Becoming Mr Nice

Rhys and I made the agreement

14 years ago, should I ever get a book published about myself

and should he ever become an actor, should they ever make a film about the book, could he play me?

And I said yes.

This programme contains very strong language.

# Bad, bad, bad, bad behaviour

# Bad, bad, bad, bad, behaviour

# Bad, bad, bad, bad behaviour

# Bad, bad, bad, bad behaviour

# Bad behaviour

# Was my saviour

# Making mischief

# Used to make my day

# Subsequently

# Accidentally

# I put my fist

# Through a window pane... #

When he was released from prison,

I met him at a Super Furry Animals gig in Pontypridd.

Howard left prison in '95

and hit the Cwl Cymru phenomenon bang on.

When I first met the Super Furry Animals,

they were bringing out their first album

and had used pictures of my false passport as their album cover.

So their record company, Creation, had to get my permission.

So I listened to the album and liked it and particularly loved the track they wrote about me

and I went to see them play in Pontypridd

and they brought along a friend of theirs called Rhys.

-Remember the first time I met you?

-You were just out of nick.

-Yeah, a matter of months.

-Yeah.

I forget which one of them introduced me to you. Probably Daf.

You come up with a packet of fag papers.

I had a packet of Rizlas on me and I asked him to sign a Rizla.

I was like, "Yeah, sure," picked it up and signed it

and gave it back to him. He said, "No, I meant every one."

At that moment I thought, "I'm going to get on with this guy."

You could totally see where the bond would come from

cos they're very similar people, separated by a generation.

I hadn't published... My book hadn't been published.

-You hadn't done very much...

-Anything!

-..known acting.

And at some point, "All right, if the book does come out

"and if I do become an actor and they do make a film about it,

-"is it all right I play you?" We shook hands.

-Yeah.

-And, Rhys, today is the fulfilment.

-Yeah.

-This is why we did it!

I fucking love a full circle, don't you?

It is extraordinary, what happened.

Hit it.

Set, action.

Action, action!

In Howard Marks, we have a kind of anti-hero, a loveable rogue,

an incredibly intelligent cerebral character as well.

And yet, someone who was very naughty.

'This was the house I was born in, in a place called Kenfig Hill.'

I spent all my life here till I was 19.

'All I knew was this small village.'

Occasionally took jaunts to Cardiff, or Swansea, or Bridgend,

Port Talbot, but most of my time was spent in the village,

sitting around, reading encyclopaedias.

'What brought us as a family to Kenfig Hill were the coal mines.'

All my family, except my father, every male was a coal miner.

But then the mines started closing down

and the steelworks sort of replaced the mines

as the main local employer in this part of the world.

So it's the beginning, I suppose, of the steelworks.

My father worked here

and his job was to supervise the big ships bringing in,

usually, iron ore from foreign countries

to put in those blast furnaces you can just see there.

That was his position after he left the sea, he was a captain,

this was his shore job that he took for the rest of his working life.

My mother, in particular, was a frustrated academic.

She did well at school but there simply wasn't the money to afford her to go to university.

She was qualified to. And she became a teacher.

And always was an avid reader.

And always encouraged me to read and study.

My father was away a lot in my early life. He was still at sea.

And when he came back, he sort of reinforced that encouragement.

He read a lot too, so it was a pretty bookish house.

You know, I was embarrassed to do well in examinations, kind of thing.

I was in danger of being labelled a swot and things.

I compensated for that by being extremely mischievous.

With my mother, particularly, there was a lot of, erm...

persuasion, I suppose, and influence to read Welsh writers

or ones who were thought highly of within Wales.

But Dylan Thomas... He was almost too much of a rebel to be part of literature then.

I mean, he drunk and he smoked and everything.

And there was this belief that writers didn't do that around here.

I started reading things like On The Road by Kerouac.

I started reading those sorts of things as a teenager.

But as a child, I read quite a lot of Welsh writers.

We are quite an uptight nation.

We come from generations of chapel-goers

and we're fairly forelock tugging, mind the neighbours, that sort of thing,

and yet, we do throw out occasionally real rebels,

people who we can live vicariously through.

We've got Dylan Thomas and the 18 straight whiskies,

we've got Burton and his legendary capacity for alcohol.

Naughty, lovable rogues.

I witnessed Burton's rendition of Thomas's poetry

and particularly his Under Milk Wood.

Definitely brought Thomas to a wider audience.

His interpretation of Thomas was a very important thing in getting Dylan Thomas known,

as was the respect accorded him by the early Beat poets,

like Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, that lot.

Thomas very soon became a hero, so that eventually filtered down into here.

It made Welsh people think they were part of it, at least,

that one of their homeboys, if you like, had become such a hero

to those who really were, I suppose, pioneering an alternative culture,

you know, so much as early hippy days could be sort of...

placed as having its origins there, really.

I think as far as the rebel personality heavy drinking,

heavy smoking lifestyle is concerned, that certainly seems to have carried on!

He's part of this lineage of hellraisers,

people who've lived hard, played hard, captured our imaginations,

very seductive characters, very charming characters,

and people that we're slightly obsessed with.

I remember the sort of letter coming that stated that I'd been admitted to Oxford.

I remember that moment very well.

I'd never expected to get in.

It wasn't my reality. It was just one more hurdle and I'd be there.

I just thought it was completely impossible.

So it was a massive surprise and the rest of the village, I suppose, were proud

that someone had got in to Oxford.

It was almost as if I'd scored a try for Wales, or something like that.

It was this sort of heroic status.

He was a working class kid from the Welsh Valleys

in the sort of heart of the British establishment.

You're in Room 111.

Close the door.

I hated the place. No-one could understand me,

my accent was completely incomprehensible.

I assumed none of the birds would fancy me.

I didn't like the boozers. I... I was most unhappy and homesick here.

I'd put it as my most difficult challenge in life, socially,

to get on with people here

and the first place I took drugs.

Now, that memory is a fond one!

It changed my life completely.

It changed him from being an outsider to being at the centre of the party.

Because I took drugs here

and was very enthusiastic about taking more,

I made my room available to anyone who had drugs, basically,

because I didn't have any myself and didn't have any money.

So my room became a scene, if you like,

the place where everyone could go and there'd be drugs and women there.

But the motivations were simply to get drugs!

The moment when it exploded in the late '60s

and it felt like it was part of cultural revolution.

He realised, because he was a very intelligent guy,

there was an enormous untapped market here.

-Very impressive!

-I wish I had more to sell. I got rid of it all in days.

I don't think Howard ever cared about changing the world. He saw it as a business opportunity.

He wanted the excitement.

In the papers, they call people who sell drugs 'pushers',

like you've got to try really hard to get rid of it!

It doesn't really work like that.

This is a guy who, from a pretty ordinary background, went to Balliol College, a really cerebral figure,

great intellectual gifts, and in many ways poured all that talent into the wrong avenue.

There are a few, you know, who thoroughly disapprove of my CV,

but most of them sort of think. "Well, you know, at least he put the place on the map."

'I never realised I had any sort of talent whatsoever to write prose.'

So I didn't have any early ambitions to be a writer whatsoever.

When I got out of prison, my release was accompanied by a lot of publicity.

And a lot of literary agents and publishers were keen to contact me

and they had the idea, so I just went for the one who offered the most money.

I thought of using a ghost-writer

because of the idea of lying back, smoking joints, talking about things

while someone else wrote it was quite appealing,

but I felt he wouldn't get it right

and he would have cost 40% of it, so that's half the money blown there!

So I wrote a sample chapter which the publishers were happy with and wrote it all myself.

Research, if you're doing an autobiography, is fairly...

It's much easier than researching someone else's life.

There's no attempt to make a plot or anything like that,

the whole things is sort of sketched out for you.

In my case, there was an awful lot of material available, press cuttings

and law enforcement reports, you know.

Boxes and boxes full of where I have to be at a certain date and time.

I couldn't remember, but they saw me there.

It was a best-selling hardback and that surprised me.

It sort of became a huge seller once it got into paperback,

that certainly astonished me.

My friend Luke Roeg got interested in it and said he would pay for a screenplay.

I met with Howard and, you know, discussions began.

He had written an extensive and interesting treatment for the film

and at that point, it had reached a stage where it was going no further.

That introduced me to the book, which I read and thought, "This is fantastic"

and beyond that, you get into the culture that is Howard marks.

The whole casting thing is funny. When I was initially involved,

there were some quite well-known movie stars who'd expressed interest in playing this part.

When the conversation, you know, got round to the various star castings

being bandied about, I said, "What about Rhys?"

He seemed so obvious to me that he should play him.

I had no idea that Rhys and Howard had this history that they have.

So when I first met Howard, I said, "There's only one person who can play this and that's Rhys Ifans."

I think you should be played by a Welshman.

I've always thought Rhys Ifans was born completely out of time.

He would have been brilliant hanging out with Richard Harris, Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole.

In Howard Marks, he's obviously found his spiritual father.

Absolutely the perfect person to play Howard Marks.

There was never anybody else even vaguely approached.

Given his passion for the role and the character, what was there to doubt?

I asked Rhys if he wanted to do it before I wrote the screenplay so I kind of wrote it for him.

It was never shown to anybody else.

Thank you.

As soon as I opened my mouth and did Howard there,

that was the flag, you know, in the moon.

"This is it now. I'm going to be this guy for the next ten weeks."

Like I said, are there any plain clothed policemen in here tonight?

It was very strange in a good way.

Howard was there, Howard did his show, and then we did a Q&A after.

Rhys, are you coming on?

APPLAUSE

I kind of needed permission from Howard to continue

and he gave me permission that night.

We didn't have to discuss it.

He knows me so well that he's very familiar with the way I walk through the world.

He didn't need to study me at all.

Of course, he did read the book over again

and watched DVDs, for example, of my performances,

but he didn't really need to study me as a character.

It wasn't a challenge.

It wasn't a pressure of having to study Howard or observe Howard,

I just know Howard.

And I adore him.

I've known Howard long enough for the process of osmosis

to take its milky, kindly toll.

We've been faithful to the book so there's nothing we're doing to his work, life or character

that he's not endorsed in one way or another.

There are really two themes in the film that run in parallel.

One is the history of recreational drugs

and the second story, which runs in parallel,

is a history of addiction, really.

The affects that taking a lot of drugs have on Howard and the people immediately around him.

"In Britain, the US, Spain and other countries spanning three continents,

"the men who wage war against the drug traffickers

"have been celebrating the success of Operation Lynx.

"After more than two years, it's culminated in a series of arrests

"and the smashing of one of the world's biggest drugs rings.

"A ring allegedly masterminded by a Briton. Dennis Marks, aged 43.

"This afternoon he, his wife and another British citizen appeared in court in Palma, Majorca."

I wonder about his attitude to the consequences to his actions.

There are parts of his life story where he describes what he's done

but he doesn't really analyse it.

You're left to think, actually, there is collateral damage.

I think Howard was and is an adrenaline junkie.

It becomes the high.

The question for me was, why didn't he stop?

-Howard, why don't you stop?

-Stop what?

-Just stop.

I'm feeding my family.

I'm scared they're going to bust you.

I realise why he didn't stop. Because it was exciting.

They're not going to bust me. They're not.

Don't be scared.

He had opportunities to stop and he didn't.

The consequences were disastrous for him and his family.

Judy was so young and she got wrapped up in the lifestyle and glamour of it

and her sister and brother and family members were involved with him

and went to prison for it.

Everybody in her family was affected by it.

The impact on his family must have been huge. Does he really face up to the consequences of his actions?

Does he really know what the impact of his actions are?

One of my favourite scenes is the courtroom at the end, the final courtroom.

I impose the following sentence.

The contrast between the British and American courtroom.

In a British courtroom, Howard is doing his theatre

and making these strange people in wigs dance to his tune.

Your Honour, there's something I can't reveal in open court.

He gets to the American courtroom and he comes up with this bullshit and they just say, "We don't care."

As to count one of the indictment, for a term of ten years.

As to count two of the indictment, a term of 15 years.

I think it's a really unpleasant moment that happens where reality suddenly seeps in.

Sentences to run consecutively

for a total of 25 years.

Case is dismissed.

One thing that comes across in the book is his belief

that there aren't any victims to the crimes he commits and that he's not a violent man

and yet he is fraternising with somebody from the IRA.

The boys have put a bomb on the next flight to Shannon.

You have twenty minutes.

My favourite bit in the film is the whole thing with the walkie-talkies.

I just love that bit.

-The Keystone Cops of drug dealing.

-Yes!

-They're my favourite bits too.

Oi!

Pull up the aerial, you prick!

Hello?

What are you fucking doing? Come here!

-Press the button.

-Jim? Jim?

I've got an order.

I've got...

Come in. Jim?

It was hard to say to what extent Rhys is like me, but he's doing that very well.

-I can hear you the other end of the field.

-You fucking idiot!

David Thewlis does a fantastic job of playing McCann.

-Piece of fucking shite!

-It's not even on, Jim.

So it's just these two characters, one of which is me,

and the other, who's probably the strongest character I've met,

doing completely insane activities in our beloved Ireland.

Jim McCann is very prominent in the book Mr Nice.

He's Howard Marks' IRA contact.

Well, what I was looking for, or like-minded friends of mine were looking for,

was an entry port into Britain.

I can get any amount of merchandise into the air from Karachi Airport.

The problem is how to get it onto the ground.

He used Jim McCann to bring in hashish from Afghanistan into Ireland

under the pretext of bringing arms so that McCann could tell the people at the airports

that they were bringing in arms for the cause, for the IRA.

We had connections out east to send it so we needed connections...

in an airport somewhere, in Britain we thought at first,

to bring dope into the country.

We couldn't, but we became aware, er...

that the IRA could bring guns into the country.

So, in a bit of stoned hippy thinking,

we thought it might be better all round if we brought in dope.

-How soon can you send the nordle?

-What the fuck's nordle?

Wise up. You have to use codes. Codes and false names.

-Nordle is hashish.

-Nordle.

Right.

They first meet in Ireland, through a mutual contact,

um, they're introduced. Howard doesn't know who he's going to meet

and meets a far more volatile character than he was expecting, than anyone he's dealt with before

and who really endangers him through his volatililty.

Gus. This is Howard.

-Hello, Gus.

-Aye.

That was Gus. He's a member of the Belfast Brigade's assassination squad.

I wanted him to know your face, so no fucking games. You understand me?

Jim McCann did what he was doing in this film. It's a true story.

It's a brilliant plan, Jim. When can we start?

Now. Got it all together, bring in as much as you want.

There is almost a sense of the innocent abroad, who's drinking in all these experiences.

And yet you get to the stage where he is this incredible drug baron,

you think, this stage, "For all your kind of cuteness and charm and sweetness and humour,

"you must be pretty ruthless to do all this on such a scale."

And that, for me, is the great paradox of Howard Marks

because you just think, he is this incredible character, he is so seductive...

and yet when you analyse what he's actually done... how can those two personas meet?

< What's your biggest regret?

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

Um...

I don't think I'm going to regret doing this film cos, um...

you know, I'm playing a living legend.

He's more than just imitating me, he's putting the whole of himself into the whole of me.

What comes out is him playing me, not him trying to imitate me.

You can sustain an imitation for five minutes and it may be convincing,

but I had to...

put myself in the situations he was in

and respond accordingly.

He came on set quite a bit and when he was sitting there,

I'd go up to him and say, "How does it look to you? Is it anything like it was?"

And Howard would always say, "Oh, yes, it's exactly how it was. Exactly."

And this happened a few times and, after a while, I realised and said,

"Howard, you just don't remember any of it, do you?" And he went, "No, no. Not a thing."

It's a bit like dreaming. Sort of when you wake up, how things have flashed in front of you.

It's a bit like that all the time. It's extraordinary.

When we first saw each other on set and I was Howard,

his reaction was, er...hysteria.

He just pissed himself laughing and just found the whole thing amusing.

-Trying to take the piss?

-No, I've a huge respect for Customs' officers.

I always knew Howard as the fun guy and the brave man

who left prison with humility and not a lot of apparent anger.

Daddy!

I wanted to hug him after the film. Hold him tight and...look after him.

We'd become very close before but, as a family now, I feel very close to them all.

'It's very strange.'

Thank you very, very much.

AUDIENCE CHEERS AND APPLAUDS

'I know him better now, having played him, I think,

and, um, I like him even more.

Howard is nice. He's Mr Nice. He's not a difficult person to have around ever.

That's absolutely the quintessence of his charm,

that he's comfortable wherever you put him.

For those God-fearing, law-abiding, slightly repressed Welsh people...

Howard Marks is just... so off the beaten track,

just so...different.

He's a bit of danger in all our lives that we can taste vicariously.

But wouldn't want to be him.