EARLIER THIS year, The Proclaimers helped Brian Potter (Peter Kay) and Andy Pipkin (Matt Lucas) make it to number one with a special Comic Relief version of I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles). For Lucas, the award-winning co-creator of Little Britain, it was a chance to work with the Scottish band he had admired for over a decade. Ahead of the release of a new Proclaimers album, Lucas caught up with Craig and Charlie Reid to talk about the war in Iraq, laser eye surgery and the best name for a Proclaimers tribute act.

I'm Matt Lucas, and I'm here with The Proclaimers - Craig and Charlie Reid - and we're going to talk about various things. But the first thing I wanted to talk about is that one of you, Charlie, is not currently wearing glasses. For me, that's like woah!

Charlie: It's meant to confuse people. It was my disguise, but now it's blown.

Have you had laser surgery?

Charlie: No, but I'm considering it. On the eyes as well. I would consider having it. What about you?

The problem is if I didn't have glasses I'd just look like a blob. So it's better for me to have glasses. It gives me something. Elton John had the laser surgery but still wears glasses because that's his look. Would you have the laser surgery?

Craig: I'm too scared. I actually like the protection of the specs. It stops you you getting dust in your eyes, stops insects ...

Charlie: It gives you a much-needed air of authority.

Craig: I do actually like wearing specs.

You've had an amazing year even by your own standards. As well as a number one Comic Relief single with I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), you've had a musical, Sunshine On Leith, and you recently triumphed at the V Festival. You're also about to release a new album. So how has the last year been?

Craig: It's been nothing but good. We came back in 2001 after being away for a long time and this will be the fourth album we've put out since then. It feels like it's been a long build-up but we feel we're another two or three steps up the ladder with this album, and in general. Obviously, the Comic Relief single has been fantastic.

You've always been diligent about what you will and won't release. Apparently you would record virtually a whole album and then trash it Craig: We would have songs that we didn't like and then we'd just go back to the drawing board. But it becomes self-defeating after a while because you feel that nothing's good enough.

These days, you can't get away with a dodgy album with only two or three good songs on it because people can download the tracks they want. The pressure is on to make an album where every song is a killer and with Life With You, every track is just stunning. How do you write? Do you sit in a room together?

Craig: We used to. Things like Letter From America and a lot of the first album we actually sat down physically together but nowadays we'll bring songs separately to rehearsals and when we've got enough we'll put a record together. And a lot of things can change after we start rehearsing.

Have you ever sat in a room thinking you're writing a song together and then realised that you're actually alone and just looking in a large mirror?

Craig: If it's a room with a very large mirror, writing won't be the thing that we're doing!

Charlie: To be fair, if I was going to sit in a room writing with a large picture it would be Lennon or McCartney or someone like that.

How did the Comic Relief single come about? I understand you'd been asked to re-release I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) before but hadn't done it.

Charlie: We always thought, what's the point of a straight re-release of the record? What appealed to us about Comic Relief was that it was going to be something people would benefit from and it was also going to be a reworking of the song.

Didn't you first meet Peter Kay at Live8?

Craig: I actually bumped into him coming out of the toilet, but I just said hello.

Peter told me that another reason he approached you was because I'm Gonna Be was always in the top 100 of iTunes, without it being on any TV show or film, which is quite something.

Craig: It is one of those songs that's lasted. It's a bigger song worldwide five years ago than when it first came out in 1988. Some songs just have something about them and that song has it.

When David Walliams and I do Little Britain, people want to see certain characters like Lou and Andy and we respect that, but we can always write a new sketch for the characters. But for all those fans of I'm Gonna Be, you can't radically rework the song. You've got to produce the goods, come out every live show and sing it. Has that always been a great thing?

Craig: It never drives us up the wall but if you're doing radio promotion and you're only playing that song for a number of weeks, sometimes it is easier than others. But in the middle of a full show, it really is the highlight. People want to hear it and we want to play it.

Has your relationship with the song changed over the years?

Charlie: Only in that it doesn't really feel like our song any more, it doesn't feel like a Proclaimers song because it's so widespread and so many other people do it. Thank goodness we're still getting the royalties from it, though.

Let's talk about some of the songs on the new album and what they're about. There are some pretty incisive, critical pieces on this album, like the song In Recognition.

Craig: It's about the honours system, and I've not seen a song by a pop act about the honours system. But it's really more sceptical about people on the left in politics or arts who either say openly they're against the system or give the impression they're against it, but then later accept a knighthood.

So it's not just an indictment of Barbara Windsor's OBE? It's about people who've taken the opposite stance Charlie: If you're a monarchist, fair enough, if you're apolitical fair enough for accepting it. But it does seem to be the ones who have the most fame and success that get the biggest honours.

I've always said I wouldn't accept an OBE or an MBE. It would have to be a knighthood.

Charlie: My favourite British actor is Albert Finney and I understand that he turned down a knighthood twice and my admiration for him grew after hearing that. But the song is about the people who say they want to change the system, that this system is rotten to the core, which is a legitimate point of view - and then they turn around and say, "Oh, I'll just have a CBE."

Harold Pinter's defence was that he accepted his honour from a Labour government Craig: We haven't had a Labour government since 1979! To me, the last Labour prime minister was Jim Callaghan. Tony Blair wasn't Labour, and Gordon Brown is only a little bit more towards it.

Charlie: Pinter's excuse has been used by a number of people down the years but I think it's nonsense. If any artist takes honours from a government, you always feel you're going to be beholden to those that gave it to you.

Let's talk about S.O.R.R.Y Craig: That song is about the number of armchair warriors, the press especially, who were very keen to get us into Afghanistan and, more recently, Iraq. The whole thing has gone tits up and is quite obviously a disaster and the people who put the troops in there will be very harshly judged by history. A lot of people have said yes, I supported it for this reason. But now I don't but there are quite a few clinging to the idea that this was a good idea. And I think they can't say that little word the greatest issue since the second world war, and they were on the wrong side.

When Tony Blair was challenged about it, he said he was answerable to God Charlie: That will wash in the United States but it won't wash here.

Craig: I can't think of any British prime minister who would have dared bring God into it. People don't like that. Right-wingers have always avoided using it because they understand it's not a good thing to mix your own spiritual beliefs with the actual governance of a country.

It's a mess but it's great that you're actually singing about it because not enough people are doing it. They're all entering Pop Idol.

Charlie: There's nothing wrong with some acts doing pop stuff but there are people out there who are artists, who are songwriters, who are film-makers, who aren't engaging with issues. It must get boring as f*** to only write love songs or sex songs.

Have you ever heard of any Proclaimers tribute acts?

Charlie: There's one called the Pro-Claymores, but I haven't seen them.

I would call my tribute act the Pro-Climbers and come on stage with a rucksack and hiking boots. But let's talk about one of the other songs on Life With You, a track called New Religion Charlie: Certain religions haven't declined in this country, for example Islam, but it seems like Christianity and Judaism have gone into decline. Religious belief seems to be replaced by people getting obsessed with stuff that doesn't matter, like football. We're obviously big football fans but it can get to the stage where you wonder, is there nothing else in your life? Or other things like Star Wars, Star Trek, stuff like that.

The album also features a cover version of Whole Wide World by Wreckless Eric. You've had hits with other covers, like King Of The Road, but why choose this particular song?

Charlie: It's a lot of people's favourite song. It's a great song, a funny song, but it's quite poignant. We'd been playing it live a lot.

Craig: If you know that you've got enough original stuff for an album it's nice to add the odd cover. It gives you a bit of breathing space and brings a different colour.

First you went 500 miles. Now you're going the whole wide world. What's next the universe?

Craig: Yes, and we'll find out whether there's life on Mars.

Here's the final question: after such an amazing year, what is next for The Proclaimers?

Craig: The next bit is the real work, the shows. That's the pay-off for the writing and sitting in the studio and all the promotion, getting up there onstage. That's why we do it and that's where we want to be. It's just absolutely magic.