Harry Enfield and No Chums – Review – York Grand Opera House
By Roger Crow, March 2026
Few comedians of the past 40-45 years have managed to tap into the zeitgeist of the time as well as Harry Enfield.
From the moment he burst onto the scene with genial kebab shop owner Stavros in the 1980s, I knew a magic comic force had arrived. But his vocal work on Spitting Image had already proved his comic chops, and when he took inspiration from mate Paul Whitehouse and created Loadsamoney, the lairy, swaggering plasterer, the “greed is good” upwardly mobile, money-hungry masses embraced him, some not realising the very person he was sending up was them.
The creation and work on all of these characters and stories is beautifully delivered by the man himself on stage at York Grand Opera House for almost two hours. As a hardcore fan, I love every minute. But sadly there’s no mention of one of his great, little remembered mockumentaries, Norbert Smith: A Life, which is well worth tracking down. And there’s no mention of ‘I Saw You Coming’, a brilliant send-up of those shop owners who fleece gullible rich types by selling them orange-painted logs. Or maybe that was a real shop I saw in Chiswick a few years ago.
Naturally Harry pays tribute to the thankfully still with us Kathy Burke, with a great story about how Wayne and Waynetta Slob were created, as well of course as Kevin and Perry. Again, the transformation of Kevin the teenager is one of the most brilliant studies of turning 13, and how teen friends relate to their friends’ parents. There’s also a great story about the sadly no longer with us Rik Mayall, who he didn’t work with, but did have an interesting meeting with on the high street one day.
“Achingly funny”
There are impressions of Ricky Gervais, and an uncanny turn as the brilliant Bob Mortimer, like he’s actually morphed into the real Bob before our eyes.
My favourite two characters of recent years are Harry and Paul’s Charles and Sheridan, the posh surgeons, whose nonsensical use of “40-45 years” as a catch-phrase has become part of my everyday speech.
And the story of how Harry was invited to a party by George Harrison is bliss. The fact he and fellow guest Paul McCartney then turn into ‘The Scousers’ is achingly funny.
Tickets weren’t cheap, nor were they loadsamoney. (Better value than Bob Dylan’s gig in Hull the other year, let’s put it that way). And Harry delivers great value for money, so if you are one of the lucky few who have managed to grab one for one of his many sold-out shows around the UK, safe to say you won’t be disappointed. And that encore, when Harry finally returns to the stage, is not easily forgotten.
What a treat to finally see one of my comic idols on stage, and what an incredible career. I’d say it’s 40-45 years of solid-gold entertainment compressed into an unforgettable 110-plus minutes.
Adopted Yorkshireman Roger Crow developed a passion for film and TV in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been a published film and TV reviewer since the 1990s; a world travel and restaurant critic since the noughties, and for the past decade has assessed the pros and cons of live gigs and theatre productions around the UK. His ideal day would involve reviewing a performance of Bat Out of Hell, followed by a Pad Thai while being serenaded by Texas on a cruise around Europe.
crowsfeat.com; nostalgiahhh film podcast
I went to see this show on Sunday at the Grand Opera House in York. It was great, I really enjoyed the show, but the thing that disappointed me was this: After the show, I waited outside the stage door (There were about eleven or twelve of us waiting there), to see if I could get a photo with. I waited for a good while, it’s fair to say, only to find out from the theatre staff/backstage crew that he’d already gone before we’d got out there. How rude is that? He snubbed his fans who were waiting out in the cold, just so he could get to his next show in Liverpool.