Leigh Francis appeared on Friday's edition of Loose Women with the panellists left feeling very emotional as he opened up about his new autobiography
Leigh Francis opened up on Loose Women with heartfelt words about his latest autobiography Leigh, Myself and I.
The 51-year-old comedian, widely recognised as Keith Lemon, was promoting his recent memoir when the discussion took an emotional turn.
Host Kaye Adams pointed out: "You speak very personally in this book about some really difficult things" prompting a response from Leigh who acknowledged: "It is quite serious, there's depth in there" but was quick to assure there were "some funny stuff" sprinkled throughout too.
Linda Robson inquired about a personal loss, asking: "Your dad died at a very young age didn't he?" to which Leigh then opened up: "He was 47 and the weirdest thing is I'm older than my dad, that's a weird feeling.
"When I was doing the audio book, the audio book was the hardest thing I've ever done..." He added: "There's a sound producer there, that you don't know and you're crying in front of him. I was crying and he said: 'Do you want to stop?' and I said: 'No, just keep going.'"
Delving deeper into which parts of the book affected him the most, Leigh confessed: "My dad! When you're writing it, I remember tearing up writing it, but saying it out loud and reading it, it was horrific I felt", reports the Mirror.
When probed about how old he was when he faced his father's death, Leigh revealed: "I was 21! God, it's getting serious isn't it, this is very serious. Don't, I'll start crying" eliciting a wave of support from the panel.
In a lighter moment within Friday's show, tension briefly surfaced when Kaye queried why her fellow panellists seemed to be at odds.
In a humorous exchange that kicked off Loose Women, Kaye quipped: "What, are we fighting already girls?" only for co-host Frankie Bridge to point fingers at Linda Robson saying: "She's doing things behind my back!" generating an amused "ooh" from the studio audience.
Linda was quick to divert the blame, which appeared to be at a backstage member of staff, humorously retorting: "Mattie told me to pull faces behind her back, thanks Mattie!" leaving Kaye to swiftly move on with: "Welcome to Loose Women everyone! It's Friday!"
It comes as Leigh revealed the reason Celebrity Juice was axed earlier this month - insisting that "nothing is acceptable any more".
The comedian hosted the show as his outrageous alter-ego Keith Lemon but claims it was cancelled because the innuendos and racy games it featured are no longer acceptable for today's audience.
"Just as fashion and flared trousers have come back round however many times, comedy tastes change. Now, nothing is acceptable any more - we had 'the rules were the rules' in past times, and they're different now, so of course there are things back then that you wouldn't do any more," Leigh said.
"You don't set out to offend anyone, you just set out to make people laugh, but for me, now when I come up with an idea, it has to be a straight one, with just a bit of silliness. Quite a lot of comedians are now presenting straight shows, entertainment programmes that are funny, just maybe not as funny as a sketch show," he continued to The Sun.
Leigh admitted that he believed it was a "shame" for viewers but said that they had to change with the playing field and stick to the rules of the time. He also explained that Keith was inspired by a childhood friend with the same name but the pal soon grew tired of the character.
He said: "I said I would give him a shout out on TV, so I gave him a character." The comedian went on to say that for a while, his pal liked it but eventually got sick of having to explain it to people. His friend went on to carry round a black and white photo of the pair of them together to explain how he knew him.
"It had his name, and then the hair came from a man on holiday with bad Anthea Turner hair, and then there was the 'tache that was added, and finally the hats, which I only wore to meet Pharrell Williams at the Brits," Leigh said. "With Keith, it's because I liked to have a good time, but Keith . . . he didn't know where to draw the line. I always say if my Keith had been a real person, he'd be dead now - he was all fun, fun, fun."
Loose Women continues on weekdays at 12:30pm on both ITV and ITV X.
