15 hours ago
5
Born in Liverpool, Roger McGough, 88, worked as a teacher before forming the Scaffold with John Gorman and Mike McGear in the 1960s; they performed poetry, sketches and comic songs and had a No 1 hit with Lily the Pink. McGough hosts Radio 4’s Poetry Please and has published more than 100 poetry books for adults and children, including Collected Poems 1959-2024. He has four children and lives in London with his second wife.
When were you happiest?
Last Sunday when all the family came round to celebrate my 88th birthday. (Or was it Saturday. Or the week before, perhaps?)
What is your greatest fear?
Losing track (see above).
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I’m embarrassed when I get people’s names wrong.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
I’m irritated by critics and academics who dismiss poetry that is popular, comprehensible or humorous.
Describe yourself in three words
Unimpeachable, nonpareil, self‑effacing.
What makes you unhappy?
Selfishness, arrogance and the closure of Hammersmith Bridge to traffic.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
Hard to say. When I looked at myself in the mirror this morning, my face turned away.
Would you choose fame or anonymity?
Fame, because it’s easier to spell and pronounce.
Who would play you in the film of your life?
I can think of quite a few good actors, but they are all dead. How about an AI-generated amalgam of Ken Dodd, Jodie Comer and David Morrissey.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I had dreams of becoming the first scouse pope. Unfortunately, the girls got to me first.
What was the last lie that you told?
See above.
What is the worst thing anyone’s said to you?
A lady came up to me in Tesco last year and said, “Excuse me, but didn’t you used to be Roger McGough?”
What do you owe your parents?
Even though we were a poor family and there was a war on, my parents brought me up to believe that I was lucky. Lucky to have a mum and dad and a sister, to be Catholic, to live in a house with an outside toilet. Lucky to have been born in Liverpool.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Waiting at a bus stop for a bus during a bus strike in 1978, I was bewitched by a beautiful blond biochemist from Yorkshire. And the rest, as they say, is geography.
What does love feel like?
Completion.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“No, let me pick up the tab” and “No, it’s my round, I insist.”
How often do you have sex?
Sex? Hang on, and I’ll find out … Alexa, how often do I have …
What is the closest you’ve come to death?
A picnic on the beach at Seaforth during the war. Somehow I managed to wriggle through a barbed-wire fence and run across a minefield. My teenage aunt Kat bravely followed suit and rescued me.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
That it will go on quite happily without me.
