TV Nigel: Dads should be near their Young Ones...

Why touring and reciting poetry helps Planer find peace, man

- ROSALEEN FENTON and AMANDA STOCKS

LENTIL-LOVING hippy Neil was never the poet in hit 1980s comedy The Young Ones, as it was Cliff Richard-loving anarchist Rick who fancied himself a wordsmith.

But - and this really is, as Neil would say, "far out, man" - Nigel Planer, who played the cult character, has now cast himself in the role of people's poet.

He is touring the UK reciting work from his book, Making Other Plans.

And one of his poems, Waking Up Without You, reminds 71-year-old Nigel of a time when his marriage had broken down and he sought the help of Families Need Fathers to stay connected to his son.

He tells the Mirror: "It's such a powerful poem.

"The feelings that it evokes take me back to that time and the audience can really feel the emotion, as it was the hardest time ever, waking up in a house without my son."

Families Need Fathers, which has changed its name to Both Parents Matter, advocates for shared parenting as the best solution after a separation.

It will mark its 50th anniversary this week at a House of Lords event hosted by Labour politician David Blunkettwho, like Nigel, is a patron.

Nigel turned to the group after he split from first wife Anna Leigh, the mother of his eldest son Stanley, 36, and again when he broke up with his second wife, Frankie Park, the mum of his youngest son Harvey, 25.

After his six-year marriage to Anna ended in 1995, she remarried and moved abroad with Stanley.