Liverpool Exclusive: Comedian John Bishop On Rafael Benitez, Steven Gerrard And Everton

John Bishop, stand-up comedian and fanatical Liverpool supporter, is the man who bridges the gap between the two Scouse worlds more than most. The 43-year-old is currently in the midst of his first-ever UK tour (“Bristol last night, Hemel Hempstead tonight, the show doesn’t stop!” he tells me), yet his beloved Reds are never far from his thoughts.

Indeed, he opens and closes his show with a Liverpool-related video (we won’t reveal the exact content, so as not to spoil the surprise), and counts the likes of Kenny Dalglish amongst his friends, having appeared alongside him in a charity match at Anfield earlier this year – “I’ve got his number, but whenever something happens I want to ring Kenny up and talk to him about it, but you can’t just phone Kenny Dalglish up can you?!”

Bishop now lives in Manchester – “I emigrated because I met a girl from Manchester,” he says – but keeps a close eye on events at Anfield from the other end of the East Lancs. Road, and believes that, despite the Reds’ poor start to the season, Rafael Benitez is the man to turn fortunes around.

“One thing you can never doubt about the management,” he says, “is their commitment to the club. I was speaking to Sammy Lee recently, and he said ‘all we can do is to keep trying’. Everyone at Liverpool is committed to the club and working as hard as possible.

“I’ll give you an example. I was at the Edinburgh festival a few months ago, and Rafa was up in the city to watch the Edinburgh tattoo show with some of his family. But he was up and ready to leave at 4.30am just to get back to Melwood to work. That’s what he’s like, he is a workaholic.”

The best | Bishop thinks Gerrard will outstrip Dalglish

Bishop concedes that Liverpool’s start to the season has been poor (“It feels like we’ve started a 100 metre race when the rest of the field is already 30m down the track”) and is well aware that behind-the-scenes issues at the club are likely to rear their heads again in the near future, but sees no reason why the mooted ground-share between Everton and Liverpool cannot take place, comparing the situation to a (particularly unhappy) marriage.

“If you want an honest opinion,” he says, “I think people need to grow up and get on with it. We either need to say ‘Ok, we’ll have run-down stadiums and less financial clout, or we share and give both clubs a better chance financially'. It works in Milan, why not here?

“It’s like marriage, and anyone who has been married will tell you, you don’t have to like the person you live with. In fact, most married couples who live together would be quite happy to only see their partner twice a year, and to just worry about the colour of their seats!"

One person whom Bishop is delighted to see more regularly, however, is Steven Gerrard. The Reds skipper made his 500th appearance for Liverpool at Blackburn last weekend, and Bishop believes the 29-year-old has already made a case for being the Reds’ all-time greatest player.

“I truly believe that when Stevie retires, he will be looked back on as the greatest player ever to pull on a red shirt,” says Bishop, “Better even than Kenny Dalglish, my hero.

“If you look at what the lad has achieved, he has won every club honour you can win – apart from the Premier League – he has scored in every major club final.

"And, what's more, he has done it whilst playing alongside the likes of Igor Biscan, Djimi Traore and Andriy Voronin! That is some achievement. He must have looked around the dressing room at some points in those 500 games and thought ‘what is going on here!’ surely.”

On the subject of Bill Shankly, in the wake of the 50th anniversary of the Scotsman's appointment at Anfield, Bishop is equally forthright.

“Shankly? He’s over-rated!” he jokes, before adding, “Of course Bob Paisley picked up all the trophies, but it is easier to sit in the living room of a house that someone else built. And Shankly was the man who built the Liverpool house.”

Neil Jones, Goal.com UK

John Bishop is currently touring the UK. For listings see www.johnbishoponline.com or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/johnbishop100