Young Once

A Life Less Heavy

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Young Once

By: Nigel Planer

Narrated by: Nigel Planer

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'Beautifully written, deliciously evocative, funny and touching'
STEPHEN FRY
'A thermometer up the Khyber Pass of Comedy, expertly administered'
RICHARD E GRANT

Aged twenty-five, dressed as Che Guevara, Nigel Planer answers an ad for a room and his life changes for ever.

Both a memoir and a love story, Young Once follows his journey, from bell-ringer to gravedigger, from university dropout to long-term patient of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and all the other bizarre events that shape him, until the day he meets Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson in a former strip club and the 1980s Comedy Revolution is born . . .

Often mistaken (even by his mother) for Neil, the hippy character he creates, by 1986 Nigel has become so well-known he often has to leave the house via the kitchen window. It's lucky that he has always had a talent for seeing the funny side of things: whether it's dealing with 20-foot-éclair-related injuries or being cajoled into Band Aid by Bob Geldof; gatecrashing a rave with Robin Williams or crashing into the set on Top of the Pops; becoming a grandfather at twenty-nine or being rescued from disaster by musical theatre.

Against a backdrop of squats, Glastonbury and roller discos, with a supporting cast that includes Lemmy, a stony-faced Robert de Niro and French and Saunders, Young Once is a wildly entertaining and gloriously sideways glimpse into a remarkable life and career. It's also an object lesson in why you should never give up looking for your Happy Ever After. It might well turn out to be right in front of you.

'Nigel's true-life adventures would make Neil from The Young Ones crap his loons'
BEN ELTON
'YOUNG ONCE is delicious . . .The very funny life of an icon of British comedy, brilliantly portrayed'
JO BRAND©2025 Nigel Planer

Nigel PlanerNigel PlanerJohn Murray

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Entertainment & Performing Arts

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Comedy

Entertainment & Celebrities Entertainment & Performing Arts Funny Inspiring Witty Thought-Provoking Comedy

Critic reviews

Beautifully written, deliciously evocative, funny and touching. (Stephen Fry)

A thermometer up the Khyber Pass of Comedy, expertly administered. (Richard E. Grant)

Nigel's true-life adventures would make Neil from The Young Ones crap his loons. (Ben Elton)

YOUNG ONCE is delicious . . . The very funny life of an icon of British comedy, brilliantly portrayed. (Jo Brand)

Oozes charm and likeability . . . this book is very good, full of terrific stories. He's particularly good on all his old comedy confrères at The Comedy Store and the Comic Strip. [It] will make you hoot with laughter on public transport. A spectacular memoir chronicling a life well lived. Anyone of a certain age and temperament who opens it will be delighted by it.

Most relevant

Interesting, funny and honest.
Nigel talks deeply about his emotions and mental health through his life.
He talks fondly of others he has worked with and mentions funny memories.
I didn't actually realize how many things he's achieved and done through his life. From disappearing to the other side of the world and spending a year in a tropical illness hospital to his music journeys. Who'd have thought, Neil can play more than a recorder.
So much more to Nigel than just Neil though, so I definitely recommend.