‘It makes my toes curl when Mum talks about sex!’
Everyone’s favourite funnyman Keith Lemon on drinking, rafting and filming mad videos
We’re used to watching Keith Lemon being smutty on shows like Celebrity Juice, but TV viewers are currently seeing a whole new side to him on Channel 4’s The Fantastical Factory Of Curious Craft.
The Sunday-night series, which he co-hosts with Naked Attraction’s
Anna Richardson, sees amateur crafters battling it out to impress Keith and the celebrity guests with their mad creations.
However, fans of the near-theknuckle comic don’t need to worry – Keith hasn’t changed completely. When we catch up, he’s been up partying all night with mates on Zoom.
Here, Keith, 47, fills us in on his late-night antics, the bonkers things keeping him busy during lockdown, and the one and only thing that embarrasses him…
Hi Keith.What have you been up to?
I set up aYouTube channel.This has been the perfect time. I’ve been having weird dreams, getting up and then filming what happened in them, like I did a sketch with a mini Spider-Man where we have a fart off. I’ve also been chatting to celebrity friends on FaceTime.
What are you missing the most?
I want to go to a restaurant and eat out. I’m also missing going to the cinema as I go to watch films quite a lot. And, obviously, just seeing all my friends. I’ve drunk more in lockdown than normal. I wouldn’t usually drink a lot at home by myself and I’m tired of Zoom boozing!
Are you doing a lot of that?
I was up until 2am last night with a couple of mates for someone’s birthday, having a drink in front of my iPad. It’s weird drinking like that so it’ll be nice to see people
and, I guess, to hug them.
You’re on screens with The Fantastical Factory Of Curious Craft. What do you love about the show?
They said they wanted an artistic Willy Wonka and I went, ‘Hello.’ I do a lot of craft at home. I love it. I’ve got a bit of material next to me at the moment and I’m going to make something out of it, although it won’t be as weird as making Michael Hutchence for no reason, like I’ve done in the past. But it makes me feel ace.
So is this a new direction for you?
Not really because I do a lot of art and stuff anyway. But it’s nothing like I’ve done before. When we were filming Fantastical Factory I was doing Celebrity Juice at the same time, so it was p**s and dildos, and then I’d walk into the Factory and it was like swimming in a cup of tea. I think the Factory kept me sane while also being a really drunken, naughty man on TV.
What’s the maddest thing you’ve made?
Before I was on telly, I used to make a lot of home videos. I made a spoof of Jurassic Park called Roundhay Park, my local in Leeds, and I made a five-foot T-Rex that you could get inside. It was too big to stay in the small council house I lived in, so my mate who was posh kept it in his porch. I was the legal age for drinking then and people would ask if I wanted to go to the pub and I’d say, ‘No, I’m making
Jurassic Park!’
Where are all your creations?
I was on a show years ago called Comedy Max where they sent me back to college and to where I grew up. I went into my old house and they still had all my props in the loft – little gremlins and Jabba the Hutt. It’s weird that they kept all my models – I would have sold them!
Are you and your co-host Anna good mates now?
We met on the first day of filming and we gelled straight away. We had a FaceTime call recently where she was dressed on the top half but not on the bottom.
What did you get up to in between filming?
We were gossiping a lot. I’m worse than Louis Walsh for gossiping. And Anna does tarot card readings, so we did a lot of that. As we know, Anna is very open about sex, and I remember one day we were sitting around waiting and Anna said to my mum – who’s in the show as the tea lady – ‘Pat, do you still have sex?’ The toes in my shoes were growing inwards.
Would you work with your mum again?
Yeah, I liked it. She really enjoyed herself. She’s such a happy person and never negative at all. When we were filming I’d say, ‘Mum, say this,’ and she wouldn’t remember, and instead turned it into her own thing. She’s started making videos in lockdown, too. They’re not very good. She pretended to go to the races, so she filmed herself trying a hat on, walking out of the gate and then coming back through, saying, ‘I had a lovely time and won some money!’