Who Is Titania McGrath? - Andrew Doyle - #097

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Oh, hello, friends. Welcome back to Modern Wisdom. My guest today is none other than Titania McGrath creator and current king of Twitter, Andrew Doyle. In between him flitting down to London to go on Sky News to talk about serious political stuff and going up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to do not only his own show, but the Titania McGrath live show, I managed to grab him and put him on the couch in my house and ask him loads of questions. So get ready for loads of questions to the man behind probably one of the most infamous satirical accounts on all of Twitter. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then it's totally fine because we're going to explain it to you today. Also expect to learn what Andrew thinks about Little Mix commenting on the incidents in Syria, why Donald Trump might be one of the greatest comedians on the planet, how Britain's hate speech laws are something that we all should be really concerned about, and what is the most oppressive vegetable, and are cats feminists, and are dogs prejudice. We're really, really hitting the hard topics today. But honestly, I was in stitches for almost all of this episode. Andrew's fantastic comedian, incredibly insightful, and just a lovely guy. He also took me out for a drink after his show when I went to Edinburgh on Tuesday. So thank you for the drink. Thank you for your time, Andrew. You are an absolute legend. Ladies and gentlemen, the creator of Titania McGrath, Mr. Andrew Doyle.
Quit their cracks and crumbles at our feet, as the man behind Titania McGrath, Andrew Doyle, joins me on Modern Wisdom. Andrew, welcome to the show.

**Andrew Doyle** (1:54)
Such a dramatic opening.

**Chris Williamson** (1:55)
I know.

**Andrew Doyle** (1:56)
It's almost apocalyptic, I like it.

**Chris Williamson** (1:57)
It's kind of appropriate though, right?

**Andrew Doyle** (2:00)
Well, I don't know. Like a Deus Ex Machina, I've sort of descended from the heavens.

**Chris Williamson** (2:03)
That's exactly why you're here.

**Andrew Doyle** (2:05)
Yeah, I just got the train. It's not as exciting.

**Chris Williamson** (2:09)
Yeah, like a phoenix from the ashes.

**Andrew Doyle** (2:11)
Yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (2:11)
So how have you been the last few weeks?

**Andrew Doyle** (2:13)
I'm all right, I'm just a bit knackered, because I was out with a friend late last night, really late.

**Chris Williamson** (2:17)
Yeah, but fully functioning.

**Andrew Doyle** (2:18)
I'm all right. He was over from Sweden, so I didn't have a choice. But yeah, I'm good, but I've been all over the place. I've been back and forth various places. I'm not a good traveller. I get really tired. So I'm just a bit frazzled. That's why.

**Chris Williamson** (2:31)
Totally fine.

**Andrew Doyle** (2:32)
And that's good, because that means anything I say that's inappropriate, I can blame on my condition.

**Chris Williamson** (2:36)
Yeah, 100%.

**Andrew Doyle** (2:37)
Yeah, 100%.

**Chris Williamson** (2:39)
So you're fringing plus Londoning and musing and tweeting and doing all this sort of stuff at the moment.

**Andrew Doyle** (2:44)
Yeah, so I've got the Titania McGrath show is on during the Fringe at the moment, but I'm not there most of the time. But I've got my own stand up show, which starts on Monday.

**Chris Williamson** (2:53)
Right. And you've got to look after yourself and look after her and then somehow look after your online personas as well.

**Andrew Doyle** (3:00)
Yeah. I was sort of juggling a few things, you know, we're all busy. Everyone's busy.

**Chris Williamson** (3:04)
Not everyone's quite as busy as you.

**Andrew Doyle** (3:06)
Well, no, it's never that.

**Chris Williamson** (3:08)
So can you explain why you were sat here talking about a fictional female character and you juggling Twitter accounts?

**Andrew Doyle** (3:16)
Because you invited me, which is very nice. But also because, well, in other words, how I ended up doing this as a job. Yeah.
I do ask myself that question. I started the character last year, last April. So sort of about 15 months ago or something.
And more just for my own entertainment. And I wanted to sort of annoy some people on Twitter basically. And without it being you, without it being me. Yeah. I was interested. I love the idea of inhabiting a persona. I always like being behind someone else. I don't like, even with the stand up I do, it's a character really. It's not really me. So I like the idea of that distance that you get. But I also thought I was a big fan of like the satirical accounts on Twitter, the personas, people like the Godfrey Elfwick account and things like that. I was really into the idea, so I thought I'd do it myself. I spoke to Lisa Graves who co-wrote the Godfrey Elfwick account about it. She's based quite near here. She's based in Hull, actually. Okay. I spoke to her about her work with the Godfrey Elfwick thing. I said, I've always wanted to do this. She said, you should just do it and encourage me to do it. She even created the picture for me.