He calls being a father to daughter Susie (5) and his three-and-a-half-year-old son Robert his greatest achievement. However, on this particular evening, the little tearaways are certainly putting Alan Davies’ kind words to the test. Speaking to the Weekly from his London home, the comedian says it’s been a “full-on day” in the Davies household as both Susie and Robert are suffering from a cold and are spending the day at home. “They’ve been charging around, doing all the things they usually do, but with snot hanging out their noses,” Alan (49) says with a laugh. “They love it when they get the okay to get the day off school.”
Despite their raucous behaviour, the children and his wife, Katie, are the lights in his life – due in part to his difficult childhood. The Jonathan Creek star lost his 38-year-old mum to leukaemia when he was six, leaving his accountant father to raise three children by himself and a young Alan struggling to come to terms with his grief.
Known to many Kiwis as eccentric TV sleuth Jonathan Creek, the actor is now focusing more on his comedy work.
“Forty years on, the fact that I wasn’t allowed to grieve properly still seems crazy to me. I was angry about it for years,” Alan has previously said. “I remember my mum in hospital and being allowed to visit a couple of times. Then, without explanation, my visits were stopped. Years later, I found out that one of her doctors decided that it wouldn’t be healthy for me to see her
in that condition.”
Unable to say his goodbyes, or even attend the funeral, for a long time Alan was uncertain of the details, and his building emotions led to a lot of angst in his younger years. He recalls spending much of his youth alone – “sometimes by choice, sometimes because I was ostracised by the rest of my family.”
Thankfully, entertaining saved him, and he enrolled in a Communications and Theatre Studies course at Loughton College of Further Education, where he discovered a talent for acting. Beginning his stand-up career in 1988, Alan went on to star as the eccentric but loveable sleuth in Jonathan Creek, before landing a regular spot as “Britain’s favourite dunce in the corner” to Stephen Fry’s know-it-all host in panel quiz show QI.
However, now that he’s a parent himself, Alan admits his priorities have changed to favour time at home with his loved ones over a high-flying TV and film career. “I’ve gone back to doing more stand-up now, which I am enjoying. It suits me because I can do two or three shows, then I’m at home for the rest of the week. It is much better than spending four or five months filming a drama and being on set 12 hours a day.”
He is, however, making an exception for New Zealand, a place he’s particularly fond of. Alan is set to bring his newest stand-up show, Little Victories, to our shores for a nationwide tour in July, meaning a two-week stint away from Katie and the children.
“Once you’ve had children, that really is your whole life. They’re all you think about when you go away,” he explains. “I try to go for the shortest time – not because I don’t love New Zealand, but because they’re at home and not with me. I’ll be FaceTiming and Skyping them every day.”
A major turning point in Alan’s life occurred when he met writer Katie Maskell in 2005, then married her in 2007.
There was a time when he took the whole family on tour to Australia in 2011, but when it caused more tension than it was worth, Alan decided against it this year. “Apart from anything else, it cost an arm and a leg to get over there,” Alan recalls. “My little girl had just turned two and Robert was a baby still. I was jetting around doing stand-up and the QI live show for seven weeks, with 33 different performances in different cities. Meanwhile, I’d rented a house in Melbourne for Katie and her parents to stay in – needless to say, she got less out of it than me! So when the next time came around, she said, ‘You go and I’ll stay.’”
The title for his latest show was inspired by the experiences of a young Alan trying to get “one over” his dad. “He’s always had this thing about not liking blackcurrant jam, and I tried to get him to eat it without him even knowing. It was one of my great days when I got him to not only successfully eat it but say he liked it. It was a little victory.”
He’s used similar ploys on his children, adding that getting them to do anything without resistance is a small success. “If you’ve ever been a parent and had a child, or been a child and
had a parent, then there’s something in it for you.”
