Leading comedians, including David Baddiel, have said the Louise Reay case, in which she is being sued by her estranged husband for allegedly defaming him on stage, should not restrict standups from using personal material.



In what has been described as a test case, Reay, whose real surname is Beamont, is being sued for references to her marriage in her show, Hard Mode, at the Edinburgh Fringe and in London last year.

Thomas Reay claims she made false allegations against him but is also complaining about being identified without his consent, including in photos and video, claiming breach of privacy and data protection as well as defamation.

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Despite his protestations that the lawsuit is not about censorship but about what he says was an unjustified personal attack, it has raised fears that comedians’ personal lives and references to loved – or unloved – ones could be off the table if Beamont loses.

Baddiel, whose own show My Family: Not the Sitcom, talks about his father’s dementia and his mother’s hyperactive sex life, said that while unable to comment on whether Beamont defamed her husband, the case raised wider concerns.

“As a comedian who is very interested in being true and personal and in using comedy, as no other art form can, to go over intimate details of one’s emotional history as a way of making an audience feel less alone, I think it would be a pity if the outcome of this case meant that comedians’ versions of their histories would have to be constantly checked by lawyers before they could be told on stage,” he said.

Baddiel, who talks about his mother’s long-term affair with a golfing memorabilia salesman in the show, said that while his show was a tell-all and contained jokes that were not conventionally flattering, he believed it to be a celebration of his parents. “The show is shot through with a kind of affection for all the hilarious damage that may or may not have been caused to me by all these goings-on,” he said.

The tradition of making jokes about family members goes back to the days of mother-in-law gags and references to “her indoors”. But in recent years the nature of comedy has changed and standup routines drawing from personal experience, in raw unflinching detail, have become hugely popular, with women to the fore.

Sofie Hagen said when she created her current show, Dead Baby Frog, about her abusive grandfather, she was concerned about the legal aspects of it. “I came to the conclusion that this is my life and my experiences and he has made his bed,” she said.

“Or rather, he has made my bed and now I have to lie in it, so at the very least, I should get to talk about it. It is absolutely laughable how so many men loudly cry for freedom of speech when it regards their own desire to spew sexist, racist and homophobic opinions on stage in the name of ‘satire’ but as soon as a female comedian talks about her own experiences with men, it’s suddenly, ‘wow, wow, wow, what about my reputation?’”

Multiple award-winner Hagen is one of a group of female comedians planning a charity show in London’s West End in support of Beamont. Beamont says if her husband wins what she calls “an attempt to silence me” – he is seeking £30,000 in damages plus costs and an injunction – it will bankrupt her. She has launched a crowdfunding page for her defence, which by Friday afternoon was about £600 short of the £10,000 target.

Also involved in the benefit gig is standup Kiri Pritchard-McLean. She said of the case: “Of course it’s a concern. One of the liberating things about standup is the chance to explore your lived experiences on stage. To think that this could be silenced by anyone is a worry. Particularly as standup gives voices to people who aren’t always comprehensively represented elsewhere.”

By coincidence, freedom of expression charity English Pen is holding its annual comedy fundraiser at Union Chapel in north London on Thursday, which this year is entitled You (Still) Can’t Say That. It is in recognition of the link between comedy and free speech, and compere Nick Revell says standups should retain the right “to piss people off just for the sake of it”.

English PEN (@englishpen) 1 WK TODAY! We're so excited to see these amazing comedians in action on 1 March @UnionChapelUK for You (Still) Can’t Say That! The Big PEN Comedy Gig. Grab yourself a ticket quick-sharp - Book Now: https://t.co/QOtOZuhhpO #comedygig #freespeech #comedy #londoncomedy pic.twitter.com/adSgFW9Hzi

Also appearing is Ronnie Golden, the only original member of the Comic Strip team still gigging. He said that humour had moved from the political to the personal. Golden said when he started out that “safe and easy targets” were Margaret Thatcher and section 28.

He said: “Ultimately, a performer should be allowed to say what he, or she, feels strongly about, but the bottom line is it has to be funny.”