Fame and Fortune: comedian on The Fast Show, Paul Whitehouse and art collecting
Simon Day, 61, went from playing pool and flipping between dead-end jobs to becoming an international star with The Fast Show. Characters such as Dave Angel and Tommy Cockles propelled him into the limelight and helped fund his art collection.
Recently on the road, his enthusiasm for touring accounts for the fact that he classes gigging as his biggest indulgence. Currently writing a new television series, he reveals that a fledgling writing partnership with Paul Whitehouse never got off the ground because they couldn’t stop talking about football. Day, a father of two, lives with his wife Ruth in north London.
My dad was keen to teach me the value of money. If I went on a school journey, I always had the recommended spending money, of £2 or whatever, while all the other kids had pockets full of cash.
It was a bit like that – the basic school uniform, cheap shoes. The message was all about financial restraint, but I didn’t really take any of it on board at the time.