For many of us, unearthing horny letters exchanged by our parents might be amongst our worst nightmares. Not for Milo Edwards. He’s taken it as inspiration for this year’s Fringe show. Starting off as scattergun funny material, he’s found a through-line of the 80s to keep his signature historical and political commentary. But things could still get pretty random…

What a premise this is! Is that what you first thought when you discovered these letters

Sometimes you just get handed one. That’s an unfortunate element of being a comedian, sometimes you make this personal discovery and you’re like, “Well, that’s a show!” I knew of the existence of the letters, because my mum had been re-reading them before she died. But then they, sort of, disappeared. I started talking to my sister, I was like, “Are these letters lying around somewhere, I’m trying to find them’, thinking in the back of my head ‘must write a show!’

And how did you get to that point?

Eventually my sister was going through some wardrobe in the house and found them in a show box right at the bottom. I set about reading them in earnest. It’s really interesting because I think- sometimes with a show, you start off not knowing what the show is about and you work towards figuring it out as you go. This show has always happened in reverse. And then I’ve ended up writing a show… that has a bit of a different thrust that I’d envisaged. And part of that was because I discovered how horny my parents were!

So many of us are guilty of not seeing their parents as people – do you think you were guilty of that?

I think that’s, kind of, a universal experience. Speaking as an orphan, I think you do gradually come to terms with the idea of your parents as people. So my parents died in quite quick succession. Dealing with my dead being ill… and with my mum’s reaction to his death, I think that’s when you start to be like, “Oh, okay, these are people.” They have anxieties and things, as a child, that might not come across. There was a real reversal of dynamic with my mum, where suddenly I was in charge and she’d given up on being the grown up. I think that was the first step on this road to seeing my parents as sexual beings.

Do you think sexting has ruined the art of the horny letter?

The sexy stuff in the letters actually didn’t alienate me too much, partially because it’s not super explicit. It’s very implicit and not particularly graphic. I knew they had sex at least once, that was less of a shock. This is the thing, right? I feel like not only has sexting killed the art of the sexy letter, but almost on a global level, that’s a red herring to the point of the letter has been killed entirely. So I really like hand-writing things.

Your promo has been very 80s, how 80s is your show? Do you consider the letters to be a time capsule of that era?

I think the letters almost precisely cover the 80s. They start in 1980 and they end in 1991 or ’92. So it’s almost perfectly an encapsulation of the 80s. I think about this with all the decades, it feels like the 80s really started about 1984 and they really end in about 1992. The more I read the letters, it really felt like the 80s was such a big presence in the show, in the background. Particularly for me, I’m someone who- I always do a lot of historical illusions and commentary in my shows, so it made sense. There’s a bit I talk about in the show where my mum, in one of her letters mentions the IRA Tory Party Conference bombing in 1984 and so I can write a really fun bit about how we’re not worth blowing up anymore.

What do you think is special about Edinburgh Fringe?

I really love the Fringe, actually. I think it’s one of those things that a lot of comedians talk about very negative and I’ve never really understood that. There’s always a lot of discussion about, ‘can anyone afford the fringe anymore?’ which is a bit counterproductive. There are cheap ways of doing it. I think the constant reporting of how expensive it is probably does more to put working class people off. The fringe is a great resource to essentially be better at comedy and to spend time amongst lots of other comedians who are doing interesting work and watch a lot and do a show every day to audiences who are quite comedy savvy. It’s almost like a great place to have lab conditions!

Sum up your show in five words?

Comedian finds sexy letters. Funny.

‘Catamaran’ is at Monkey Barrel Comedy, CabVol1 from Wed 5 to Sun 30 Aug.