Comedian Frank Skinner has admitted that he made homophobic jokes during the 1990s without realising they were offensive at the time.
“I used to do homophobic material that I didn’t recognise as homophobic,” Skinner told The Times. “It’s the only stuff I really look back on and think, ‘I just wouldn’t do that again.’”
Skinner, who begins his new stand-up tour in September, was one of the BBC’s biggest stars in the 1990s, with a talk show on BBC1 and Fantasy Football League, which he co-hosted with David Baddiel, airing on BBC2.
The duo also topped the charts with their football anthem “Three Lions” during Euro 96 and Skinner has been a regular panellist on Have I Got News for You since 1992 and Room 101 since 1995.
Skinner, who is teetotal, also spoke about his past struggle with alcoholism, saying: “It’s become cool to stop drinking these days, but people don’t stop drinking like I did. I did it because I thought I was going to die.
“I got anxious that I’d switched from sherry to Pernod as a breakfast drink. The sherry never bothered me — I had five or six years of sherry for breakfast. But Pernod, that was getting out of hand.”
Frank Skinner Live will run at Assembly George Square in Edinburgh from 31 July – 18 August and his Showbiz tour starts on 12 September.
