David Baddiel shares inside Larry the Cat stories on Radio X
David Baddiel brought cat chaos, political humour and celebrity anecdotes to Radio X this morning, as he joined Chris Moyles and the team.
He was on the show to talk about his new TV documentary focused on his lifelong love of cats.
Discussing filming with Downing Street’s famously independent resident, Larry the Cat, he admitted that meeting him was far harder than he expected.
He said: “What I didn’t realise is it’s quite hard to get an audience with Larry. It’s harder than getting an audience with Keir Starmer, I think.”
Baddiel explained that fans regularly wait outside Number Ten in the hope of spotting Larry and joked that turning up to film came with no guarantee the cat would even appear.
When Larry did emerge, however, Baddiel said he was unusually cooperative, even allowing himself to be picked up for filming.
The comedian recalled how Larry was let back into Number Ten after being locked out, with an unnamed figure opening the famous door. Baddiel added that the cat, now 19, has likely seen more of the building than some former occupants.
“By the way, he’s seen much more of that building than many of the other people in it,” Baddiel said. “Liz Truss, I’m not sure Larry noticed.”
The conversation turned to another memorable moment from the new programme, involving Baddiel’s discovery that one of his cats enjoys having bongos played on its head, a theory that did not hold up when tested on other felines.
Baddiel explained that the idea came from his daughter, but admitted the experiment went badly when repeated with other cats, who responded by biting him.
Despite this, he said clips from the show have taken off online, with viewers sharing videos of their own cats apparently enjoying the same treatment.
One cat that was not impressed belonged to Jonathan Ross, who, according to Baddiel, intervened physically after seeing what was happening.
“What he does is he basically slaps my cheeks,” Baddiel said, describing Ross’s reaction, adding that it felt more like classic slapstick than concern for accuracy!
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Tune into The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X weekdays from 6.30am – 10am and on Global Player.