Armed only with a chair, a mic, stories, jokes and poetry, Henry Normal takes on the world looking for a win-win situation.

Henry Normal is a writer, poet, TV & film producer, founder of the Manchester Literature Festival and co-founder of the Nottingham Poetry Festival.

Henry co-wrote and script-edited the multi-award winning The Mrs Merton Show and the spin off series Mrs Merton and Malcolm. He also co-created and co-wrote the first series of The Royle Family.  With Steve Coogan he co-wrote the BAFTA winning Paul and Pauline Calf Video Diaries, Coogan’s Run, Tony Ferrino, Doctor Terrible and all three of Coogan’s live tours and the film The Parole Officer. Setting up Baby Cow Productions Ltd in 1990, Henry Executive Produced all and script-edited many of the shows of its 17-year output. Highlights of the Baby Cow productions include the Oscar nominated film Philomena, I believe in Miracles, Gavin and Stacey, Moone Boy, Uncle, Marion and Geof, Nighty Night, The Mighty Boosh, Red Dwarf, Hunderby, Camping and Alan Partridge.

Since retiring in April 2016, Henry has written and performed 8 times BBC Radio 4 shows combining comedy, poetry and stories about family. His ninth show ‘A Normal Community’ will be recorded on 1 June 2022 for transmission in the summer.  Henry performs poetry at Literature Festival’s around the UK and has eleven poetry books available from Flapjack Press including the latest entitled ‘Collected Poems Vol.2’ out 1 Aug 2022.

Henry Normal – Sit Down Poetry: It’s like stand-up poetry but more thoughtful and relaxed and easier on the legs.

Reviews

‘Succinct, heartrending and peppered with gentle punchlines’— Hannah Verdier, The Guardian 

‘Shove up National Treasures. We need to make room for Henry Normal’ — Simon O’Hagan – Radio Times 

‘..the Alan Bennett of poetry ’ — The Scotsman 

‘A mixture of the absurd and downright wacky…a gentle giant of stand-up poetry ’ — The List

‘Witty and uncannily accurate with his observations ’ — The Stage