Source: Radio New Zealand (world)
In Think Ahead, the British comedian discusses Viagra, statins and sexual abuse by his late father “without letting the laugh metre drop”. When a TV veteran does stand-up, the audience wants to see them go to “challenging and difficult” places, says Alan Davies.
After first publicly revealing childhood sexual abuse by his father in the 2020 memoir Just Ignore Him, the comedian manages to weave that experience into Think Ahead, which he’s performing all over New Zealand this July and August. “What I wanted to do was show all of me to an audience, to talk about things that mattered, things of substance, and to talk about things that I know were affecting many, many people out there in the dark in the auditorium,” he tells Saturday Morning.
Alan Davies has appeared for 23 years on the BBC quiz show QI and starred in the BBC comedy crime series Jonathan Creek from 1997 to 2016.YouTube screenshot Alan Davies has appeared for 23 years on the BBC quiz show QI and starred in the BBC comedy crime series Jonathan Creek from 1997 to 2016.
Alan Davies: Return to stand-up On average, it takes 25 years for a man to reveal to anyone that he experienced childhood sexual abuse, Davies says. It took him even longer to speak out about his own, from the age of about eight to 13, at the hands of his father.
Because at 15 Davies had confronted his father – “in a blazing row in an airport on holiday” – everyone in his family knew about the abuse, he says, but it was brushed under the carpet.
Decades later, drawn back to university in 2016, the father of three was a year into a part-time Masters in Creative Writing when he anonymously submitted a piece about his father called Hands. “I needed to get it out and get it written … The only way I could get the story of what my father did out of me was to do it anonymously.” At first, Davies thought the story would remain contained within the “very safe space” of the writing course, but workshopping it with fellow students and tutors, the idea for a book started to appear.
In late 2020, after Just Ignore Him was published, Roy Davies, then in his 80s, was arrested for historical sexual abuse. Although the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service affirmed his son’s version of events, Roy Davies was not charged on account of Alzheimer’s disease.
In 2023, he died without having apologised or admitted any wrongdoing, Davies says. “For a long time, I thought what he was doing with me was something to do with us, with our relationship. It was some perversion of a father-son relationship in the aftermath of losing my mother, who died when I was six [from leukaemia].” “Many, many years later, the scales fell from my eyes.
I realised that, ‘Oh no, he was just obsessed with boys… He collected pictures. He printed off pictures of teenage boys.
That’s one of the reasons why I became angry enough to try and do something about it.” Survivors of sexual abuse risk losing family members when they speak out, Davies says, and he now has only occasional contact with his sister and none with his brother. “Lots of people’s abusers are in the family, and they have a hold not just on the person that they victimise, but they have a hold on other family members, too.” Alan Davies brings his Think Ahead tour to Hamilton, Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Christchurch and Dunedin this July and August.Live Nation Alan Davies brings his Think Ahead tour to Hamilton, Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Christchurch and Dunedin this July and August.
In Think Ahead, he aims to take people on a journey that’s at times difficult but also reward them with plenty of laughs. With the multi-generational popularity of the hit BBC quiz show QI, people born this century end up sitting alongside people who were born in the 1930s at an Alan Davies stand-up show.
Now pushing 60 himself, the comedian covers many recent experiences that are especially relatable to his many older audience members. “They’re on statins because they’ve got high cholesterol. They’re considering stimulants because they’ve got ED [erectile dysfunction].
And some of them are wrestling with painful childhood memories that they still haven’t told anyone about. “Over the years, I’ve realised there are many, many people in the audience who are in the same boat.
Suddenly, you’re creating a safe space, an environment where all stories can be told.” Signing copies of his books after gigs – Just Ignore Him and the 2025 follow-up White Male Stand Up – Davies says people frequently come up and tell him about similar experiences of childhood abuse.
The shortness of breath and “mild PTSD” he sometimes experienced while recounting these at live shows, he says, is just “part of the reality of doing these things to children”. “I wanted to say to the audience, ‘This is the consequence.
Can we please stop, as a society, failing to safeguard our kids?” • Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason. • Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357. • Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 / 0508 TAUTOKO.
This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends. • Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202. • Samaritans: 0800 726 666. • Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz. • What’s Up: 0800 WHATSUP / 0800 9428 787.
This is free counselling for 5 to 19-year-olds. • Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342 or text 832. Languages spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, and English. • Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254. • Healthline: 0800 611 116. • Rainbow Youth: 09 376 4155. • OUTLine: 0800 688 5463. • Eating Disorders Carer Support NZ: Also on Facebook.
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
Listen to fresh music while you do your laundry in new Auckland installation Fresh Laundry has turned old washing machines into jukeboxes, spinning unreleased ‘C Sides’ by New Zealand artists at laundromats across the city.
Grace Millane-inspired play to tour NZ schools Turbulent and uncomfortable, the British playwright says watching the play is like being in a boxing match – dealing a suckerpunch while you laugh. Self-taught Auckland artist wins ,000 portrait prize Duncan Pepe Long learned he had finally scored the top prize, then had had to walk in and teach a class of 50 students, keeping the win a secret.
Kiwi’s portrait of a fellow painter wins Australia’s biggest prize As well as phone calls from primary school classmates, Richard Lewer has received “a lot of hate” this week for his painting of Indigenous artist Iluwanti Ken.
Other Life sections: • Ngā papa whakaata/Screens • Āhua noho/Lifestyle • Whanaungatanga/Relationships