Laurence Fox is Richard’s brother-in-law (Credit: SplashNews.com) Who does BAFTA host Richard Ayoade play in The Mandalorian? He’s a TV star (The IT Crowd, Gadget Man) film director (The Double, Submarine) and now he’s written a book in which he interviews himself. Which is funny, because he hates interviews ... Richard Ayoade with his wife Lydia (Credit: SplashNews) What has Richard Ayoade said about Laurence Fox? He’s also hosted shows such as the revival of The Crystal Maze, Have I Got News For You and Gadget Man.

The message all this sends is clear. A ‘good’ person denounces wrongthinkers and seeks to distance him or herself from them. You are expected to go out of your way to cut off and isolate anyone who strays from trans orthodoxy. However, Laurence did reveal in an interview that his brother-in-law did not approve of his Question Time appearance.Of course, in recent years, Linehan has also become a bête noire of the trans lobby. The memoir, Tough Crowd, is billed as a humorous reflection on his journey from being one of the UK’s most beloved television comedy writers to becoming a pariah for being forthright about his gender-critical beliefs.

The Comedy Unleashed event lost both its original and replacement venue due to his outspoken criticisms of the trans rights movement, and Linehan has threatened legal action against the original venue. Broadcaster and trans woman India Willoughby said she was ‘disappointed’ to see Ayoade’s endorsement of the book, asking in a later tweet: ‘What is wrong with these people?’ The thing is, what’s my mandate? I feel you need to earn the right to weigh in on complex issues, and that right is probably not granted to you by being moderately efficient at imparting words so that they’re amusing. On some level, I can’t get away from the undertone that exists, which is, ‘Out on Monday’. The danger is, you trivialise what you’re saying, because there’s a commercial element attached, you might have something to gain.” Do you remember Richard Ayoade in The IT Crowd? (Credit: SplashNews) What is BAFTA host Richard Ayoade famous for? That might sound like a mildly amusing conceit for a traditional autobiography, but Ayoade’s actual life is almost entirely absent, his work barely mentioned. The book is more of a surreal and hilarious exercise in self-aggravation. For example, one exchange runs like this: “I read somewhere that you regard your Jewish identity as being important to you.” “It’s very important. It’s foundational.” “And yet you’re not Jewish.” “No.” “And you don’t find that problematic?” “Not at all. I don’t think whether I’m Jewish or not is really relevant to my Jewish identity.” “Would you call yourself a practising Jew?” “I use to play guitar but I don’t really have time for it any more.”

One record that does exist of his beginnings in comedy comes from a documentary the local ITV station made about Footlights at the time. You can see Ayoade alongside a young John Oliver, both in fetching 1990s sweaters, walking along a windswept beach, apparently improvising. “It was literally one of the things that made me not want to do interviews again. You have to imagine: a bunch of 21-year-olds, never-been-out-of-the-house type people. Our tour manager is another 21-year-old saying, ‘This is very important publicity, Anglia television want to do a feature.’ It was awful. They’d ask us to do a sketch while walking and if we complained they’d say, ‘Trust us, we’re professionals, we won’t make you look ridiculous’. Also, we were in this stage when we were just trying to be Chris Morris. Everyone spoke in that I’M TALKING LIKE THIS voice, all the way through. And it’s documented in this awful video, it’s really humiliating.” Richard, who is half-Nigerian, was reportedly furious at this, and told Laurence: ‘You have never encountered racism.’ He’s even a prominent music video director, having directed videos for the likes of The Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian. During the rant about the female journalist, which aired on Dan Wootton’s show on Tuesday, the 45-year-old said in reference to Evans, who is a political correspondent at Joe: ‘Who would want to shag that?’’ If that’s his fear about our meeting, he doesn’t show it initially. In fact he’s quite forthcoming as we talk about cinema and comedy. He tells me lots about film I didn’t know: the ways in which Woody Allen makes nods to Ingmar Bergman; that the 1960 film Zazie Dans le Metro is useless for teaching yourself French, as Ayoade attempted as a teenager, because the titular character speaks in slang and purposeful mispronunciation.

Inspired by The Great British Bake Off, Nancy launched her own wedding cake business - although she is now not allowed to apply for the show This week, it was the turn of Richard Ayoade to face the Two Minutes Hate of the trans-activist mob. The elephant in the room of any interview is, consume this product’ ... Richard Ayoade. Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Guardian Richard Ayoade is the host the prestigious BAFTA TV Awards 2021, which airs on BBC One tonight (June 6).I don't know how to be myself. It's like I'm permanently outside myself. Like, like you could push your hands straight through me if you wanted to. And I can see the type of man I want to be versus the type of man I actually am and I know that I'm doing it but I'm incapable of what needs to be done. I'm like Pinocchio, a wooden boy. Not a real boy. And it kills me.” MORE : The Chase star Jenny Ryan slams Graham Linehan for ‘whingeing’ over Edinburgh Fringe cancellation During his appearance on Question Time, Laurence clashed with an audience member and said it was ‘racist’ for him to be described as a ‘white privileged male’ and that he was ‘bored’ of people ‘throwing the race card’ around. But to keep spiked free we ask regular readers like you, if you can afford it, to chip in – to make sure that those who can’t afford it can continue reading, sharing and arguing. One man and his machine … Guy Martin. Photograph: Ryan Mcnamara/Channel 4 Succession 9pm, Sky Atlantic