In 1992 he won the Perrier Award for Comedy in Edinburgh since then he has appeared in television's Gag Tag Packet of Three and

In 1992 he won the Perrier Award for Comedy in Edinburgh; since then he has appeared in television's Gag Tag, Packet of Three and My Blue Heaven Aged 37, he is a fan of West Bromwich Albion . 2"pounds hl5XYJK * .!!pounds pounds pounds "... XX X Xpounds XX X X X X Xpounds X,poundspounds pounds "pounds pounds " pounds pounds pounds pounds pounds pounds pounds pounds pounds pounds pounds poundshijk|}789:;David Baddiel: Our first conversation was in Jongleurs [the London comedy club]. We were in the dressing room watching Ireland and Holland playing in the 1990 World Cup, and we had a kind of row, about me saying that I didn't like the way Ireland were playing because it went against my ideas of "flair football''.Frank, being more of a football Luddite, wasn't keen on my ideas, and espoused this theory, which for me is absolute heresy, about how since the 1970 World Cup English footballers have tried to play like South Americans, even though it was a style of play that they were totally unsuited to. And I hate that attitude because I've always thought that the English game was all about eccentrically skilful individuals like Rodney Marsh, Tony Currie and Paul Gascoigne. So I got a bit hot under the collar, but in the end we realised that we had a common passion for the game.Two years later, just before Frank went up to Edinburgh to do his show, I met him in London and said "Hello'', and he replied "Oh, all right Dave? Always a pleasure.'' I was chuffed by this little pleasantry, because at the time I was feeling a bit paranoid on the circuit. I felt that because I'd been to Cambridge there was a fair amount of inverted snobbery, and that comedians I didn't know would be rather unpleasant towards me But Frank wasn't, he was just incredibly warm and open.

Unlike a lot of people on the cabaret circuit who pretend to be working class, he is working class, and because of that he has no inverted snobbery. So much so that he can live in Hampstead entirely guilt-free.Sharing the flat with him in Edinburgh was a revelation because I finally found someone more untidy than me. What also sticks in my mind is the night we were both sitting in the kitchen and we suddenly started having this incredible heart-to-heart chat - at the time we both had woman problems. From that moment on we became great friends.Living with Frank is interesting because like a lot of comedians he's always "on''. Usually I find that irri- tating, but with Frank it's different because he's not self-conscious at all. We've got this joke that he's suffering from this form of Tourette's syndrome where he starts twitching and cannot stop himself from saying whatever's going on in his head He does it all the time and he's always bursting into song. This might sound like hell, but because he can't help it, it actually becomes rather charming.

Most of our arguments are about untidiness - Frank has got a very annoying habit of leaving tea-bags in the sink. This apparently comes from this strange Black Country wisdom that says you don't put tea-bags straight in the bin because they'll make it wet. Why that's a problem I don't know.Whenever we have these sorts of rows Frank tends to make me into the wife of the situation and takes on this sort of you're-nagging-me-and- I'm-just-sitting-here-in-my-vest Andy Capp persona. He always says, "Well, you leave the bread undone,'' which I don't think I do, and apparently that makes it all right for him to be as slobby as he likes.Frank is one of the most intelligent people I've ever met, and he confounds me in a way that I like.