Interview with Minnie Driver who stars in new E4 comedy Speechless

Minnie Driver, interview

Pictured: Minnie Driver

Can you start off by briefly summing up the premise of Speechless?

Fundamentally it’s about a family that don’t have any money, and who want to get their kids into a school where their son, JJ, who has cerebral palsy, can have an aide. They constantly move around, and everything is defined by them trying to ensure he has access to a good education. And they land in a posh neighbourhood, and they have the crappest house, and they somehow pull it together. It’s really about a family who have a particular set of circumstances. It’s a very personal story to Scott [Silveri], who wrote it, whose brother was non-verbal CP. I think he can approach it with all of the humour and largesse that he grew up with.

 

You play Maya, who is something of a force of nature, isn’t she?

That is a really nice way of putting it. She is. She’s difficult, because she’s had to fight very hard. She’s a parent, first and foremost, she advocates for her children, but she’s also a self-aware narcissist as a personality type, which is funny and awful, when you give that type of person a mission. She’s a very interesting, complex character. But first and foremost she’s a mother, and all of these special needs mothers that I’ve spoken to over the years, they all have to advocate in this way, which is to fight. It’s a fight, a constant battle.

 

So what did you do, and who did you speak to, in order to research the role?

Well, first of all, a lot of our writing staff have disabilities. A lot of our advisors. Ava, who basically was the person who came up with the laser on her glasses, which she figured out she could point to a board – so that was developed. [In the programme, JJ communicates by pointing a laser, on his glasses, at a message board]. I talked to her, and I talked to tonnes and tonnes of caregivers, often mothers and fathers, but mostly the mothers. We’d invite people to the set and sit in the conference room and chat, and talk about the nuts and bolts of physically what it means to transfer a person with a disability into the shower, to get them to bed, to get them dressed, what kind of accessibility you’re looking for. So there was nuts and bolts which I needed to understand. And then there were the things you come up against – insurance companies, schools, accessibility, getting an aide, who’s that person going to be? I love the fact that JJ chooses the guy with the cool voice, who turns out to be this amazing person. Of course we’d all want a cool voice to be our voice. I love that. Fundamentally, he’s just a normal teenager, with all of the proclivities and desires and ambitions and feelings that a teenager has. And he wants a cool voice.

 

And he’s a teenager, as well, in the sense that he’s excruciatingly embarrassed of his mother.

Incredibly embarrassed. And he does have a very embarrassing mother, there’s no doubt.

 

Did you draw on your own experience as a mother, and how protective you feel when you become a parent?

Absolutely. Whilst my child is able-bodied, it’s the same fierceness, you love and you want what’s best for them at all times, and that comes before everything else. You just have a different way of looking at things. We’re planning our summer holiday right now, and I realised all my friends without kids are going and doing these wonderful things that don’t involve kids, but you’re constantly looking at life from the point of view of “Well, I’ve got my son, is it going to be fun for him? What are we going to do and how will it work?” You book places on the basis of whether there’s enough for kids to do. I’d quite like to go walking in the Pyrenees. That’s not going to happen! Oh, a yoga retreat in Bali? Nope!

 

Was she written as a Brit, or did that come after you were cast? Was there ever discussion about you playing her as an American?

Yeah, there was. We actually read it through for the studio and network both ways. They liked the English accent, I think primarily because you have a cadence of your own humour in your own accent. I wanted her to be an American. I’d just done About a Boy, and I’d been British in that, and I wanted the challenge of being American. She was written as an American, and that’s what I wanted to do, but it just turned out to be funnier the other way around.

 

There are so many pitfalls to a show like this, from being overly sentimental to preachy to exploitative. The show treads that tightrope incredibly well, doesn’t it?

It really, really does. I got that from the pilot, and from talking to Scott Silveri, and to Chris Gernon, who’s one of my great friends, who is our executive producer and directed loads of the episodes. She directed every episode of Gavin and Stacey. We were all of us allergic to the notion of sentimentality and melodrama, primarily because that is the way that the media represents disability. You’re not only often looking at able-bodied actors playing disabled characters, but they’re trying to get away. They’re either trying to kill themselves or they’re trying to get out of this terrible situation. We all wanted to make a funny show, first and foremost, and because of our writing staff, because of Scott, and because of Micah [Fowler, who plays JJ] we’ve got an in as to where the humour lies within that. And if you’re approaching it from a comedic point of view, it’s really easy to avoid all of that other stuff. There are definitely heartfelt, emotional moments, because that happens in any family. But none of it is really around the idea that it’s all impossible and awful and hard.

 

Do you ever find yourself wondering what Maya would be like if she didn’t have a disabled child?

Yeah, I do, I really do. I think that she would be as big and pushy an advocate, but JJ is a raison d’etre for her, and as JJ grows up and goes off to college, what is she going to do? She won’t have that focus, so much of her identity is tied up with being the mother of a special needs child.

 

What’s it like working with the kids on the show?

They’re amazing. Genuinely, I have always felt that film and TV sets are no place for a child. You’re missing out on a childhood when you’re working that young. But these kids have unique parents, and they themselves are lovely people. They’re just lovely, and they’re deeply funny. They have funny bones, as opposed to being child actors who have that weird slightly Stepford thing that can happen, where they’re acting being a child because they’ve not actually experienced what that means. They’re all really, really good actors, and they’re all children too! Only they’re not children now, they’re all bloody huge and grown up. We just celebrated Micah’s 21st birthday. He got the part on his 18th birthday. But they are great, and they’re just getting better and better, which is lovely to see. You become weird de facto parents. I feel very maternal towards all of them.

 

Micah, who plays JJ, manages to bring huge charisma and humour to his role. That’s no mean feat for a non-verbal role, is it?

Absolutely. And I think it’s been a huge learning curve for him. He was very inexperienced when we began, and he’s had to learn on camera really. Plus it’s a very specific thing he’s being asked to do – to calibrate your reactions. It took a minute for all of us to figure out how it was going to work. Doing a scene with Micah is really interesting – when you’re reading ‘for him’ off his board, and then doing your responses as you. It’s not easy, but it’s really interesting. Watching him grow as an actor, and how much he enjoys it, is really lovely.

 

Have you had any feedback from the disabled community, in terms of what the show means to them?

Yes, a huge amount. Mostly on social media. Reading a tweet from a non-verbal person with Cerebral Palsy, saying “I sit and I watch my experience, and it makes me scream with laughter” is so gratifying. Or families who go “It’s extraordinary that we can all sit down and watch this together, my able-bodied kids and my kid with a disability, and we can all enjoy it and roar with laughter and feel that we are seen”. Without wanting to get too deep on it, the idea of representation for people who I don’t think they have been fairly represented, to be able to see themselves, and for it to be a laugh, I think that’s lovely. And I think it’s expanded the conversation here in America. The more you include, the more impossible it is to maintain your distance and your looking away which, let’s face it, most people do around disability. They don’t know how to interact with it, how to approach it. And I think the humour has broken down that barrier quite a lot.

 

You’ve talked in the past about the show being pretty exhausting to film, with 65-hour weeks for months on end. That must take a toll…

Definitely. The first two seasons, particularly season one, were the hardest I’ve ever worked in my career, to the point of real exhaustion. Scott’s whole idea was to have a show about someone who can’t really move, so he wanted a fast-paced show, and a show with lots of action in it. But also, when you’re working with someone who uses a wheelchair, that presents unique challenges, which can be really time-consuming. It’s just one of the fundamentals of doing it. So it took a long time for us to get into a swing that was easier. Definitely this season was a bit easier, but shooting nine months, five-days-a-week… now it’s 13-14-hour days, as opposed to 14-17 hours before. So it’s better. But I’m not going to complain, it’s a great job, and it’s meaningful and funny. If you can pull off those two things, you’re ahead.

 

What does it mean to you to have the show finally going out in the UK?

I cannot tell you how long both Chris Gernon and I have been waiting for this. It doesn’t really mean anything to anyone else, but we were both like “How can this not be on in the UK?” It speaks to social inclusivity, to a National Health Service that gives free health care – these things that we fight against in the US. I’m thrilled, because I just know that this show will land with British viewers, because it is funny, and because Britain has always seemed to me to not be scared of subject matters that other people find difficult. The UK is, Brexit aside, an extremely inclusive place. Always has been. That’s what I grew up in. And I really like it when you have American-British crossover, humour-wise, because when it works I think it is brilliant.

 

Speechless airs weekdays from today at 7.30pm on E4

 

 

Interview with Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney for Catastrophe series 3

Interview with Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney for Catastrophe series 3We left series two on something of a cliffhanger, with Rob about to speak following his discovery of Sharon’s receipt. Where do we pick it up from?

Rob: Right then. Exactly then.

Sharon: Yeah, it’s from exactly that moment.

Did you know what Rob was about to say, when you shot the end of series one, or did you still have to work that out?

Rob: We didn’t know. We love to leave the series with a big question mark, and figure out the answer afterwards. It’s more fun for us that way, and hopefully there is real and palpable mystery for the viewer as they reach that question mark. If we know what’s going to happen, then they might too, and then why bother?

S: There were a few different routes we could’ve gone, so we kind of had vague ideas, but nothing concrete.

Series three and four were commissioned together. You’ve now shot series three. Do you know where it’s going to go in series four? How far ahead have you planned?

R: No. We did one and two back-to-back, and we really benefitted from taking a little break between two and three, so I think we’re happy to not know what’s going to happen for a little while.

S: We had ideas of stuff that could go in series three when we were writing series two, things like that, but we never knew what the big arc was going to be, or narratively where it was going to take us. We just had a bunch of little ideas, and it worked out okay. So hopefully that’ll happen this time.

Did you write season 3 differently because you knew there would be a season 4? Does that help you creatively, because you know you have more space to tell the story?

R: It’s a stunning act of generosity and a vote of confidence from the network to have them do that, so yes, it does give you a feeling of peace.

S: There were definitely moments where we would say “I think that’s more of a series four idea.”

R: Yeah, so we can figure out what’s going to fit in each episode. You can say “I am curious about that, but no way are we going to be able to squeeze that in,” whereas if we didn’t know there were an additional season commissioned, we might try to shoehorn it in, to everyone’s detriment.

S: I guess the smart thing to do would have been to plan out both series so we knew exactly where it was going over twelve episodes, but we just didn’t have the time to do that. We had to concentrate on getting series three made in the four or five months we had.

Catastrophe is unapologetically crude. Do you enjoy coming up with some of the more creative and colourful bits of dialogue? Do you ever worry about elderly family members watching?

R: Well, I mean elderly people, I have found, when they’re being honest, are also scumbags, and enjoy a little prurient humour as well. So no, I don’t really worry.

S: I used to worry about that sort of thing. But I watched Pulling with my auntie, who’s a nun. I gave my dad the pilot of Catastrophe, because we had it for about a year before it got picked up, and he showed it to so many people. There was some pretty crass stuff in there, there was plenty of sex in it and rude goings on. If he’s happy to show his 70-year-old mates, then I think there’s nothing to worry about really. Although, I’m a little bit worried about episode one of this series.

R: Oh, I know what you’re talking about!

The show is far from sentimental, but it still manages to be strangely romantic. Is that a tough trick to pull off? Do you have to go through it making it less saccharine?

S: We just keep an eye on it.

R: We’re pretty good about it. I remember in season two having to saccharine it up a bit. Our natural inclination is not usually to be too saccharine. If anything like that comes out of our mouth, the other will stop them pretty quickly. You’d rather have your audience come away saying “I think I just noticed that they’re in love” rather than hitting them over the head with it.

Catastrophe very definitely deals with flawed people making the best of a flawed relationship. Is that intentional – to show people that it’s possible to have problems and still be relatively happy?

S: I kind of don’t think their relationship is that flawed. I mean, I guess it is in that they fuck up sometimes, or might let themselves or each other down. But I think they were made for each other. They were born to be together. That’s the most fairy tale and romantic aspect of the whole thing. We’ve burst the bubble pretty quickly with all the bad things that happen. But it feels like a steady, sturdy relationship that shit happens to, and they deal with it. I don’t think they have to try and stay in love. They are in love, they just have to try and stop real life from tipping shit on that.

One of the cornerstones of their relationship seems to be that they make each other laugh. Do you see that as being key to them?

R: I think so, yeah. People say that the largest sexual organ is the brain, and I think the fact that they definitely amuse each other is probably the strongest glue in that relationship.

S: Yeah, definitely. Because I think it’s incredibly important in real life as well. You get on with the people who make you laugh. I love having conversations with smart people, but I don’t necessarily leave it going “I fucking love you!” whereas if I’ve spent an hour laughing with them…

Obviously this series was one of the last things that Carrie Fisher filmed. What was it like getting to know her and working with her?

S: It was a dream come true getting to work with her.

R: A giant privilege.

S: For both of us.

R: She didn’t get to where she is by mistake. She delivers. She’s just hilarious and brilliant. You get what you think you’re going to get, and more. She was just a wonderful, wonderful person.

S: Yeah, she was great to hang around with and great to work with. While you’re completely aware of her legacy and everything she’s done, and it’s completely overwhelming a first, then she’s just this woman who says rude things and cracks you up. And she was really kind as well, just a really kind, wonderful lady.

The show won a BAFTA in 2016. Who has custody of it?

S: We got one each! It was the most exciting bit of the night, realising that we got one each.

R: Some awards we’ve had to divvy up. But BAFTA make one for each named recipient, so thanks BAFTA!

What is it like working with the children on the show? Do you have to get to know them really well so they don’t recoil when you pick them up?

S: They like us!

R: Yeah they like us, and we like them. They’re lovely. Babies are an absolute pleasure. Sonny and Dexter, who are the twins who play Frankie, are a bit older. They’re wonderful, but they’re a little harder to work with, because it’s a super-unnatural situation to be in. Working on set is very artificial and bizarre, and for kids it’s like “Why would we do it again? That’s crazy!” And then you have to be like “Yes, it is crazy, but not only are we going to do it one more time, we’re going to do it 22 more times. “And they’re like “That’s INSANE!” So they’re having a tough time with it, but that’s only because they’re healthy, wonderful children.

S: But we both like the company of kids, we like hanging out with kids, so it makes it easier. When the cameras stop rolling, you can have a laugh with them. But you can’t get them too geed up, because then they’re all hyper. You find yourself going “Shit, why did I tickle him?” You have to know how to play it. But when they bring in a baby or one of the twins, we really enjoy it.

R: On a set filled with smelly adults it’s pretty nice to have a kid come in now and again.

You briefly reference Trump and Brexit in ep 1 of the new series. Will there be any more nods to the way the world is going?

R: Not too much.

S: A tiny bit more Brexit stuff.

R: We’re not trying to make any big comments about that stuff. If you’re alive right now, it’s affecting your life, so we couldn’t not mention it, but as ever, we’re just trying to do it in a way that will create more stress for Rob and Sharon. We’re not trying to fix it!

S: It just came up in that episode because I’m trying to find reasons to get away with behaving the way I did. In the original script it was Brexit and ISIS, and then suddenly that arsehole-buffoon got voted in and we thought “We can’t not mention him!” So we added that in our final read-through.

Rob, you’ve been pretty active of late on Twitter, even by your standards. Is it a relief to be over here and away from the whole shitstorm, or is it frustrating being so distanced and powerless to act?

R: It is weird being over here. And I can’t move back there right now. Not that I want to – we’re happy here, my children go to school here – but it’s weird to not have the option. But he’s got healthcare laws in his sights, and I’m part of a family of five people. And when you have five people, there will be some among them who have what are known as pre-existing conditions, so I can’t responsibly bring my children to a country where healthcare is in such upheaval. So that feels weird. And yeah, I’d like to be outside senators’ offices right now protesting, but I can’t right now. So I’m doing what I can from here.

I read somewhere that you two are planning to do a movie together. Is that a possibility?

S: It’s not in the pipeline. We talk about it A LOT!

R: We talk about it, and then somebody will be like “Hey, get back to set,” or “Where’s that script?”

S: We’d absolutely love to. It’s just a time thing.

Would it be a Catastrophe movie?

S: Not at this point. I think we’d like to try something else. It’d be interesting just to see if something else worked.

When you’re writing, do you guys have more ownership of your own character?

R: No, definitely not. Nothing makes me happier than writing dialogue for the character of Sharon, and have her write it for my character.

S: I think that’s why there’s no stereotypical element to either of them.

When do you start on series 4? Do you need time away from the characters first?

R: It’s a good idea to have a break, to let your mind rest and so you can start to cultivate ideas. So we don’t have a start date, but we’re percolating ideas, I guess.

S: Bit of a break.

Can you ever have a bit of a break, or are you always thinking “Ooh, I might put that into the next series?”

S: You do do that a little bit, yeah.

R: You definitely file things away, I’ve got a ton of stuff in the notes section of my phone. Most of it is fucking insane, though. “Here’s a good idea. What if… Rob walked into a spider’s web!!!”

 

With thanks to Channel 4.

 

Caitlin Moran Interview

Caitlin Moran InterviewHow did you find the whole experience of making series one?

Oh God, it was amazing! I’ve always worked on my own, so first of all working with my sister, who I’d always suspected was a genius, and indeed turned out to be – not least because about two weeks into the process I realised I had no idea how to produce a plot or use the script-writing software. She knew how to do it all, having written plays for years and had loads of stuff on up in Edinburgh. And then bringing it to a team and making it happen. In a way, it was always obvious that me and Caz would work together, and do something about our family, because that’s what we used to do when we were kids. We’d have Sindys and play Sindy games, and write scripts, and making clothes for the Sindys by wrapping bits of tinfoil around them and putting pins in their ears to make little stud earrings. And when you make a TV show, you don’t have to at any point wrap Rebekah Staton in tin foil and put pins in her ears, because they’ve got a wardrobe department who actually put clothes on them. You’ve suddenly got all these resources.

Sometimes you come up with an idea that people look very scared about. In series one, we just wrote the sentence “The dog is having a poo” and it turned out to take half-a-day to film. You have ten fully-grown professional people standing around in the cold in Manchester, watched by passers-by, waiting for a dog to drop its biscuits. Such is the awful, evil power of a writer that you can just sit in the warm and write “The dog is having a poo” and suddenly you’ve ruined someone’s day.

 

Having worked in front of and behind the camera, which do you prefer?

Oh god, no question. You may have noticed that I’m not on television at all now. I presented a TV show when I was 18, and at the time, and I only did that because if you’re offered a TV show when you’re 18, of course you’re going to say yes. But I knew I was a terrible presenter. And this posh voice that I’ve got now – I just started speaking in it as soon as I went on camera, because I was so nervous, and I’ve never been able to break out of it since. Literally, before I went on camera, I had a very broad Wolvo accent. I felt I couldn’t be me on television, and there was a very posh girl on set called Isabel, and she seemed really confident, so I just copied Isabel’s voice. And I’ve literally not been able to shake it since, so you can tell how traumatic an incident it was that it still marks my voice almost 30 years later. It’s just horrible; I don’t know how actors do it. The whole thing of a room going silent and everyone waiting for you to do a thing on camera, and every minute is money. My job is the exact opposite of that. I sit on a chair, nobody has a clue what I’m doing, I’m in my pyjamas, eating sardines out of the tin with my fingers, chain smoking and singing and wandering around talking to myself. That’s my preferred working environment

Do you prevaricate an enormous amount, working from home?

I know a lot of writers who will sit in front of a blank page, or spend all morning hovering between the keys in their keyboard, but I’ve always had so much work I just can’t do that. I’d go mad. I run on anxiety anyway, I’ve always got five or six things on the go, and I’ve worked since I was 13. I come from a poor place, and I’m running from a nameless horror. So every day, I have something to do, and if I haven’t done that then I’m fucked, because I have to do twice as much the next day. I’ve never missed a deadline. I file early.

Were you pleased with the reception of the first series of Raised By Wolves?

Oh God yeah, it was amazing. I’m always waiting, with everything I do, for someone to come up and kick me up the bum and say “Get back to Wolvo.” And it was just across the board amazing reviews. The cover of the Guardian Guide was me and my sister and the two people who were playing us. That’s a pretty surreal moment. Then it broadcast in Canada a couple of months ago, so we started getting all these messages from Canada, asking what all these British slang words meant. And we’re in the process of doing it in America now as well, which is incredibly exciting. It kind of makes more sense there, because home education is much bigger there, and that whole prepping for the apocalypse thing that Della is doing, that’s massive there.

You mentioned getting tweets from Canada. How did the show go down in the bear pit that is Twitter over here?

When the show was on, I just couldn’t go on to Twitter – that’s just a short way to madness – but my husband was filtering it every night, and I had literally four bitchy comments, which, as a woman on Twitter is extraordinary. Given that you can be a woman on Twitter and come on and say “I love you all, here’s a pound, everyone,” and someone will just go “Shut up you fat bitch #mensrights”. So I was astonished.

We did it out of so much love. We love those girls. We want it to reach families like that, working class matriarchs, weird teenage girls, fat teenage girls, angry ginger lesbian girls, weird freaky Goth girls. They never get served anywhere. As a woman, it just does your eyes so much good to see people who look like that on your telly. Often on telly even something that’s really edgy has got women on it who are really toned, and if they’re really stressed, they’re in a little vesty singlet and tiny pants and they’re sitting on their bed with their hair in a bunch and glasses on to look intellectual but still looking hot. And to see someone who’s just dressed in rags and talking about wanking is just so different. Big girls, both in personality and stature, doing stuff and not really doubting themselves and being triumphant. We still don’t have enough of that.

You bust quite a few taboos in the series. Do you enjoy that?

I’ve never seen a taboo that I didn’t want to grab and pull out into the open whilst banging on a pan with a spoon and going “Here’s a taboo, let’s talk about the taboo.” What are taboos? They’re just things that we’ve decided, for whatever reason, we don’t talk about. To which I would add the word “…yet.” Why don’t we? It’s insane that American Pie has gone through eight iterations, an entire franchise based on a man having a wank in a pie, and yet female masturbation is never spoken about. And if you look at teenage girls in this generation, and how fucked up they are sexually, and the majority of their sex education is coming from porn, and it’s all from the male viewpoint, there’s nothing about what you want, you’re just some cock-vessel for some horrible porn star. So to have a teenage girl who looks like that, waking away her grief, trying to encourage her uptight sister to follow suit in a graveyard at a funeral – no, sex is funny!

Are you very conscious of the responsibility you have to younger female viewers when you’re writing the series?

Oh God, constantly. I was raised by media and culture, which is why I’m so hyper-aware of what there is and what there isn’t. And when I wrote How to Be a Woman, I thought it would maybe sell to women of my age, but it was all teenagers who bought that book. It was an astonishing array of girls – really fucked up girls, girls who’d self-harm, girls with eating disorders, girls with anxiety, girls with depression, and then really brilliant beautiful girls who didn’t know what to do with their energy, girls who were ashamed of their sexuality, just this massive parade of girls who didn’t see themselves anywhere, and felt incredibly vulnerable, and would grab on to one thing – one book or CD or film – and that gives them the first tiny platform they’ve got to start building their personality. And I think so much of what women see on television or in magazines makes them feel awful or hectored or lectured to or that their life is a massive fucking to-do list. I’m so conscious of the need to make jokes about it. And when we’ve finished laughing about it, we need to plan the revolution, because I’m not going to have another generation of girls growing up feeling as fucked up and unhappy about themselves as I did.

 

After the success of series one you’ve got you’re the difficult second album syndrome. How did you find writing series 2?

Actually a lot easier – because we knew things like don’t write ‘a dog has a poo.’ We tried to write a scene with a swan and were told not to. Basically, don’t do anything involving livestock. That’s probably a good rule for life anyway. And we knew how to plot things; we became better at that, mastering the technical side so that it worked as a drama as well as a comedy. But whenever anyone gives an answer like that in interviews that I read, I think “That’s incredibly boring, tell me a funny anecdote about you going out and doing a shit load of poppers on Canal Street and falling off a table.” And I did that as well.

So what can fans expect from the series?

Their dad is back, so we get to see how he and Della met, why they broke up, why their kids are how they are. He’s not in it that much, he’s like a wandering albatross that floats into the series but floats back out again, revealing a couple of interesting things. Otherwise – Germaine has become worse! The revelation at the end of the last series that not only would she not have to pay for sex, but that people would pay her for sex, that she could be a prostitute – this has been the bolt of good luck that is all Germaine needed to become truly insufferable. In episode one, she does something so disgusting that everyone presumed it was me, but it was actually Caz’s idea. Germaine has come up with a life hack for attracting boys that is appalling. Aretha has taken her destiny into her own hands and realised that being educated at home is not going to get her out of that house – particularly for the two jobs that she really wants, which is either to be a hermit or a lighthouse keeper. So she goes out and finds a mentor who becomes really important to her. And the person we have in to play that role is such a hero of ours; we are so thrilled to have her on the show. And we also see where Della works, and her boss, who is the other person we are so excited to have on the show. He is amazing, it was his first TV, and we immediately went away and wrote him a bigger part. In three years he’ll have his own sitcom.

Della is an amazing character, beautifully played by Rebekah Staton. When you wrote her, did you mean her to be so sexy?

No! We’d written her as someone quite small, angry and compact, just scrubbing her front doorstep and hating everyone and being very proper at all times. And then Bex came in for the audition and said “I’m just going to drop this in – I’ve just done a film with Clint Eastwood, and I want to play Della like Clint Eastwood.” Her dad was a preacher as well, and I think she plays Della as a cross between a preacher man and a cowboy. And she just brought this incredible physicality to it. To have her to write for is a true, true privilege. She’s amazing. You can just throw anything at her. She has such talent. On set she’s amazing. I’ve visited a lot of sets in my time. The king of being on set has always been David Tennant. On Doctor Who, he knew everyone, was talking to everyone, he’d bring the whole mood up, he’d have lunch with everybody, he’d be joking the whole time. Bex is the only person I’ve ever seen who’s even better than David Tennant. In between every take she’s so funny; it’s like a proper stand-up routine. And she goes round hugging everyone, and she’s looking after all the kids at the same time, she’s like a mum to them. And she’s messing about, and then suddenly she’s standing up delivering these huge speeches, and she’s word-perfect every time. I don’t know how he does it.

 

How important is Wolverhampton in the show. Could it take place anywhere else?

No. It’s a very specific humour that the Midlands has. A friend of mine told me that people from Wolverhampton are what Scousers think they are – very dry, very downbeat, resilient, with a wry humour.

 

You took press on a tour of Wolverhampton before series one. What was that like?

That was amazing. There was one main highlight. Wolverhampton has a massive chapter of the Hell’s Angels – I think the biggest one in the UK. They had a huge club house on Penn Road, it was a terrifying big gothic house with huge gates. And I was explaining to people on the tour bus about this big scary house, and we pulled up opposite, and they’d taken the gates down, had a really lovely sculpted garden, a netball court and a tennis court. It had all been done up. So I explained that it must have been sold, and the guy who worked for the local paper went “no, no, they still live there!” The Hell’s Angels were gentrified. Sarah Beeny must have been in there and given them a lovely colour scheme, all Farrow and Ball.

So do you fancy yourself as a tour guide?

Yeah, it was really good fun. But it’s made easier by the fact that Wolvo has the biggest concentration of characters anywhere. We had a tramp who loved on the roundabout, and had a tent there, and he was there for so long that the council wired him up to the mans, so he could have a fridge, a telly and a satellite dish there. When he died, people found out he’d been a Polish airman in the war, and had been in a concentration camp, where he’d been terribly traumatised, so he didn’t want to be around people any more. So he lived on this roundabout. And there are loads of Sikhs in Wolverhampton, and their philosophy is that anyone who decides to be a hermit is a holy man. So people from the Sikh community would leave him food every day, which he hated, because he didn’t like spicy food, so he complained about it. That’s so Wolvo. Then there was a guy called Barry the God, who walked around with a gold cup on a chain, and who had apparently seen God; there was The Cowboy, who walked around dressed as a cowboy at all times; there was The Preacher Man, who wore a bowler hat and would get on the buses and start reading the bible to everyone. It’s a very interesting place, is Wolvo.

Interview with thanks to those at Channel 4.

 

Celebrities Turn Out For Crisis At Christmas Charity Casino Fundraiser…

It’s around about now on Christmas Day that family come together for Christmas dinner, reflect on the year and look forward to a new one, all washed down with a glass of Bucks Fizz and Auntie Maur’s mince pies.

But Christmas can be an incredibly difficult time of year for a person cut off from family and home.

Crisis at Christmas, every year, provides companionship and support to tackle loneliness and isolation, helping people take their first steps out of homelessness.

With two new centres set to open their doors this year, Crisis need over 10,000 volunteers to make Crisis at Christmas happen for thousands of homeless people. As well as warmth, companionship and hot meals, centres in London, Birmingham, Newcastle, Coventry and Edinburgh will provide guests with healthcare and specialist advice on housing, work and benefits.

With this in mind, Jeremy Reeve, who heads up PowerPackXL Ltd (a Cambridge-based manufacturer of unique patented mobile phone chargers), wanted to raise some much needed funds for the charity, so set about using some of his contacts to build a night of fun and laughter to raise some cash for the charity. The number one call on Jeremy’s list was British actor Tony Fadil, as Jeremy knew he was the man when it came to filling a room with celebrities! Tony instantly took on the role and put in the hard work needed to run a VIP list and fill the room.

Many well known faces from TV, film and music turned out earlier in December for a charity casino night in aid of Crisis at Christmas, held in the famous White Room at the Grosvenor Barracuda Casino in London’s Baker Street – the perfect backdrop to a memorable night.

With free-to-play casino tables, guests enjoyed roulette, blackjack and poker, all played for fun. The evening then continued with a charity auction and raffle, in total, raising £2,312.65, all heading off to the charity to be put to use helping London’s homeless this Christmas.

Jeremy Reeve the MD of PowerPackXL has volunteered with Crisis, the single persons homeless charity, for the last five years, working in London during the Christmas week, where Crisis run a number of centres looking after guests.

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 VIP guests included:

Jaye Gamm, Gerry Todd, Marc Zammit, Paul J Lane, Wayne Gordon (ITV’s Gladiators), Sean Cronin, Kellie Barclay, Hayley Louise, Fergus Gaddes, Dean Maskell, Niqi Bupsie (X Factor 2015), Derry Luca Mensah (X Factor), Paul Manners, Old Men Grooving (Britain’s Got Talent), Simon Gross (Big Brother 2015), Heavy D, Angie Brown (solo artist), Cream Boomtown (TV Reality Star from BBC3, MTV, SKY TV, & Hip Hop Artist famous for hit single ‘Daddy Kool’), James Lewis (ITV’s Deals Wheels & Steals),  Dave O’Donnell (UCMMA Promoter), Flint Bedrock (CEO of YSBG Management), Becky O’Brien, Colin Chapman (Author), Colin Marker (Percy Publishing) Nuraya Kokos CEO Baby KoKos Events Limited (PA to Jethro Sheeran),  Carl Charlesworth (magician), stand-up comedian Simon Hussein, and a host of look-a-likes and people from the industry.

After spending a week volunteering at a Crisis at Christmas centre, Jeremy, who has volunteered for the last five years, quoted on his Facebook page yesterday:

“337 hot meals were served at my ‪#‎CrisisXmas‬ centre in East London tonight – 100% of the guests smiling!  Your donations MADE A DIFFERENCE!”

So, join Jeremy and make a difference this Christmas…. donate at:

http://m.virginmoneygiving.com/mt/uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=PowerPackXLJeremyReeve&un_jtt_redirect

Crisis at Christmas 2015 runs from 23 – 30 December 2015.

www.crisis.org.uk/pages/christmas

Images courtesy Shane Finn (Visual Devotion)

It’s A Sell Out! Reunited G4 Kick Off Christmas By Candlelight Tour At Norwich Cathedral… And They’re Back For Good!

12237978_933181093432738_5780502636782948966_oReunited after seven years, consummate crowd pleasers, G4,  know how to put on a show.

Having reformed in November 2014 for a ‘One Night Only’ show in London, G4 quickly realised that a public appetite for more G4 was definitely still there.

With the occasional prom feel and doo-wop backbone, their harmonious blends had the Norwich Cathedral spire in a spin and the roof bosses twitching, with the handsome wooden arches and stained glass acting as the perfect backdrop for this sell-out performance, the first of their Christmas By Candlelight tour.

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G4 made good on their promise to fill the set full of G4 classics as well as tracks from the ‘Christmas By Candlelight’ album, offering up ‘Danny Boy’ and ‘You Raise Me Up’, backed up by accompanying guitarist and pianist, combining in acoustical heaven.

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In their younger years, churches and choir singing played a huge role in group’s Christmas experiences.

With that in mind, G4 were inspired to run a singing competition called Christmas Star Search, designed to identify talented young singers under the age of 16.  The winner (to open the tour in Norwich and close the tour in Brighton), was Toby Peters, who joined the group onstage to sing the first verse of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’.

The Cathedral fell silent, a pitch-perfect performance.

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With their truly immersive and harmonious blends, they were joined by the Norwich Rock Choir for ‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’ – a haunting performance, synonymous with the reputation of this exuberant collection of beautiful singers who went on to accompany with exceptional harmonies.

This was the 21st time the Rock Choir have performed with G4, celebrating their 10th anniversary this year with a fantastic collaboration with the reunited group.

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Throughout the tour, a member of the audience is invited on stage to be serenaded by the group, a genuine touching indication of the passion G4 feel towards their loyal audience. uHYy7-3xcrUZBRqSnHiKAtRTsBy1zoTSAlFgQ0t-klg

This was the 21st time the Rock Choir have performed with G4, celebrating their 10th anniversary this year with a fantastic collaboration with the reunited group.

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Opening the second half with ‘Silent Night’ from the back of the Cathedral, the quartet respectfully stepped down the main aisle to the haunting pipes of Norwich Cathedral organ.

Since reuniting, G4 have played to over 15,000 this year alone and dedicated their last song, ‘Bring Him Home’ (Les Misérables), to all people with missing friends and family.

Ending the show with a medley of Christmas favourites, the sing-along audience were left in no doubt that Christmas was just around the corner and G4 were back for good… which suggests that niceness really does go a long way.

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With a series of eight shows in beautiful churches and cathedrals nationwide, these intimate shows see Jonathan, Ben, Mike and Nick share the songs from their eagerly-awaited new album, “G4 Christmas” including Christmas classics and carols, all delivered up-close and personal in some of the UK’s most iconic historic venues. “G4 Christmas”, G4’s fourth album, created with Pledge Music, released on 16th November.

Purchase your copy here: http://goo.gl/5KzKFU

Remaining tour dates:

25th November 2015, 7.30pm LINCOLN Cathedral

27th November 2015, 7.30pm BIRMINGHAM St Paul’s Church

7th December 2015, 7.30pm LONDON St James’s Church Piccadilly

14th December 2015, 7.30pm EDINBURGH Greyfriars Kirk

18th December 2015, 7.30pm BRIGHTON St George’s Church

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This is G4’s fourth album, recorded in one of London’s historic churches where the natural acoustic enables the human voice to truly shine.

 

 #HomeForChristmas #G4ChristmasStarSearch #G4Christmas

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Due to the overwhelming demand for G4, they are delighted to return to the stage in 2016 with their new and exciting ‘Back For Good’ tour, which is set to further showcase their flawless vocals in even more towns and cities nationwide.

Join G4 in what promises to be yet another spellbinding performance. Tickets now on sale! Available direct from the venues below: 3rd April 2016, 7.30pm POOLE The Lighthouse 0844 406 8666  Buy Tickets 4th April 2016, 7.30pm IPSWICH Regent Theatre 01473 433100 Buy Tickets 5th April 2016, 7.30pm – CROYDON Fairfield Halls 020 8688 9291 Buy Tickets 6th April 2016, 7.30pm SKEGNESS Embassy Theatre 01507 613100  Buy Tickets 7th April 2016, 7.30pm DORKING Halls 01306 881717  Buy Tickets 8th April 2016, 7.30pm LONDON Cadogan Hall 020 7730 4500  Buy Tickets 10th April 2016, 7.30pm AYLESBURY The Waterside 0844 871 7607  Buy Tickets 11th April 2016, 7.30pm BIRMINGHAM Town Hall 0121 345 0600  Buy Tickets 12th April 2016, 7.30pm LEEDS City Varieties 0113 243 0808  Buy Tickets 13th April 2016, 7.30pm PORTSMOUTH Guildhall 0844 847 2362  Buy Tickets 17th April 2016, 9.00pm EASTLEIGH Concorde Club 023 8065 1478  Buy Tickets 18th April 2016, 7.30pm TORQUAY Princess Theatre 0844 871 3023 Buy Tickets 19th April 2016, 7.30pm STOKE Victoria Hall 0844 871 7649  Buy Tickets 20th April 2016, 7.30pm GRIMSBY Auditorium 0300 300 0035  Buy Tickets 21st April 2016, 7.30pm – FOLKESTONE Leas Cliff Hall – 0844 871 3015  Buy Tickets

g4christmas

About G4…

G4 are a four-piece British vocal troupe who first came to prominence when they finished second in Series 1 of The X Factor in 2004, and are known for their operatic delivery of modern pop songs. Originally a barbershop quartet,[1] the members met at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, from which the name G4, standing for “Guildhall 4”, derives.

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Jonathan Ansell will be appearing in  http://www.chesterfieldtheatres.co.uk/shows/snow-white-the-seven-dwarfs-pantomime-(schools).aspx#.VlYV6eFOdaQ from Tuesday 8th December to Thursday 17th December 2015.

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About Rock Choir…

Rock Choir is the UK’s largest and most popular contemporary choir, with nearly 20,000 members in over 320 local communities nationwide.  It offers adults and teenagers the chance to sing and perform popular contemporary songs, with no auditions and no requirements to read music or have any previous singing experience.  Rock Choir is for anyone who just loves to sing!  The choir’s popularity is phenomenal and its achievements are extraordinary.  It has released two top twenty albums and performed en-masse at the 02 Arena (London), the Liverpool Echo Arena, Wembley Arena, Hammersmith Apollo, NEC and the Royal Albert Hall.  In 2011, Rock Choir was the subject of a popular 3-part ITV1 documentary ‘The Choir That Rocks’ and has made numerous other TV appearances, including BBC Breakfast, The One Show, Good Morning Britain, The Paul O’Grady Show and The Alan Titchmarsh Show.  Rock Choir’s uplifting ethos of fun, friendship and community spirit is a huge part of its attraction.  At an individual level, it helps improve people’s self-confidence, enables them to develop new singing skills and enjoy a dynamic new social life.  Singing together and achieving such a great sound gives members a huge sense of fulfilment.  Added to this is the glamour and excitement of performing in public, which, for many, is a truly liberating experience!

www.rockchoir.com

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About Missing People Home for Christmas Appeal…

Jo Youle, Chief Executive of the charity Missing People says “We’re thrilled to have been chosen by the wonderful G4 boys as their charity partner for the Christmas album and tour.  Not only will their powerful and inspirational voices uplift and inspire us, they are also supporting our Home for Christmas Appeal which will help us to offer a lifeline to missing people and their families at what can be an incredibly lonely and heartbreaking time of year.”  Every two minutes, someone goes missing in the UK.  For their families the thought of Christmas without them is heartbreaking.  The charity Missing People offers a lifeline when someone disappears, bringing missing adults and children home to their loved ones and supporting the families left behind.  Missing People’s Home for Christmas Appeal is aiming to raise £20,000 to help the charity provide their vital helpline at the most difficult time of the year.  G4 will be supporting the Home for Christmas Appeal by holding a series of collections at their Christmas By Candlelight tour.

For more information about the appeal, visit: www.missingpeopleorg.uk/homeforchristmas

Facebook: missingpeople.uk

Twitter: @missingpeople  #homeforchristmas

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About Norwich Cathedral…

Norwich Cathedral is an English cathedral located in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. It is the cathedral church for the Church of England Diocese of Norwich and is one of the Norwich 12 heritage sites.

The cathedral was begun in 1096 and constructed out of flint and mortar and faced with a cream-coloured Caen limestone. A Saxon settlement and two churches were demolished to make room for the buildings. The cathedral was completed in 1145 with the Norman tower still seen today topped with a wooden spire covered with lead. Several episodes of damage necessitated rebuilding of the east end and spire but since the final erection of the stone spire in 1480 there have been few fundamental alterations to the fabric.

The large cloister has over 1,000 bosses including several hundred carved and ornately painted ones.

Norwich Cathedral has the second largest cloisters, only outsized by Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral close is one of the largest in England and one of the largest in Europe and has more people living within it than any other close. The cathedral spire, measuring at 315 ft or 96 m, is the second tallest in England despite being partly rebuilt after being struck by lightning in 1169, just 23 months after its completion, which led to the building being set on fire. Measuring 461 ft or 140.5 m long and, with the transepts, 177 ft or 54 m wide at completion, Norwich Cathedral was the largest building in East Anglia.

e: reception@cathedral.org.uk

 

Tour images courtesy of Shane Finn at www.visual-devotion.co.uk

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ITV’s Deals Wheels & Steals Wrap Party… Going Into Overdrive!

Tuesday 20th October saw an ITV wrap party like no other…

Cast members and the production team (Attaboy TV Limited) of ITV’s prime-time weekly show Deals, Wheels and Steals, joined 120 invited guests to celebrate the completion of filming the successful six-episode series now being aired on ITV (Tuesdays, 7:30pm)

The show has proved to be an instant success amongst the UK viewing public, with six dealers (Melody Munday, Manny Hayre, James Lewis, Scott Mahoney, Paul Wenham and Walter Chrobok) being set the challenge of bidding on a trio of auction-room duffers each week. They must then restore them to roadworthy standard and strive to sell them on at a profit. Along the way, viewers are treated to an insightful, and sometimes humorous, observation of the hard graft and drama that goes into auctioneering a used car.

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Hosted at Haz Bar (64 Bishopsgate, London, EC2N 4AJ) by Nuraya Kokos (Baby Kokos), guests were entertained by DJ Glen Campbell and enjoyed exclusive live performances by Angie Brown, Lydia Lucy White, Samantha Kay, David Lee Andrews, Ray Lewis and Cream Boomtown.

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VIP attendees included: Paddy Doherty (Winner of Celebrity Big Brother 8), Simon Gross (Mr Showbiz, Big Brother 2015), Dale Pinnock, PYT (X Factor), Gavin Ramjuan (This Morning), Kevin Leslie (Rise of the Krays), Dane Bowers, The Dreamboys, Whealdstone Raider, Markus Roberts-Clarke (international model), Ray Lewis (original member of The Drifters).

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The guests were treated to a selection of commissioned toffee crumble, raspberry ripple and chocolate cupcakes by Julie Matthews (Julie Scrumptious Cakes) www.juliescrumptiouscakes.co.uk, with the VIP guests enjoying Laurent Perrier Champagne aperitifs.

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Images: Shane Finn at Visual Devotion

 

 

About Deals, Wheels and Steals…

The programme sets six dealers the challenge of bidding on a trio of auction-room duffers each week. They must then restore them to roadworthy standard and strive to sell them on at a profit. Along the way, viewers are treated to an insightful, and sometimes humorous, observation of the hard graft and drama that goes into auctioneering a used car.

Banter, bull and barmy optimism: welcome to the fast-moving, smooth-talking world of Britain’s best…and worst second hand car dealers. In a world full of faceless cyber shopping one small group of likely lads and ladies revels in the age-old art of face-to-face buying and selling…the second hand car dealers. In every show we will feature very different dealers as they survive on their wits and chase their dreams.

From used Porsche specialists to the denizens of rough and ready bailiff auctions their methods are the same – buy low, sell high and never concede you are offering anything other than a peach. Deals, Wheels and Steals is a fascinating and funny window into the world of one of Britain’s iconic trades – a tribe that we all think we know but turns out to be full of surprises. Heart-warming and uplifting the second hand car dealers will have us talking, laughing and groaning – as they put their game faces on, prepare to do battle and take on the world one car at a time.

www.facebook.com/DealsWheelsAndSteals

About Haz Bar…

In the heart of Bishopsgate, this timeless Mediterranean restaurant is a modern classic offering the finest dining experience in London, but the endlessly reinvented food is what you come for. Enter through the historical doorway and you find yourself in a hallowed, gold-lit space of high ceilings, mirrored walls and wooden floor. Diners tuck into meze platters and mouth watering charcoal lamb dishes and more at cosy wood tables or red-leather booths in the main dining area.

While designer-clad women and suited men wait their turn sipping cocktails and champagne at the elegant marble bar at the entrance, the bar is offering variety of nibbles and bar snacks. The raw bar is superb, as is the wine list.

www.hazrestaurant.co.uk/haz-bishopgate

JUSTIFIED: THE FINAL SEASON Three Copies To Giveaway | Competition

JUSTIFIED- THE FINAL SEASON Three Copies To Giveaway Competition

Witness the epic conclusion to the modern-day police drama when JUSTIFIED: THE FINAL SEASON debuts on DVD Oct 5 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Timothy Olyphant returns one last time as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, a man who attempts to bring law and order back to Harlan County. Based on Elmore Leonard’s short story, “Fire in the Hole,” this critically acclaimed series from Sony Pictures Television and Bluebush Productions comes to a head in the series’ final hours with a standoff between Raylan and his longtime enemy, Boyd Crowder, played by Walton Goggins (Sons of Anarchy). JUSTIFIED: THE FINAL SEASON never lets up with its gun-slinging action and renegade style of justice.Available as a three-disc set, JUSTIFIED: THE FINAL SEASON will include all 13 episodes, plus a behind-the-scenes featurette called “Hollywood to Harlan,” giving fans an inside look as to how the writers of Justified did research in Kentucky for the final season.JUSTIFIED: THE FINAL SEASON features an extraordinary ensemble cast, including Olyphant, Nick Searcy (Hawaii Five-0), Jere Burns (Bates Motel), Joelle Carter (Castle), Jacob Pitts (Person of Interest), Erica Tazel (The Office), Walton Goggins (Django Unchained) and more.JUSTIFIED: THE COMPLETE SERIES is also available on DVD October 5, just in time for must-have Christmas gift lists. The box set will include the full 78 episodes with all previously released bonus material, including deleted scenes, commentary with cast and crew and extensive featurettes.

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TOWIE Star Jessica Wright reveals debut footwear collection!

Jessica-Wright-reveals-debut-footwear-collectionTOWIE star Jessica Wright has announced the launch of her debut footwear collection for autumn/winter 2015.

The collaboration with Lacey’s Footwear launches on August 19.

The first collection consists of 25 shoe styles ranging from court designs to winter boots.

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Jessica was involved in every part of the collection’s design process from start to finish thus every style in this collection is Jessica’s personal design and personal choice.

The Jessica Wright AW15 footwear collection will be available from August 19 online at jessicawrightfootwear.co.uk, Lipsy, House Of Fraser Online and other independent retailers.

Prices range from £54 to £70.

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www.jessicawrightfootwear.co.uk
@JessicaWShoes
#JessicaWrightShoes

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corinne@frostmagazine.com

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