James Barr’s Sorry I Hurt Your Son (Said My Ex To My Mum) expertly balances humour with the recounting of his abusive relationship with his ex-partner and his response to that relationship. Barr is a confident, excellent storyteller and his show is a highly engaging journey through this difficult part of his life.

Barr is a British radio presenter with The Breakfast Show on Hits Radio, a podcaster with theA Gay and a Non-Gay podcast, he is a TV presenter appearing on MTV, The Project and Piers Morgan Uncensored (explained in the show) and amongst other things, been included in the ISH Edinburgh Comedy Awards Best Show long-list as well as The Times Best Jokes Of The Edinburgh Fringe 2025. This outstanding background is clearly evident in Barr’s delivery of Sorry I Hurt Your Son (Said My Ex To My Mum).

After trigger warnings set to dance music, Barr begins Sorry I Hurt Your Son (Said My Ex To My Mum), where he later circles back to, by admitting to a Botox practitioner ‘Celeste’ that he wasn’t ok with his four-year relationship with abusive partner ‘Alex’. The two met on Grindr and initially the relationship was going smoothly as they moved in together but then small things began to occur that he ignored because he wanted the relationship to last. However, the small things escalated into bigger things of emotional and physical injuries. Throughout Sorry I Hurt Your Son (Said My Ex To My Mum) Barr also recounts his relationship with his mother and her responses to his life situations, what happens to their dog ‘Carmilla’ and the aftermath of the relationship with ‘Alex’ including his encounter at a certain naked German party. Ultimately however, Sorry I Hurt Your Son (Said My Ex To My Mum) is about surviving the relationship and how he dealt with the trauma of it and emerging to the other side.

The subject of the show is often difficult but is cleverly balanced with humour allowing the audience to confront the reality of the abuse and arrive at how he has moved on from the relationship.

James Barr: Sorry I Hurt Your Son (Said My Ex To My Mum) has been performed in over fifty countries and is an exceptional insight into domestic violence, making it through that violence and is another unmissable show of this year’s Fringe.