We need to talk about Kevin (Eldon)

Since making his TV debut more than 20 years ago, Kevin Eldon has collaborated with just about everybody who’s anybody in British comedy, from Chris Morris and Steve Coogan to Simon Pegg and Stewart Lee.

Not before time, the well-respected stand-up and comic actor next week gets to front his own BBC2 series, It’s Kevin, featuring songs, sketches and special guests.

TV&Satellite Week magazine caught up with Kevin to find out more…

The show’s title is fairly economical and it’s also factually correct… I was very up for calling the show Kevin Eldon, Who Died Today, but there was resistance to that.

I’ve never chased my own show… So when it happened, I didn’t think: ‘It’s about time’. It just sort of knocked on the door, so I let it in. I tell you what I did think: ‘Blimey!’

Now I’ve got my own show, I’ve demanded monogrammed toilet paper in my dressing room… People also have to remove their hats when they walk by. People without hats have to pull out some hair.

When I sing the theme song, I’m surrounded by little puppet Kevins… I felt like God surrounded by puny mortals made in my image.

There’s a musical duo called Popsox on It’s Kevin… Coincidentally, they look a bit like Bill Bailey and me. They’re Switzerland’s Beatles, basically. Their hit song Mobile Phone, which is featured in the show, was number one for seven-and-a-half years in Switzerland. It was also massive in Monaco and Andorra.

I’m another comedian who’s a frustrated pop star… I’m planning to release an album of cover versions of Brotherhood of Man songs, keeping them as forensically close as possible to the original versions.

I write reviews of myself… But I never actually read them. I wonder what I think of me.

I’d like to try and write a decent sitcom… I’m also working hard on bringing about the sudden and dramatic downfall of our present government.

The worst place I’ve ever worked was in a job centre… Day after day of eternal despair.

I’d like to publish my comedy memoirs… The trouble is, I’ve had such an unbelievably fantastic time doing comedy I actually can’t remember most of it.

It’s Kevin begins on BBC2 on Sunday, March 17