Andy Hamilton tours memory show A Night To Remember and discusses TV career

Comedian and writer Andy Hamilton has discussed his new touring show, A Night To Remember, and looked back over his television career in a broadcast interview.

The show is about memory in all its aspects. Hamilton stressed that it is a funny show rather than a lecture. He said he is not a qualified neurologist and probably knows as much about the workings of the brain as Homer Simpson. He called human memory 'an astonishing piece of kit' and described the show as a celebration and exploration of memory, done through jokes. He also asked whether people should be more conscious of outsourcing memory to devices, saying he can no longer read a map.

During the tour, he said, he puts a bucket at the front of the stage at the end of the first half and invites audience members to write down memories they are happy to share, such as earliest memories. This has sometimes triggered old memories from deep in the brain. He also talked about phone numbers, saying he cannot remember his own. Older people can still recall early numbers such as Fremantle 2495 and Whitehall 1212. He mentioned an Outnumbered episode where Ben leaves his phone in a cafe and does not know his own number because it is stored on the phone. The young actor Daniel Roche, who played Ben, asked after filming what was funny about the scene. Hamilton called it a big generational change.

On Outnumbered, Hamilton said he wrote it with Guy Jenkin. The press had made hay with the idea that it was improvised, but there was a script. They never showed the script to the children. Instead they would précis scenes to them, or give them a starting point and feed in ideas mixed with the children's own ideas. The aim was for the lines to sound like a child rather than a middle-aged scriptwriter. He said the Brockman family has been revisited from time to time. In the last one, the characters were grown up and one had a baby, and he hoped the show would come back.

Hamilton also reflected on Drop The Dead Donkey, the newsroom comedy. He said its authenticity came partly from spending a day in a newsroom, which confirmed that it was like a classic office with heightened tensions and rivalries as a bulletin approaches. The series began as a satire on the commercialisation of news, he said, and would be quite hard to make now. A stage version has been done, and he said it could perhaps come back one day.

He is due to appear at Leicester Square Theatre on Sunday and then tour to Northampton, Colchester and Harpenden. The interview ended with thanks and good wishes for the tour.