Alistair McGowan's biggest challenge yet '“ impersonating a pianist

From his own show The Big Impression, to Dead Ringers and numerous other programmes, as well as an impressive acting resumé covering stage and screen, he's become a popular performer.

But he has recently added musician to his many talents. Last year he released The Piano Album, which went to number one in the classical album charts. And he is now taking his new show, Introduction to Classical Piano on the road. In fact, the day before he speaks to The Guide, he had debuted it at Petworth Festival.

'˜It was terrific '“ it was the first try-out for this strange show, and everybody was very appreciative and complimentary, and it seemed to work. I even got called for an encore.'

Did he have the material for an encore?

'˜I will next time!' he laughs. '˜I was very surprised to get one, I wasn't expecting that.'

When Alistair recorded the album, it wasn't with the intention of taking it out on tour.

'˜The album had been well received and I do enjoy playing in front of people now '“ initially it was terrifying, it was really a means to an end. I did a lot of playing in public, to get used to the feel of the pieces before we recorded them. But I think the important thing with anything difficult, particularly music, is to set yourself challenges along the way otherwise if you let things slip and think, 'Oh well, that'll do', what's the point? So to have these challenges along the way of performances has been great '“ and this is the next one of those challenges.'

Alistair made it to grade two piano as a youngster, but gave up lessons in favour of football. He picked it up again in his mid-30s, but this time it was his burgeoning TV career that meant he didn't have time to devote to the keys.

But it was a 2014 show he put together with his wife, singer Charlotte Page, about Noel Coward that proved to be the catalyst for where he is today.

'˜We met someone who was an accompanist with us and she said:  'You should take up the piano, you're quite good at it', when she heard me messing around one day.

'˜I said, 'Oh no, no, it's too late, I'm 49'.  But I started taking lessons. Within a year I wanted to do a show about Erik Satie, a composer who'd always interested me, so I learned just enough of his pieces to perform alongside his words, which I'd always thought were very funny

'˜I did that show at the Edinburgh Festival for a month and discovered that not many people did think his words were very funny', he gives a rueful laugh, '˜but they appreciated the music. It was quite a learning curve.

'˜From there I decided to do the album, which was another huge step up, having to learn upwards of 20 pieces in six months.

'˜There are still Satie pieces in this show, so each step has informed the next one. The pieces I play in this are pretty straightforward, and that's kind of the point. If you go to a professional's recital, they're playing the hardest stuff, that's their job. It's impressive and it moves you, and you think that you could never do that. But part of my reasoning here is not to show off myself, but to show off the music, and that there are a lot of simpler, beautiful pieces, and I hope people will go away thinking, well, if he can play them, I can play them'¦'

To prepare for the album Alistair devoted six hours a day to practice.

'˜Initially it was difficult I must say, then after a while you realise you don't have to do it all in one go, you can do 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there, even ad breaks on telly, I'd find myself thinking, I've got six minutes - I can go over that piece again.

'˜After a while I must admit, I got so obsessed, and addicted - they're probably too strong as words, but my wife would probably disagree. It's important to respect your neighbours and your wife, but when you're keen you find the time, and you find it takes the place of other things.

'˜A lot of the professional players I've met will play those sorts of hours every day, and my teacher, he'd been doing that all his life.

'˜You can't just turn up and do this, it requires so much work and so much knowledge of the piece and even then it can slip through your fingers at any point for whatever reason '“ someone coughing, or last night it was so hot my fingers got sticky on the keys and suddenly you miss a movement and then you think, ah, I'm late for that note. Tiny things like that.

'˜But it's been fascinating, and not in any way a drudge. Even doing scales, you find ways to make it interesting. I've been lucky to have two or three good teachers during my last four years of throwing myself at this, and they've really made it come to life.'

The live show is no straight recital though, Alistair can't leave the impressions that have made his name behind. While initially reluctant, people kept on making the suggestion to him that he combine comedy and the piano, so he looked into it.

'˜I thought I can't do what Bill Bailey or Rainer Hersch or Tim Hinchin does because they're really brilliant musicians who do understand everything about keys and timing and the whole thing.

'˜I thought I could introduce them in terms of the context of the piece, or something about the composer, because a lot of people know vaguely about Chopin, or Grieg or Schubert. There's usually something funny about the composer's lives, and then sometimes tying it in with an impression. For example Gershwin liked playing tennis, so I draw the parallel with my tennis history and then bring in my impressions of Andy Murray and Roger Federer before playing the piece. It's an unusual mix, it's definitely not a comedy-music concert, it's a piano recital with lots of stuff in-between.

In autumn he returns to regular stand-up as he goes on tour with Jasper Carrott, but he wants to carry on with his renewed zeal for the piano.

'˜With Jasper it will be back to the straightforward stand-up, but this show I'm doing now, probably, is the way I think I'd like to go. The piano has become such a big part of my life, and this show is called Introduction to Classical Piano and in a way that's what I'm trying to do '“ introduce other people to this world.

'˜And it's not all classical either, there's pieces that are jazz and two very modern pieces that are very minimal, it's just showing how broad piano music is.'

Is another album on the cards?

'˜I'd love that. There are so many beautiful pieces. If people see piano concerts, if they see them at all, it's at something like the proms where you get the big concertos, but there's so many beautiful short pieces out there, and a lot of them people don't know '“ you tend to get the same ones played on the radio.

'˜It's wonderful to meet other pianists and hear them play something you don't know, and you're asking 'What's that?'''‹'‹'‹'‹'‹'‹'‹

ALISTAIR MCGOWAN'S INTRODUCTION TO PIANO

The Spring Arts Centre, Havant

Saturday, July 28

thespring.co.uk