Philip Pope talking Rory McGrath

If you think you haven’t heard of Philip Pope, believe me, you have. He’s the one that appeared in the Only Fools and Horses episode Stage Fright as crooner Tony Angelino, he of ‘Cwying’ fame.

More than 20 years on, Philip is a little bemused that people still remember him for something that, he says, took up little more than a fortnight of his time in a career spanning 35 years.

“I am surprised, yeah,” he admits. “But I’ve been very lucky. It seems to have been one of the most popular episodes, one of those classics that people remember. It was a very well-crafted piece of writing. I think John Sullivan was an absolute genius.

“I was a bit nervous because this was an established series, but the cast, from David Jason right down to all the characters, they were a good team, and they couldn’t have been more welcoming and helpful. So I have very fond memories.”

But Philip has done much more than just portray a singer with a rather amusing speech impediment.

As a composer, he has written for high profile shows such as Spitting Image (including The Chicken Song, which topped the UK charts in 1986), Outnumbered, Jonathan Creek, The Fast Show, Harry & Paul and Yonderland.

He is also known for performing with Angus Deayton in 80s pop band the Hee Bee Gee Bees, which parodied the falsetto sound of the Bee Gees, and he did all the singing impersonations on Spitting Image.

His passion for music goes back to his childhood, so it is perhaps inevitable that he has made a career out of it.

“I’d always wanted to do something in music,” he says. “I was brought up with the Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder and David Bowie ringing in my ears. I always thought I’d like to do something like that.

“Then I got sidetracked by comedy. So I’ve managed to combine the two. I could never take myself seriously as a rock star, and I think I’ve found the right platform for whatever my talents are!”

After being educated at Downside School, near Bath, he came up to Oxford in the early 80s.

“Yes, I went there to buy a tie,” he chuckles when I ask him about this. “That’s an old Spike Milligan joke. That’s the sort of humour that’s underpinned my career.”

In fact, he was at New College, largely at the insistence of his father, who persuaded him to take up his university place rather than go to drama school. It’s lucky he did, because it was here that he met up with Angus Deayton, Rowan Atkinson, Helen Atkinson Wood, Tim McInnerny and Richard Curtis, and they all became part of the Oxford Revue.

Surprisingly, he studied French and Latin rather than music.

What made him choose these subjects? “I don’t know! I think it was because, rather perversely, I thought, let’s do something for the sake of it, rather than something which was at all useful.

“But that’s how I met Angus, because he was doing French as well. So Oxford has been good to me.”

It wasn’t until after leaving Oxford that Philip met current comedy partner Rory McGrath, who had trodden a similar path at Cambridge.

While doing TV shows such as Who Dares Wins and Chelmsford 123 together, the pair discovered a mutual love for music.

“Rory and I have been sort of knocking around together for many years, if that’s the right expression! He’s actually quite a good guitarist, and we’d get together behind the scenes and play music. He’d written quite a few silly songs.

“We toured a show in the 90s called Death By Country, which was all country music and Rory thought it was something that he would be able to play.

“So we did that, dressed up in all the gear, and it was very popular.”

Now the pair are pooling their talents for another musical comedy show, Bridge Over Troubled Lager, which began touring last autumn and comes to The Mill in Banbury this Saturday.

“This is the first one after we’ve recovered from Christmas and the New Year,” Philip jokes.

“I’ve never played there, but I’ve heard good things about it.”

The show is, he says, “mainly songs”, covering a range of subjects from social media and reality TV to young people’s over-use of the word ‘like’, with lots of banter in between.

So how do they write the material for the show?

“Rory tends to write the words and I tend to write the music. He will come up with an outline for a song and write a sort of working tune, and he says he gives it to me and I change it and make it so complicated that he can no longer play it! And then we do.

“It’s a good working relationship. It’s not exactly Bernie Taupin and Elton John, but it’s funnier than them!

“People who have come to see it seem to understand it and love it – they ‘get’ it. It’s been a really good turnout.”

By way of contrast, Philip is also an enthusiastic member of the Thame Chamber Choir, which is close to where he lives.

“At first I thought I didn’t have time to do it, but like all these things it becomes important.

“I’ve been singing with them for about 10 years or so, and it’s got ex-choristers from Oxford and lay clerks, and professional and semi-professional musicians like me.

“We do three concerts a year, mainly in Thame, although we did do one at Exeter College Chapel last year, which was very well received.

“It’s a good range of music, and it widens my horizons because I’ve always been interested in classical music as well as pop and rock music, so for me it’s an outlet.

“It’s good to have a diversity of interests, and it’s something I really enjoy doing.

“I’m a tenor, but talk to me first thing in the morning and you’ll think I’m a bass!”

So what’s next for Philip?

“I’d like to get more involved in live theatre, because I’ve been doing a lot of touring recently, which is quite tiring, but I’d like to get involved in writing something for the theatre, not necessarily being in it so that I don’t have to do the touring!”