COMEDY
David Baddiel is not for keeping it in the family
The storyteller, philosopher and provocateur takes an unflinching look at identity, laughter and what it means to count
In person, David Baddiel, disarmingly dishevelled, with large and thickish glasses, looks much like the stereotypical British comedian.
But to portray him as an innocuous comic would be a disservice and utterly incorrect. His memoir My Family made me laugh, and cry, and laugh again. His documentary film Confronting Holocaust Denial infuriated me. His monograph Jews Don’t Count made me re-evaluate much. His soccer supporters’ anthem Three Lions (Football’s Coming Home), written to coincide with the 1996 European Championship, makes me sing along even today, and the music video remains funny. I haven’t yet read his novels, but one, The Death of Eli Gold, was on the London Times’s 2011 list of best books, and he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. ..
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