Harry Enfield is a comedy legend, famous for giving the world unforgettable comic characters including Loadsamoney, Stavros, Kevin and Perry, Smashie and Nicey, The Old Gits and Tim Nice-But-Dim.

Breaking through on C4's Friday Night Live in the late 1980s, he went on to front numerous acclaimed BBC sketch shows and also appeared in comedies including The Windsors and Upstart Crow. And on November 4m the 64-year-old will be reflecting on his life in comedy, revealing the back stories of his characters and performing sketches featuring his iconic creations when Harry Enfield And No Chums comes to the New Theatre.

Do you enjoy performing live?

When I was young and used to do characters in clubs I was really nervous. That's why I stopped as soon as I could. Now I'm so old I don't care anymore. The tour with Paul (Whitehouse in 2015) was really fun, but we spent all our money on making it a slick show with loads of costumes and sets. I said to Paul afterwards people would love it if we just chatted and did a bit of this or whatever as a surprise. The next thing I know, he was doing that with The Fast Show reunion tour.

Harry Enfield is at New Theatre next week. Photo: Corinne Cumming

placeholder image — Harry Enfield is at New Theatre next week. Photo: Corinne Cumming

Can you give us a flavour of who we will be seeing again?

A lot of them, DJ Nicey is back! He has a podcast and it's very, very, very right-wing. He keeps getting cancelled and coming back.

Angry Frank is still angry. And there are some new characters thrown in too. You sound like you've turned into one of your old gits, taking pleasure in having a moan about the modern world…

I have. I'm still embarrassing. My children find me embarrassing. They think I'm ridiculous. I just can't really grow up.#

You are also revisiting Loadsamoney. Is he still relevant?

Yes, money is everything now. The rich have got richer. The poor have got poorer. I imagine that he now runs Pimlico Plasterers and he's gone to live in Dubai in case Labour tax him more.

Those early BBC series were mostly written by you, director Geoffrey Perkins, Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson. That's a great team.

When I first started doing Stavros, Paul was still plastering and Charlie was painting with him. When I was interviewed and asked who my comedy heroes were I said 'Monty Python, Peter Cook and my friend Paul down the pub.' And Geoffrey Perkins said, 'this guy Paul, you keep on mentioning him in interviews, do you think he'd like to write for you?'

Did you watch your old programmes to prepare for this tour?

Yes. I thought they were really funny. Which surprised me, because at the time you do these things and you move on and don't really think about it anymore, but a lot of it I thought was really well written. We really got something right about a lot of things. And now I can see when I watch that stuff that Paul was a genius.

Are there any particular characters you are fond of?

I love Wayne and Waynetta Slob. I love them all, actually. I'm very proud of them. I do a bit of Wayne and Waynetta in the show, they are probably great, great, great grandparents by now.

How do you respond to people who suggest the Slobs are 'punching down' or you shouldn't do foreign accents such as Stavros, who was based on your local kebab shop owner Adam?

They are all just comic book characters. My thing is always mischief, not malice. Stavros is interesting because I did him again in 2022 when Channel 4 revived Friday Night Live. The Channel 4 people behind the scenes wanted me to take my make-up off. I told them that my make-up was exactly the same shade as Ben Elton's who was hosting. Anyone who wants to take offence has got no sense of humour as far as I'm concerned.

We don't see enough of you on TV these days. How do you spend your time?

I like reading, walking and swimming in Hampstead Pond. But mainly I like arsing about with friends. I still write sketches, but not very often. I sold one to David Mitchell and Robert Webb for their Channel 4 show. It was David explaining to Rob the violent plot of John Wick, but with this fear of saying the word 'dead', saying 'sadly passed away' instead.

What TV comedy makes you giggle?

I'll watch Paul in something or David Mitchell. And I quite often watch something like Michael McIntyre's Big Show. It always makes me laugh. I'm more Michael McIntyre than Stewart Lee.

Were there characters you weren't ever able to do on TV?

There is one character that the BBC wouldn't go for. Geoffrey Perkins drew the line at that one. But I'm going to do it onstage, so if you buy a ticket you'll see that.

Limited tickets are available at www.newtheatre-peterborough.com