Edinburgh Fringe: Satirists bid farewell to Boris Johnson

Will Barton portrays the PM in Boris Live at Five, written by Jonathan Maitland

In 2019, Boris Johnson had just become prime minister and didn't feature much in comedy routines at the Edinburgh Fringe. The 2022 festival is coming to a close in the week when Mr Johnson's turbulent time in office is also ending. So what do the satirists have to say about him? And will they miss him?

Dishevelled, paunchy, tousle-haired Boris Johnsons have been staggering through a number of shows on the Edinburgh Fringe this year.

But writer-director Adam Meggido is keen to make clear his production Boris The Third is a comedy play with a cast of six and a fully developed storyline rather than just a bag full of jokes.

Like many recent scripts, Meggido explains, it began in lockdown.

"When Boris Johnson was 18 he was cast at school in the title role in Shakespeare's Richard III. But it's said he never learnt his lines and it all ended in total chaos.

"The whole thing struck me as an irresistibly theatrical way of looking at what he was like when he was young. And I genuinely think it sheds light on his rise and fall since."

The story imagines the play's rehearsals and then the performance itself. Actor Harry Kershaw creates a convincing proto-Boris on stage. The ambition and the flashes of charm never quite disguise the teenager with no talent for focus or concentration.

Meggido says Mr Johnson's character is a gift to writers. "In public he's a joker and indeed he plays the clown very effectively. He comes with a healthy dose of entertainment and that's been part of his appeal to the public.

Actor Harry Kershaw plays the prime minister in Boris the Third, written by Adam Meggido

"But even as he leaves the job of prime minister I very much doubt we've seen the last of him. He'll be off in America saying provocative things which will supply more material for writers like me. He hasn't been to see the play but I have a feeling that he'd like it because he loves being discussed."

Elsewhere in Edinburgh's Pleasance mega-complex of comedy, Matt Forde's one-man show offers his trademark mix of politically aware stand-up and sharply drawn political impersonations. He's honed his vocal take on Boris by providing the Johnson voice for the revived Spitting Image on BritBox.

Forde says to get the character right his lines require all the vocal tics which define Johnson's way of speaking. "There are tricks of inflection and timing like when he'll really draw out the word 'well'. And in quite a theatrical way he'll look about conspiratorially as though there are other people around him he's referring to but who the audience can't see.

"And the body language has definitely altered in the three years he's been in power. When Partygate came along I noticed he started drooping his shoulders and physically he looked more ill-at-ease. So I try to incorporate moments of that into the act."

The first 15 minutes of Forde's show are based on Boris and clearly they delight the Edinburgh audience. He believes the reaction has little to do with the way any individual happens to vote: he thinks people just enjoy seeing Boris Johnson as a topic for satire.

He says no one has ever come up to him after a show to accuse him of being too tough on the prime minister. (If attacking Boris Johnson in Scotland may seem an easy target, Matt Forde is at least as cutting about the SNP.)

Boris Johnson announced his resignation in July, and a new prime minister will be announced on 5 September

In 2019 the writer and broadcaster Jonathan Maitland's play The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson was a hit at the Park Theatre in London. This year he constructed an Edinburgh-friendly one hour spoof chat show featuring the same actor in the role.

"So in Boris Live at Five there's just Will Barton on stage," he says. "The theatrical device is that Boris is on the first leg of a political comeback and he's advertised all kinds of superstars he hopes to interview live in Edinburgh. But of course he's messed up and it ends up being just him and the audience.

"But there are three points when he goes backstage and unwittingly he's live on camera and we see his real personality. For instance when he's about to make his entrance we see him carefully mess up his hair at a mirror because that's the image he wants. What we hear backstage reminds the audience that there are only ever two things which concern him: power and himself."

"On days when the show really clicks with the audience there's a feel of the bear-pit with people calling out and interrupting. I'm not claiming it's subtle but elements of panto work well with Boris Johnson's character which in so many ways is an act anyway."

Maitland says he was struck by something the American actor Harry Shearer (of Spinal Tap fame) said about Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.

"He was tired of hearing people say both men are simply beyond satire because their characters are already so extreme. Harry Shearer pointed out that if we accept that then we've given up and the people in power have won. We're not the only show at Edinburgh carrying on the fight."

Matt Forde says the prime minister's body language "has definitely altered in the three years he's been in power"

Adam Meggido agrees that Boris Johnson developed a comic persona which for a long time worked well with voters. "But you can't be clown and king - that's something our play explores," he says.

"But I hope it's quite complex and layered: there's a wider debate at the heart of the play. We've now had some 20 prime ministers who like Johnson were educated at the same school - Eton. Is that the root of this sense of privilege which we see the young Boris take into later life? It's a big part of the play."

After Edinburgh, Matt Forde is taking his show to London and elsewhere. But the big project he's working on is a stage version of Spitting Image which he's co-writing with Al Murray and Sean Foley.

The show's due to open at the Birmingham Rep early next year: it's a comic play with a narrative arc rather than a series of sketches. When it was announced it was to be called The Liar King and was very Boris-centric. So will everything have to change?

"Obviously a few things moved on in British politics just after we announced the show in June. So we might have to rethink some of the content and how we approach the characters. It's good for comedians and satirists that things change. But Boris will remain ripe for satire even out of power because of his personality.

"On the new TV version of Spitting Image we always had a Rishi Sunak puppet but we never even had one for Liz Truss. It's there now - you've got to keep up with the changes."