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3:00

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the North

3:03

Pole. In Exeter, please welcome

3:05

a man who's very much cream on first. And I'm not

3:07

talking about scones. It's Richard

3:09

Herry!

3:16

Let every lesson about walking on, my

3:19

glasses are stained. I've got so much more professional,

3:21

have you noticed, since... If you were here last

3:23

week, are they? Very

3:25

good audience last week. We've got a lot to beat

3:28

for last week. Welcome

3:30

Richard Herring's Lazily Swimming in Topshampool

3:33

Podcast. Though

3:36

I was hanging around at Tucker's Hall

3:39

the other day. Yeah, and that reaction

3:41

shows me why it's number 23 of 99 things to do in Exeter.

3:46

According to TripAdvisor, apparently it's owned by

3:48

Tucker Jenkins. That's why it's called Tucker Jenkins

3:50

Owns It. Not Todd Cai, the character

3:53

of Tucker Jenkins. And he's in character

3:55

of Tucker Jenkins. He owns Tucker's Hall. Have you

3:57

been to Tucker's Hall? Well,

4:00

you've got this 22 other things that are better,

4:02

but you live here. You must have seen

4:04

those anyway. He calls it realistic So

4:09

yes, just a reminder that I will be

4:11

in the boy after the show if you want to if you

4:13

want to grab a program They are free. So don't feel you have

4:15

to give money, but you know money goes to scope if you

4:17

want to give some a donation That'd be lovely. I'm

4:20

very happy to do selfies. I'm very happy to sell you

4:22

some of my projects We've got some exciting stuff.

4:24

We've got rehollister for top chumps a working game

4:26

of top chumps We've got I've just found a one pack

4:28

of relish to buy stickers And

4:31

there's also there's DVDs imagine remember

4:33

those Fists

4:35

of fun you can get you can get a couple of my stand-up

4:37

shows and As well as

4:40

the emergency questions books lots of varieties of those

4:42

the problem with men. That's a great book I've written during

4:44

lockdown about the my international men's day thing

4:46

You may remember if you want to find out what I was

4:48

like what I was like when I was 40 How not

4:50

to grow up and if you're interested in my testicles Only

4:55

one left Then

4:58

there's a book about that as well, but anyway look let's talk about

5:00

Exeter The

5:03

city of Exeter is home to the

5:05

Exeter book. Do you know about that? There's the

5:07

Exeter book there's only one

5:09

book in Exeter. That's why they can call it that It's

5:12

one of the wicked willy ones from the 1980s There's

5:16

it's held in great reverence in the universe Not

5:19

even the first one. It's just that's the only book that's

5:21

ever been in been

5:23

in Exeter until now Exeter

5:26

was the last place a woman was executed

5:29

for witchcraft which you should be very

5:31

proud, but you know there's still time Do

5:36

some more they do look out for that

5:38

there's underground underground passages all

5:41

under Exeter Do you know that and that's

5:43

where that's where the moor locks are living at the

5:45

moment I'm gonna come up and

5:47

eat you all When the bell

5:49

rings ah saw a moor lock on

5:51

my nose stone clearing Definitely

5:56

saw it. I saw a baby on a horse on a moor lock walking

5:58

through the field together

6:47

And

8:00

the comic strip and the young ones were, I've been a

8:02

little bit into Monty Python, but it wasn't our generation.

8:05

It had been a little bit into not 9 o'clock

8:07

news, which I know you wrote for, but it was, again, it

8:09

felt like an older generation. And Channel 4

8:12

started on the same day.

8:15

The comic strip was the first, Five Go Mad in Dorset

8:18

was the first comedy show on

8:20

Channel 4. Mass, and I remember

8:23

watching everything on Channel 4 that day, and I remember getting

8:25

to this and just being absolutely blown away

8:27

by this channel that

8:29

was for us and this comedy that was for us. And actually just

8:31

slightly predated the young ones, right? It was out before

8:34

the young ones. When is it all happening at the same time? Yeah.

8:36

But it was like a week before the young one came out. So it

8:38

was a very, very second time for

8:41

a teenage comedy fan to suddenly see

8:43

stuff. And yeah, and

8:45

the comic strip, obviously started

8:48

the live thing, which we'll talk about, but

8:51

you're saying 50, so

8:53

how many were made? I just want

8:55

to say, yeah. Including movies and... Sure. It's

8:58

an incredible achievement, not

9:00

just from... You know, the standard is

9:02

fantastic. You were saying some of them aren't as good

9:04

as others, but I think that's just a personal

9:06

taste. But to even

9:09

convince two or three TV

9:11

channels in the end to do a different

9:14

thing every week that obviously costs a fair

9:16

amount of money and not doing that... It doesn't happen very often.

9:18

No, it hadn't happened before us, really. No. Probably

9:20

won't happen again. So it

9:23

wasn't good television, really, because

9:24

television is about repeat and about people

9:27

getting to know characters. We did that. We changed

9:29

them every week. Yeah. It was like a repertory

9:31

company, really. It was, but you know, A, what an amazing

9:34

group of comedians and actors you had. And

9:37

there were some people who were in... A lot of them, there

9:39

were some people who just popped up in an occasional ones, but obviously

9:42

the first one was you and Aide and French

9:44

and Saunders and Robbie Coltrane. It's

9:48

a pretty strong start. And

9:50

also a woman wearing a kind of string

9:53

vest, which I had nothing

9:55

underneath, which I kept rewinding for some

9:57

reason. It had everything. That was the second

9:59

one.

12:00

But we've Nigelized,

12:02

did he tell you we used to do a sketch called ACDC10,

12:05

which is a sort of soft porn airline

12:07

disaster kind of sketch. And

12:10

it starts out as a manual in a

12:12

plane. But then I'm

12:15

a hijacker or something, I can't remember. But

12:17

the thing is, the hijacker is very demanding, wants to know

12:19

what the movie's going to be and the plane he's going to seize.

12:24

And Nigel goes, it's

12:26

Kramer versus Kramer.

12:28

And Dustin Hoffman in Meryl Streep. And

12:30

I said, don't give me that feel-good shit. What

12:33

else you got? And

12:35

one night I'm looking at

12:36

the front row, that looks like Dustin Hoffman. Oh

12:40

my God. This is

12:43

not supposed to happen. He's supposed to be in Hollywood. We're

12:46

in a sort of cinema in Siercer and Soho.

12:49

So I just sort of

12:50

froze. And

12:52

I thought, shall I just say, is there any other movies?

12:56

But no, we did. And then he came

12:59

back and again brought a whole lot of people saying he

13:01

was going to go on, but didn't, didn't. Yes, I

13:04

mean, what an incredible time it must have been.

13:06

And obviously you and Nigel, you know, you

13:08

did quite a theatrical show together where

13:10

you played all the parts. Double act, yes. Because

13:13

you started out as an actor, right? I've

13:15

got like on IMDb it says you were in an episode

13:17

of the New Avengers, I'm crazy. Is that true? Right,

13:19

with John Lumley, yes.

13:21

I did things like Elizabeth R. with Denner Jackson

13:24

and I was just looking at it the other day,

13:26

what an amazing

13:27

actress she was, you know, seeing that.

13:29

I was looking for myself actually in that. But

13:33

I got so involved with what she was doing, I actually

13:35

forgot to look at myself. Because I'm sort of like somewhere

13:37

in the distance. And are you in ripping yarns as well?

13:39

No. Are you somewhere in ripping yarns? There's

13:42

a rumor that you were in ripping yarns. No, it wasn't.

13:45

Well, that's sorted. That went out Wikipedia. I'll

13:48

never trust Wikipedia again. But

13:51

yeah, so did

13:53

you meet Nigel when you were kids, is

13:55

that right? We met in about 1975. Right.

13:59

And we worked together.

13:59

together down here.

14:02

Some are camp doing drama.

14:06

We saw

14:08

improvising together and doing stuff. We

14:11

had a very similar sense of humor which has

14:13

kept us talking to each other for a long time.

14:16

That's interesting because

14:18

Andy Nymond and Jeremy

14:20

Dyson who write together

14:23

and written a fantastic novel called The Warlock Effect and they're

14:25

involved in The League of Gentlemen and Ghost

14:27

Story. They met at a Jewish summer

14:29

camp as well and they just really got

14:32

on. It's a little bit golfer and sipsom,

14:34

isn't it, to meet us without the illness

14:36

to meet us kids and then form

14:38

a double act. Nigel and I, we

14:40

wrote a show together along

14:42

with Pete Richards which we did

14:44

at Roundhouse downstairs. That was our first

14:47

ever production. We played it here

14:49

actually in Northcott and in

14:51

Plymouth and there was a character

14:53

that I originated called Neil in

14:55

there which I'd seen as a festival. I

14:58

saw this folk singer as a festival which

15:02

Neil was based on. With Nigel I

15:04

worked on it together and it expanded into the

15:06

character

15:07

that he eventually did in The Young Ones. Yeah,

15:10

well let's talk quickly about The Young Ones which I, as

15:13

a comedy fan, and I'm sure a lot of

15:15

people feel this, I talked to Nigel about it and

15:18

he felt it was, he had views

15:20

on it, but obviously you

15:23

were a double act with Nigel and you put down

15:25

together this show that you

15:27

created two characters for you. We played

15:29

loads of characters. But

15:33

you should have been in The Young Ones, you should

15:35

have been Mike in The Young Ones. Not

15:38

at all. No. In fact, I think

15:40

you're wrong, I think I was. You think you were,

15:42

okay. I was a big part of it. I've put the

15:44

wrong guy. Maybe I dreamt that. Maybe

15:47

you were. But it would have been interesting

15:50

in an alternate universe. I mean Mike was the character.

15:52

I would have been rubbish, I would have been rubbish. You said that, oh

15:54

no, I'm not sure you would have been rubbish. I'll tell you why, because it's

15:56

a television, a sitcom, I was

15:58

just into it.

15:59

other than

16:01

I got the Charles Fordy, I was making films, and

16:03

I was much more interested in doing films. I

16:05

think, to be honest, the style of it wasn't

16:07

me at all, the character.

16:09

I'm too serious for the young ones. I

16:11

think that

16:13

would have worked, but I think you, at

16:15

least you would, I think

16:17

Christopher Ryan was okay

16:20

in the end. I think he sometimes

16:22

didn't get, he sometimes was playing, he was playing it as an actor

16:24

rather than as a comedian. No, I mean,

16:27

Nigel had his character well established. The

16:29

punk thing was a kind of, they're

16:30

all big stereotype characters. Of course, yeah.

16:33

I don't know where mine was going to come from, but funny enough,

16:35

when we did Bad News, I was much more comfortable

16:38

in that, playing Spider, the drummer,

16:40

because,

16:41

again, I didn't know what I was going to be until,

16:44

I put this wig on and the sideboards, I'm

16:47

like, oh,

16:47

go on, Pete Trill. This guy used

16:50

to play, I want to grow a band I was in. He's

16:52

like, Pete, he's like, really happy-go-lucky

16:54

guy, you know, like that, you know. And

16:57

I thought, that's what Spider is. And

16:59

suddenly Spider was there, and I sort of

17:02

luckily found it, I don't think I would have found

17:04

the young one's character.

17:06

I think it would, I mean, you know, I think...

17:08

It's a way of shooting, I don't get that sort of whole three cameras

17:11

thing. Maybe, but I think, you

17:13

know, you're a very good actor, like, you

17:15

know, it's... I've had moments,

17:17

yeah. You

17:19

know, I think it's sort of, within

17:22

the, you were like a little bit, as

17:24

a fan of the comic strip, you were like a little bit

17:26

of a mystery, because you would do all these different

17:28

things. The Five Go Mad guy

17:30

was very different than Spider, was very different

17:33

than the Four Men in the Car, you know, you would

17:35

inhabit all these different characters. And

17:37

the sort of fistful of travellers, Czech guy

17:40

that you would, you know, leave

17:42

and cleave. No, it was two. Whoever you

17:44

were. Italian accent. Oh, it was... What's

17:47

his name? Gabriel. Oh, the other guy. Yes, yeah,

17:49

I mean... Two dollars more, yeah. I just don't know much about

17:51

that. The drug addict is in here. Yeah, yeah. So,

17:56

you know, you've... I think that cleave was the hardest one to do. I

17:58

did that in GLC. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah. and had

18:00

a gargle whiskey every time I did a line. Sorry. Sorry,

18:03

I just kicked my DVDs over. I'm

18:05

being very clumsy today. I'm very clumsy today. Yeah,

18:10

so, yeah, you know, you

18:12

had a beef with Paul Jackson, though, I think is fair.

18:15

Yeah, I think he came in and tried to split

18:17

up a lot of the double acts on the comic strip. He

18:19

did that a couple of times, and I just said,

18:22

you're only two of that.

18:24

He did it with his first

18:25

talent show he did called Boom Boom, and

18:28

it kept

18:28

Adrian and me out of the double acts,

18:31

which I thought was unnecessary. I

18:34

don't think anybody else would have done that, but he did. I

18:36

think it was just keeping control of his... I

18:39

mean, it was quite

18:41

a setback for us in the way that happened. And

18:44

then when we started the comic strip, we became a

18:46

big gang of people, and it was going

18:48

great. And then I went to audition French

18:50

and saw this, who joined us as

18:52

guests, and then they became part of the group. And

18:55

he came along and said, well, I'll do this show, but I

18:57

don't want those two. I said, you're not

18:59

going to do that. So we're

19:01

a group now, you know, and he still went there. I

19:03

think the others didn't want to keep him with himself.

19:06

But I just thought, why should he need

19:08

to split us all up?

19:09

Well, I mean, you were certainly right about French

19:12

and Saunders being working in, I think.

19:15

I think it was unnecessary

19:17

what he did. But anyway, whatever

19:19

happened, it sort of made the relationship

19:22

a non-starter for me working on

19:24

the young ones, I guess. Yeah.

19:25

I mean, it feels to me, and just,

19:28

you know, you're quite a formidable force.

19:31

You know what you want. I mean, I think that's why you

19:33

ended up directing a lot of these shows and getting into

19:35

directing. Extremely bossy.

19:38

But, you know, I think, like, as a fan watching,

19:40

I felt, you know, you were a presence

19:43

and you were an intimidating presence, I think, and

19:46

a bit more of a mystery, I think, than the other

19:48

guys. Maybe because you

19:50

weren't in the young ones. But you

19:52

were on the light entertainment side of it. I

19:55

was saying I'm too serious

19:55

for that.

19:57

Well, seriousness is good, though, which is funny. You're

20:00

funny, but there was an intensity there

20:02

and, you know, and yeah. It's

20:05

sort of weird, and not weird, but it's

20:07

weird how quite a few of your things

20:11

have parallels in America. I think the,

20:14

obviously, the bad news and spinal taps sort

20:16

of evolving at the same time. Yeah, that was quite

20:18

a coincidence, actually. Yeah. We'd shot it about the same time. Never

20:20

knew what they were doing. They didn't know.

20:22

I'll show you why. I mean, ours came up

20:25

earlier because we'd made, but I think they were made about

20:27

the same time. Yeah. Those things happen,

20:29

you know. They do, of course. And, you know, and

20:31

they're very different takes on the... Yes. I mean,

20:34

there's a successful band sort of coming down,

20:36

and we were a very groovy band trying to go up. Yeah.

20:38

So it was a different kind of story.

20:40

Yeah.

20:41

Did it... I mean, you know, some spinal...

20:44

Bad news was probably more successful in the short term

20:46

than spinal taps was anyways. You probably felt

20:48

like the spinal tap didn't really fly until it

20:50

went out on... But it came out on video

20:52

and then everyone got into it, but it didn't do

20:54

very well to begin with. Whereas

20:56

bad news, I think you were making singles

20:58

and you took... Well, that happened after we

21:01

did Castle Donington, The

21:03

Monsters of Rock.

21:05

With Ozzy Osbourne, Lenny, and

21:08

Motorhead, Jeff Leppard, Saxon...

21:13

Every heavyweight,

21:15

heavy metal band. Yeah. And we were

21:17

on about third, I think. We

21:20

arrived at eight in the morning. There were mud fights going on. There

21:22

was about 60,000 people out there. Yeah.

21:25

And we had to do some banners for us out there, bad

21:27

news and our characters and that's from people we

21:29

were holding up banners. Yeah. And we started having

21:31

mud fights at eight in the morning, what's going to happen by

21:33

three in the afternoon? And of

21:35

course, it was bottles of piss coming at us. Tommy

21:41

Vance came on. It was a sort of curtain

21:43

where all the roadies would work behind

21:45

metal mesh curtain. Yeah. That stopped

21:47

all these bottles coming at them when they were trying to do

21:49

wiring up the station.

21:51

Tommy Vance came on with a crash helmet,

21:53

body armor, razor curtain,

21:55

and a jizzies bit of bottles.

21:57

Wow. Sassy balls of piss flying around them.

21:59

They saved it for us. But

22:03

they liked you, though, as well. Maybe not

22:05

all of them, they're throwing bits, but they liked to abuse

22:08

us. They loved to abuse us. I mean,

22:10

we had a lot of stories on Bad News, on Government

22:13

Code, and all that. You can tell

22:15

me. I won't tell anyone. That's

22:17

very funny. You played

22:19

all the instruments as well, though, right? We did. We

22:21

were playing live, yes, exactly. That was the

22:23

first gig there, in front of about 60, 70,000. It

22:26

was our very first gig. It was

22:28

like, it's snuff comedy, really, which is pretty

22:31

cool. There

22:34

was a lot of confidence in that group of people.

22:37

It's an amazing group of people. Obviously,

22:40

Rick Mayall, again,

22:43

must have been a phenomenal... Amazing. He didn't play the note on

22:45

the bass. He's just too

22:47

busy prancing around. Going

22:50

off, being funny. I

22:52

see the Star Wars series, we're trying to play it. Yeah,

22:56

I mean,

22:57

we did this tour, actually, after

23:02

EMI gave us an advance, which most of it spent

23:04

on catering, at Trevor Horn's studio,

23:06

to do the album with Prime May.

23:08

We went on this

23:10

tour, and that was just, I think,

23:12

put us off ever being in a rock band. It

23:15

was exhausting.

23:17

But I'll just tell you one quick thing, one night, we came back

23:19

through Dorset, from Portsmouth,

23:21

where we had sheepsides for instance.

23:24

Oh yeah, it was weird, but I

23:26

don't know if there were some veterinary surgeons on it, or

23:28

like that. I think people, you were so bad,

23:30

people were going out, getting sheepsides

23:33

out of their sockets. That's right. The throw of

23:35

the gardeners, where these eyes came from. It was just a stage

23:37

of litter with these eyes. Wow. That

23:40

was the start of the evening. I

23:43

twisted my ankle, so I was only playing the drums one

23:45

foot. We

23:47

drove down through

23:48

Dorset past the Dorset knob biscuit

23:51

factory, which is on the top of a hill. You come

23:53

down towards Chalmers, and this is Ben, and we found this

23:57

scooter lying in the road. So

24:00

we pulled over and stopped and

24:02

called out and said, everybody there? And we

24:04

climbed up the hedge and this guy had not only just gone over the

24:06

hedge, but he'd gone down into a quarry.

24:08

Oh.

24:09

Not a field. He'd just gone straight down this quarry and there's

24:12

a moat with him down there. And they'd go, help! It's

24:15

done. And so we scrambled, Rick and

24:17

Nigel and I scrambled down this side of this

24:19

quarry to sort

24:21

of help, whatever. And as

24:23

we got this guy, I had broken so many bones

24:25

and he was in a terrible state. I mean, so, Rick

24:28

and Nigel immediately, God knows why

24:30

I started

24:31

being reckoned... Neil's the young ones.

24:34

It's all right, man. Don't worry. Neil

24:36

and Rick here. And

24:38

Nigel's going, it's all right. I'll help you, man. Stay

24:41

awake, man. And I'm

24:43

just seeing this guy lying there. Thank you. I've

24:47

died. And

24:50

the young ones are there to greet me as I go through the

24:52

gates of St Peter. Anyway,

24:56

we waited till this guy had obviously called God

24:58

of Gomimius and the Am

25:09

from

25:22

this foreign dolphin.

25:24

So Rick, I mean, Rick

25:26

and we all sign rude things.

25:29

Rick, I use stupid cunts. So

25:34

I'm sure he treasures that poster, you know. I'm

25:37

sure he does, if he's, you know. That's

25:40

incredible. What a wonderful story. Amazing.

25:43

All makes me wish I'd crashed a motorcycle so I

25:45

could have met the young ones that would have been pretty cool. I

25:49

mean, it is such a just, were

25:51

you aware that it was a phenomenal group of people?

25:54

Were you just caught up in it at the time? Absolutely.

25:56

When Nigel and I first went down to the Comedy

25:58

Store.

25:59

I mean, you know, we just, I think we've both been

26:02

amongst actors, we trained at drama school. That

26:04

was a Bristol of the accused at Lambda. I

26:06

really didn't like the whole acting scene much. The fine actor's

26:08

quite

26:09

boring, really. Yeah, they

26:11

can be. A lot of them. It's

26:14

a sort of boring job. You've got to be a bit boring

26:16

to want to do. But I want to be an

26:18

actor, but I just, you know, I

26:21

hung out at the art school more than anything

26:23

else. However, what was I going to say? We're going to,

26:25

about the gang, yes, we

26:28

came down to the comedy store, we suddenly met people who

26:31

were like us. We'd actually been very influenced by

26:33

double act called South Meat Market. Yes.

26:37

Who were an American double act. One of them,

26:39

it was John Ratzenberg who was in Cheers, played

26:41

the postman in Cheers. But then he was

26:43

touring Devon,

26:44

he was in Devon, and we saw him down

26:47

here playing, it was fantastic, the double

26:49

act. And that was very influential on us, you know, in

26:51

terms of our

26:52

first show. Yeah, because it was

26:54

combining theatre and comedy really wasn't it? I

26:57

suppose, you know, that is what you've

26:59

done throughout your whole career. You've

27:03

always had that eye that's made

27:05

you this great director for the

27:08

way of making it theatrical, but also

27:10

understanding comedy as well. Again,

27:12

it's a rare combination. I

27:15

think seeing Lexi and Rick particularly

27:17

there,

27:18

Rick was amazing, you know. He

27:20

did the poems, you saw that, you've probably seen the video

27:23

of that. Just stunning. And

27:26

Lexi was amazing too. So we started off, gah,

27:28

it was really incredible. And immediately

27:30

as being a director-producer type role,

27:33

I thought I could put this all together and we could do this every

27:35

night. Because the comedy store was only once a week. And

27:38

John Ward said, no, I don't want to give up the strippers. Saturday

27:42

nights, we'll just do that. And I said, right,

27:44

that's when I went hunting around solo. Every

27:46

sex club I went into, they weren't interested.

27:50

They just wanted my money. So

27:53

I eventually found Paul Raymond's place, and that's

27:56

how he got in there. But Rick

27:58

was amazing. Adrian

28:00

at that point wasn't really, they weren't really

28:02

a double act of that sort. That's right. And

28:04

Adrian was his mate from Manchester and

28:07

he just used to do this better sketch of him which

28:10

wasn't that funny but a week before we

28:12

opened the comic strip

28:13

we did a warm up gig in Hampstead and

28:16

a pub called Pentamuses. Yeah.

28:18

I mean this is a week before we opened and I was saying

28:20

to Rick, are you sure you want to do a go alone?

28:23

You'll find that they're fine and Adrian and

28:25

I are going to be together on this screen. And

28:28

they arrived at Pentamuses in these

28:30

purple suits

28:31

with the most killer act that

28:33

blew us all off the stage. It was absolutely brilliant.

28:36

The Danger Brothers. Yeah, The Danger Brothers. And

28:40

Rick was, you see that,

28:44

the video of him just coming on stage and not

28:46

saying anything and just going from the audience to laughing

28:48

and he said what? And it's just like he

28:50

makes it last. And if they laugh and say

28:52

shut up. He gets angry. He

28:55

can't understand why they're laughing at them. And it's literally

28:57

for doing nothing. It's just the funny is. And it's

28:59

that confidence is what I was talking about last week.

29:01

You were here anyone. I was talking

29:03

to Spencer Jones about that. It's that confidence

29:06

to walk on. And it's so,

29:09

what he was doing was so brave

29:11

as well because he's playing a character who's

29:13

a useless poet or a useless, you know, silly

29:16

student and he doesn't let on that

29:18

it's a character. So some audiences

29:20

would have not known. You should see it. You post

29:22

it on YouTube. Yeah. There's plenty

29:24

of it. There's plenty of guys that have seen it all.

29:27

But yeah. We did something similar in Bad

29:29

News where we wrote a song called Hey, Hey, Bad

29:31

News. We only

29:34

once had

29:34

to do this at some big gig and say,

29:37

listen, I want to say, I want you to sing along,

29:39

but it's Hey, Hey, Bad News, not fuck off Bad News.

29:42

We only had to do that once. And every time it

29:44

happened in a gig, Vic would get angry and go, no, no,

29:46

hey, hey, Bad News. Not

29:49

fuck off Bad News. I think

29:51

it really happened. So it's the same gag really. Yeah.

29:57

It's the same. Good

30:00

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30:59

It's so, I mean I think like for, you know,

31:01

my generation of comedians who are now like me

31:03

in their late 50s, which is sort of, it

31:06

must be weird for us both. It's very weird for me. You

31:08

know, it was, it was this thing that just

31:11

sort of defined our generation. I think

31:13

all of the, the comic strip and the young ones just

31:16

gave people that,

31:18

the idea. I think maybe the young ones a little bit more because the comic

31:20

strip was a bit more professional so you would think, oh, that,

31:22

that would be hard to see. The young ones, you know, the general

31:24

was getting very small ratings. You know, we're getting four or five million

31:27

a minute. Young ones getting 12 million. It

31:31

was a massive, we were kind of playing to a cult. Anyway,

31:34

in any case, we would have been, because it

31:36

was different each week. It took a time for

31:38

people to start appreciating certain

31:40

ones we'd done. You know what I mean? So in

31:42

hindsight, it was all right. But at the time, it's bad television

31:45

because you're not bringing them along with you next

31:47

week with the next one.

31:49

No, but you know, I think like, as

31:51

I say, I think it's just, it was just,

31:53

it wasn't a time when comedy came for younger

31:56

people came along very often. It would be once every

31:58

four or five years rather than every... week, you

32:00

know, like now for the new comment show every week. And

32:02

so it was great that it was good, but

32:05

it also gave you the, it gave me and Robin

32:07

Ince again, you know, the

32:11

idea that this could be possible,

32:13

you know, I was growing up as a school boy in Somerset

32:16

and there was nobody in my family was in show business.

32:18

So you'd see you guys doing

32:20

all this stuff and you knew

32:22

all the story of where you'd all come from. And it was just

32:25

go, okay, this is like possible. Yes, we

32:27

went up to the Cambridge with different, yeah.

32:32

So yeah, it was a very exciting

32:34

time for us. And, you know, and

32:36

as well as the comic strip, which you might return to, well,

32:40

let's talk about Supergrass, which was a comic strip

32:42

thing, but it was a movie like, so

32:44

it was an actual movie for Supergrass.

32:47

Yeah, it was the first movie we did. Yeah. Shot

32:50

down in her coat going here. Right. That's

32:52

a good example.

32:55

Yeah, so we went to Portugal, all of us, and

32:57

wrote some ideas down and had

32:59

a chat and got the thing. And then we decided

33:01

to Supergrass a bit, because, you know, a guy who was making

33:05

up a big story, basically, to go get this girl.

33:08

And then gets into terrible trouble because the police actually

33:10

have a case work going on that's like that,

33:12

you know. Yeah.

33:14

But,

33:15

yeah, it was,

33:17

I mean, what I suppose was interesting with

33:19

that was,

33:21

we were huge fans of Steve Martin. I

33:23

remember the Supergrasses, but we used to love

33:25

the jerk, and we all used to watch it together.

33:27

And then you have your lines, especially

33:30

the first 50 minutes of it, up to Jackie

33:32

Mason in North. And

33:35

amazingly, when we did the premiere, PPC's

33:38

Charles B. Avenue, Steve Martin turned up. Right.

33:42

And we couldn't believe it, actually. It was just like, you know,

33:44

fantastic. He came in and like,

33:46

I got a call next day from American,

33:49

and I thought it was my father-in-law, because he's

33:51

got a very deep voice. Hi, Peter. Oh,

33:54

Norman, how are you? Did you enjoy the

33:56

show? Yeah, we did, very much. He

34:00

said that Victoria liked it too, that was just necessary.

34:03

So he said, Steve Martin. Oh,

34:06

right. He said, would you like

34:08

to come down to Pinewood and have a lunch and have a chat? I said,

34:10

oh yeah, I'd love to. Didn't

34:13

say I was busy with it. So

34:15

he went down and he

34:17

said, there's a scene in Supergrass that I wanted to talk

34:19

to you about, which is where

34:22

you're all falling about and laughing. He said, I'm about

34:24

to do this little shop of horrors, but I've got to

34:26

do this laughing thing. How did you do that? Because it looked

34:28

so real.

34:29

I said, well, I'll give you one word, Hamill Nightfriek.

34:32

He was shocked. He

34:36

was appalled. He was appalled. I mean,

34:38

he was in control of Steve, but he didn't want to be in his control.

34:41

And I was directing him, so I just gave the camera a list of

34:43

shots of what he did. Took this

34:46

stuff from a kiss. Wow. Mad.

34:51

Yeah, but that's what I'm talking

34:53

about. So me and Adrian were really absolutely pissing

34:55

ourselves. Yeah. I said, that's what

34:57

we did. So you'll have to do that, Steve. Every

34:59

night. But

35:02

that's the sort of anarchy that you felt was there.

35:05

I think even as a kid, and I wouldn't have known about Hamill

35:08

Nightfriek if you told me that at that time. But

35:10

you felt there was an naughtiness

35:12

and a roughness. And you are this

35:15

very ruggedly sexy

35:17

man, and you still are, Peter. What are you talking about now?

35:20

I'm talking about you. Gorgeous

35:23

man jumping around in your pants onto cars. Of

35:25

course she does. But you're

35:27

a very good-looking man. What are

35:29

you doing after the show? I'm staying at the

35:32

Premier Inn. You can come back. I can't

35:34

wait. Can we go now? You've

35:37

got to take it where you can get it on tour. Nice

35:40

to meet you. Very nice. So yeah,

35:44

was it sort of as fun

35:46

off-screen as it was on the – Mostly, yes. It

35:49

wasn't. I mean, Fistful of Travis Chex was a kind

35:51

of memorable – I think everyone remembers those three

35:53

weeks in Spain. Right down in the desert

35:55

with no phones, nothing there. No landline

35:58

phone or anything. We were there. You

36:00

have no idea in Channel 4 what was going on for

36:02

about three weeks. And they send

36:04

stuff home. We never heard whether they liked it or

36:06

not.

36:07

But that had a

36:09

lot of stories there with that really. Everyone

36:12

drove out in different cars and

36:14

things and

36:15

chaos, absolutely chaos. And I

36:18

think Rick and I, because we couldn't see

36:20

the rushes, we used to listen to the sound tapes

36:22

and just go, yeah, sounding good. It was a good

36:24

radio show.

36:27

Yeah, it's... How

36:32

much did Channel 4 have

36:35

to say about if you sent them the

36:37

stuff? Did they say, this can't go in

36:39

and this can go in? It feels

36:42

like you were in pretty good control

36:44

of the project.

36:45

They trusted

36:47

us. They did trust us. I mean, occasionally

36:51

they were panic about something. There

36:53

was one guy, we were going to do a film that got,

36:56

well, TV show really, about Eddie

36:58

Monsoon, that got stopped. Because

37:01

the guy, we were going to film it, a studio

37:04

in Wandsworth, phoned up Channel 4

37:06

and said, if Channel 4 broadcasts

37:08

this, I will give the studio for free. He

37:11

was so disgusted by our script.

37:15

And so the lawyers got in and said, right, we've got to stop

37:17

this. They did. It

37:20

was fun, but it was a bit rude.

37:22

It

37:24

seems hard to believe that you... We

37:27

wrote it with Dawn and Jennifer as well.

37:32

And they used to,

37:34

they suddenly wanted to bleep the F-word. But

37:36

then before and after that, they just let it go, whatever,

37:39

but one wanted to strike when we did the strike.

37:42

We had to bleep all the F's, you know, sort of king-ish

37:44

and king-ish. I

37:46

mean, with the ones, that became

37:49

like a little, you had a few goes at the

37:51

Hollywood film, some of

37:53

a true event, a strike

37:55

where you were Al Pacino playing

37:57

Arthur Scargill. That's right, yes.

37:59

And it's a great I mean that could

38:02

that feels like that could have been I mean it

38:04

was a sort of serious because you Did a few of them, but it felt

38:06

that felt like that could have been if they were gonna do a

38:08

series You know

38:10

we could have done you could have done those all at once But you've done you've

38:12

you still I heard that you had tried

38:15

to do one of

38:17

Boris Johnson was that gonna be the same? Yes the

38:19

same idea. I know Nigel I was working on that

38:21

Yeah, I mean he wasn't writing but I was writing

38:23

with person and Very

38:26

sad. Yeah, it's called lie another day It's

38:30

a Boris

38:33

and Cameron and Osborne all trained

38:35

in the Minsk Academy Which be

38:37

etonians and then dropped into this it

38:39

dropped into Eden in that cricket

38:41

cricket gear The

38:45

container that's dropped on the Eden playing

38:47

field and they there's

38:49

a cricket ball that hits the slide They come out with

38:51

a cricket girl. They go what happens you three come

38:53

on over And I think they're the Oxford three

38:56

so it's like it's a spy and of course the filthy

38:58

main KGB

39:01

character was Dominic Cummings Yeah

39:04

Nigel's gonna play that right so sadly

39:06

it's not made it was a good script. Yeah, it

39:08

sounds good. So did that just Work

39:10

on some problems with

39:12

they had a company that wants to

39:14

Have control of casting crew which

39:17

we even our first film fucking man

39:19

dorsey We've been able to use what we want.

39:21

Yeah, the cost we wanted. They should know we've

39:23

got control that

39:24

right was our anniversary film

39:26

Well,

39:30

that's a big shame though, I do I

39:32

do I

39:33

Can tell that you know that some

39:36

people would have bent and they said okay fine,

39:38

but that's not But

39:43

it was and that we didn't have Boris at that point

39:45

either right I

39:47

was hoping that

39:49

Matt Lucas would have been great. Yeah,

39:52

he didn't want to do it Yeah, he

39:54

does do Boris Johnson fantastic. Yeah,

39:56

he would have been fantastic But

39:58

it would have come out because

40:00

events happened so fast anyway,

40:02

it would have come out once he'd gone. Well, again, after Liz

40:04

Truss had been gone, it was like, I said we would

40:06

probably save that. Yeah.

40:10

I mean, Liz Truss was definitely too quick for you to be able

40:12

to do. I mean, so retrospectively,

40:14

you could always do like, you know, Henry V, part

40:17

one and part two of this whole shenanigans,

40:19

you could do the whole... So, yeah, it's great

40:22

that you're still, you know, that

40:24

you're still creating these things and still trying to get

40:26

these things going. It ends

40:28

badly, which is, I'm still

40:30

hoping to get off the ground, which is, you

40:32

know, got about 40

40:34

minutes of mayhem in the 90 minutes

40:36

that it is. Right. Because

40:38

you've got a production company here, and why

40:40

did you... You obviously brought up in... Were you

40:42

brought up in Devon or Cornwall? Yeah,

40:44

Devon. Devon, yeah. And so

40:46

you've come back and your production

40:48

company's based here, or did

40:51

you always... Was it important to live in...?

40:53

Yeah.

40:53

Why did you want to live in... Why did

40:55

you want to have it here? Well,

40:58

I was from here, and I was

41:00

living in Camberwulf for 20, 30 years.

41:03

I was in Bastion Camberwulf, and that sort of thing. Yeah.

41:06

Which I loved. It was great, but

41:07

children and four children... Get

41:10

out of the town. Put

41:12

them in Kevich, you know. Yeah.

41:15

Which I knew very well. And because I knew

41:17

they'd loved to... It's full of teenagers, you know. Yeah.

41:20

They're all gone now, but... The

41:23

teenagers are all gone. Yeah, well, the art school

41:25

moved, you know. Oh, right. Yeah, so it was

41:27

a shame.

41:28

Yeah. Yeah.

41:29

Yeah, it's... Your

41:32

son's a stand-up. Red. Red,

41:34

yeah.

41:35

I know. He's very good. He does

41:37

little videos online as well. He's great at doing videos. We're getting

41:39

used to almost

41:40

as much as you. Well,

41:43

you know, the youngsters come through, and they overtake me, and

41:46

I just stay in my lane. There's

41:49

a Richard Herring shoe shop in Kingsbridge. It's

41:51

not your business. It isn't, but, you know, we

41:53

used to... I went to school in Cheddar in Somerset,

41:56

and whenever we went to Stratford-upon-Avon

41:58

to see a play... on the evening,

42:01

which wasn't very often, but we'd sometimes get in

42:03

a bus and the English department takes it there and we'd pass

42:06

Richard Herring Shoes on the strap

42:08

and everyone in the bus was saying, Richard

42:10

Herring Shoes, Richard Herring Shoes. So it's

42:13

a national brand. Yeah, I'm just going to see.

42:16

I started, but it's quite good because

42:18

they do bags and stuff and they've all got Herring

42:20

written on my little crest. So it looks like it's my

42:22

personal crest. Are

42:25

they doing well out of that? I don't know if they are doing

42:27

well. But did you buy Herring Shoes? Made

42:30

by Richard Herring? I think

42:32

he may still be alive, Richard Herring. I

42:34

think he is, but I might be wrong. But there's the whole

42:36

family. They all make shoes, the little cobblers. A

42:40

big Herring tradition. I don't think we're

42:42

right. My family are from the

42:44

north. I think we're Vikings. Oh right,

42:46

they're still most of us are. Yeah,

42:50

and I looked at a map and that's where

42:52

Herring's are sort of in the middle of

42:54

the river. I

42:57

want to film that one.

42:58

I figured that whole ride up through the rocks is such

43:00

a great, you could shoot the Alps there. Man, I've tried

43:03

to write so many. I've tried to write

43:05

so many sitcoms about Cheddar Gorge off the ground. I

43:08

love going through that. There's so much history

43:10

there. I've got one about a

43:12

guy called Roland Paver who made his own cave

43:15

in the 19th century. If you

43:17

believe he had wings and used to jump off Cheddar

43:19

Gorge to try and preview it, like Angel Wings. He

43:21

was a war suit diviner. And

43:24

then I used to work in Cheddar Caves. I wrote

43:26

a sitcom about Cheddar Caves. It's so

43:28

hard getting stuff on, Peter. You managed

43:30

to do 50 fucking films. All

43:33

different films. Over 80 years. Do

43:40

you sit back and think, wow,

43:43

this is an amazing body of

43:45

work that I've created? We'll get on to

43:47

the other stuff as well. I forget about them really. There's

43:50

a few favorites I like. I like our

43:52

Blair film, Comfort Only Blair. With Steven

43:55

Mangan.

43:55

I

43:58

think some of the satires probably work best. I

44:00

let four men in the playing four in a car

44:02

thing. And that was again, that was the what

44:04

should have been the young ones in the cast

44:07

there with the other three. But

44:09

it was. Yeah, actually we

44:11

did. That was the four of us again, wasn't it? And then bad

44:13

news. We've done quite a lot together. You

44:16

have done a lot together. So it's good. And I was hearing about,

44:18

you know, I think within the

44:20

Tony Blair one, that health and safety,

44:24

again, you know, I think

44:26

nowadays the idea of you actually taking ammon nitrate

44:28

to get a shot would maybe be frowned

44:30

on. No, you did quite a lot of dangerous. We didn't

44:32

tell anybody. Yeah, exactly. Right. And

44:35

I told you now. Now we

44:37

know. You have to die. We'll

44:40

kill everyone in the room. We'll give them all ammon

44:42

nitrate. I'm just asking.

44:44

Sorry, that's very bad. It's

44:47

not funny. It's not funny. They're

44:50

laughing. They're laughing. It's laughing, guys.

44:53

It's a shallow schema here, isn't it? It

44:55

is shallow schema. The people in the West Country

44:57

have a good sense of you. They understand that. There

44:59

was an incident where you were filming outside Buckingham

45:01

Palace on a motorcycle. Is that right? Yes, there were. I

45:04

think, again, I can't believe you got away. You'd be shot now,

45:06

wouldn't you, if you did that? Maybe. I

45:08

don't know. But I was driving this motorbike

45:10

around. It

45:11

was a trial bike, a land bike. It wasn't even a road

45:13

bike. Right. Because we were doing

45:16

the journey from nuclear

45:18

power plant to Westminster, then it was a

45:21

race against time to get to Parliament

45:24

to do a speech and win the day. And

45:27

so the idea was I'd break down in the

45:30

motorbike, break down in the mow, and

45:33

then I'd run the last bit, just make it. So

45:36

we kind of came around the corner with

45:39

the van, the guy hanging out the back of the van with the camera.

45:43

John Metcalfe, cowboy John, who did the festival

45:45

and all these different ones. He was the only one who probably worked

45:47

with us, actually. Because he'd do all these incredible

45:49

things. We came around the corner. As we

45:52

were coming around, I

45:53

started pretending that I... I

45:56

knew the sound we put on afterwards, but in a stuttering. And then

45:58

just stopped and started to do the same thing.

47:35

I

48:00

mean there's so much to talk to you about and we

48:02

won't have time but I will try and get

48:05

some other stuff in. We may come

48:07

back to comic strip but what I'd

48:09

forgotten or maybe I didn't know was that you

48:12

were one of the main people behind

48:14

Stella Street which was another phenomenally

48:17

successful theory.

48:18

Well, John, Phil and me really. We worked

48:20

together and they played all

48:22

the parts and I did the camera

48:24

and directing and lighting. Yeah.

48:27

With Jack, my son helping. Right. That

48:29

was it really. Yeah. Two

48:32

make up artists who worked all the time on them. Of

48:34

course. And

48:35

two costume people and that was it really. We had

48:38

someone

48:38

else helping carrying the lights. Again,

48:40

I mean this is an idea that you did. This wasn't a one off

48:42

idea because it was a series but it's such an idea

48:45

that I think I've seen, you know, it

48:47

comes up every now and again where people, what if all celebrities

48:49

lived together. I think there was

48:52

an AI version of it recently, wasn't there? But it's such

48:54

a good

48:55

idea and I think you were the first people

48:57

to do it as a show. Well, John

48:59

and Phil were so clever. I mean, they could

49:01

do anything. Both of them. They could play a whole

49:04

city of people. We started

49:06

out with a shop making Keith running the shop. Mick

49:10

Jagger and Keith Richards running the shop which

49:12

was, you know, very funny. And

49:14

they had store coats on as well, you know. So

49:18

Phil did Mick Jagger very well. Keith actually

49:20

did. John

49:22

did Keith and I think it was

49:24

someone a friend of ours, Jeff Beck met Keith and

49:27

he said, do you watch this? I watched that. I think

49:29

I'm going to buy that fucking shop. So

49:32

it was appreciated by Keith.

49:34

But then we started having people coming into the shop and we thought,

49:37

well, maybe they should be in the street and so the street

49:39

took over

49:40

and all kinds of people living

49:43

there. Yeah. It was, you know, so

49:45

it's like it's everything. You did do the

49:47

glam metal detectives. Not

49:49

sure that one is. No, no, it's a

49:51

lot of work. That was, glam metal

49:54

detectives came out, I think. Have you ever

49:56

seen them? Yeah, because we are show,

49:58

Fist of Fun, that I did with Stuart Lee. basically

50:01

took your slot I think so we did it we did we

50:03

had a couple of digs at you as well that was our first

50:05

TV show and so we had a couple of jokes

50:07

about glamel detectives only because you

50:09

were the previous the previous show Travis

50:12

but yeah so I did watch it and it was again

50:14

it was but again I think it's probably ahead of its time and it was sort

50:16

of a bit like so comic we did a TV comic

50:18

with serials lots of serials in it yeah so

50:21

it's a bit like the far show which which was sort

50:23

of about the same time yes it was but but

50:25

vase was kind of much more of a comic yeah

50:27

I think yeah I think Paul Putner

50:30

was

50:30

there was in glam of detective you were also

50:32

in the show as well yeah we

50:34

did Colin Corleone which was I suppose a vis idea

50:37

really yes

50:38

guys Peckham thinks he's a godfather yes yeah

50:42

it's good it's interesting how much vis has

50:44

how much influence I don't think this gets the credit for the amount

50:46

of influences had on come now probably not your

50:49

generation as much but our generation yeah and

50:51

Vic and Bob and all of us used to

50:53

love this they were great isn't you

50:55

know the stuff you guys were doing with

50:58

like had so much influence on what what was what

51:00

was to come and the Pope

51:03

must die you directed the Pope must do you write

51:05

the Pope must die as well yeah so that's Robbie

51:07

Coltrane that was gonna be

51:09

Steve Martin actually

51:11

yeah was I wrote with him on in New

51:13

York about with him right yeah so he

51:16

was gonna play the Pope and then the our

51:18

producers here didn't want to pay the money that his agent said

51:20

he needed right of course he

51:23

would have sold it worldwide anyway of course

51:25

pre sales it was a shame really but Robbie

51:27

did a great job yeah

51:28

we had some great American casting in

51:30

it like Paul Paul Bartel who did

51:32

a film called eating rowel did you watch that no

51:34

very funny film right

51:36

and Alex

51:38

rocker was in the Godfather played the

51:40

corrupt Cardinal yeah

51:43

and

51:45

yes it was Harvey Weinstein we worked with on that

51:48

right it's good did he try

51:50

anything horrible how did you get the funding

51:54

Peter that's what I want to know he put he pulled

51:57

the funding out before we

51:58

talk about the shoot and then we negotiated on. Oh

52:00

really? Yeah that was his little trick I think. So

52:03

he wasn't a very nice guy Harvey Weinstein is that? I

52:05

think he wouldn't have gone to jail for as long as

52:07

he did if you hadn't done things like that. Yeah. I think people

52:09

would have spoken up for him but I think he did that quite a lot

52:11

you know. Right. So you kind of pissed enough

52:14

people off that they weren't? I mean

52:17

I find out the moment I really got on

52:19

with him was when we were actually releasing the film because

52:22

of the rouse I've had with producers about cutting it shorter.

52:24

Yeah. Believe it or not I'm always wanting to try

52:27

to cut film shorter and they're going no no you've got to keep

52:29

that scene and it doesn't make sense. I go that's boring.

52:31

They'll find out what's going on. We can put

52:33

a caption up. And Harvey

52:35

was like we were in a conference call with Harvey and Steve

52:38

Woolley.

52:39

I said to Harvey Pete what do you want

52:41

to cut? He was going

52:43

no we don't cut anything. I said yes this scene here blah

52:45

blah blah. He said it's cut. It's

52:48

cut. Because that's the

52:50

hard thing. I heard you talking about you've

52:52

re-edited some of the comic strips for showing

52:54

at BFI and things like that.

52:57

Yeah. And is

52:59

that I mean it's interesting I guess

53:01

to go back to things and

53:04

have another look at them and work out what you need and

53:06

what you don't need. Such great stuff in

53:08

that film. Yeah. But Harry was great. Harry

53:10

Encell. Yeah. And

53:12

as you show and all those guys were really good

53:14

and I just thought there's a lot of flack scenes

53:16

in there that need not be there and we could make a better film.

53:19

So I put it down to 60 minutes from about 90.

53:22

Chopped that 30 minutes. So it was

53:24

much better. It's

53:26

the sort of film that didn't need to be that long actually. It

53:28

was just better being like an hour

53:30

long. Very expensive hour.

53:32

Yes once you've done that overshot by 50%. Yeah.

53:34

It's about 60 frames a month. So I'm

53:38

not very popular as halfway about it. No.

53:40

And so you say you I heard you're writing

53:43

a book. Is that is that? Yeah. Writing

53:45

a book. Sorry everyone is writing a book. They

53:47

are. Yeah. I've got some you've

53:50

done one. Yeah. I've

53:52

got this one. I've got this one. I

53:54

lost the testicle pizza. I love

53:56

it. It's very clumsy. What the books about. Yeah. It

53:59

is. But it's quite funny, quite

54:01

a funny story. It does

54:04

involve cancer. But yeah,

54:06

so I mean, other

54:08

people might be thinking, I'll

54:11

wind down a little bit. I'll enjoy

54:13

my time in the West Country. Yeah.

54:15

But you don't see your name. I don't keep

54:17

them busy, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not a sit-around

54:19

person. No. I'm too restless.

54:23

Do

54:23

you think, you know, do you

54:25

think you're underrated,

54:27

Peter? I think so. I think you

54:29

are. I don't think people,

54:32

I don't think you get the credit you deserve

54:35

for everything you've done. I think

54:37

I'm going to die first, haven't I? I

54:40

don't know. Maybe you're dying. Maybe

54:42

you'll die and no one will feel it. Maybe you'll die and there's still no credit.

54:46

Imagine how embarrassing that will be. At least you won't be around

54:48

to... I mean, I think you get credit.

54:51

But when you look at it, I

54:53

think this happens a lot when I do these interviews. And

54:56

especially with people who've got a proper

54:58

body of work, you sort of see it

55:00

and think, God, you know, actually, I don't

55:02

know if people will have tuned

55:05

into your 80s work or your 90s

55:07

work or the stuff you've done recently. They won't necessarily

55:09

have followed the whole career. And,

55:12

you know, to think there's that many

55:15

comic strips and they're nearly all completely

55:18

different characters... Well, it goes from 1982 to 2016 is the

55:20

last one.

55:21

Yeah. And

55:24

we were trying to make what we would have done last year. Would

55:26

have been another one. Yeah, it would be nice, wouldn't it? I

55:28

mean, I think it's still... Yeah, I suppose after it and

55:30

so is Nigel and everyone. I mean, they're

55:32

dropping off a little bit like flies. I

55:35

know. One to the left, ones are still alive. Yeah.

55:37

But there's still enough of them still

55:39

going to... What I like

55:42

about you as well is you're

55:45

obviously aware of, not

55:47

of me, but of other...

55:50

Of people working. You're bringing in new people all the time. You're

55:53

working with Stephen, for example, and talking about working with Matt.

55:56

Not that he's particularly new, but, you know, he's a different

55:58

generation. Yes.

55:59

Yes, that was good. I mean that was good

56:02

working with Shane Allen, I should have been. I

56:04

was working with him on Lion of the Day, but it

56:07

didn't...we had gone on great. But

56:09

it didn't come off.

56:11

But you know, most writers

56:14

would have probably more stories...well I certainly

56:16

have more stories of failed TV shows

56:18

than I think you have. I've got so many scripts that haven't

56:21

been made. Yeah, of course, of course. But that

56:23

is...it's weird how much that's a part of the job,

56:25

right? Someone who's successful, even someone with a track

56:27

record, it's not guaranteed

56:30

that someone at the wrong production company will

56:32

come in, or the wrong person will buy it, or

56:34

just the wrong commissioner

56:37

won't get what's... But you would think it was...I mean

56:39

I know you've moved it around, haven't you? You went

56:41

from Channel 4 to the BBC and then went to Gold to the... And

56:43

then back to Channel 4. And then back

56:45

to Channel 4. We've been around the houses. And now we're on ITV,

56:47

Britboxed. Right. We've done

56:49

the lot. Yeah, they're not making it anymore, they're just stripping

56:52

out the... But that's still pretty

56:54

good. And you know, so it does... Yeah,

56:57

I mean it's...that's just so

56:59

incredible that... I mean it's

57:02

not because they're good, but it's incredible that that idea

57:04

is permeated when you think of all the things that come and go. And

57:07

I guess that...the fact that it...if it was

57:09

just...if it had just been four people doing it, I

57:11

suppose. You know, if it had been a team every single

57:13

week. But I think it was established

57:15

very quickly, hey

57:17

look, we can have someone completely different this, you know,

57:19

we can have... I think it's people got older, we sort

57:21

of brought people into the younger parts. So we

57:23

just adapted to time really for a reason.

57:25

And met people on the way and you know... In

57:28

a way, is it the carry-on of the new millennium?

57:31

I would rather call it the

57:33

eating films of the... Okay. Well,

57:37

we didn't do one thing like that. I

57:39

mean, eating films were all...those

57:41

were all films, weren't they? Yeah. Some

57:44

of them were great. And I think some of them they could

57:46

probably throw away, but I'm sure we could do

57:48

the same.

57:49

And you know, it's just so

57:52

interesting to see... Oh, it's very interesting to hear these

57:54

stories about the creation of these

57:57

different scenes and these iconic things. Yeah,

58:00

but I think that idea

58:02

of the Hollywood takes

58:04

on...

58:05

We did a couple of those, yeah.

58:08

Yeah, I mean, it's never going to be... Three of those, yeah. But

58:10

that could go on and on because it's such a strong

58:12

idea, it works on so many levels

58:15

because you're parodying the actual events,

58:17

you're parodying Hollywood, you're parodying... You're using

58:19

that macho American style. Yeah,

58:21

it's

58:22

so nice. I think we've done it to death,

58:24

but it's going to...

58:25

I know, I don't think you have... Other

58:28

people would have done something to death, but there's been even that

58:30

one, which is the one you've done most as an idea,

58:32

they're all still different. And they all... It's

58:36

a kind of another first comic. That was him

58:38

running away from circus, becoming MP.

58:41

I don't know if you saw that, it actually was

58:43

great.

58:45

I mean, I suppose inside number nine might be the closest

58:47

thing to now, but

58:49

only in that

58:51

it's the different idea

58:54

every week. That again, I mean, I suppose with

58:56

the very

58:57

different characters, the core two of

58:59

them doing them all. But yeah, it's...

59:02

Yeah, it's... It

59:04

had a very good line-up. Jim Broad then was great

59:06

and well-off. You know, get to work, people

59:09

like that was wonderful.

59:10

Yeah, it's... Well, I hope that

59:14

you know how important these things are and how much

59:16

they mean to comedy fans

59:19

and certainly to me. So I'm

59:21

really chuffed that you've come on. And

59:24

yeah, it's... You know,

59:27

I'm very excited to see what you come up

59:29

with next. What is the book going to... What's

59:32

the book about? It says, I'm going

59:34

to call it Hoch Elba Starters. Tales

59:37

from the comic strip and other stories. So stories from the

59:39

comic strip. Yeah, yeah. Someone

59:42

wish I'd... couple wish I'd spoken to them. Of course, yeah. But

59:45

that's... Yeah, I mean, there must be so much. We've

59:47

literally just touched the surface after a place of ice.

59:50

No. But it's... You

59:53

know, I think it's... It's

59:55

interesting to see all the progression of all the different

59:57

people from that gang. And

1:00:00

sadly we have lost some of them. And you know,

1:00:02

I'm glad. But you know,

1:00:04

I think Aide Edmondson I think is such

1:00:07

an interesting character. And the journey

1:00:09

you've got, you're saying he was Rick's friend from college.

1:00:13

And he's ended up in Star Wars.

1:00:16

A huge talent. A

1:00:18

great actor. And

1:00:20

the greatest John Maytrian in that one where we played Rick.

1:00:22

One of my favourites, that one. The

1:00:24

agent's still in it.

1:00:25

And I think when you look back at the young ones as well,

1:00:28

as much as I was bedazzled by Rick

1:00:30

Mayall as a teenager, Aide Edmondson's

1:00:33

work at the young ones is absolutely

1:00:35

phenomenal. Especially given

1:00:37

how different he is in everything else. He's

1:00:40

almost a bit too much of a thing to bear, isn't he? But

1:00:43

he seems to have shaken off, which is great. Well

1:00:46

look, Peter, I'd like to thank you very much for

1:00:48

coming. And I wish you many

1:00:50

more years of success. Ladies and

1:00:52

gentlemen, the incredible Peter Richardson!

1:00:55

Thank you very much. You

1:01:00

have been listening to another book

1:01:02

with me, Richard Herring, and my guest, Peter

1:01:04

Richardson!

1:01:05

Thank you to Scampi

1:01:07

Guard for this beautiful tuneage. I'm

1:01:09

indebted to my producer and director, friend,

1:01:12

enemy Chris Evans, not that one. Thank

1:01:14

you to Ben Evans, Beck Cliff, George

1:01:16

Lingford, Everybody at the

1:01:18

Northcocks Theatre in Exeter, and

1:01:20

everyone at Avalon who's facilitated this

1:01:23

wonderful tour that we are on. Right

1:01:26

now, this is the Sky Potato Fuzz, and go faster,

1:01:28

Stripe.com production. Come and see us on

1:01:30

tour, Richard Herring.com slash Ruhulla

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