Edinburgh Fringe changed my life, says MP turned author Gyles Brandreth

GYLES BRANDRETH has a special place in his heart for the Edinburgh Fringe.

As the prolific broadcaster and author explains: “Essentially the Fringe changed my life. I was an MP until 1997, when I was swept out by the arrival of the Blair Babes.

“I felt a bit low – they say you shouldn’t take it personally, but somehow you do – and my wife said to me, ‘Now’s the chance. Do whatever you want to do – get it out of your system.’

“She said, ‘It doesn’t matter that you’ve lost your seat – the people have spoken and when one door closes it’s shut, so forget all that and do something else.’

“And I thought, ‘I want to be in a musical!’

“I couldn’t decide what musical I wanted to be in, so I had this bright idea of being in every musical ever written, and then I discovered that there are thousands of musicals. So we did a show that was 100 musicals in 100 minutes.

“Somebody said to me, ‘Take it to the Edinburgh Fringe because you’ll find they’re very forgiving there.’

“This was in the late 1990s so they added, ‘Also, in Scotland they haven’t got a concept of what a Conservative MP is because they haven’t got any, so it won’t upset them because they won’t know what you are!’

“I went to Edinburgh and we were a huge success. We won the prize for Most Popular Show and got wonderful reviews, then we toured it and ended up in the West End.

“It genuinely changed my life because it was wonderful to escape from politics, and be welcomed in an amazing place that was accepting of everybody.

“What I love about the Fringe, and this is my seventh or eighth time of coming back, is that it is the biggest open-access festival in the world. You get kids doing shows and you get old people doing shows.

“My friend Nicholas Parsons, aged 94, has a show in the same building as me. I describe him as the ‘Mick Jagger of the Fringe’ – he goes on rocking and giving us the old favourites all these years later.”

In the Commons Gyles served as a whip, one of those charged with making sure MPs follow the party line when it comes to Parliamentary votes.

But he didn’t rule by fear, a la Chief Whip Francis Urquhart as played by Ian Richardson in the original House Of Cards BBC series.

“I’m pleased to hear that! The idea is simply to make sure the government of the day gets its business through the House.

“Aesop’s fable has it that if you blow cold wind on people, they hug their coats more around them, but if you have them basking in sunshine they relax and take off their coats.

“So many of the best whips are the friendly, smiling, cosy whips. You think, ‘Oh, he’s a good fellow’ and the idea really is to have people who feel some loyalty to you.

“Whips don’t all need to be throwing other people off buildings or locking them in the lavatory.

“Though there may have been a bit of that in the past, and we like a bit of the fun of it all.

“It was the best working experience of my life because you’re at the heart of government and it combined the two things I find fascinating – politics and people.

“It’s quite interesting watching it all now as an outsider, as I was a whip for John Major’s government when we had no majority at all, rather as Mrs May has, so every vote really counted and there was plenty of adrenalin rushing around.

“But I have to say, my show is an entirely Brexit-free zone.

“When I announce that, a cheer goes around the whole theatre!

“It’s really a celebration of theatre. I begin by saying to people my mother wanted me to become an actor, but I wanted to be Prime Minister.

“It’s about the theatre people I met when I was young and who have influenced me over the years.”

Gyles being a huge Oscar Wilde fan, I’m guessing playing Lady Bracknell in The Importance Of Being Earnest was a highlight?

“I’m the President of the Oscar Wilde Society and he has been a lifelong enthusiasm of mine because I went to Bedales school and Wilde sent his eldest son there.

“When I was there in the 1960s, the headmaster who was in charge when Oscar Wilde had sent his son there was still alive, so I can say I shook the hand that shook the hand that shook the hand that wrote The Importance Of Being Earnest.

“I would argue that is probably the best play written in English in the 19th Century.

“But what is interesting is that when the play opened in 1895, Lady Bracknell was hardly mentioned in any of the reviews because actually it’s a subsidiary part.

“It’s only because of Edith Evans and her delivery of that line about a handbag that moved the part centre stage, but I had great fun playing her.

“I’ve been very lucky, I’ve been able to do lots of different things.”

Those different things include two books about royal relationships, the first about the Queen and Prince Philip, the second about Prince Charles and Camilla.

Is he tempted to write a third royal relationship tome?

“No. I wrote the first one because I knew the Duke of Edinburgh. I love him. When I was an MP and couldn’t think what to say when I was asked a difficult question, I’d think, ‘What would the Duke of Edinburgh say?’ and I’d say that.

“He’s a great man and because I’d been chairman of one of his charities, the Playing Fields Association, he asked me to do a short biography of him.

“I found his story was so fascinating I wrote about them both.

“Having done that, it seemed natural to follow it up with a book about the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

“And because I know them a little through charitable endeavours, and I’m a fan of both of them, I thought, ‘This is another interesting story and it hasn’t been properly told’ so I gave that a go as well.

“She is a smashing woman and they’re so much on the same wavelength, and she’s just amazingly normal and nice.

“It’s a very odd system, the royal family, but it seems to work.”

Now, my family and I are keen fell-walkers in the Lake District and there just so happens to be a hill near Buttermere called Brandreth.

To be honest, I should have known the answer when I asked Gyles if he was aware of this particular 2,500-foot lump of Lakeland.

“I am aware of that. I don’t know which came first, whether we came from that part of the world and are named after the people who lived near that fell, or it was named after them.

“What I think is more likely is if you look up in the dictionary, a ‘brandreth’ is a three-sided trivet that you might put your kettle on top of with a fire underneath.

“Unfortunately in the Oxford English Dictionary one of the definitions is ‘a brandreth, the substructure of piles’ so you can imagine when I was at school how the other children enjoyed taking advantage of that.

“But since early English, a brandreth has been this trivet-shaped object, and I think the fell may look a bit like that.

“Some of my admirers are also fell-walkers and they like to feel like they’ve clambered up Brandreth.

“I used to write for Hinge and Brackett.

“I scripted their TV series Dear Ladies, and Dame Hilda Brackett would say, ‘I must go to Scotland, I want to climb up Glenn Hoddle!’”

Gyles Brandreth: Break A Leg! is on at the Pleasance Courtyard – One until August 26. For tickets visit www.edfringe.com