Interviews with Matt and David

» Interview 1

Whose idea was it for making this popular radio program into a Television program and were you worried that by making it for television, it might not have been as funny as it was when it was just audio only. Are you pleased that the transition from radio to TV has paid off big time?

Matt: We always hoped the show would make it on to TV and it was always conceived as both a radio and TV show. We were keen for the TV transfer to be a show in its own right, though, and not seem like it was a show that used to be on radio. The temptation is just to use your radio scripts but actually you have a whole visual side to explore, so we always tried to make the visual side as big a part of the TV show as the verbal side. I think the TV and radio shows are actually pretty different.

David: We always wanted to do the show on TV but we knew we would have to prove it could work on radio first. It was also as great way for us to find out which sketches worked and which didn't. I would recommend that anyone who wants to do comedy on TV to do radio first. I am pleased with the show as I think it looks great. Steve Bendelack the director has done a great job. The best of the radio show is out as a CD to buy in November if you haven't heard it.

How do you go about writing Little Britain? Who writes what? For example, does David write for Des Kaye and Matt write for Marjorie Dawes, just because you play the characters? Or do you write for each other?

Matt: We tend to come up with ideas separately and then write them up together.

David: We sit in a room for months trying to think of funny things. We write everything together though one of us will normally have provided the germ of the idea.

Seeing as a lot of comedy shows now have dubbed audience noise, why did you decide to have an audience watching the show as it was performed?

Matt: Much of the show was filmed on location and then we had five nights when we filmed stuff in front of the audience (eg Daffyd in the pub, the PM and Sebastian, Mollie Sugden's bridesmaid, Edward and Samantha and Ray McClooney). We also showed all the location stuff to the audience. The laughter you hear is their response (not canned). In fact, sometimes we have to turn the laughter down, or it gets a bit intrusive. THAT’S how hilarious we are.

David: I have always liked shows that have laughter in them and I think me and Matt work well in front of an audience. The humour is quite broad too so I think it suits an audience.

When the script is finally edited, who has the final word on what stays in and what gets left out?

David: We worked on the scripts with our script editor Mark Gatiss and producer Myfanwy Moore so it was always a group decision.

How did director Steve Bendelack get involved with the show?

Matt: We used to do 'Little Britain' on radio and Graham Linehan heard it and championed it, and wanted to direct a TV pilot, but was always clear from the start that he had lots of other commitments and so he wouldn’t be able to do a full series. Steve was the natural choice - we loved his work on 'The League Of Gentlemen'. He’s a brilliant director and also just a very nice guy, always warm and friendly.

David: I had worked with Steve on 'Ted and Alice' and always admired his work on 'The Royle Family' and 'The League Of Gentlemen' so was keen to work with him. He saw the pilot and liked it and agreed to do it.

Where do you get your ideas from? Do you both imagine them all, or do you know some very strange people that you base them on?

Matt: We have Barry Cryer tied up in the cellar.

David: Out of our heads, though lots are based on people we know or have been told about.

Whose idea was it for making this popular radio program into a television program and were you worried that by making it for television, it might not have been as funny as it was when it was just audio only. Are you pleased that the transition from radio to TV has paid off big time?

Matt: We always hoped the show would make it on to TV and it was always conceived as both a radio and TV show. We were keen for the TV transfer to be a show in its own right, though, and not seem like it was a show that used to be on radio. The temptation is just to use your radio scripts but actually you have a whole visual side to explore, so we always tried to make the visual side as big a part of the TV show as the verbal side. I think the TV and radio shows are actually pretty different.

David: We always wanted to do the show on TV but we knew we would have to prove it could work on radio first. It was also a great way for us to find out which sketches worked and which didn't. I would recommend that anyone who wants to do comedy on TV to do radio first. I am pleased with the show as I think it looks great. Steve Bendelack the director has done a great job. The best of the radio show is out as a CD to buy in November if you haven't heard it.

Who is your favourite character to play and why?

Matt: I like playing Andy because Dave has to push me around all day. I also like doing Bernard Chumley, because that was the first character I ever did. Both characters have very flattering costumes and make-ups too, so I know that when people see me as Andy and Bernard they will write in and offer their bodies.

David: For me Sebastian, it's so much fun working with Tony Head.

David, have you ever had a mad pash for any prime minister?

David: Ooh where to begin? John Major, Margaret Thatcher, Ted Heath. In truth I don't think we would have written the sketch if we didn't think Tony Blair was a bit dishy.

Matt, is Marjorie just like anyone you know? Have you modelled them on her? Would you like her as your real mother?

Matt: I joke to my mum that Marjorie is like her although she isn’t really. My mum is a very nice lady and a lot better spoken than Marj too. But she has entered into that culture of dieting, in that she’s one of those people who goes to Slimming World even though they’re not actually remotely overweight.

Matt, of all of the things that you've done in your career, what are you most proud of, and why?

Matt: I think me and Dave did some pretty crazy stuff on stage when we started working together in the mid-90’s. Quite anarchic stuff. We were young and fearless. We used to perform at the Edinburgh Festival at midnight and we had all sorts of hecklers but we always took them on.

There’s a sitcom that we piloted a few years called ‘Crazy Jonathan’s’ which didn’t really work but I’m still quite proud of some of the writing we did on that, actually.

I also enjoyed writing original songs in the last 2 series of Shooting Stars and last year I played Leigh Bowery in Boy George’s musical Taboo, and I adored doing that. It was so different to anything else I’d done.

Do you get recognised a lot? And what do you REALLY think about your fans?

Matt: People do recognise me but they usually think I am Mark Lamarr. They pass by and shout "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" at me, to which I usually reaply "Yeah, never mind ‘em, they’ll be okay." Sometimes people tell me loudly in public that I was the Tango man too.

David: I don't get recognised much, and am very happy with that. The fans I have met have all been delightful.

» 60 Second Interview with David Walliams

Are you now inserting 'award-winning' before your name?

Not really. You don't really think about it until you're nominated, and then you really, really want to win it.

When they announced your name, was it a feeling of humility or 'about bloody time'?

The Comedy Awards is a strange one because, as much as it's an awards ceremony, it's an entertainment show on television. You're expected to bring something out of the bag - it's more important to be funny than to win. The biggest star that night was Ricky Gervais, who, while he was giving out an award, proved he was the funniest person in the country.

You've been around for a while now

Yes, I'm not quite a newcomer. It's me coming into the public's attention, so I'm not going to give it back [laughs]. It's not that exciting but I'm not one of those people who says: 'Oh, I'm just going to use it as a doorstop.' It's got pride of place on the mantlepiece.

How long have you and Matt been working together?

Our first Edinburgh show was in 1995. Then we did a live show for two years, then bits and pieces on TV. Rock Profiles was the first thing we did together that people took notice of, then we did Little Britain on Radio 4 for two series, and now it's come to TV, which makes it feel as if it was worth all the beavering away over those years.

Do you and Matt miss working with one another when you do solo projects?

Yeah. We spend a lot of the year together. To write a series takes about six months, and then to film it takes about three months, and we're kind of living in each other's pockets. When we're writing together it's just two of us in a room, so it is quite an intimate relationship in a lot of ways. We compliment each other quite well, certainly creatively.

What would you say Matt's best point is?

He takes a lot of risks. He will do some things that are fearless. He'll push things that bit further than anyone else and not be scared of people not thinking he's funny. He really goes for it. I've never seen him shy or unable to bring something out of himself.

What would he say your worst point is?

I make him work, while he would rather sit and chat about Arsenal. I'm a bit of a bully.

How do you come up with the characters?

Generally, we'll keep notes - all the time my ears are alert. Then we start working together and we'll talk about it, and if we're enjoying it and finding it funny, we'll write it together. It's only really if both of us find it funny that it continues.

Do you ever get moody if a character gets canned?

It doesn't happen much. What we try to do is not make too many decisions about who's going to play what. The characters have their own lives, so it's not a case of: 'I'm playing this one and you're playing that one.' That can be quite destructive at an early stage. I know there are characters that I've done that haven't been very good. I once heard someone say the reason the Pet Shop Boys have been together so long is because there are no egos in that band. It's a good lesson to learn. What's important is the creative partnership, not who's got the most lines or the best laughs.

Do you have a favourite character?

I enjoy Lou and Andy, when I'm the carer and he's in the wheelchair, and the character who's in love with the Prime Minister, he's a lot of fun to play - Anthony Head [who plays the PM] is brilliant to bounce off. He's such a fantastic actor. I like the big showy ones, like Emily the transvestite.

When I interviewed Tom Baker, his monologues were outstanding.

It's amazing. It's like he's talking in some sort of poetry. I'd like to do a chat show where Tom Baker is the guest every week. I've never met a more fascinating man. The thing is, are his stories real or made up? They're always a bit of both. His contribution to the show is brilliant. I think he enjoys the naughtiness. We put quite a lot of horrible things into his mouth. One was: 'What drags Britain down is fat people. They're rude, they're heavy and they smell.' Tom was absolutely relishing every second. We wouldn't say it, so we put it in to someone else's mouth; and he hadn't written it, so he could get away with it.

Is television a more restrictive or expansive medium than radio?

I find it more expansive, because me and Matt always had a strong visual sense. When we were doing the radio show we would be pulling faces, and feeling a bit constrained. We're both funny looking as well, so I never felt constraint going onto TV - that was the natural environment. It was good to do it on radio first, because it made us sharpen up the writing. You need that on radio, you can't just pull a funny face. The things I love in the TV show are completely visual, but that's probably because they're new.

I suppose it gives you both a chance to get into the dressing-up cupboard?

Yeah, we both enjoy that. I've always liked French and Saunders for that - when they come on dressed as somebody, normally somebody they're spoofing, that's the first laugh. I think that's glorious, to make yourself look ludicrous, and we're certainly not scared of that.

Have you had any complaints from people you've lampooned?

No. People tend to pride themselves on having a sense of humour - though I'd be embarrassed meeting Gary Barlow, who got it royally on Rock Profiles. Somehow, Matt playing Gary Barlow really took off in our minds. We spent more time spoofing him than anyone else. I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley.

What was Jamie Theakston like?

Great. He's a consummate professional - very, very funny and very, very silly. The three of us made it work. A lot of the comedy is in his reactions, and he placed them all perfectly. All three of us were in the National Youth Theatre, but I didn't know Jamie then. We've all come from acting, and it's good he's gone back to it.

You used to write scripts for Ant 'n' Dec. A dark secret?

No, I love those two - God, I must stop being so over-enthusiastic! They were marvellous. We were on the Ant 'n' Dec show - the first thing they did after Byker Grove. I loved it, but I was always trying to get in the sketches, and that made me realise I couldn't just be a writer. They're a joy to write for, and brilliantly funny.

You had to change your name for Equity. Do you know what the other David Williams is doing?

I have no idea. I imagine there were lots of people called David Williams trying to get into acting. You can't have two people with the same name in Equity. It's strange, but I suppose there's some reason for it. It doesn't happen everywhere, because the composer of our music is called David Arnold, who is a big film composer, and there's another David Arnold who composed the music to Live and Kicking, and often they get each other's cheques. I suppose it's for those reasons.

Have you had bank accounts, passports etc. changed?

No I haven't. I didn't really want to do that. All my cheques say David Walliams on them, and I pay them in and my bank never says anything.

How was EastEnders?

Like stepping inside television. I adore Shane Richie, and I got to do most of my scenes with him. He was an absolute pleasure to work with. I had a great time, and got to watch myself on telly on Christmas day.

How about your family?
It's a bit of an ordeal. They have to sit there with big grins on their faces like they're really enjoying it. I'm quite glad I was involved in that storyline, but it feels a bit bizarre. I hope people said: 'There's that bloke who dresses up as a lady in that sketch show. I didn't know he could do that as well.'

There's all these rumours about the EastEnders cast turning up to work drunk. Did you follow suit?

No. I'm going to be boring, but I've never seen people as professional as they were. It's horrible they get written about like that, because it's totally untrue. They work really hard. A lot of them said to me: 'How long are you here for?' I'd reply: 'Four days,' and they'd say: 'That's how I started, and I've been here ten years.' I didn't realise how famous they were, and then I picked up the News of the World and not only are they on telly but in there too.

Did you get a drumroll moment?

I actually got two 'doff doffers', as they're known amongst the cast. At the end of the first one, I got: 'Is there anyone here present who knows why these two cannot be joined in matrimony.' And the second 'doff doffer' was just everybody dancing in the snow. Two episodes, two 'doff doffers'.

How much better than that can life get?

It can't. It truly can't.

» Quick Stop Entertainment: An Interview with David Walliams

I guess you’ve had a long day of interviews…

We’ve had a few this afternoon, but it’s been fun and we did some photographs with Martin Parr. Do you know him? He’s a quite famous British photographer. He’s great. So that’s from American GQ so we were quite happy about that. We’ve had a few this afternoon, but it’s been fun and we did some photographs with Martin Parr. Do you know him? He’s a quite famous British photographer. He’s great. So that’s from American so we were quite happy about that.

So the freight train has not slowed down at all…

No, it hasn’t. We’ve just come off a tour - we’ve just done a 140 day tour of Britain. We’ve stopped that, but we’ve got loads of things to do. We’re making a Christmas special of Little Britain for the BBC at the moment, so it doesn’t stop for us.

When we last talked, you were in rehearsals for the live show.

Yeah, so that must have been October then.

Now that the live show is over, were you surprised by the reaction that it got? Because it was quite popular…

Yeah, it was great. And it kind of grew as we went along. We ended up playing, like, arenas for 10 or 12 thousand people. So yeah, it’s been extraordinary.

And that was the first time you had done a major live show like that, right?

Yeah. It’s on quite a big scale. It was stunning. It’s kind of weird when you’re in it, you know, for me, because you’re just dealing with each new gig. But the first time we stepped out in front of 12,000 people in Manchester was amazing. An amazing feeling. Our first gig was like four people in an art center in north London, which was about 10 years ago. So it was really only at the curtain call that it really hit me. ‘Cause that’s when suddenly all the lights went on and I could feel the audience, “Oh my god, we have actually come quite a long way and this is pretty amazing.”

Did you envision that it would get this far?

No, not for a minute. But then, you don’t… I never really think of it in those terms. I always just think, “Oh it’ll be good to do a funny show and make people laugh” rather than thinking, “I’d like to do a show that will get this amount of viewers or do a tour and play to this amount of people.” I’ve never been too worried by those kind of things. I just liked doing what I thought was funny, and that I was proud of. And beyond that, it’s hard to think in those terms. It’s a mistake thinking in those terms, as well.

When the lights come up and you see the audience and the power that the show has, and the characters have, does that in any way affect you, creatively? When you went back after the success of series one to do series two, did that success ever have a creative influence on you, knowing the popularity?

Not really. I mean, only that you know when you put the show in front of a live audience you go, “Oh, this character’s more popular than we thought, and maybe this one isn’t as popular as we thought.” And so it may be, you know, just shock… maybe you think, “Oh, okay, maybe people would want to see more of this or that,” but not really, no. It doesn’t. We can only sort of do what we find funny. Do you know what I mean? You can’t think, “Well, I’ll try and do what people find funny,” ‘cause it doesn’t’ really work that way.

Is there any character that you are surprised didn’t get the reaction that you hoped it would?

I think it’s hard to say… and that’s always a negative thing to say, but yeah. Some characters, we thought, “Oh, no, you know, they will go down well,” but some we thought, “Oh, that went down better than expected.”

Were you in any way surprised by the backlash that the third series got?

I was disappointed. Now people are looking for problems, you know, but it didn’t affect the show’s popularity. We got nine million viewers on BBC 1, which was kind of unheard of, and played to 800,000 people on our tour, and as far as the reviews, it’s just what kinda happens, really. I think the problem in Britain is that the show that people most hold in esteem is Fawlty Towers. And the problem is that people think it’s amazing because there are only 12 episodes. Now, I just think it’s amazing ‘cause it’s an amazing program. Just brilliantly funny. And I could have watched it for longer, but people kind of think… they’re almost annoyed with you for doing more than 12 episodes. You know, people were coming to us all the time and saying, “Don’t stop doing what you’re doing.” People want to see more, but you can almost think you’ve done something wrong - like 12 is this kind of magic number with a comedy show, and if you do any more than that you’re sort of finished.

Do you think what Ricky (Gervais) did with The Office unfortunately reinforced that idea?

Yeah, I think so… yeah. I think, again, that he suffered from the same kind of thing, in a way, which was there was so much hype, that you’re almost scared of… you’ve been so lauded, it’s become so popular, that you become a bit scared that it’s gonna turn. But we’ve always just made the show for kind of ourselves and for people who want to watch it. And so that was what was guiding it for me. Not the fear of, “Oh my god, we might get a bad review.” ‘Cause we’ve had bad reviews before. We’ve been to the Edinburgh Festival and had bad reviews. That’s what happens. And by the time the reviews are written the show’s done anyway and it’s out there, and in a way it can’t harm you that much, because they’re not gonna take it off air ‘cause it got a bad review.

At what point do you look at it and go, “Now it’s time to walk away…”? Not from Little Britain per se, but particular characters?

When we’re not finding it funny anymore. When we’re kind of thinking, “Well actually, this isn’t kind of getting our creative juices flowing anymore.” That to me would be the time. And then it’s kind of when we’re ready to do that. But I’d hate to think we don’t perform any of these Little Britain characters again.

Certainly in the transition from series one to series two were characters that were left behind…

Yeah, characters got left behind from series two to three, and then there were new characters in series three. But I do think there’s a core of about six or eight characters that people really like and really want to see. And they provide a backbone to the series. You do see Marjorie as she’s with her fat fighters group again, but I kind of think, “Well if something different is happening next week, it doesn’t really bother me.” You know what I mean? I kind of think, “Well it’s a good character and I want to see her again.”

What character is most comfortable to you at this point?

Most comfortable to play?

To play or write for.

I like playing Lou in the Lou and Andy scenes. I feel that I kind of know him quite well now. I enjoyed playing Carol Beer on stage because she doesn’t move. So I can just have a sit down for a couple of minutes, which is nice. They’re all enjoyable. I think in doing this show, the live shows 70 times, is that you find you like different ones on different nights. You particularly feel, “Oh yeah, I was really on it tonight. I really knew what I was doing with this character.” And then the character that doesn’t make a big impact on the TV show, who’s in the first series, called Des Kaye… a sort of failed children’s entertainer. And we do that in the live show. Get people out of the audience. And I love doing that one, even though that’s not one that people even, I don’t think, remember. But because it has a sort of spontaneity to it and it’s always different every night, and ended up normally with someone… one of the audience members with their trousers around their ankles and me on top of them on the floor. Um, it’s always… that’s always a joy to do. For those very reasons.

Is there a character that surprises you the most in performance, in where the character will take you?

I suppose that character is a bit surprising because, in a way, it’s grown. I mean, the first night I didn’t take their trousers down. That kind of grew. And that’s become a bit crazier as he’s gone along, really.

Do you think it’s the audience interaction that brings the energy to that?

Yeah, the real energy to that – because of that and because you never know what people are gonna say or do. And that really grows. But yeah, some nights you really feel you’re inhabiting it, which is very frightening. But it’s a weird one because even in this live show we’re playing a different character every three or four minutes. So just as you’re kind of getting into it, you’re into another one, you know? It’s not quite like you’re playing King Lear or something. You know what I mean? You really feel, “Tonight I was King Lear.” ‘Cause each night we’re each about a dozen characters each.

At this point, is there any comedic line that you won’t cross?

Well, the line I think… people often say you can’t make jokes about this, that or the other. But I don’t think there are any rules, because I think if it’s fun, it’s kind of okay. And just because it’s humor doesn’t mean you’re necessarily belittling an important subject like that. You can do jokes about the most extreme awful thing, and as long as it’s funny, I think it’s kind of okay. I think people think you’re making light of something when you’re making a joke out of it, but I don’t think you are, really. I think you’re getting to a truth of it with humor. And I don’t see why you could watch a poem about something or make a film about something but you couldn’t do a comedy sketch about it. I don’t see why you should make any distinction. I think we’re quite lucky that we’ve always done the show in front of an audience, the TV show – we record the sketches and then play them into an audience, then we record sketches on the night, which means that the audience will kind of tell us if we’ve gone too far. And if people are just in shock and not laughing, we wouldn’t include it, because we’d just think, “Well what’s the point of that.” We wanted to be explosively funny. But comedy is… you know, you look at something like Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, the man exploding and everyone getting covered in guts and vomit in a restaurant – it’s amazing. It’s disgusting, yeah, but it’s also brilliantly funny, and I kind of think as long as it’s both those… as long as it still is funny there’s no reason not to do it.

Has there ever been anything put on the table in the writing process that you refused to do?

Not really, no. Sometimes we think of ideas and go, “Oh no… Actually, it’s funny to have it as an idea, but to actually see it would be a bit kind of horrible.” But no, we have our own sensibilities and then we have those of the audience. But I think it’s a weird one, because people often ask us, you know, “Well, do you think this has gone too far?” But, I mean, there’s a comedian in Britain called Chris Morris, if you’ve heard of him. Made The Day Today. Well, he made an episode of his show Brass Eye…

This was the pedophile episode, right?

The pedophile episode. Now, obviously, to some people that was a big media storm around that with some people shocked and horrified that anyone could bring those kind of themes into what was a funny show. Other people applauded the bravery that he was dealing with this subject that was a taboo. I think we all have different kind of levels. We’ve all drawn the line in a different place. It’s quite hard to think where the line is, ‘cause I think it’s different for each person.

Is there anything that you consistently draw the line at?

I think we’d find it hard to do something like that about pedophilia, because it really is shocking and… I mean, I applaud his bravery for doing it, but I don’t think we could really think about doing anything on that. But it’s weird, if you dance around the subject – like The League of Gentlemen did, and have a character Herr Lip, who was a kind of pedophile, but because the boys are older it sort of made it sort of not too distasteful. It was still funny. It’s hard. It’s how you do it, really.

You’ve finished 3 series, you’ve done a live tour, you’ve got a Christmas special coming up - are there projects right now outside of Little Britain that are drawing your attention?

Well yeah, we were kind of thinking what the next move will be, and it may be in different series for the BBC, or it could be a film or something. We’ve just got to take it where our creativity takes us, really. If we think of a great story for a film, we’ll make a film – you know?

Does that mean we’ll see the return of Mash and Peas?

I don’t think we’ll ever do the return of Mash and Peas.

Is there anything you’re pursuing independently?

Not really at the moment, because apart from odd bit of acting, there hasn’t really been time because we’ve been touring, and then we’re making a Christmas special over the summer. So there hasn’t really been time to do that, I’m afraid. But I’m sure I will, yeah.

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