Thatcher Stole My Trousers

In 1971, Alexei Sayle, raised by communist parents in 1950s Liverpool, set out to find his fortune in London. It was a city where punk was in its infancy, unemployment was high, the weekly meetings of the Communist Party of Britain took place in the Bellman bookshop, a young Margaret Thatcher was just made Secretary of State for Education, and stand-up comedy was unheard of.

Less than a decade later Alexei was the first MC of London's only comedy club, the Comedy Store, and the landscape of...