Kathy Burke on being saved by punk as a moody teenager

Lauren Laverne (0:13)

Welcome to Desert Island Discs Postcards, I'm Lauren Laverne. We've cast away thousands of people to our imaginary Desert Island, among them many actors.

Our cast away today is the actor and comedian Kathy Burke, who burst onto our TV screens when she appeared in sketches about Kevin and Perry, opposite Harry Enfield. She spoke to Kirsty Young in 2010 and told her more about Perry, the prepubescent schoolboy.

Kathy Burke (0:37)

Perry was, well, 13, hitting 14, I think. Okay, yes, and all the hormones coming into play. Where did you go for that? Where did you get that sort of characterisation from? Were you thinking about your brothers? No, I was thinking more of myself.

I think Perry is probably the closest I've ever played to myself, really, because I was quite an awkward teen. I hated being a teenager. I really hated it. I just didn't know what was going on or what I was turning into. I think when I hit 13, I looked 45 And something happened to my hair, my face. I don't know what went on. It was just something out of the black lagoon came merging and just felt very awkward. So it was really lovely then to play Perry and to sort of remember all that awkwardness that I felt and put it into this little fella, you know. How did you deal with it at the time in real life when you were 12, 13, 14?

I don't know. I don't think I dealt with it very well. I just think I was just miserable and moody and spotty and fed up. And I hated school.

But my saviour, I think, was punk. And I was looking at people, you know, and I thought, well, they look like a mess. They don't look, they've got spots and they're not pretty. They're not glamorous people. I felt sort of a bit malish rather than female, you know. So then it was great, and I could suddenly shave my head and wear army trousers and DM boots, and then everything sort of evened out for me. It was nice.

Lauren Laverne (2:23)

Kathy Burke, whose music choices included the sex pistols as a nod to her love of punk. You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds. Just search for Kathy Burke, Desert Island Discs.