What I’ve Learned: Ben Elton

The comedian, playwright, director, author, and actor reflects on his loud childhood, writing, and jealousy among famous friends for Esquire's long-running interview series, What I've Learned

By Ben Jhoty

Published: Nov 21, 2025

BEN ELTON became one of the biggest names in British comedy in the ’80s, as the writer of hit TV shows The Young Ones, Blackadder, The Thin Blue Line and Mr Bean. He also hosted the variety show Saturday Live and enjoyed a sustained run of sold-out tours as a stand-up comic. In 1989, he released his first book, Stark, which became a best-seller and was later made into a TV show. Elton has written 16 novels in all, including Popcorn, Inconceivable and High Society and also wrote the stage musicals The Beautiful Game, We Will Rock You and Tonight’s the Night. After marrying an Australian, Sophie Gare, he splits his time between Perth and the UK. Here, Elton reflects on his loud childhood, writing, and jealousy among famous friends.

I WAS THOUGHT OF AS A VERY CHATTY KID. But I was a very happy kid. I don’t have an awful lot of memories of my childhood, and I think that’s testimony to how generally very happy I was. I think pain tends to linger longer.

I’M BOTH REFLECTIVE AND SHOUTY. As a kid I was confident, but I don’t think I was irritatingly so. I’ve always had a people-pleasing side to me and a side that worries about what I’ve said. But I was definitely quite sure of myself. I didn’t feel insecure.

WHEN I WAS 16, I turned up at this college in Stratford and announced that I was going to put on a play and I was going to direct it. Looking back, I was very much a Mickey Rooney type: overenthusiastic, rather gauche, rather naive, but a very, very enthusiastic and energetic person. It rubbed people the wrong way until they got used to me.

I HAVE NEVER BEEN COOL. I’ve never been able to pull off a kind of don’t-give-a-fuck pose, because I clearly do give a fuck, 24/7. I think being cool is about giving the impression that you don’t, even though, of course, most people do.

I TEND TO START WRITING TOO QUICKLY. Sometimes it would be better to stand back and look at things for a little while before you leap. But that does mean that I get stu done. Sometimes writing quickly, like the first episode of The Young Ones, has produced the most memorable stuff I’ve ever written.

I LOVE STAND-UP COMEDY. I love communicating complicated ideas through the medium of comedy. It’s massively satisfying. Some painters like to paint vases of flowers. I like to take really interesting stuff that’s going around in my head and turn it into a comic routine that makes people laugh and maybe think.

I’VE OFTEN IGNORED MY SUCCESS because I’ve wanted to get on to the next project. I would like to go back and say [to my younger self], “Just give yourself a month off, right now. Enjoy the fact that you can get a table anywhere you want.”

BUT I’M NOT BADLY AFFECTED BY FAME AND FORTUNE. It hasn’t affected my politics. I continue to think and act according to my moral conscience and that hasn’t changed through success. I still think I should be taxed a lot more than somebody who isn’t as successful as I am.

IT USED TO BE BORING that everybody wanted to talk politics with me, because I did these topical routines during the ’80s. Of course, they were political because the world was [political], kind of like now. We had the Russian nuclear threat, and, of course, the beginning of Thatcherism.

YOU CAN BE JEALOUS OF FRIENDS. I was jealous of Stephen [Fry], big time, in the ’80s, because he was the golden boy, and I seemed to be the whipping boy, and he was one of my best friends. Gore Vidal made an extraordinarily brutal observation of humanity when he said, “It is not enough to succeed, others must fail”. I understand that. But I think he’s wrong. I’ve never suffered from corrosive jealousy.

I THINK I’M VERY THICK-SKINNED. I’ve had quite a lot of brickbats thrown at me in the media over the years. And it doesn’t upset me for as long as it does others.

I’VE GOT A LOT OF BROKEN CROCKERY. I’d like some of the screenplays that I’ve worked on to have made it. I look at the vast piles of incredibly hard work, representing weeks and months at my desk, which never saw the light of day and never will. I think that’s a part of writing. Everyone has got a huge bottom drawer.

LOVE DIDN’T CONQUER ALL. For me, it enabled all. I fell in love with an Australian girl, and it was brilliant. It’s made my life what it is.