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Friday, November 14, 2008, 07:30
Satirist, broadcaster, writer and comedian, Jeremy can be heard on Radio 4's News Quiz and on TV's Grumpy Old Men and QI.
"It sounds quite good when you put it like that," he says. "I think people think there are two Jeremy Hardys. I had a column in the Guardian which was quite serious and I was on Haven't Got a Clue and being funny. People had difficulty imagining it was the same person. But I like to do an even bigger variety of things
"Although I'm always behind doing everything in a panic. I'm supposed to have written a new book by now but it has not happened. I'd rather be on top of every- thing but I have been behind all my life. I can't even keep the house clean."
One of Jeremy's more unusual jobs was fronting a film documentary inPalestine during the Israeli Army incursion of 2002.
He says: "The Palestinian director wanted to get a celebrity to front this film drawing attention to what going on in the West Bank. They started with Madonna; when she said 'no' they went to Sting and when he said 'no' they got through about 96 others and I was the last one they came to."
But it worked and Jeremy Hardy Vs The Israeli Army was very well received.
"It would have been rubbish if Madonna had done it," he says. "It did well in independent cinemas, I think because I went out there with a group of peace activists and because I was terrified and bewildered and people could relate to it."
Jeremy is currently in the middle of a mammoth stand-up tour of the UK which is taking him from Glasgow to Jersey with a date in Derby next Friday.
"I haven't done this many dates for a long while as basically I'm quite lazy. But I managed to get a new show written because I got a panic on and didn't want to go out doing old stuff."
Jeremy is never one to shirk the difficult issues: "I'm talking about Britishness, class, charity, what's happening in politics, war, famine pestilence and death. I can't be too topical as news moves on so quickly but if big momentous things are happening it does have an influence on the material.
"And stand-up is nerve-wracking. You go through periods of feeling confident and then it catches up with you again. You are quite vulnerable, the potential for humiliation is quite high."
Often controversial, Jeremy has strong convictions and is known for speaking his mind.
"For me it's just talking," he says. "But I don't feel I'm campaigning. I'm not doing it because I think I can make a difference."
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