A Writer Takes to the Stage: A Night with Danny Baker

Many writers are shy and retiring — it kind of goes with the territory, the lonely garret with the tortured wordsmith gazing pensively into the mid-distance, seeking that elusive inspiration. As for this writer and broadcaster, south London’s own Danny Baker, when he dons his raconteur’s hat (actually a fez) and takes to the stage at Komedia in Bath, it’s not as if he has to be dragged up there through any reluctance on his part. Quite the opposite: with his rollercoaster one-man show regularly exceeding four hours, getting him off the stage represents a much more significant challenge.

Baker certainly tells a good tale, and he’s lived a life that’s delivered a rich seam of material for more than 60 years — a colourful upbringing with a father for whom the term ‘larger than life’ is clearly an inadequate description; a spell working behind the counter in London’s coolest record shop, where regular customers included Elton John, Marc Bolan, and Mick Jagger; life as a journalist on what was the world’s finest (fact!) rock music paper, the New Musical Express; and, as he would put it, “sweet gigs” on TV and radio for which he’s happy to divulge the generous pay packets, representing a welcome change from the celebrity cash code of ‘omerta’.  

He has written a series of hugely entertaining and hilarious autobiographies, which not only document a life well lived but also deliver a powerful account of receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. No one-trick pony, this author.

It takes great skill to commit an anecdote to the page successfully, and too many writers deliver the pay-off with a ‘this-is-where-you-laugh’ exclamation mark which, for me, sucks the energy out of the whole thing. However carefully it might have been built up to this point, it’s here that the yarn can hit the buffers. Nevertheless, there are a few authors who’ve got the knack: Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (as you might expect of such gifted comedy scriptwriters) show off their talent for telling a good tale in their career account, ‘More Than Likely’. Baker also pulls this off on page after page of his memoirs. Wealth of material notwithstanding, the writer still has to lay out the story with care, introducing the characters, setting the scene, holding back crucial details, always building, building, building, before letting the reader or audience have it. Sometimes where and when they least expect it.

His performance in Bath in May 2025 was a fine illustration of Baker’s ability to swap hats (or fezzes) from writer to performer, sometimes melding the two or switching imperceptibly to an almost stand-up comic mode.

I recommend the books wholeheartedly and, as what’s great on the page bursts into another life on the stage in his unique one-man shows, I urge you to catch him if you can. There’ll never be another.

Danny Baker

 Memoirs by Danny Baker

Going to Sea in a Sieve: The Autobiography

Going Off Alarming: The Autobiography Vol. 2

Going on the Turn: Being the Extraordinary Stories of My Life and Dodging Death’s Door

Other Works

Classic Football Debates Settled Once and For All (with Danny Kelly)

Behind Closed Doors: Life, Laughs and Football  (with Gary Lineker)