Arthur has something to tell us...

He’s been a Grumpy Old Man for so long that he’d now just prefer a cup of tea. Arthur Smith’s new book shows a more mellow side to the comedian who has fond memories of his student days in Norwich. He chats to Angi Kennedy.

For the man who has carved a place in our hearts as the Grumpy Old Man with the gravelly voice and the hang-dog expression, Arthur Smith is feeling really rather chilled and happy. Whatever has happened?

Reading his new book, 100 Things I Meant To Tell You, it is clear that there he is no longer feeling quite so grumpy about quite so much; heck, he’s even talking about being grateful for his lot . . .

“Compared to most of the other seven billion people who hang out on the same planet as me, I have been lucky in life,” he writes. “The two generations before me lived through World Wars; those that follow may face devastations that I can scarcely imagine. I have family, friends, a woman I love who loves me, and I have enjoyed working as a dustman, a writer, a broadcaster, a rock ‘n’ roller, a warehouseman and a teacher – but mostly, I am pleased to say, as a comedian.”

And so begins this ragbag collection of anecdotes, gags, rants and recollections that he describes as ‘a memoir in fragments’. He recounts stories of unexpectedly sharing the stage of Norwich Playhouse with a butterfly, of creating a sock museum, doing yoga with goats, bumping into the Archbishop of Canterbury on a train in France, of lost loves and lost coats . . .

His 90-year-old mother features in several tales, told with humour, fondness and such a poignancy as she journeys into dementia. He is going to visit her later on the day we talk. “Now she has forgotten all the worries and I think she will make 100 to be honest,” he says. “She was a grammar school girl and still loves words and discussing things. I am happy that she is in a really nice place.”