Devon's Widdicombe says Exeter has best Spoons

Comedian gets to wear fancy dress at university ceremony

A Devon actor and comedian has been awarded an honorary degree from Exeter University.

Josh Widdicombe, who has starred in 30 series of Channel 4's The Last Leg and is team captain on Rob Beckett’s Smart TV and Hold the Front Page, told students that the place he actually did his degree, Manchester University, hasn't bestowed such an honour on him

An honorary degree is one you don't have to study for, but still get to wear fancy dress and pose with the university's chancellor.

At the ceremony this week, Mr Widdicombe regaled new graduates with memories from his youth in Devon, having grown up on Dartmoor and attended South Dartmoor Community College and Exeter College.

Before finding fame, he worked at a petrol station in Totnes and working on Dora the Explorer magazine.

He said: “I can speak from experience that this is a great city to be a student. You’ve been spoiled. For the rest of your life will never live in a city with a better Wetherspoons than the Imperial. Enjoy it while you can.”

And, he continued: “There is no better way to have spent three years of your life than studying the degrees you have. You are doing something which is so important – that is expressing yourself creatively and connecting with other people via writing and reading.”

Josh had some advice for the new graduates, including that they should not panic about their next steps.

“Your 20s are meant for finding out about life, they are meant for experimenting. Genuinely it’s not a race, if you don’t know you will find out. Life isn’t a straight path, none of it is a waste.”

He also told the new graduates not to take themselves too seriously and to be “proud” of the parts of their personality which made them different.

“We are all idiots muddling through. That is what nobody tells you. Nobody believes really that they know what they are doing. Life is absurd, embrace it. Laugh at yourself. Fun and play produces the best work. It gives you confidence to try things you wouldn’t and to go to places you would be otherwise too scared to go to. All the best art, music and writing comes from places of excitement and childish play. Do not lose that.”