Alan Davies has made his return to standup comedy after a decade away with a new show, Think Ahead, at the Edinburgh Fringe. The comedian, known for his role in Jonathan Creek, addresses his childhood sexual abuse by his father for the first time on stage.
Davies, 59, revealed the abuse in his 2020 book, and now discusses it in his set, visibly experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder as he does so. He handles the subject with honesty and a lightness of touch, acknowledging its awkwardness for comedy while finding humour in details such as his father making colour copies of abuse images on the household printer.
The abuse is not the main focus of the show, which also includes material about his youngest son, rants in character about Ulez, and blue humour elevated by vivid imagery. Davies jokes about the sexual position to adopt during a Viagra-induced heart attack and his experience delivering a poo sample for cancer screening.
The show's disparate routines fit together by offsetting the light-hearted sex comedy with the darker abuse material, making the laughs feel harder won. The result is a striking cross-section of Davies's life that reveals parts his previous shows could not reach.
