Politics has always been his schtick, and even now, he takes his alternative comedian job spec seriously. He believes comedy is one of the first casualties of an authoritarian society. \u201cThey don’t like a laugh,\u201d says Alexei. \u201cBut healthy ones encourage criticism. Comedy is a pressure valve \u2013 it’s a way to let off steam about the injustice of the world. And comics should also point out injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n
We meet in a park near his house in Bloomsbury, the literary quarter of central London, where he lives with his wife Linda and their beloved 18-year-old Maine Coon cat, Wilf.<\/p>\n
![\"Alexei](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_The-Young-Ones.jpg\")
Alexei and band Radical Posture performing on The Young Ones in 1982(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The bald, bovver-booted tight-suit wearing bouncer look has gone and been replaced by a slightly avuncular look. Completely white haired and with a beard trimmed into a Lenin point (his barber\u2019s idea), he\u2019s also wearing a Panama which gives him the air of a professor on his holidays, especially as he\u2019s waving a wooden stick.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my martial arts staff \u2013 I do Tai chi,\u201d he says, twirling it around expertly. Apparently it\u2019s not a peaceful hobby at all. \u201cNo, it\u2019s a way of killing people very slowly,\u201d he deadpans.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a while since Alexei has been on the stand-up comedy circuit after his comeback tour in 2020 was rudely interrupted by the pandemic. But his delightful travels around the UK with his Strangers On A Train series last year on Radio 4 has found him a whole new audience. He also hosts a monthly podcast with co-host Talal Karkouti, and has even gone viral with the youngsters with his TikTok videos where he explains Marxist theory through interpretative dance.<\/p>\n
![\"Alexei](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Screenshot-2025-07-16-at-120101.jpg\")
Alexei goes viral with his Marxist theory dances on TikTok(Image: @alexeisaylepod\/TikTok)<\/p>\n
Bringing his surreal side to a brand new medium, Alexei demonstrates the \u201cbourgeoiose boogie\u201d followed by \u201ccornered beast\u201d while teaching about how capitalists steal the profits of workers\u2019 hard work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean they\u2019re proper viral \u2013 we\u2019re up to about seven million views,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re going to do more of those, more internet stuff, hopefully another series of Imaginary Sandwich Bar, and maybe some live gigs.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, Alexei reveals, he\u2019s waiting for \u201cJeremy to get the new party together\u201d. Always a committed Corbynist, there\u2019s no love lost between the comic and the current Labour line-up. \u201cWhen Jeremy has finally talked to everybody in the country, and the new party, people\u2019s popular front emerges, then I will also throw myself into that until they stop me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He twirls his Tai chi staff ominously \u2013 then accidentally drops it. \u201cI\u2019ve also written a poem for the Prime Minister \u2013 it\u2019s called I Hate Keir Starmer<\/a>,\u201d he announces, and starts discussing whether he should read it out to the audience when he appears on the Voices of Solidarity stage at the Troxy Theatre in East London on Saturday.<\/p>\n Performing on the night alongside Alexei will be comedian and former heart surgeon, Bassem Youssef, singer Paloma Faith, actress Juliet Stevenson and host Jen Brister to raise desperately needed funds for health workers under siege in Gaza. Since October 2023, more than 1,580 health workers have been killed in Gaza and all proceeds from the night will go to Health Workers 4 Palestine.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be a great evening of music and comedy and people will be doing good by coming to see it,\u201d he promises. There will also be a silent auction with expensive items donated by Cate Blanchett and Gary Lineker<\/a> \u2013 while Alexei, naturally, is offering a pint.<\/p>\n As a Jewish man, Alexei feels it\u2019s important to attend and \u201cbear witness\u201d to what is happening on the central London protest marches over Gaza. He\u2019s spent so many years supporting the march, it\u2019s practically his social life these days. But he feels compelled to fight what he calls the creeping authoritarianism in this country.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, if I say I support Palestine Action, I can go to prison for 14 years?\u201d he casually mentions. \u201cI feel sympathy with younger artists who are caught in a bind about whether to speak out or not,\u201d he adds. \u201cI can understand why they don’t and I really admire the ones who do, like Kneecap, Paloma Faith and Dua Lipa.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite his view that the BBC<\/a> \u201chas allowed itself to be intimidated\u201d over the Kneecap incident, the veteran comic concedes the broadcaster has always been supportive.<\/p>\n \u201cRadio 4 is a kind of natural home for me,\u201d he says. He\u2019s been commissioned for a sixth series of Alexei Sayle\u2019s Imaginary Sandwich Bar, which he says is the work he\u2019s most proud of over his entire career. \u201cThere’s a budget put aside for next year,\u201d he confirms. \u201cIt takes me like two years to write it. So we’ll see whether I’m in prison or not!\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike younger artists, Alexei says he\u2019s free to speak his mind because, \u201cI\u2019ve made my mark in my career,\u201d but he also made his career out of ranty monologues when he was young in the 1980s. \u201cYes but the situation has become more critical,\u201d he explains. \u201cYou see how the Labour government has reacted to Just Stop Oil<\/a> for instance, closing down the space for protest.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that ultimately is to do with the growing gap between rich and poor. It’s inequality. It\u2019s a manifestation of that really. Gaza and fossil fuel protests. It’s all part of the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n All that marching has clearly kept the comic fit. \u201cI\u2019ll be 73 in a few weeks and I’m in good shape physically.\u201d Born in 1952 in Liverpool to fully paid-up members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Molly and Joseph Sayle, he doesn\u2019t get back home so often these days. \u201cNot since my mum died,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Being brought up in a Communist household by a mother who swapped her \u201cextreme Orthodox Jewish religion for another\u201d certainly set him apart from his Anfield neighbours. At Christmas<\/a> she even told him Lenin came down the chimney with presents.<\/p>\n \u201cI embraced the difference, really,\u201d he shrugs. \u201cIt was like growing up in any cult. You think you’ve got the answers to the world’s problems.\u201d<\/p>\n He briefly considered becoming a teacher, but his entry into the hallowed halls of stand-up is the stuff of comedy legend. He answered an advert in Private Eye in 1979 and became a compere of The Comedy Store on a tiny little stage in a Soho strip club where acts like Rik Mayall and French & Saunders started their careers.<\/p>\n The comedy industry has changed beyond recognition since those ground-breaking days. \u201cIt\u2019s a massive industry now, and like any industry, it\u2019s become homogenised.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of coming up the hard way and being heckled on stage, many comics now start their careers on social media. In this \u201cold dog learns new tricks\u201d phase of his career, Alexei could certainly teach the kids a few things.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen the odd comic who is great on social media, but if you go and see them live, it\u2019s painful,\u201d he says, looking pained. \u201cFriends that I still have in the industry say that is a problem. They look great in an edited clip on YouTube<\/a>, but they can’t sustain anything and act really.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the stand-up and theatre work, Alexei\u2019s also a seasoned character actor and has appeared in everything from Gorky Park and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade to Carry On Columbus.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s his time with his old Comic Strip friends when alternative comedy took over BBC Television Centre that he recalls with the most fondness. \u201cThe Young Ones was an extraordinary time,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was tremendously exciting and we were all friends.<\/p>\n \u201cAt one point I was making my own series, and Jennifer was making the first series of ABFAB, and Nigel was working on something. It was like we almost had the run of the BBC. He adds, \u201cI still see Nigel and Peter a lot these days.\u201d<\/p>\n Still mourning the loss of Rik Mayall who died of a heart attack aged 56 in 2014, he met up with his old comedy crew at Robbie Coltrane’s memorial last year. The Scottish actor, who died in 2022, was a regular on the 1980s TV show The Comic Strip Presents along with Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Peter Richardson and Alexei.<\/p>\n \u201cRik\u2019s death was a real shock. Terrible,\u201d Alexei shakes his head sadly. \u201cI remember speaking to Dawn at Robbie memorial and saying it was a real feeling of family. I think she felt that even if we don’t see each other, we\u2019ve all been through something profound together.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s never really been away, but it\u2019s great to have Alexei back where he\u2019s needed \u2013 showing us the alternative view to the mainstream.<\/p>\n \u2022 The UK\u2019s largest cultural fundraiser for Palestine, Voices of Solidarity, which will take place at London\u2019s Troxy Saturday July 19, 2025 (7pm). Tickets from www.dice.fm\/event\/wwbd5r-voices-of-solidarity-19th-jul-troxy-london-tickets<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Alexei](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Protest-For-Palestine-Held-In-Trafalgar-Square.jpg\")
Alexei addresses the protest in support of Palestine in Trafalgar Square in 2024(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Alexei](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Photo-of-Alexei-SAYLE.jpg\")
Alexei performs on stage at Glastonbury in 2001(Image: Redferns)<\/p>\n![\"English](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Alexei-Sayle.jpg\")
At the height of his career, Alexei in 1990(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_Alexei-Sayle-Actor-and-author.jpg\")
Alexei Sayle talks to the Mirror’s Siobhan McNally in the gardens in Bloomsbury(Image: Ian Vogler \/ Daily Mirror)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_TA2NTItOTNjZC00YjQ1LWEzZTItZTMxZjFjYmYwZjRmXkEyXkFqcGc_V1_.jpg\")
The Comic Strip Presents\u2026 line-up from 1982 with Robbie Coltrane, Keith Allen, Adrian Edmondson, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, Jennifer Saunders on top of Alexei Sayle <\/p>\n