Rob Brydon Mark Lawson Talks To...

He was born Robert Brydon Jones in Swansea,

but professionally dropped the most distinctive of Welsh surnames

and halved his first one to become Rob Brydon.

He retained this name, playing versions of himself

in the TV series The Trip,

where he reviewed restaurants with Steve Coogan,

in the movie A Cock And Bull Story,

the game-shows Annually Retentive and Would I Lie To You?

and his talk programme The Rob Brydon Show.

His fictional identities include Keith,

the cuckolded taxi-driver in the monologue dramas Marion and Geoff

and a variety of unlucky men with Julia Davis as their woman

in the dark comedy series Human Remains.

He's just published his memoirs, Small Man In A Book.

People always wonder about this, the dark side of comedians.

Comedy is an insecure thing to do, isn't it?

Well, it's an odd thing to do.

But also it's a gamble that... If you lecture on nuclear physics,

you don't necessarily know

if you've failed the audience, or the audience don't respond,

but as a comic, you know instantly, and that's an awful thing.

It is, but when you get it right, it's fantastic.

And it's my opinion that comedians, that it is a calling, you know,

that it's not something that you choose to do, you know.

It's something that you choose to follow,

but comedians look at the world a certain way.

I remember, quite a few years ago now,

having a...a revelatory moment, where I realised,

"Oh, yeah, not everybody looks at things like this, do they?"

Not everybody takes pretty much every situation in life,

and you're looking at it from different angles

to try and find which way to turn it to make it amusing,

to make it funny.

So it's...it's just the way...

I think it's just the way you are, the way you're wired.

And you say, when it works, the pleasure of that.

When I've watched a comedian in a big venue,

it's that sense that they are in control of the thousand...

-Yeah.

-..or several thousand people,

which, as a straight actor, you would almost never get.

-Does it feel like power?

-Yes. Yeah, definitely, yeah.

Yeah, it really does, erm...

And equally, when it's not working, it-it feels like...

a scare at a nuclear plant, you know.

It feels like, "Oh, my God, how do I switch this off?!"

But yes, when... when you're firing on all cylinders

and you've got this whole room with you,

oh, it's a terrific feeling, you feel like a mixture of...

this will date me... Eddie Murphy and Elvis and all those things.

Because the comedian has to lead,

and even sometimes leads in a very passive-aggressive way, you know.

If the comedian is playing low-status,

they're still, none the less, leading the room,

and that's what an audience wants.

It's not easy being Welsh, no, it's not, no, no.

We're not as cool and trendy as you English.

I watch the English people coming in, they're like Hugh Grant.

"How are you doing? Great to see you. Hello, how are you? Excellent!

"Just back from two weeks in France."

A Welsh hello is not like that - a Welsh hello is basically this.

Who made a sheep noise? No... No!

No! No, I'm serious, no sheep noses, please.

No, I mean that, seriously, no sheep noises.

It's very hard for me to remember this act with an erection.

LAUGHTER

One of the decisions a performer has to make,

in the age of Twitter,

is to what extent to interact with the audience.

Your collaborator Steve Coogan is against it.

You seem to be for it. You tweet not only jokes,

but for example the birth of a child and so on, erm...

Do you ever feel uneasy

about having to be so apparently open about your life?

Er... Yeah, sometimes, a little bit.

But...

I'm in control of it, so...

So when you say, the birth of a child,

it does make it sound horrifically callous, erm...

It's a funny thing, Twitter, the...

Largely, it's a very pleasant, rather enjoyable thing.

You feel as though you're sort of communicating

with like minded people - friends or, you know...

It's become a tool for people like me to communicate with your audience,

to keep your audience... entertained, I suppose.

No, the reason I mention the birth of the child is...

I used to work with your wife, and I was vaguely...

You weren't involved with the birth, though, Mark.

No, I wasn't in any way at all...

Telling me on camera, that would to be very upsetting.

The only way I know about it is that I saw in the Sun,

as a kind of news report, they said birthing pool at home, all that kind of stuff.

-They'd got that from you.

-They had.

-I was just interested in that,

that it seems to me people release on Twitter

more information than they would in an interview or a press release.

Yeah, but it's because you can control exactly how it's worded,

where, if you say it to a journalist,

you're going to have their filter, their angle on it, erm...

And I think that's one of the very appealing things about it.

To a degree, it kind of cuts out the middle man of the journalist.

And...yeah, it's kind of curious,

because I sort of think of myself as fairly private, really,

and at its best, it is like... a little kind of community,

you know, it's rather pleasant.

You follow people who you're interested in.

Not everybody does, of course,

because you do get this most incredible abuse,

where you think, "Why would a person ever want to be so horrible

"and, I mean, abusive and...?"

I mean, it's remarkable what people will say.

Comedians being compared to Ian Huntley and serial killers.

Oh, it's... But, of course, you know, it just reminds you

that all the evil in the world is from people, isn't it?

So maybe we shouldn't be surprised, you know.

But yeah, some of the stuff I get is, er...

absolutely shocking.

So if you're having a day with perhaps a bit of doubt in it,

yes, it can sometimes take a little chink at your armour,

but it goes with the job, I think, you know,

and you've just got to...

it has to bounce off you, really.

Although, in this respect,

it's one of the useful contrasts between you and Steve Coogan,

because he campaigns for privacy very fiercely.

-He's got more need for it than me.

-But no, on that point,

do you ever get irritated by the loss of privacy?

Well, I don't get it that much - I don't live the sort of life...

The tabloids have never been interested in me, really, you know.

And long may that continue.

I live a very...

normal life in terms of...

..putting out the recycling and, er...going to the tip

and going to restaurants, you know.

I'm not going out to clubs, I'm not going out with, you know,

different women, new girlfriends, all that kind of stuff,

so it's just not that interesting.

And I'm very happy that it's that way,

and I...I do kind of play up to that image a little bit,

the kind of Uncle Bryn side of things, you know,

just to keep everything nice and...

I've no desire for that sort of interest.

I don't see how that could possibly, erm...

enhance my life.

One other interesting way you've dealt with being well-known

-is you've played with this image of who Rob Brydon is.

-Oh, yeah.

So in Cock And Bull Story, in The Trip,

in Annually Retentive, even to a degree in the chat show,

you're more a version of yourself

-than Michael Parkinson is a version of himself.

-Hmm, yeah.

What's going on for you when you play those roles?

I mean... something like Annually Retentive,

that's... that's me...

..playing a very nasty, you know, bitter version of me.

I'm not a huge fan of that show, I think there were great bits in it.

-Don't go off on one now.

-I'm going off on one!

-Because you've made me look an idiot.

-Don't shout at me.

Let's have less of the gags as well, of "I'm the centre of attention."

The programme, in case you haven't noticed it, is about me, OK?

-Let's talk about The Trip.

-Hmm.

One of the fascinations of it is that we know it's not really you

and it's not really Steve Coogan, but one of the other games

is that we suspect there probably is quite a lot of needle between you,

and that's why it's interesting,

that you're exaggerating something that is really there.

To a degree, yes, I think we are,

but we both wanted to do it as characters.

And the big concern for us was, "Oh, God, get over ourselves."

I... I remember saying to my wife, "People are going to think

"that I think I'm this fascinating person, you know,"

which I don't think, by the way, erm...

Scintillating, yes.

And Steve and I were both saying,

"OK, let's do this idea, but can't we be Mick and Roger?"

"Can't we be characters?"

Because I wanted to be playing parts, not being myself,

but Michael is a very persuasive person...

-Michael Winterbottom.

-..and wouldn't let it go,

and so we did it like that.

I think the way we're portrayed, you could be forgiven for thinking

that we spend a lot more time with each other than we do.

In reality, we don't see each other unless it's work,

or we run into each other at something.

Erm... And there's a lot more warmth

erm...between us, most of the time, you know.

But there is also rivalry.

Yeah, but it's not a rivalry like it is on the screen, though.

It's not a...

I mean, in reality, I don't feel rivalry with him,

and I wouldn't...

I wouldn't denigrate him in reality, like I do on the show.

When we're playing the parts in The Trip, you know,

we're improvising it,

and your instinct is to look for conflict.

Because you're working under a comic construct,

we're there to be funny and to entertain.

And sometimes the choices you make will be...

..true to your...character,

and sometimes you make choices solely for the gag, for the moment.

Come, come, Mr Bond.

You derive as much pleasure from killing as I do.

-Come, Mr Bond, you get as much pleasure...

-I'm saying that bit.

Just don't do a caricature, try and do it real.

-Shut up, don't tell me how to act!

-Well, I bloody should do.

-Why?

Because sometimes you tend to sort of crank it up a bit.

Whereas you are widely regarded as the king of understatement(!)

I mean, the way it's portrayed...

I mean, we would never sit across a meal from each other

and niggle at each other like that, it just wouldn't happen,

and I would never sit there doing impression after impression.

Although, having said that, you see, a few people have said to me,

who know me well, when I've said, "Oh, it's not a realistic version,"

they go, "That's exactly what you're like."

And for people who are interested in the technique of impressions,

there's a particularly fascinating scene

where you do competing impersonations,

particularly of Michael Caine.

I found that intriguing, because when you hear them separately,

we think you sound exactly like him, but they're slightly different.

I can't remember if we'd planned it or Michael said, "Do impressions."

Because that happened a lot, this kind of edgy film-making.

A lot of the time, it was, "Do Basil Brush!" Seriously.

You know, "Just do more impressions."

And I used to do a thing in my act, where I would talk about how...

YOUNG CAINE: In the 1960s, Michael Caine used to talk like that.

OLD CAINE: But over the years that has changed,

and all of the cigars and all of the brandy

can now be heard in the back...of the throat.

So Michael Caine's voice now, in the Batman movies

and in Harry Brown...

I can't go fast because Michael Caine talks very...

..very...slowly.

This is how Michael Caine speaks.

Michael Caine speaks through his nose like that.

He gets very, very specific, it's very like that.

When it gets loudly, it gets very loud indeed!

It gets very specific.

It's not quite nasal enough, the way you're doing it.

You're not doing it the way he speaks!

Steve genuinely feels his impressions are better than mine.

He feels they're more clinical, more accurate.

He's generous enough to say mine are more entertaining,

which I think is very big of him.

He's...

So he...I think he's being quite sincere in that bit.

"You're not doing it properly, you're not getting the broken voice."

And I've since seen Michael Caine in interviews,

almost quoting what I do in my act,

because he says, "My voice did used to be higher,

but now, with all the cigars and the brandy..."

I go, "Man, that was my line, I used to say that on stage!"

You know? Amazing!

A number of people have said to me

that the specific thing of the impersonations,

and there's a scene in Cock And Bull Story

which feels fantastically real, where you needle Steve

-with impersonations of his impersonations.

-Yeah.

That does go on, doesn't it? Sometimes you do it a bit too much.

Well...I, erm...

I wouldn't have said so, you see?

He might. He might say that.

He's far more prone to say that I irritate him.

I think I'm more polite than he is.

I mean, he can be a very irritating, fluctuating man,

but my instinct is never to kind of say that, you know.

But if you're with somebody who is a...

somebody who is gifted with comedy, as he is,

to me, it's almost curmudgeonly not to sometimes share that.

And he will, but a lot of the time he doesn't.

A lot of the time, he's quite, you know, "s-s-serious."

And you just think, "Oh, come on," you know.

I should dominate totally in those things.

It should be like I'm Gandalf and he's Frodo.

-"I shall not have the ring."

-Very good, Rob.

-I do Steve as well.

-Can we just sort the shoes out first?

"Can we just sort the shoes out first?

"I've got a big house in the Hollywood Hills. Look at my pool!"

That's Alan Partridge. I don't speak like that.

-"I don't talk that way. Yes, I do!"

-Stop it!

We've talked about the roles where you are apparently Rob Brydon,

but the other side of it which few actors can do is your vocal abilities.

I'm thinking about the April Fool on the Ken Bruce Show on the radio.

And it seems to me that's an extraordinary thing

that for at least a large part of the show

we're convinced it's him then it turns out to be you.

For someone who is so interested in voices, that was kind of

the ultimate, to actually pass yourself off?

I loved that, you know.

I just had the idea of it and said to them,

"What about April Fool's?" And it's a voice I find I can do.

I liked it very much, that sort of losing yourself in another character.

And because you were completely invisible on the radio,

so the e-mails were coming in saying,

"What's wrong with you? Are you drunk?"

Well, a fair number of people realised it was me,

but I think the casual listener just hearing it in the corner

"would just hear the voice..." HE MUMBLES LIKE KEN BRUCE

"Chris Rea, Road to Hell."

You just kind of accept it's him.

And, with hindsight, I wish I'd gone further now with it.

I wish I'd sort of had him having a breakdown or something,

or saying something, really going a little bit further than I did.

And this vocal ability,

this mimicking ability that you have, it is like a musical gift.

I mean, you couldn't teach someone. It's like a tuning fork...

You could teach someone to do very broad things.

You could take the characteristics of a voice or personality

and teach them to, you know, to do that.

But in terms of the ear, yes,

I think it's something that you're born with or you're not worn with.

And that way in which sometimes Rory Bremner will say, "I just can't get Nick Clegg,"

are there people who have eluded you?

Yeah, I mean, the thing is I really only do people -

I may be protesting too much here - but I really only do people that I like.

With me, it's always the sincerest form of flattery.

So, you could list the people that I do

and it's all people I kind of admire or have affection for.

-Tom Jones, Ronnie Corbett...

-Exactly, yeah.

There was a period in the early '90s,

I was working on a radio show on Radio Five called The Treatment, and they would

give me a cassette of all the politicians

and I would have to LEARN the voices. I resented that.

So I used to do terrible impressions on there.

Very generic Peter Mandelson and...

"Just talking like that, really, you know."

Someone just said, "Oh, he's quite smooth,"

and I sort of resented having to learn them.

And there's a story in the autobiography of a nightmare

on the Parkinson show where you get -

it's a very good example of this sort of thing. You get Anthony Hopkins and Tom Jones mixed up.

Yeah, which never happens to me, that's the thing. I say that...

It was when I did Parkinson - and it's a big deal cos I grew up...

I loved chat shows as a kid.

And I used to love... Parkinson was the sort of high church of it.

All my heroes were on there.

So to finally appear on it was overwhelming and I kind of blew it.

I wasn't good on there.

I was overwhelmed by it.

Before the show, he came to the dressing room and said...

HE MUMBLES LIKE MICHAEL PARKINSON

He said, "We'll be talking about Wales.

"Very depressing people, the Welsh, the Celts."

I said, "Yeah, if you say so."

"I might talk about that.

"You do a very good Anthony Hopkins, don't you?" I said, "Yeah."

He said, "We might do that. Have a good show."

So, when it came time to do it, I was so scared.

I'm at the top of the stairs waiting to come on.

He goes, "..coming from Wales, Rob Brydon!"

HE HUMS PARKINSON THEME MUSIC

And you've got to make that horrible entrance.

I looked like such a turnip.

I came down the stairs and it's like the Cathedral of Parkinson.

The audience are so reverential.

APPLAUSE

And then he says something which I think is a cue for my impression.

He says, "Very gloomy people the Welsh, aren't they?"

I thought, "This is the cue."

So I said, "Yes. I tell you someone who isn't gloomy,

"that's Anthony Hopkins." So, then I do my thing.

Now, what I do when I used to do Anthony Hopkins is I would say,

"Well, you know, good Lord, I used to drink, not any more.

"Very dull, very boring, don't like to talk about it.

"Life's a game really, isn't it? Mustn't take too seriously."

Which is my take on him.

And normally when I do that - you did it then - it gets a response.

And voices are where I'm secure, it's where I feel good.

This is my area. So I start doing it...

HE EXHALES

Nothing. And it really threw me, you know.

And in my head - this all happens in a nanosecond, right.

In my head, I'm going, "Oh, my God!"

Now, in the build-up to doing the show,

my fear was that I would die on Parkinson.

We all have this fear to really die on it.

So I press on and out of nowhere - and I never get voices wrong -

out of nowhere I do my Tom Jones cough.

When I do Tom Jones, I always do him going "Huh!" because he's always...

"You know, the eyes are wide open.

"I'm sitting in a CHAIR. He'll stress a word that doesn't warrant it.

"Huh! And then he'll cough.

"Exactly! Yeah."

So I do the cough. So in the middle of doing Anthony Hopkins,

I suddenly coughed for no reason.

So I went, "Well, I don't like to talk about it,

"used to drink, very dull, very boring... Huh!"

And now in my head I'm going, "Woah, what the hell are you doing?

"What are you doing!?"

I never get that wrong, that's the thing.

So, what can I do, what can I do? And then it comes to me.

Do the slurping noise from the Silence of the Lambs.

Do the...

It's a crowd-pleaser. Even an idiot can understand that.

It appeals to everyone. "OK, do that."

But what I did was this - so I went,

"Well, you know, I used to drink, not any more, very dull, very boring,

"don't like to talk about it.. Huh! Ssss..."

Then in my head I'm going, "What are you doing? You're hissing like a snake!

"He doesn't hiss like a snake!"

And it traumatised me. And I just kind of went...

And he went, "Yeah..." And I just sat there. "Oh, my God!"

Then the Queen Mother died, so the show was delayed.

So it went out two weeks later. I spent two weeks thinking,

"This is it, I'm going to be shown for the fraud that I am."

And, you know, I literally couldn't eat before it went out.

That was how nervous I was. And I sat watching it like this.

And, you know what...it was OK.

It was just kind of nothing special.

Which, in a way, is the worst thing.

And you've just written the autobiography

and that - in general before that - were you prone to self examination,

either of yourself or with medical professionals?

Yes, yes. Far more prone to it than you might think.

I kind of... One thing that slightly irks me about The Trip

is this image of Steve as the, "Oh..." and me as the, "Ah!"

I just choose to be "Ah!", you know. I feel I came to success quite late.

So I really do feel quite genuinely,

"Wow, isn't this great, aren't I lucky?"

To compare it with someone like Steve -

successful in his early 20s, earning a fortune.

I slogged around through my 20s, doing all sorts of rubbish.

Always with an eye on what I've ended up doing.

So I think that informs this seemingly lighter nature.

But underneath we get into that notorious cliche about comedians,

this idea that it has to be underpinned by misery or insecurity.

In your book - I don't know if the publisher was disappointed -

it's a little short on trauma, your book, isn't it?

Well...

I'm on my second marriage.

My first marriage I have three children from.

So, you don't have to be a professor of psychology

to know that that's going to be a traumatic experience.

I don't talk about it in the book.

I explain my reasons for not talking about it in the foreword.

Because I have children. I have children at school age

and I don't think it would serve any purpose for them

to see intimate details of their parents' lives in a book, frankly.

One trauma which you do write about,

and I think trauma is not too strong a word, is acne.

-Yeah.

-That everyone has that...

-There is trauma, Mark. No, seriously,

I mean, the skin thing is interesting

because it's only recently that I've been happy to talk about it.

Because I think I've reached the stage where I go,

"This is what it is."

But I had very bad acne as a teenager

and it left me with scarring, you know.

When I finally saw a dermatologist in my early 20s, having gone

through years of antibiotics for it, he said, "Oh, this is chronic acne."

Because what happens is your family and friends understandably say,

"Oh, it's not bad," because they can see beyond it, you know.

But it's...

Often I find I'm out in the street and I see a kid with bad acne,

I want to go up to them and say,

whatever you do, don't touch it.

But you never do because their parents are probably telling them,

"Oh, it's not that bad."

And they'd go, "Oh, really? Is it bad?"

But I do, I really feel for them.

I would like to sort of offer them advice and help them.

And without, well, we are invoking national stereotypes, but there

are certain aspects of Welshness that are famously remarked on.

Rugby, chapel-going, singing.

Did you have a bit of all that growing up?

Not the rugby, I was always terrified of playing rugby.

The sound of the studs on the boots as they would come out

from the dressing room along the concrete.

Krk, krk, krk. Oh, God!

And the boys used to come out with their knees going up.

I was quite sort of just so and I liked my little...

And when I would play football I would play it in quite

an artistic way.

I would like my friend to tell me where he was going to place it

and I would dive for it.

It was like we were acting. Just place it, I'm going to dive.

So the rugby, I've got into rugby much more later in life.

The singing, I always loved to sing. Love it, love it, love it.

-What was the other - chapel?

-Chapel.

We went to church, we weren't chapel.

But, yeah, we used to go to church every Sunday.

I went to Sunday school.

So... That was part of my life,

but perhaps not in the way one might think of as a Welsh chapel.

There was none of that.

There's a particular moment in the book which

I think Professor Freud would seize on, where you're listening

to your father on the telephone, your father was a car salesman,

-and you write about the way in which he would modulate his voice.

-Yes.

He would use different voices. I think that's quite significant, isn't it?

I honestly hadn't thought of that. I suppose it is...

Given what I've gone on to do. But I remember, dad was a salesman,

so I remember him being on the phone and always kind of, you know...

Normally he'd have a Port Talbot accent but, "Hi, hello, Mr Jenkins.

"Yeah, we're going to get that sorted out for you."

It must have gone in.

I was aware that that voice was slightly different

to his normal voice, because he was performing in a way. You're selling.

But I'd never made the correlation of...

Because, as I say, I think it was just always what I was going to do,

because I was one of those kids that was always entertaining.

I say in the book,

even at church I used to literally hide in the robes of the vicar.

He used to hide me in his robes in front of the congregation and then I would jump out!

I was encouraged to do that.

And the social aspects of it, it's interesting.

-It was two private schools and then a comprehensive school.

-Yeah.

But then later your father's business went bust.

Were you sent to a comprehensive because they were short of money?

No. No, no, no. Interestingly enough, no.

I'd gone to two private schools and then we moved to Porthcawl,

which scared me because the school I'd gone to in Swansea was very...

Was lovely. I say in the book, it was like a gentleman's club.

Lovely teachers, small classes.

My memory of it is of a caring environment, a lot of love.

I liked it a lot.

My image of comprehensive schools was Grange Hill,

which to me was like Straw Dogs or something.

I used to watch and go, my God!

And when I went to the school,

I vividly remember standing in the playground.

Somehow I was in the playground when a bell went for break time.

And all these people, all these kids.

I say it was like a CGI battle scene from Lord Of The Rings.

All of these people. I've never seen so many people.

And of course they are all in their uniforms, they all look kind of the same.

I thought, "Wow!" It kind of overwhelmed me.

There were just so many more people. And I didn't settle in there until I found the drama department.

And then I was away. And then I knew what I wanted to do.

I'd always known that I wanted to perform,

but once I got into that environment I thought, "Well, this is me now."

Whatever I do next, I just want to carry on this feeling

of rehearsing plays, putting on things.

I love this, how can I carry this on?

And that was my thought in going to drama school.

No great desire to be an actor, really.

I was just I want to carry on what I enjoy at school.

In retrospect, one of the key things you did in your childhood

was a seminal stage production of Star Wars.

Yes, yes. This was when I was in Dumbarton.

Star Wars was very popular.

I say in the book it had caused quite a stir in Swansea,

almost suggesting that in other places it had failed a little bit.

Yes, we wrote a stage version of Star Wars.

We couldn't make an R2D2 because the shape was too difficult,

so we had a canine from Dr Who.

I played Luke Skywalker.

It was... That was my first proper stage appearance

and also my first stand-up, because before the show

I went out in front of the curtain

and did gags from The Two Ronnies joke book.

So...

You know, I did the joke about a Swedish woman

was pulled from the North Sea earlier today by a Scottish trawler boat,

and she was covered by an old Macintosh.

Mr Angus McIntosh of Fife, who was delighted.

That was what I did from the book.

We talked about the apparent absence of trauma in your childhood,

but there were a couple of things which passed you by.

One which was clearly very traumatic for your parents

-was they lost a child.

-Yeah.

-Which you were unaware of.

I must have been aware of it because I was five or six, around that age.

Yeah, I had a brother and

I think he was six months old.

So, you know, at six months - you've got used to this child.

But I've evidently blocked it out because...

All I can remember is a very isolated picture of my mother crying on

the sofa.

That's the only memory of it.

And it's only while writing this book that I thought,

"Hang on, you must have, you know, you must have been aware of it."

Was he talked about much when you were growing up?

Well...

Not excessively, no.

I don't know how much it would be normal to talk about

a little brother who died.

I don't know.

An interesting thing is my brother, Pete,

is eight years younger than me.

So I've always said it's more of a paternal relationship with him

than fraternal because of the difference.

But my mum said we've always thought that was because you felt you had to protect him

because you'd lost this brother.

-Which makes sense.

-That's interesting, isn't it?

-Yes, it makes great sense.

The loss of your father's business, again, you say this is,

which adolescents often do, you blocked that out pretty much.

Yeah, to a degree.

This was when I was doing the school shows, which were my life.

We would do a big musical every year.

It might sound silly to people but it was my life.

We rehearsed this pretty much all year round.

So, yes, he lost...

The business went, it was the recession.

The steel works were on strike in Port Talbot were the garage was.

Interest rates were 17%. 17%!

And, like a lot of businesses, it went.

So we moved back to Baglan, we moved in with my Nan.

I was aware that can't have been easy for my dad in terms of pride, or for my mother.

But I think they kind of sheltered me from it.

I was going to say that. They seem in both cases, both the death of your brother and this,

they seem to have been very good at not...

-Yeah.

-Transmitting it to you and your brother.

-Yeah, yeah. I think so.

I mean... Certainly the business of my brother.

The more I think about that, the more peculiar it is. They must have just sheltered me.

But my mum says that in those days it wasn't like it is now.

Where you are need counselling because you've tripped on the kerb.

Let's talk about the kerb and your relation to it.

Then, she says the attitude was very much, "Oh, well, never mind."

And that it wasn't... So your question - was it talked about?

Not like it would be today, I think it's fair to say.

We've talked about various schools. A famous route into comedy is doing the teachers.

But given your particular skills in this area, would you do that?

Yes, yes. I'm terribly predictable in that sense. Yes, I did. I...

So shoot me, you know!

Yes, I enjoyed that and I used to do little shows.

When I was in Dumbarton I would do the teachers. They used to like it.

That was the thing, I was always encouraged.

Even by the people I was so cruelly satirising. They were, "Well done!"

They used to like it.

Do you remember the teachers?

-Yes.

-I mean in terms of their voices.

-I'm not suffering from dementia!

Oh, their voices. We had a teacher, Mrs Mossford,

who used to use the headmaster, Mr Thomas,

as a stick to threaten us with.

Because she used to find it hard to control the class. She taught us Welsh.

So she would, if things were getting out of hand, she would say, "He's coming!"

"Mr Thomas is coming! He's coming!" Very dramatic.

"I can hear him, he's coming up the stairs!"

And you would go, "No, he's not. He's never turned up yet." Then of course he would appear.

Yeah, I used to do all of those.

You went to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama,

very impressive sounding.

-It wasn't Royal when I was there.

-Ah.

-It's become Royal since then.

-It was simply Welsh when you went.

-Yes, it was.

-But you then dropped out. Were your parents worried about that?

-No, no.

My parents were always supportive.

Remarkably so, given that I wasn't doing very well at school.

But I think they just always had faith in me.

So I went to the Welsh College of Music and Drama.

I'd only been there for a year-and-a-half

when a friend and I had a double act.

We did a gig, a musical comedy double act,

we did a gig on Radio Wales on a live show with a live audience.

I liked it, because I've been interested in radio as a child.

And...

They then offered me, firstly filling in for somebody on a quiz show,

then they offered me this early morning radio show, 6:30am to 7:30am.

I really didn't think too long about it because it was work,

and the chance of a job meant money.

So I left.

And a lot of the early work, radio and voice-overs,

were you, because of the skin condition we talked about,

were you self-conscious about your looks?

Were you happier as a voice at the time?

I suppose I was self-conscious, although you might not have known it.

I think I used to kind of front it out quite well.

No, it's just that I...

No, there wasn't a direct link.

It's just that this opportunity came my way,

and I had been interested in radio.

I had been Junior DJ of the Week on our local radio station

when I was about 13.

And I was interested in mobile DJs, I was into all that.

No, I don't think the skin thing was a factor in that.

And a lot of voice-overs, because of your vocal ability,

you always did a lot of advertising voice-overs.

Is that ever a moral decision?

Do you have to like the toilet cleaner or fizzy drink in question?

Yes, yes. I have to really believe in that toilet cleaner, Mark. Yes.

The only things that

I don't do are

violent video games.

The script for a video game is like War And Peace.

Its massive because you have to have all these options. I did loads!

And it was about that thick.

I sat in a booth on my own saying,

"Behold, the Cursed Casket of Minge."

But you have to have all the options, so, "Would you like to see the Cursed Casket of Minge?"

"So, you are not interested in the Cursed Casket of Minge."

"Oh, look - a casket. I think it's cursed. Could it be full of minge?"

And it goes on and on and on and on, and I didn't like it.

Some of the early acting roles,

Dennis Potter's Cold Lazarus, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

At that stage you were just a jobbing actor.

-You were taking what there was.

-I was hopeless, yeah. And I was bad.

I was all right in Lock Stock but in my defence,

for Cold Lazarus I felt I was doing too much.

And the director, I'm sure he's a fantastic director,

kept saying, "No, do more."

It was green screen and I had to look at

the case around the lens,

imagining that I could see Diane Ladd.

I had to look, my head was hovering above a swimming pool in a sphere

and I have a look at her and look sad as she was telling me off.

And he said to me, "No, do more." I was going,

"You don't think it's too big?" "No, do more."

Yes, ma'am. Too damn right.

The wilderness!

And then when I watched it, the thing I always say is

when I'm doing too much I become Griff Rhys Jones.

That sort of thing.

And that's what it was. I saw it and went, "Oh!"

But then I was stuck in this world of tiny roles.

I used to say a labrador could play them.

They were inconsequential roles that never moved your career on.

No casting director would take me seriously

as playing a role with an arc to it.

I was always being offered things prefaced with nerdy.

So I played a nerdy newsreader in the Russ Abbot sitcom.

I did all these tiny parts.

And you become one of those guys, and those guys are out there.

I feel for them because... Unless they're happy.

Some actors are happy with that but I really wanted to be at the front.

I was so desperate to get to the front.

People who have turned out to have been a late starter,

as you did in this respect, they very often say,

"I always knew it would work, the moment would come."

-But can you say that?

-Mostly, but I did begin to falter.

I did begin to falter.

I did start to think, just before it happened,

OK, I'm going to be a voice...

If you do many voice-overs, you do pretty well.

You've got a nice life, you go skiing,

you go on your summer holiday, nice couple of cars, nice house.

And I thought, this is it, this is me, this is what I'm going to do,

and I'll probably end up working on Radio Reading or something.

There are worse things in life.

Then I ended up getting a part in

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which I almost turned down.

Thank God I didn't, but I almost turned it down because the casting

director phoned me directly and said, "Rob, how're you doing, I've got this thing.

"It's a nerdy traffic warden."

I can remember being in my kitchen and going, "Oh, God."

I was all ready to say, "No, thanks." I thought, what's the point?

It's not going to further my career.

Maybe it's because she said it was a film.

I thought, right, OK.

She said, you go along to Ealing Studios and meet this director, he's called Guy Ritchie.

OK, fine. So I went. And sat there, met Guy.

The funny thing was I read it and he said,

"Anybody can play the part, it wasn't difficult."

At the end he said, "Of course you can do it."

He told me when it was filming, which often indicates you've got the role. Not always, but often.

And then I started telling him the story of when I'd been on First Night.

This big film, Sean Connery, Richard Gere. Tiny role in it.

And I'd had an experience there, because Martina, my then wife,

was pregnant with our first child, Katie.

And... the due date was coming but they wanted us villagers,

I played First Villager, this tiny part,

they needed us for longer on this big American movie.

But I said, I can't do it because I've got the baby coming and I want to be at home.

So one day the producer, a guy called Hunt Lowry, came out and said,

"OK, where's the expectant father?" And I'm dressed like a peasant,

so the status was just amplified beyond belief.

I said, "Me." "OK, let's walk."

He said, "Listen, I understand how you feel, I know the situation, I'm a father myself.

Here's what we'll do. We'll get your wife here, give her a trailer,

Anything happens, we take you to the hospital."

"Second option."

"We get a nurse to your house, the minute anything happens

"she gets in the car, you get in the car,

"you go to the hospital."

Well, you know, I just, I'd rather be at home.

I didn't know how films worked. I wouldn't think of doing that now.

Then he turned and kind of went,

"If I knew you'd behave like this you'd have never got the job."

And off he went.

And I started telling Guy this story,

not realising that it didn't paint me as the best potential employee.

So I went away and then heard nothing. I thought, I didn't get it.

What had happened, I think the finance had fallen through

so eventually I got the job and I did it.

And when it came out, the film, it was a big hit and,

lo and behold, I got mentioned in a review in Empire magazine.

I was a big film fan then and used to read Empire every month,

and they mentioned my name.

I couldn't believe it because it was a small part.

They said an extremely unlucky traffic warden, Robert Brydon.

And my kind of opportunistic side went, "Right,

"this is some kind of leverage.

"I must be able to use this."

You've got a ticket already,

and if you don't move it, we will move it for you.

-I'll only be a minute.

-You've already been 15.

-Look...

-Come and have a look.

-At what exactly?

-Well, the van's half full.

-So?

-So, all I've got to do is fill it up, put you in it.

-What?

Let's talk about Marion and Geoff, in which you played Keith Barrett.

Keith had come out of the radio show.

Keith, I'd done a version of Keith at college but properly on the radio.

I did a show called Rave, with Alan Thompson.

Keith in those days was part of a double act called Tony and Keith.

He was married to Marion

but in that version of it Marion

was having an affair with Tony while Keith drove his taxi.

And he had a very high-pitched sort of cartoon voice really,

but he was still that same sort of, very trusting, bloke.

He'd come home and find Tony coming down the stairs red-faced, you know.

Ha ha ha. "Oh, what are you doing here?"

"I've just been helping put a cupboard up, don't worry." "Oh, lovely, lovely."

Do you remember a thing called Video Nation,

where people could have a camera and film themselves?

I'd used that device in the little demo that I made.

It was the camera on the dashboard.

It's never explained why he's doing this.

He's just keeping a record.

I've just been to see Mr Redford, the solicitor.

He wanted me to go in because he wants to get a fuller picture of the marriage.

So I took him some photos. Some lovely ones.

But...

He said no.

He said, "Do you know what I want to know, Keith, is...

..when you first knew, you know, that your wife was having an affair?"

Fair enough, that's his job.

But I showed him the photos anyway because I think they are lovely.

The breakthrough, looking back, was Human Remains in the year 2000.

In various ways because you wrote it with Julia Davis.

It was a very dark comedy, which a lot of the stuff you've gone on to do has been.

And also you were able to show range

because you played a different role each time.

So in that way, looking back it was the perfect showcase

for what you can do.

Oh, yeah. The thing with Human Remains is, both of us,

Julie and I, were so desperate to prove ourselves.

Because we were getting on and people were having success.

The fair was moving on and we were kind of going,

"Woah, hang on, we are meant to be on that, hang on!"

So there was such a lot of stuff wanting to get out.

And when we started improvising those characters, it just poured out.

I was so keen to say, "Look what I can do."

I've never felt that since.

And in both Marion and Geoff

and Human Remains, they got on early to that,

a lot of people do now,

but the reality TV, the real people talking to camera.

Well, Human Remains, we actually...

At the 11th hour Julia and I kind of wobbled a bit and thought,

let's not make a mock documentary, there are too many of them.

Because People Like Us was a hit and we thought,

we've seen enough of this.

I remember hearing that The Office was being made and thinking,

"It's too late for that - another mock documentary?"

I thought we were a bit late to the party

but it goes to show, it isn't what you do, it's how you do it.

Yes, they were reflective of that trend, yeah.

You know, the first time we made love would have been...

-It was at King Carver.

-We didn't make love in the King Carver.

No, smashing.

It was £6.50 all-you-can-eat and an all-night happy hour.

It was a happy night. We really did gorge ourselves, didn't we?

Oh, yeah. That night in a way set the template for our relationship.

-It was like a feast.

-We've gorged ourselves ever since.

I think it just shows that we both had appetites. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Gavin & Stacey, there's this pattern of working with people

you've been in educational situations with like Ruth Jones.

She was at Porthcawl Comprehensive when I was doing the musicals.

I was Sky in Guys and Dolls, she was Miss Adelaide.

She was Carrie in Carousel and I was Billy.

She did Nighty Night with Julia.

And then she and James...

James Cordon, at the time, he had been in History Boys.

In fact, you met him in Australia where he was touring History Boys.

But he was not very well known.

This was quite a gamble, this show.

Yeah, but James is quite a talent. He really is.

You don't have to worry about James. I met him on Cruise Of The Gods.

I played this actor who goes on this fan cruise,

very down on his luck actor,

he had been a big star.

And James plays the fan who turns out to be the son I didn't know I had.

And I vividly remember being in this cabin,

shooting the scene I think where he tells me.

We were doing this scene right up close to each other,

and I remember going, "God, he's good.

"I'd better pull my socks up."

So, are you a fan of the show?

No. It's just all I had of you.

Mum wouldn't let me call you.

So you're not a fan of the show?

No, it's rubbish.

Oh, thank God for that.

-The parts are incredibly stretched.

-Tell me about it.

The characters never did really develop.

-They were two-dimensional.

-Absolutely.

-Sub-standard acting.

Could only work with the material we got.

And I also remember him one night,

we were walking back from a taverna, we were filming in a beach resort,

and him saying to me, "I really want to write, but I just,

"I've got this idea but I just don't know how to go about it."

And I said, "Well, just get on with it, just do it," and he did.

Bryn in Gavin and Stacey is probably where the Welshness most comes out.

In Bryn, you're drawing on people and atmospheres from growing up in Wales.

Well, Bryn is not written by me. That's the thing always to remember with Bryn.

Bryn is written by Ruth and James, but they wrote it with me in mind,

and he's not a million miles away from Keith Barrett,

who I did write, with Hugo Blick, in Marion And Geoff.

Um... It's a similar, kind of...

There's a naivete and seeing the best in the world, you know.

What I like about Bryn is the other side of him as well, the tetchiness.

I love playing that.

When he would lose his temper with people.

Look! No-one is going to ruin this surprise, all right?

Bryn, you've got to calm down, mate, you'll have a heart attack!

-Ted, what the hell are you doing? Get inside!

-Sorry I'm late.

Right!

If anyone is expecting friends, would you please phone them and explain...

MOBILE PHONE BLEEPS

They closed Plassey Street, there's no diversion. I was bursting for the loo...

-Oh, my lord, they're here.

-I mean...

-Right, Ted, shush, please.

Everybody, into position. Doris, lights. Band, stage.

Ted, please be quiet!

TED CHATTERS ON Everybody stand still.

Nobody make a sound. TED, SHUT UP!

I think he's wonderfully well-written and rang very true with me,

types of Welsh men that I knew, that kind of retired man,

and I wanted him to wear these light-coloured clothes, that was very important,

because you see those people, and they can wear those light-coloured clothes,

because they're not, at any point during the day, going to get them dirty.

And I was fascinated by that, the light shoes, the light trousers.

And because of your vocal abilities we talked about,

do you, in approaching a role, whether you've written it or not,

do you have to get the voice right first?

It's usually the way in, yeah.

And Uncle Bryn, it's heightened.

My voice becomes heightened, but it's essentially...

My voice is this.

HIGHER PITCH: Bryn would be a bit more like this. I'll tell you for why.

I will just make it a little bit more singsong and a bit more dramatic.

-Look, are you Mrs West?

-Who she is, my boy, is no concern of yours.

-What's he selling? It's not Kleeneze, because he hasn't got a badge.

-Nessa, please...

You got her name quick! That's how they work, you see, Bryn, these Jehovahs.

Oh, well, let's have a coffee and celebrate Christmas! Listen.

This household has been vulnerable since the death of my brother, rest his soul.

But you'll have no joy here, so move on.

And don't even think about trying Doris or the Howells' next door, because they're Catholic.

In fact, you could probably miss the next eight houses on this side.

-Now, Gwen, who's at number 15?

-That new couple.

We don't know them. Give them a try, chance your arm. Who knows?

And bringing this round full circle, really,

a lot of the work you now do is in various ways under your own name,

playing a version of yourself in The Trip, or Rob Brydon Show.

But you'd like to get back to immersive character acting?

Yeah, I would. The thing is, I mean, I do so many different things.

I host a panel show on BBC One, so obviously, you know,

I'm having my moment in the sun, and the thing is,

I like all those different things.

I'm not dismissive of panel shows when they're good.

I think Would I Lie To You? is very good, very funny, very entertaining.

I used to put on a different voice on the telephone

and pretend to be my own agent.

-Oh! Let's have it, then.

-The voice?

-Imagine I've just rung up. Hello.

I'm the people that want to book Rob Brydon. How much would he cost?

I used to call him Richard Knight.

IN DEEP VOICE: Richard talked like this.

He'd say, "Listen, love to help you out,

"but at that price, we're really not going to make much movement."

And I once did a charity gig...

It's a lie.

He's never done charity gigs!

And I currently host a chat show on BBC Two.

And I'm trying to make the kind of chat show I would like to watch,

which is one that has talented people doing things that you, the viewer, can't do.

Um... But I'm aware that in doing all these different things,

you can't have your cake and eat it, you can't also be seen

as a great actor.

But I made a very conscious decision about four years ago,

just do the things that you enjoy, that you like, and try and be good at them.

My daughter...

AS RONNIE CORBETT: My daughter.

Tiffany Bianca...

Tiffany Bianca.

RONNIE LAUGHS, ROB IMPERSONATES THE LAUGH

..came home with a fellow the other night.

Came home with a fellow...

From a different planet.

From a different planet.

He was half man and half sofa.

He was...

There's a lot of talk at the moment because of it being a recession

about the people say inflated fees paid to TV and showbiz talent.

Do you ever feel any guilt about that?

No.

No, because I feel...

Well, I'm not, let's be quite clear,

you'll notice my name is never in those lists.

I am not in that league.

I do a hell of a lot of work, and as a result I do all right,

you know, financially, but I do a lot.

I'm pretty much always working, really, one way or another.

I mean, if you get into that, do you feel guilty, I mean...

I kind of operate in the system that we have and the world that we have,

and I...kind of...

in my own conscience,

in the amount I try to do to help other people and encourage other people, no.

I always say, well,

when people do criticise that, I say,

look, that is the system that we're living in, go and give it a go.

Many of the people we grew up watching on TV and in showbiz have vanished,

or occasionally you'll see them in a touring production in Harrogate,

-and people have to accept that in show business.

-Terrifying.

Do you make psychological and financial preparation against that day happening?

Yeah, yeah, I'm very aware of it. Very aware of it.

You know if you ever look at an old Radio Times from the '70s,

and you see a name.

Oh my god, they were huge!

And that's really... that's very worrying, yeah.

I've made a real effort to have eggs in a lot of different baskets,

some of those baskets hidden out of sight, not in a Ken Dodd way.

But it's such a bizarre business, though, Mark, isn't it, anyway,

because, you know, it's like when you look at viewing figures,

you have no idea how many people are going to watch.

It's frightening. You try not to think about that, really, you know.

In a way, it brings it back to the Twitter thing.

In a silly way, there you're just communicating, you're just entertaining people.

You put a funny photograph on or some witticism or whatever,

and you're cutting everybody else out.

Rob Brydon, thank you very much.

Thank you.

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