Mark Watson

Critically-acclaimed comedian Mark Watson takes a walk down memory lane with skysports.com.

Critically-acclaimed comedian Mark Watson takes a walk down memory lane with skysports.com

You may know comedian Mark Watson from appearances on hugely-popular television shows such as Have I Got News For You, Nevermind the Buzzcocks, Mock the Week and Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow. But you may not know that Watson is also a fanatical follower of Bristol City. The stand-up has supported his hometown Robins since childhood and has always been passionate about football, whether shivering on the wings for his junior school B-team or ruing former Bristol Rovers forward Gary Penrice's untimely knack of finding the back of the net on derby day. Edinburgh Fringe Festival icon Watson still tries to watch his beloved City on a regular basis and he will attempt to juggle a seat at matches with a marathon 40-date UK tour, which began last week and stretches into 2011. New TV programme, Mark Watson Kicks Off, is also due to hit screens later in October, but amid his exciting schedule, Watson still found time to take a walk down memory lane with skysports.com.

Bristol City

It's where I was born. I could have gone either way with City or Bristol Rovers, because my Dad actually supports Bournemouth so I wasn't brought up to support either Bristol team. But I ended up watching Bristol City. Rovers played in Bath in those days so it was never really a goer. So...I'm a City fan and it has been a fairly long 25 years! I still go to quite a few matches a season when it coincides with a tour. I think my Dad was happy that I supported my local team. I'm in the same situation now. I've got a baby boy and we live in North London just down the road from Arsenal and he is going to end up being an Arsenal fan. I will have to support that decision because of my own morals about following a local team.

Bournemouth 3 West Brom 2, December, 1987

My Dad took me to a game. I wasn't allowed to go when I was very small because of the violence you sometimes used to get in those days, so my Mum was a bit nervous about it. It was Bournemouth against West Brom, and Bournemouth won 3-2. It was Christmas because we always used to visit my Dad's family. In those days it was all-standing on the terraces. I wasn't scared, I was excited because I had watched so many games on TV and was such a keen follower of the league. I was beside myself at being able to go. It was a five-goal game, but I would have even been happy if it was a rubbish game.

Joe Jordan

He was probably our highest-profile player when I was seven or eight years old because it was still fairly recent that he had been an international. He became player-manager and he got us promoted in 1990. I was 10 then and so he was a hero, partly because of that success and partly because he was a ferocious man. He was the sort of man you could look up to. He wasn't great as a player-manager because he was almost always booked or sent-off. But I suppose that means, in a way, he was quite a good player-manager as it didn't take him that long to get back to the bench! He was a figure of respect and fear, a proper, old-fashioned football manager. I didn't used to pretend to be someone like Gary Lineker in the playground because I was always quite realistic about the fact that I wouldn't play for England. I used to write match reports and so was more of a journalist than a fantasy striker.

Bristol Rovers (Gary Penrice)

It is quite a tricky one. Like most people of my age, I began to dislike Manchester United, but all that came a lot later. I don't remember having any particular villain when I was first getting into the game. City's rival team are Bristol Rovers and they had a player called Gary Penrice who always used to score against us. He went to Watford and QPR and never really made it to the big time. He had a moustache like a lot of players in the Eighties and he always used to score in derbies so he was the scourge of Bristol City. In general, these days, I tend to turn against players who complain to referees a lot. Cristiano Ronaldo is a good example; he winds me up something chronic.

1985 FA Cup final

When I was about five I watched the FA Cup final in 1985 between Everton and Manchester United. We watched it in the living room of our house and I remember asking my Dad which was nearer, Everton or Manchester. We lived in Bristol so it was a bit of a puzzler. United won 1-0. They had Kevin Moran sent off, but still won the game. That match was all it took for me to become a big football fan. I have never missed an FA Cup final since, until last year. I was in Africa in Senegal on a charity trip. It was as close as I could get to going to the World Cup, it was the right continent!

Henleaze Junior School, Bristol

I trained with the school football club, but I was only ever able to get into the B-Team, unfortunately. I've still got a photo of me playing in our yellow and green kit, which was sponsored by a local sports shop. Even then I was a fringe player for the B-Team. I wasn't that bad, or a figure of fun, but it is fair to say that I drifted in and out of games. I was something of a flair player (said sarcastically). I saw myself as a midfielder, but the trouble was that I was never very big, even then I was pretty puny. I couldn't play in the middle of the park because I would just get barged off the ball. School games don't tend to use much width so I would tend to hang around on the wing getting cold.

Bristol City

I had a kit when I was about eight, I think. It was red with white pinstripes. I spent all my birthday money on it, about 30 quid. I went down to the club shop and bought the shirt, shorts and socks combination, the way you used to. I don't know if people still buy the whole kit, but we definitely used to in my day. I've got the shirt from last season and I'll probably buy one every couple of years now. I'll wear it when I go for a run or go to a match. My brother has got a massive collection of shirts from around the world.

Eddie Izzard

I saw Eddie Izzard in the Colston Hall in Bristol in about 1996. Before then I didn't really know what stand-up was, so I got into it pretty late. The reason I went was because I was doing work experience for Venue magazine and I interviewed him over the phone. After that, I got interested and bought a video of him and eventually went to see him. I enjoyed it and thought it was something that I wanted to be involved in, but I don't remember thinking, 'this is for me'. It seemed like a bit of a different world. Mark Watson's new show, Mark Watson Kicks Off, is due to be aired later in October. For more information and tour details, visit www.markwatsonthecomedian.com