How impressionists keep audiences laughing in an age of social media celebrities

Alistair McGowan has said his methodology ‘doesn’t really work for a modern audience’ because they don’t know who Monty Don is or what Gardeners’ World is. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

“If I see somebody become famous, and they’ve got tremendously predominant mannerisms and they speak a certain way which is unusual, I go for it right away,” the veteran impressionist Mike Yarwood once said of the public figures he mimicked.

But in the decades since Yarwood drew up to 18 million viewers to his BBC shows – with his impressions of the likes of Harold Wilson and the football manager Brian Clough – the cultural touchstones that once defined celebrity have exponentially shifted. With traditional TV viewership continuing to decline among younger generations, impressionists are faced with a new challenge – today’s digital natives may not readily recognise the people they are impersonating.