Lucy Beaumont is currently in the middle of a 79-date tour of the UK and Ireland. (Image: Getty)
Lucy Beaumont is busy. She’s currently in the middle of a 79-date tour of the UK and Ireland with her one-woman stand-up show. And her appearance at London’s Royal Court theatre has been filmed by Sky as a comedy special to be broadcast this autumn.
Meanwhile, on Friday she will be taking to the stage at the London Palladium: “My stomach is just beginning to do a somersault because the Palladium’s such a prestigious venue. But then, a bit of adrenalin’s a good thing, isn’t it?
“That said, this is the third leg of the tour and it’s a pretty well-oiled machine by now.”
She continues: “I used to have this idea that, because I’m a northern comedian, I’d go down better up north but it’s not true. Cheltenham’s proved just as good as Hull.” She adds: “I’ve worked in bars, in shops, as a teacher, I’ve done it all. I feel so privileged now to be doing a job – the opposite of nine to five, five days a week – that’s all about entertaining people.”
There was a time, however, when the prevailing attitude was that women weren’t as funny as men: “People used to say that was a man’s job and I got it into my head that I couldn’t be funny because I was female. The live comedy circuit was very sexist. But that seems ridiculous now.”
Lucy adds: “People know me from off the telly so they must be coming to see me because they think I’m funny.
“They want to hear about my life and my relationships with my mum and my daughter, and all the bizarre things that seem to happen to me.”
But it will not be about her relationship with fellow comedian Jon Richardson. Having been introduced by comic Roisin Conaty, they married in 2015 but parted, after nine years, this April.
Lucy, 40, is a regular on shows like Would I Lie To You? and 8 Out of 10 Cats, but it’s the five series of Meet The Richardsons with estranged husband Jon that put her squarely on the map.
It was always touted as a mockumentary, a heightened glimpse into the couple’s domestic set-up. So when asked how close to reality it was, she hesitates before saying: “I used to get confused with what was fact, what was fiction.
“The way I see it, we were playing sitcom characters based on us as a real-life couple and the stories that happened to us. It was scripted by us and about us but we improvised quite a lot.”
She does not feel that in creating the TV series they made a rod for their own backs, saying, “no, not at all”, before confirming it will not return for a sixth series: “I think it has run its course. But it was a joy to work on. I’ll always be proud of it.”
Their marriage break-up has also had an impact on her one-woman show. It used to be titled The Trouble And Strife. Now it’s called Lucy Beaumont Live.
She says: “It’s about my life but there’s no animosity there. It’s certainly not sad – it’s full of gags.
“It’s all about me, where I come from.”
Lucy is the only child of single mother Gill Adams. She was a TV scriptwriter for and Doctors, who won the Fringe First Award at Edinburgh in 1997. Lucy says her mother inspired her to write her popular Radio 4 series To Hull and Back, starring Dame Maureen Lipman: “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done but then Maureen took it into a different league. I sent her the pilot because, apart from anything else, she’s from Hull. She was my comedy idol. I asked whether she’d entertain the idea of playing the mother.
Taskmaster Clark Giedroyc “She wrote back, ‘I will, if you make it better’. I stayed up all night polishing it.”
Lucy was a contestant on Taskmaster and has a podcast, Perfect Brains, with stand-up comic Sam Campbell, who she met on the show.
She has also recently filmed The World’s Most Dangerous Roads for the restyled U&Dave channel which involved driving through Montenegro with Johnny Vegas at the wheel.
“What started out as a white-knuckle ride turned out to be a spiritual experience, cementing me and Johnny as life-long friends.”
But while her work was going well she has been dealing with a brain issue that started two years ago: “I had a problem remembering names, ones that I used every day.
“I was struggling with numbers and distances. I found it hard to tell the time. My brain seemed to want to complicate things, which was great for comedy because I’d get into all these scrapes – but not so good for real life.”
Her mother had been diagnosed as autistic two years earlier: “Eventually, I decided I ought to get a proper diagnosis myself. I was told I had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which I found helpful. It gave it a name although I don’t use it as an excuse.
“I didn’t do anything about it, though. I never went on medication. But it’s helped me embrace how I am even more: in other words, this is what I’m good at, this is what I’m bad at. It means I don’t give myself such a hard time. I also wanted to be the best mum I could for my daughter.”
E lsIE celebrated her eighth birthday earlier this month: the bunting is visible strung across the ceiling as lucy chats on a video call. she admits that motherhood was never a part of her life plan until fate intervened: “I was walking to a gig in london. I’d been to the venue three times before and I knew where it was. But, on this occasion, my mind blanked.
“so I went into a shop and asked the way. I remembered as soon as I was told but it meant I was delayed by a few minutes. I wouldn’t want to sound spiritual but those minutes proved crucial.
“As I resumed my walk, I saw something moving in the middle of the busy, main road, a small figure wearing white. As I drew nearer, I realised it was a toddler in a nappy, only visible when he tottered into the light of a street lamp.
“He was seconds away from being hit by a car. I dashed into the road, scooped him up and held him in my arms. He was completely calm; he didn’t cry. Then I noticed a house nearby with its front door swinging open.
“When his mother saw me with her child in my arms, she started shaking. she was in shock. The whole experience made me feel that I’d been chosen. If I’d remembered the route to my destination, I’d have passed that house a vital few minutes too early.”
The effect on lucy was profound: “It made me feel broody. When I handed him over I missed the sensation of that child in my arms. Within a year, I had a baby of my own.”
For tour details visit lucybeaumont.co.uk