But when I talk about growing up in the West Midlands, there wasn’t an alternative voice for me to either respond to or ignore.” The Jason Lee incident, he accepts, was a different situation. “By then we’d come through the alternative comedy circuit, where ‘non-racist, non-sexist’ was the banner handle. So it’s not like we didn’t know. Because me and Dave knew.” And he has been unflinchingly open about his own struggles with alcoholism. “People are much easier with my battle-with-the-booze stories than ‘Here’s some of my prayers’… I think they were delighted to find that those who seem to have everything going for them [in 2000, Skinner was revealed as the best-paid name on British television] have got dark demons. What they don’t really want to know is that you believe in actual demons.”

Raised Roman Catholic, Skinner reconnected with the faith in his 20s, and remains a practising Roman Catholic. He is also a supporter of West Bromwich Albion, and regularly attends games. [39]McCaffrey, Julie (20 August 2019). "Frank Skinner on proposing and giving up x-rated jokes that made him 90s icon". mirror . Retrieved 20 December 2021. New Year Honours 2023: Brian May and Lionesses on list". BBC News. 30 December 2022 . Retrieved 30 December 2022. One guy I know really well, who’s a very unlikely candidate for this, said to me: “Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve started writing poetry as a result of your podcast. Not to show anyone, it’s just a good way of clearing my thoughts.” I’ve also heard from quite a few poets. Donna Stonecipher, the American poet, told me sales of her book went up 600% the week after the episode about her. Keh, Andrew (7 July 2018). "England Takes Another Step Toward Bringing 'It' Home". The New York Times . Retrieved 9 July 2018.

Though Skinner also talks about being a practising Catholic who daily reads the Bible, there is nothing pious in the tone. Instead, he often raises a laugh – a first for any prayer book, in my experience. Definitely. I think he can start getting the mugs made. If the Labour party doesn’t win the next election, you wonder if they’ll be here for another one. In February 2006, he received an honorary degree from the University of Central England (now Birmingham City University). [18] Skinner and David Baddiel covered the 2006 FIFA World Cup by podcast for The Times. The podcasts received a nomination for the 2007 Sony Radio Academy Awards. In 1996, I was holed up working at a Butlins holiday camp and we tended not to get out a great deal. I heard enough of the song though. The DJ in the showbar played it constantly, at least three times a night around the championships. We ventured out to catch the England matches if we could and I remember the hyped tabloid newspaper covers from the time that Frank talks about but more so for me, the replenishment and lyrical re-write of the song for the World Cup two years later, was more superior. By this time, I had moved from the camp in Bognor to Brighton and was caught up in the whole atmosphere the second time around. So rather than the original lyrics, I remember more the line, I’m not cutting a new groove here. As a kid, I remember praying, at my Catholic Junior School assembly, that Mary, Mother of Mercy, might ‘enlighten the minds that are miserably enfolded in the darkness of ignorance and sin’. All I’m doing is putting names to this shadowy ensemble so the Blessed Virgin doesn’t have to seek them amid the near-impenetrable atheist gloom. It’s the good-guy version of writing to the Stasi about your colleague’s anti-government ramblings. There’s nothing in this for me. Although it would be nice to get a bit more empathy during Lent. In truth, I’d be making things more difficult for myself, especially on the salvation front.He describes his prayer life as "a telepathic dip into a long, ongoing conversation with thousands of tabs left open and no helpful 'new readers start here' summaries or simplifications for the neutral observer." There are many ways for those in the public eye to bare their souls, some raw, some cringeworthy, and some where you fear for their sanity. But publishing a prayer book is arguably in a different league, especially when you are Frank Skinner, the best-known face of the Nineties’ “lad mag” generation. Jane Robins and Paul McCann (2 September 1999). "Skinner makes a sky-high demand so BBC walks out". The Independent. London. But, the spontanaiety in the story telling is what I really liked. Gradually he begins to scrutinize his own book and thus again, himself. He explains that it ‘alternates a sort of journal comprising a description of my current experiences with a chronological auto telling what happened in my past’, and by doing it this way he feels that the ‘regular helpings of showbiz glitter’ will aid us through our journey. Rather than loads of childhood stuff, it’s broken up between the present and the past. His first sexual experience with ‘Corky, the salmon thighed prostitute’ for example is pretty vile and he warns us that it’s vile too and, despite being as broadminded and horned up as I am most of the time, it turned me right off.