TV’s top comedian returns to the Edinburgh Fringe a year after discovering he had a rare and deadly cancer – The Scottish Sun

Satirical comedian Matt Forde was diagnosed with cancer just days after finishing his final season at the Edinburgh Festival, but insists: “I can’t wait to get back out there and make fun of Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar again.”

O comic was struck down with a rare form of cancer called chordoma, which meant having the lower part of his spine removed before he could learn to walk again.

Since then, he has had to have a stoma bag fitted and has to self-catheterise several times a day just to pee.

But with the Labour Party’s landslide victory in the general election to winMatt was determined to be fit enough to return to the Scottish capital for another burst to the country’s politicians.

He says, “We have a new government so the very idea that I wouldn’t be there doing my Keir and Anas impression, well, I couldn’t live in a world where I missed that opportunity.”

Norwich-born Matt joined the Labour Party when he was just 15 and later became one of its key advisers before resigning when Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader.

He has since become one of the country’s leading political comedians, hosting the hit podcast The Political Partywhile he also writes material and provides the voices for Boris Johnson and new PM Starmer for Britbox comedy Spitting image.

But he reveals his seriousness health the problems started before he even got on stage Festival last August.

He explains: “I had this searing pain from day one – even before. It was like a hot pain in my left buttock – I couldn’t sit, I couldn’t lie down, it was agony.

“Obviously I never thought it would be cancer, so I got to see a Doctor who They gave me all the painkillers, I mean I was on diazepam and codeine the whole race – I was high as a kite.”

Doctors thought the impersonator had a herniated disc and sent him for an MRI. But upon returning home he then received the dark News from a consultant of the Real National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore.

Matt, who just married His Glasgow-born fiancée Laura said last May: “It was obviously the biggest shock of my life.

“Then they tell you that you need major surgery, which is surreal. It’s almost like knowing that you’re going to be in a car fails on a specific date.

“You’re preparing for this monumental physical upheaval, but it’s something you know you have to go through to have a better life.”

During his 10 weeks in hospital, political friends from across the party spectrum sent him well wishes, while Sir Keir Starmer also paid him a visit.

He says: “I was crippled and tormented, and literally nothing they gave me touched my sides – morphine, tramadol, nothing worked. I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming in agony.

“So when someone reaches out to you, you feel so grateful because in your darkest hour, that person is thinking of you.

“Stewart McDonald from the SNP sent a message to me and Jeremy Hunt too, whose brother died of sarcoma. My cancer is a type of sarcoma.

“But obviously, given my history in the Labour Party, I just know more people in the party, so a lot of them have been very kind.

“Harriet Harman sent me a beautiful mug from the House of Commons and Keir came to visit me in hospital. It meant a lot.”

The 41-year-old still needs walking sticks, while he also had to get used to living with a stoma bag, which is used to collect feces, but he is still determined to look on the bright side.

He says: “I lost a few pounds in the hospital — most of it was bone, but still, every little thing counts when you’re on the scales.

“And my muscles were rearranged, which affects leg movement, but also meant I basically got a free butt lift in NHSfor which I will be eternally grateful.

“Of course, the first time I had a stoma or self-catheterised it was scary and I thought, ‘I can’t believe this is my life.’ But within a few days of being home, everything was fine. Now, months later, I barely think about it.”

And Matt is now making sure he’s getting his life back on track, having attended Glastonbury last month before returning to Edinburgh for a period of four weeks.

He will then embark on his most ambitious theatrical tour to date, which begins in October and ends in March. next year.

He says: “I called it The End of an Era tour as a play on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.

“Like everyone else, I was expecting there to be a general election later this year, so the ideal was to look forward to the elections here and in America as well.

“But obviously the end of the era for conservatives came a little sooner than I thought.”

However, Matt – who has had SNP greats such as Nicola Sturgeon, Joanna Cherry and Humza Yousaf as guest stars at their Festival Show – believes it is also the beginning of the end of the Nats’ dominance in Scotland.

He says: “The general election result was just phenomenal. If Scottish Labour wins in 2026 and Anas is First Minister then you can absolutely see how that will be much more positive. relationship.

“I think we have been governed so badly for so long in Scotland and in Westminster that having a much more constructive relationship is in all our interests.”

But while Matt has pretty much nailed his impersonation of nasal knight Sir Keir Starmer, he insists his Anas accent is still “a to work in progress”.

He says: “Basically he’s got two accents in one, which is great because he’s got the musicality of his heritage with that Scottish element as well.

“Anas will be my guest on the show on August 13th and I am looking forward to it. I don’t think anyone seriously doubts that he is someone of gravitas, talent and intellect, who could absolutely run the country.

“And he’s a cheeky little brat too. He’s got a bit of a sass. He’ll slap you in the face – verbally. He doesn’t hold back. I like that.”

Matt adds: “It’s going to be euphoric to be back in Edinburgh. It’s an amazing city and the festival is great, so it was kind of unfortunate that that’s where my problems started.

“But there’s never a good place to find out you have cancer.”

*Matt Forde: The End of an Era will be at Edinburgh’s Pleasance Beyond from 31 July to 25 August, before touring the country from 2 October to 12 March 2025. For more information and tickets, visit: mattforde.com