Kathy Burke on being saved by punk as a moody teenager
Desert Island Discs

Kathy Burke on being saved by punk as a moody teenager

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 20, 20262 min
  • Interview

The actor and comedian Kathy Burke was cast away by Kirsty Young in 2010. She came to prominence when she appeared in Kevin and Perry TV sketches opposite Harry Enfield. Perry, the prepubescent schoolboy, was a role she was able to draw on from her own years as a teenager. What saved her, she says, was the arrival of punk music. You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

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is the actor and comedian Kathy Burke who burst onto our TV screens when she appeared

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2010 and told her more about Perry, the prepubescent schoolboy.

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0:00

Welcome to Desert Island Discs postcards. I'm Lauren Laverne. We've cast away thousands of people to our imaginary desert island, among them many actors. Our castaway today is the actor and comedian Kathy Burke who burst onto our TV screens when she appeared in sketches about Kevin and Perry opposite Harry Enfield. She spoke to Kirsty Young in

0:33

2010 and told her more about Perry, the prepubescent schoolboy. Perry was, well, 13, hitting 14, I think. Okay, yes, and all the hormones coming into play. Where did you go for that? Where did you get that sort of characterisation from? Were you thinking about your brothers? No, I was thinking more of myself. I think

0:55

Perry is probably the closest I've ever played to myself really, because I was quite an awkward teen, I hated being a teenager, I really hated it, I just didn't know what was going on or what I was turning into. I think when I hit 13 I looked 45, something happened to my hair, my face, I don't know what went on, it was just something out of the black lagoon came

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