Pensioners – they’re all about golf, tea and post offices, aren’t they? But Norman Lovett isn’t your average pensioner, as legions of Red Dwarf fans will tell you, and as you’ll be able to judge for yourself when he comes to Watford Leisure Centre Central next week for the Watford Film Fair Comic-Con.

Norman is most famous for playing ship’s computer Holly in the first two series of the cult BBC sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“There are some great scenes,” he recalls, “like the one where Holly tells the crew they’ve been drinking dog’s milk for yonks. They still stand up today. It was so good, all the cast got on well. I was so pleased to be a part of it.”

Hardcore fans – and there will undoubtedly be more than a few of those at the Comic-Con – will remember him from Summer Holiday, the 1984 final episode of The Young Ones, when the boys rob a bank.

Norman is in front of Neil in the queue with a wheelbarrow full of pennies.

“I was the man from the penny arcade,” says Norman, “I was thrilled because I loved The Young Ones.

“I remember Rik Mayall saying to me, ‘You’re so relaxed’. I said, ‘I’ve only got one line!’”

We mainly know him from his TV work, which also includes episodes of Rab C Nesbitt, The Bill and even three episodes of Gordon the Gopher’s sitcom.

“I’ve got so many tapes of shows I was in in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I need to transfer them all to DVD.”

He has also appeared in his own shows, the surreal sitcom I, Lovett in 1989 and Asylum with the likes of Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson and Julian Barratt.

However, stand-up was actually Norman’s first true love and what he’s continued to do since leaving Red Dwarf.

He got into the comedy game relatively late in life, starting out in the 1970s in his 30s, as the comedic opening act for musicians such as Squeeze and The Clash.

“Variety acts used to get booed off,” Norman remembers of his time at the notorious Tunnel Club in Greenwich, “the Millwall fans wouldn’t put up with any nonsense. I’d be a bit scared but they liked me.”

At 68, Norman has no intention of slowing down and can regularly be seen gigging around the country and appearing at events like comic-cons.

“You just keep popping along doing your stuff, don’t you?” he says. “I’ve got my pension but this is better than a kick up the arse. I’ll keep going till I fall into the hole that’s waiting for me.”

  • Norman Lovett appears at the Watford Film Fair Comic-Con at Watford Leisure Centre Central, Hempstead Road, Watford on Sunday, June 7 from 11am to 5pm. Details: facebook.com/watfordfilmfaircomic-con.