Comic who leaves you with no other alternative; Paddy Hoey meets Jeremy Hardy - a comedian out on his own . . .

Byline: Paddy Hoey

JEREMY Hardy is a true original. Not only was he one of the pioneers of the then alternative comedy movement in the early 1980s, but he is still one of the most original acts on the circuit.

And with his first major national tour for years, the diminutive Hardy is back to play in Liverpool.

He's no stranger to Merseyside, having been to the Neptune on a couple of occasions previously and having been one of the comics most vocal in his support for the sacked men during the dockers' strike of 1995 and 1996.

Those socialist beliefs inform much of his comedy and newspaper writing.

At the heart of his awardwinning act is a laconic and seemingly overly polite delivery, which sugars the pill of an often harsh and powerful message - the dictionary definition of the iron fist in a velvet glove.

Aldershot-born Hardy is probably best known as a team captain in the Clive Anderson-hosted BBC 2 game show, If I Ruled The World, starring opposite former Goodie Graham Garden.

But it is on the radio and BBC Radio 4 where he is most at home with credits including Just A Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't Got A Clue, while he is now an essential member of the everpopular News Quiz team.

As if that isn't enough for anyone his second book, Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation was the product of the radio show of the same name.

And now the Neptune date falls as part of a six week tour of the country.

Phew, what keeps him going? He says: ``The show is two-and-ahalf-hours long and it is partly about getting old and grumpy and the things that make me angry. It's not just one long trenchant rant, there is stuff in there about my midlife crisis.''

But as it's as a political comic that Hardy is best known, I asked him whether it was harder to get a message across to people given many are no longer interested in politics.

Hardy says: ``I think it's true that people are more disengaged with Westminster and its ideologies. They have lost heart with the idea of getting people elected, they are more interested in real politics.

``People don't want to hear jokes about political personalities, they are more interested in real issues, satire gets bogged down in personalities.''

But, I ask, hasn't political satire in this country become the plaything of Rory Bremner and the middle class Oxbridge intellectual set?

Hardy agrees, but adds: ``I think it always has been. It's always been a bit like school magazine humour.

``There's a danger then that it is just an arm of the establishment. Private Eye is a wonderful thing, and there are some good people working on it but it is put together like the sixth form magazine of one of Britain's more exclusive boardings schools.'' And Hardy is also suspicious of whether satire really works anymore, or whether its original aim of belittling and mocking hasn't really been lost.

``If you laugh at people you make them ridiculous, but you make them real. Like Ali G, or something like that, maybe now you humanise them. Sure you get laughs out of them but maybe somehow they are also forgiven.

``It's a hard one to get right. I wonder sometimes whether humour changes anything; whether we shouldn't go out and get guns.''

This more savage view has come as Hardy has become jaundiced by middle-class intellectuals after both he and friend and fellow funnyman Mark Steel lost columns in The Guardian newspaper.

They were told they weren't being funny. Closer to the truth was their often savage attacks on today's politicians were probably a bit too close to the bone of that paper's core New Labour readership.

A movem into the movies is all that is left for Hardy, and gosh darn if he hasn't done just that, with a part in Get Carter and Leaving Las Vegas director Mike Figgis' new movie Hotel.

It's an improvisational film and Hardy plays alongside Welsh wonderboy Rhys Ifans and Hollywood legend Burt Reynolds.

``It was great fun to make, I am in it for about a second, there's a huge cast in it, but I haven't seen it yet.''

And what about Burt? ``It was great working with him, he is very funny, he tells great anecdotes and he is a good old union man.''

What about that then? From politics to Smokey and the Bandit, Jeremy can lay claim to having seen it all.

l Jeremy Hardy plays at the Neptune Theatre on Thursday.