Riverside Theatre, Perth, Western Australia, November 6, 2025
Hard to believe it’s been 40 years since Harry Enfield first appeared on our TV screens as a fresh-faced young prodigy on Channel 4’s Saturday Live. Now a stout and balding 64-year-old in a crumpled suit, he may be the elder statesman of British comedy, but he’s lost none of the comedic genius which has kept him relevant for so long.
There was plenty at stake tonight. We were told this is Enfield’s first one-man tour in four decades and also the first time he’d performed in Australia. He needn’t have worried. Perth was the just second night of a seven date Aussie tour (plus one in Singapore) and apart from a few minor technical hiccups and the odd fluffed line, the show was an absolute triumph.
Arriving onstage as our beloved King Charles III, complete with crown, Enfield’s command of voices is something to behold. He’d already appeared as Charles in the long-running Channel 4 sitcom The Windsors so the character was particularly well-honed. From there we were taken on a journey through his life via a still photo backdrop and just a few basic props.
A cavalcade of famous and much loved characters arrived in roughly chronological order. There was the malapropism-prone Greek kebab shop owner Stavros; obnoxious Thatcher-era plasterer Loadsamoney; Kevin the Teenager; the Scousers; Wayne and Waynetta Slob; the wonderfully cheesy radio DJs Smashie & Nicey; the accidentally homophobic Modern Dad and the rest, with plenty of background information about how each of them was created.
There was a lovely tale of a party with George Harrison and Paul McCartney where an angry George told of how of Denis O’Brien his business manager at Handmade Films had scammed him to the tune of £16 million. As the night wore on and drink was taken, Paul and George began arguing and their calm and familiar Liverpool personae descended into Enfield’s shouty characters The Scousers with Harry trying to placate them with his “Calm down, calm down” catchphrase.
The backstory to other characters was equally fascinating. We learned how the supremely annoying Mr. “You Don’t Want to Do It Like That” was based on the grandfather of Harry’s former step-daughter Lily Allen. The man would turn up, offering pointless and unwanted advice at every opportunity, much to Harry’s chagrin. The idea for Kevin the Teenager also came from Lily’s sister.
Enfield is an absolute master of mimicry and even some incidental names who briefly came and went during the show were delivered with pinpoint accuracy. The voices of Paul Whitehouse, Ben Elton, Steve Coogan, Bob Mortimer and Rik Mayall were spot-on, even if some of them were only mentioned in passing.
Perth has a huge British population, and I’d estimate a vast proportion of the audience tonight were ex-pat Poms (or Anglophiles at the very least), so there was really no need for Enfield to “Australianise” his script in a couple of places, presumably in case the locals didn’t “get it.” For example, Aussie Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was thrown into the mix during the time-honoured “Is he a queer?” routine. Although it elicited a huge derisory cheer (as did any mention of Boris Johnson and Maggie Thatcher) it seemed tokenistic and unnecessary.
That aside, a splendid time was had by all and Harry left us in fine style by reprising his earlier tale of supporting the Stranglers during his early punk comedy years. As he vacated the stage, the Perth audience was required to sing “Fuck off, you wanker” to the tune of the Stranglers’ 1977 hit single “Peaches.” A few of the older folks didn’t seem too sure about it, but most others joined in with gusto. It’s probably safe to say the Riverside Theatre has never experienced an exit quite like this one.
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