What is it like to be called Andy Mycock?

Such nuances trigger a headache for newspaper subeditors. At The Telegraph, we sprint out “c–k” when referring to genitalia, however not when discussing barnyard fowl. Though birds of a feather flock collectively, a “c–k” is not a “cock”; we are able to print one however not the opposite.

It’s in “the digital space” that the actual issues come up, Mycock tells me. “We live in a world of spam filters and profanity filters. I and others with sexualised names face what they call the ‘Scunthorpe’ problem.”

In his documentary, he interviews a John Smith (“the blandest of names”), and a Dr Cock. The latter – a lesbian, as it occurs – says she has discovered her title “a wonderful icebreaker”. After all, she asks, “Who remembers the Smiths and Joneses they meet?”

Relentless bullying

We additionally hear from Mycock’s “long-suffering partner” of 25 years, Jenny Coates. She made it clear to him early on that in the event that they married she would neither take his surname nor go double-barrelled (as Jenny Coates-Mycock).

The most fascinating thread of the programme includes previous pals pulling Mycock’s leg. “It’s relentless, even 30 years on, they cannot [hear] his surname without somebody making some sort of joke,” Coates says. “There was a point in time where all of the mick-taking from the friends round here started to really get to you,” she reminds him.

One of those pals recollects an extended drive up to Scotland, “five blokes on the way to a boozy gig” cracking jokes about their mate’s title the entire method, to his rising discomfort. “I think I recognised that you stopped enjoying it, it just wasn’t funny any more,” one says, a bit guiltily. Another interrupts: “What, stopped enjoying Mycock?”

Relentless bullying is – for a lot of British males – the one method we have now to present our pals we care about them. It was how the group had at all times bonded, a bunch of “middle-aged men with different responsibilities in the outside world together sharing the puerile joke…”

But now, by performing his comedy reveals, Mycock has “reclaimed” the title. As one in every of his pals muses on the documentary, “You’ve taken ownership, haven’t you? And therefore it’s lost its power, it’s lost its teeth, it’s lost its intensity.” Another chips in: “It’s gone flaccid, really.”

Andy Mycock: Named, Unashamed is on Radio 4 on Sunday 19 April