You do just find a new way to be truthful and honest, and that’s what I’ve done with this book. Yes, my life has changed slightly. However, I’ll always be culturally working class, but I will have access to different things.”

Giving another example, the comedian said: “Sometimes it isn’t even about money, it’s just being invited to certain events. In the book I talk about going to Jimmy Carr’s house party. I just didn’t know how to act or operate in it, and I turn up and it’s this beautiful big house, and I’ve been to the off-license and bought six cans of beer and a bottle of tequila to give to him, and I get there and it’s a fully stocked bar with staff, and everyone’s looking at me and laughing!

“And then Stephen Hawking goes past, and I’m trying to have a chat with him and be ignored me! The person that was with him said his battery had run out, and I was like, ‘Who doesn’t bring a charger?!’”

During his conversation with Chris, Rob, whose Wallop tour is currently taking place around the UK, talked about how difficult he found his first Edinburgh Fringe experience. “When you go to the Fringe, it’s very middle class. It’s almost like a summer camp for posh kids that went to uni and got into an improv troupe, and I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know where to go, I just didn't know anything,” he said. “In the book, I say it’s like a posh boy from landed gentry trying to be a football hooligan. It’s not his world, he doesn’t know what to do, and he turns up at the pub in a full kit. So he’s tried his best, but it’s not the right thing.”

Chris took the opportunity to ask Rob about fellow comedian Sean Lock, who passed away this year. Rob said: “He was a hero of mine growing up. I write about it in the book, being next to him on a panel show, it was like the way people talk about Dennis Bergkamp and Zidane, they’re just sort of geniuses of it, and it was so hard when I first did 8 Out Of 10 Cats, to actually do the show, because I just sat there like, ‘Oh my god, I’m so close to Sean Lock!’

“He was a real unique comedy brain. There’s loads of funny people, and he was one of them, but most comedians, you can sort of guess where they’re gonna go… but with Sean Lock, no-one ever knew what was going to come out of his mouth next.”

On the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky earlier this week, guest Romesh Ranganathan revealed that more episodes of Rob & Romesh Vs are currently being filmed. Of their long-term friendship, Rob enthused: “I love working with him. I write in the book about being quite relentless in my career, and actually quite negative voices that keep spurring me on, but I love working with Romesh because he is such a positive voice, going, ‘Don’t worry Rob, you’re doing well,’ which I didn’t really have, internally. So I think that’s why we connect so well, and work so well together over the years, because we are supporting each other through stuff.”

Touching further on the mental health issues that he has experienced, Rob told Chris: “I went to therapy counselling on the NHS years ago, when I first did telly, because I found it quite difficult to deal with being recognised, and then I did more recently, about when the lockdown began, just because I was burnt out and overworked. 

“When you come from a working class background, you think it’s all going to go away, and you think you’re an imposter, and you think you’re lucky to be there, and you keep working and keep working, because you don’t want it to sort of slip away, and that negative voice is a thing that kept me going, kept me going, but actually you need to have that other voice going, ‘You’re doing really well Rob, calm down, stop it.’” 

The comedian also told Chris about a school report that he got when he was a young child, and how it spurred him on to write the book. He explained: “My mum, to her credit, took me out of that school, but they said ‘Oh where are we going to start with Rob? He’ll never be a high flyer. I suggest you go down the Early Learning Centre and work on some shapes’. 

That really stuck with me, and that’s always been in my head, and I always thought, ‘You can’t do that, you can’t do that’ and that’s why I’ve always wanted to write the book to prove that you can, and just because someone decides the future for you, doesn’t mean it has to be the future.”

A Class Act is out now, for more information, go to robbeckettcomedy.com.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.