Julian Clary on turning 50: 'It's a comedy age!'

Julian Clary on turning 50: 'It's a comedy age!'
Julian Clary on turning 50: 'It's a comedy age!' (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Julian Clary has described 50 as 'a comedy age'. The comedian and writer turns 50 on May 25 and says: "It's not as bad as you imagine - it sounds funny, 50, it sounds like a comedy age and it's so far away from your 20s." He continued: "I feel a sense of survival and there are certain things you've achieved by the time you get to 50 that when you're in your 20s you're worried about, 'Will I do this, will I do that?'. Well I was. So now I can tick certain things off and that's done and no one can take that away, so it's not bad actually." The comic - who competed in Strictly Come Dancing in 2004 - said he doesn't seek out TV work, he takes what comes his way. Julian said: "I don't go looking actually, I have learnt that things come to you because you can never think, 'Oh, I think when I am nearly 50 I'll start ballroom dancing'. It just sort of presented itself and I thought, 'Oh, that might be a challenge.' "I'm doing my tour in the autumn, that's something I haven't done for about six years and I thought, 'Well, what do I want to do in my 50th year that would be really self-contained and I can control and that I will enjoy?' I thought, 'I will have a book out and then I'll tour and that will be that year done'."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.