'Huge 80s star stages astonishing comeback after shock realisation about world'

The godfather of alternative comedy Alexei Sayle has lost none of his Marxist zeal or rage against the establishment – and says his firebrand act is needed more than ever to resist what he calls an “assault on free speech and comedy”.

After over 30 years delivering acidly funny rants at the state of the nation, the 72-year-old veteran of The Comic Strip and The Young Ones is more troubled than ever about the widening gap between the rich and poor – and there’s no chance of him getting off his soapbox. “I would like to retire – but the world keeps getting worse,” he says with a chuckle. “So what am I supposed to do?”

Politics has always been his schtick, and even now, he takes his alternative comedian job spec seriously. He believes comedy is one of the first casualties of an authoritarian society. “They don't like a laugh,” says Alexei. “But healthy ones encourage criticism. Comedy is a pressure valve – it's a way to let off steam about the injustice of the world. And comics should also point out injustice.”

We meet in a park near his house in Bloomsbury, the literary quarter of central London, where he lives with his wife Linda and their beloved 18-year-old Maine Coon cat, Wilf.

The bald, bovver-booted tight-suit wearing bouncer look has gone and been replaced by a slightly avuncular look. Completely white haired and with a beard trimmed into a Lenin point (his barber’s idea), he’s also wearing a Panama which gives him the air of a professor on his holidays, especially as he’s waving a wooden stick.

“It’s my martial arts staff – I do Tai chi,” he says, twirling it around expertly. Apparently it’s not a peaceful hobby at all. “No, it’s a way of killing people very slowly,” he deadpans.

It’s been a while since Alexei has been on the stand-up comedy circuit after his comeback tour in 2022 was rudely interrupted by the pandemic. But his delightful travels around the UK with his Strangers On A Train series last year on Radio 4 has found him a whole new audience. He also hosts a monthly podcast with co-host Talal Karkouti, and has even gone viral with the youngsters with his TikTok videos where he explains Marxist theory through interpretative dance.

Bringing his surreal side to a brand new medium, Alexei demonstrates the “bourgeoiose boogie” followed by “cornered beast” while teaching about how capitalists steal the profits of workers’ hard work.

“I mean they’re proper viral – we’re up to about seven million views,” he says. “We’re going to do more of those, more internet stuff, hopefully another series of Imaginary Sandwich Bar, and maybe some live gigs.”

And, Alexei reveals, he’s waiting for “Jeremy to get the new party together”. Always a committed Corbynist, there’s no love lost between the comic and the current Labour line-up. “When Jeremy has finally talked to everybody in the country, and the new party, people’s popular front emerges, then I will also throw myself into that until they stop me.”

He twirls his Tai chi staff ominously – then accidentally drops it. “I’ve also written a poem for the Prime Minister – it’s called I Hate Keir Starmer,” he announces, and starts discussing whether he should read it out to the audience when he appears on the Voices of Solidarity stage at the Troxy Theatre in East London on Saturday.

Performing on the night alongside Alexei will be comedian and former heart surgeon, Bassem Youssef, singer Paloma Faith, actress Juliet Stephenson and host Jen Brister to raise desperately needed funds for health workers under siege in Gaza.

Since October 2023, more than 1,580 health workers have been killed in Gaza and all proceeds from the night will go to Health Workers 4 Palestine.

“It’s gonna be a great evening of music and comedy and people will be doing good by coming to see it,” he promises. There will also be a silent auction with expensive items donated by Cate Blanchett and Gary Lineker – while Alexei, naturally, is offering a pint.

As a Jewish man, Alexei feels it’s important to attend and “bear witness” to what is happening on the central London protest marches over Gaza. He’s spent so many years supporting the march, it’s practically his social life these days. But he feels compelled to fight what he calls the creeping authoritarianism in this country.

“You know, if I say I support Palestine Action, I can go to prison for 14 years?” he casually mentions. “I feel sympathy with younger artists who are caught in a bind about whether to speak out or not,” he adds. “I can understand why they don't and I really admire the ones who do, like Kneecap, Paloma Faith and Dua Lipa.”

Despite his view that the BBC “has allowed itself to be intimidated” over the Kneecap incident, the veteran comic concedes the broadcaster has always been supportive.

“Radio 4 is a kind of natural home for me,” he says. He’s been commissioned for a sixth series of Alexei Sayle’s Imaginary Sandwich Bar, which he says is the work he’s most proud of over his entire career. “There's a budget put aside for next year,” he confirms. “It takes me like two years to write it. So we'll see whether I'm in prison or not!”

Unlike younger artists, Alexei says he’s free to speak his mind because, “I’ve made my mark in my career,” but he also made his career out of ranty monologues when he was young in the 1980s. “Yes but the situation has become more critical,” he explains. “You see how the Labour government has reacted to Just Stop Oil for instance, closing down the space for protest.

“And that ultimately is to do with the growing gap between rich and poor. It's inequality. It’s a manifestation of that really. Gaza and fossil fuel protests. It's all part of the same thing.”

All that marching has clearly kept the comic fit. “I’ll be 73 in a few weeks and I'm in good shape physically.” Born in 1952 in Liverpool to fully paid-up members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Molly and Joseph Sayle, he doesn’t get back home so often these days. “Not since my mum died,” he says.

Being brought up in a Communist household by a mother who swapped her “extreme Orthodox Jewish religion for another” certainly set him apart from his Anfield neighbours. At Christmas she even told him Lenin came down the chimney with presents.

“I embraced the difference, really,” he shrugs. “It was like growing up in any cult. You think you've got the answers to the world's problems.”

He briefly considered becoming a teacher, but his entry into the hallowed halls of stand-up is the stuff of comedy legend. He answered an advert in Private Eye in 1979 and became a compere of The Comedy Store on a tiny little stage in a Soho strip club where acts like Rik Mayall and French & Saunders started their careers.

The comedy industry has changed beyond recognition since those ground-breaking days. “It’s a massive industry now, and like any industry, it’s become homogenised.”

Instead of coming up the hard way and being heckled on stage, many comics now start their careers on social media. In this “old dog learns new tricks” phase of his career, Alexei could certainly teach the kids a few things.

“I’ve seen the odd comic who is great on social media, but if you go and see them live, it’s painful,” he says, looking pained. “Friends that I still have in the industry say that is a problem. They look great in an edited clip on YouTube, but they can't sustain anything and act really.”

Beyond the stand-up and theatre work, Alexei’s also a seasoned character actor and has appeared in everything from Gorky Park and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade to Carry On Columbus.

But it’s his time with his old Comic Strip friends when alternative comedy took over BBC Television Centre that he recalls with the most fondness. “The Young Ones was an extraordinary time,” he says. “It was tremendously exciting and we were all friends.

“At one point I was making my own series, and Jennifer was making the first series of ABFAB, and Nigel was working on something. It was like we almost had the run of the BBC. He adds, “I still see Nigel and Peter a lot these days.”

Still mourning the loss of Rik Mayall who died of a heart attack aged 56 in 2014, he met up with his old comedy crew at Robbie Coltrane's memorial last year. The Scottish actor, who died in 2022, was a regular on the 1980s TV show The Comic Strip Presents along with Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Peter Richardson and Alexei.

“Rik’s death was a real shock. Terrible,” Alexei shakes his head sadly. “I remember speaking to Dawn at Robbie memorial and saying it was a real feeling of family. I think she felt that even if we don't see each other, we’ve all been through something profound together.”

He’s never really been away, but it’s great to have Alexei back where he’s needed – showing us the alternative view to the mainstream.

• The UK’s largest cultural fundraiser for Palestine, Voices of Solidarity, which will take place at London’s Troxy Saturday July 19, 2025 (7pm). Tickets from www.dice.fm/event/wwbd5r-voices-of-solidarity-19th-jul-troxy-london-tickets

READ MORE: Dog food monthly subscription creates 'tailored menu' to meet each pups needs