The Observer had a piece about that forthcoming rather good sketch series and revealed that Thursday 14th September is a date for your diary:
Masters of comedy
Their quietly brilliant low-budget sitcom Peep Show attracted a huge cult following, and now the ‘slightly off-beam’ duo are back as BBC2′s flagship show in a series that looks set to secure their future (if they can tear themselves away from the snooker for long enough). Ben Mitchell enjoys a pint with David Mitchell and Robert Webb
Sunday August 27, 2006
The Observer
Not being required for this morning’s filming at Pinewood, a set-up involving sexually frustrated gay monks, David Mitchell has had a lie-in today. Just before lunch, he joins Robert Webb in an upstairs make-up room where small talk is made (Mitchell’s teeth hurt a bit yesterday) and various stick-on beards are experimented with. Together, they are currently best known as the stars of the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show. Ricky Gervais, a huge fan, described last year’s British Comedy Awards as ‘a debacle’ when the programme wasn’t among the nominations for Best TV Comedy, an honour that went to Little Britain. They’re here working on That Mitchell and Webb Look, an extension of the duo’s Radio 4 sketch show, That Mitchell and Webb Sound, to be broadcast on BBC2. ‘It was the shortest pitch I’ve ever written,’ says producer Gareth Edwards, outlining the subtle complexities of BBC commissioning policy. ‘It was basically a page saying: “This has worked on the radio, just like Little Britain worked on the radio and Dead Ringers worked on the radio, and they transferred successfully to TV, so why don’t you transfer this one to TV as well?” A very pleasant process.’
Though now operating in similar territory to Matt Lucas and David Walliams, Mitchell and Webb’s style is far less flamboyant, grounded in a version of reality that, while warped, is still recognisable. ‘It’s slightly disturbed,’ says producer Edwards. ‘Everything’s just a little off-beam.’ Whereas Peep Show could be described as a sharper, darker version of Men Behaving Badly – only, crucially, with laughs for people who don’t fantasise about living in a Lynx advert – That Mitchell and Webb Look is less severe, like A Bit of Fry and Laurie minus the traces of public-school smugness. ‘I think your influences come when you’re a teenager, really,’ says Mitchell, who cites Morecambe and Wise, Monty Python and The Two Ronnies as particular favourites. ‘A lot of people now will be massively influenced by Little Britain, but they’ll be doing their shows in 15 years time’.
Webb: ‘When we’re playing golf.’
Mitchell: ‘Or doing ironic voiceovers for them.’
A couple of weeks later, we convene at a north London pub. Webb – losing his blond hair if you look closely but quite happy to talk about it, could be mistaken for a graphic designer who harbours ambitions to be a DJ – arrives first. Mitchell – brown hair neatly parted to the left, sober polo shirt worn with the comfort of a man who enjoys a stroll – turns up shortly afterwards. Both are well-spoken and slightly early. Mitchell orders a pint of Adnams Broadside bitter while Webb opts for a Stella and smokes Marlboro Lights.
Mitchell, 32, first met Webb, 33, when they were at Cambridge University, studying History and English, respectively. Mitchell, whose parents lived in Oxford, didn’t find his new surroundings particularly remarkable. Webb, having grown up in rural Lincolnshire, was more impressed. ‘I was overpowered by the architecture,’ he says. ‘He’d never seen a street with buildings on both sides before,’ adds Mitchell.
Asked what they do for fun, Mitchell says that he is interested in history: ‘I can see myself in a few years’ time joining the National Trust and going round the odd castle. I think I might find that restful as the anger of middle age sets in.’ He also likes a game of squash (‘though I haven’t done that for months’) and plays tennis. Webb does ‘romantic things’ with his girlfriend, ‘like sitting around watching episode after episode of The West Wing and 24.’ Form dictates that buying drinks is not something to trouble ‘the talent’ with, but neither of them is shy of getting their round in. Three hours later, a more refreshed Mitchell will politely excuse himself because he must go home and eat. Shortly afterwards, Webb will be spotted outside a nearby noodle bar contemplating a takeaway ‘because I’m drunk and it’s my right’. This is not a typical evening off, as it is unlikely that the two of them would get together for a few beers during their free hours. ‘We’re good friends, but we’re aware that we spend a lot of time together working,’ says Webb. ‘On weekends, if we run into each other by accident, that’s a happy bonus, but we don’t particularly go out of our way to say, “What are you doing on Saturday night?”‘
Professionally, too, not everything is done in tandem. Webb has starred in the BBC Three sitcom The Smoking Room and, earlier this year, appeared as a naturist in the British improvised wedding comedy Confetti. ‘The weird thing about it was not just that you’re doing things that actors don’t normally do, but you’re doing things that naturists don’t normally do. Naturists don’t stand around in their garden at five o’clock in the evening in November for an hour-and-a-half freezing, literally, their balls off … although my balls didn’t actually come off.’
Despite the prospect of revealing his physique to the cinema-going public, Webb rejected the time-honoured actor’s tradition of ‘working out for the role’. Quite the opposite, in fact, though this gambit did not go unnoticed by one hobby critic. ‘I rationalised it to myself that naturists drink beer, too. There are internet sites where fans of male nudity in films and TV take unfair screen grabs and then post comments about them. Somebody said if only Martin Freeman [Tim from The Office] had been the naturist rather than the, and I quote, “saggy, flabby Robert Webb”. I really think that’s as bad as I’m ever going to read.’ Mitchell, meanwhile, has become a go-to guest for panel shows such as Have I Got News For You. ‘I love doing them. Go along, make sure you’ve had a bit of sleep and just enjoy yourself crapping on.’
Webb: ‘I’ve done it three times and it’s getting slightly better, but it scares the shit out of me. I don’t mind being the slightly less witty one when it’s David Mitchell.’
Mitchell: ‘Thank you very much.’
It was during the Cambridge Footlights 1993 production of Cinderella that Webb – playing Prince Charming – first performed with Mitchell, whose name was a little further down the bill (‘I was a palace official. My joke was that I was very dull and annoying’). During rehearsals, Webb recalls, Mitchell made him laugh, so he proposed doing a two-man show the following year, one of many they would take to the Edinburgh Festival. Webb claims that he had got all the terrible TV parodies out of his system after writing for school revues as a 15-year-old, a creative period that yielded Pink Peter (‘a slightly effeminate version of Blue Peter’) and The Gay Team (‘The A-Team with hairdryers’). Nonetheless, the fledgling partnership’s maiden collaboration – a farce about the First World War that Webb describes as ‘fucking terrible’ – found them struggling to strike gold.
Webb: ‘We’ve both got quite an eclectic sense of humour. I think we both laugh at people falling on their arses as much as [effects pretentious accent] amusing librettos about Proust! Actually, I’ve never laughed at an amusing libretto about Proust and I don’t think they exist. I take that back.’
Mitchell: ‘Comedy has to have a victim, but that victim doesn’t have to be killed. He can just be slightly annoyed. When you’re talking about comedy you’ve got to remember that someone falling over will top the most thoughtful, heart-rending, dark piece of humour that anyone ever came up with.’
Two regular characters from their radio show that have been retained for That Mitchell and Webb Look are a pair of snooker commentators, old boozers more interested in the players’ chequered private lives and getting smashed than dissecting the mechanics of a particularly tricky long pot. They provide one of the few prospective catchphrases of the series, as every visit to their grubby booth begins with the lament, ‘Oh, that’s a bad miss.’ The potential for irritation as a passing observation on, well, any activity that involves the possibility of failing to find a target, is massive.
‘It just seemed like a good idea at the time,’ says Webb.
‘It was a great way in the radio show to place the sketch straight away,’ says Mitchell. ‘The sound effect of two snooker balls hitting each other wasn’t quite as recognisable as we’d hoped. Once you’ve done it every time for one series you have to keep doing it.’
In Mitchell’s bedroom, where they write sitting next to each other at a computer, snooker proves a popular distraction from the effort of getting any work done. ‘What’s the word? Displacement activity! During Crucible fortnight not a lot gets written,’ says Webb.
‘Daytime television is great because being annoyed is really helpful for writing a sketch,’ says Mitchell. ‘You don’t have to watch much daytime television to get annoyed, mainly with yourself for watching it.’
Webb agrees. ‘And the adverts in between daytime television! You know, the debt relief thing: “Being fucked by a hundred tiny cocks? Join us and get fucked by one big cock!”‘
After leaving university Webb moved to London where, not knowing how to charge the power key for his dark, unheated flat, he spent his first night at the nearest cinema watching Waterworld just to escape the cold. When Mitchell arrived his concerns were not so immediately manageable. ‘There was the nightmare realisation of how much money I was going to need. You basically can’t exist in London for less than a tenner a day. I thought, “Where the fuck am I going to get a tenner every fucking day?”‘
Regular writing for, among others, The Jack Docherty Show and Armstrong and Miller followed, as did bits and pieces of acting work and a microbudget sketch show, The Mitchell and Webb Situation, for now defunct digital channel Play UK. Earning that necessary daily tenner wasn’t proving to be a problem, but their diligence didn’t seem to be paying off in any significant way. ‘In late 2001, early 2002, we were nowhere, everything was turned down,’ says Mitchell. ‘I was moving all the files on my desktop into ‘Former Projects’. Then Peep Show gets commissioned, a six-part sitcom on Channel 4, thank you very much.’
Written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain – with whom they are currently working on a film about feuding magicians – Peep Show cast Mitchell as uptight loan manager Mark Corrigan and Webb as his flatmate, gauche failing musician Jeremy Osborne. Typical plotlines involve Mark accidentally befriending a neo-Nazi, or questioning his sexuality – and trying to grow a moustache – after becoming enthralled by a charismatic businessman, while Jez’s hopes of making it in the entertainment business are routinely dashed, usually with the help of his drug-raddled bandmate Super Hans.
One of the few things they have in common is bad luck with women. Mark spends the first two series lovelorn for work colleague Sophie, the third being miserable when they start a relationship. Jez is less single-minded but no more fortunate, entering into a heartbreaking sham marriage with his trophy American girlfriend before having disastrous flings with Mark’s sister and, when on jury service, the defendant.
Happiness is as rare as humiliation, diffidence and crushing disappointment are ever-present. ‘There’s an old comedy writing cliche,’ says Bain. ‘You chase the characters up a tree, then you throw rocks at them. Happiness isn’t very funny.’ Armstrong continues: ‘We created the characters for them and write to their strengths, hopefully. David’s very good at “angry”, there’s no doubt about that. In the most simplistic terms of all, Robert’s a bit more extrovert.’ With a core audience of more than a million viewers and brisk DVD sales, a fourth series is scheduled to start shooting in January. ‘Bloody good to have a job in Jan, love,’ says Mitchell. ‘That’s what all actors say to each other. The reality is, if you’re not working it’s bad at any time of the year.’
For now, seasonal unemployment is low on the list of concerns. Leading up to Christmas there’s a tour, The Two Faces of Mitchell and Webb, to tackle, opening at the Brighton Dome on 19 October. ‘I played the Brighton Dome before with the 1994 Footlights show,’ says Webb. ‘It was the night of the World Cup final, and we weren’t in the programme and there were no posters. Two thousand seats, 15 people. Hopefully we’ve outsold that already.’ Before then, they’ll have some idea of how
That Mitchell and Webb Look has gone down with viewers, though the response to live filming for the show already suggests that their readymade audience will not be disappointed. ‘They’ve got a huge cult following, so the minute you put the tickets up on the website people bite your hand off,’ says Gareth Edwards. ‘Whenever we start doing a recording, David will always say, “So, who here is a fan of the radio show?” and some people go, “Ooh, yes, yes.” Then he’ll say, “Who here’s a fan of Peep Show?” and a very different crowd of people will go, “Wahaaaaay!” It separates the Radio 4 crowd from the Channel 4 crowd. What’s quite nice is that David and Rob inhabit a middle ground, which is probably the definition of BBC2.’
With Peep Show, as well as various writing, panellist and film work – Mitchell can soon be seen in the Michelle Pfeiffer romantic comedy I Could Never Be Your Woman – to busy themselves with, this is hardly make-or-break time for Mitchell And Webb. However, both are conscious of the fact that being given a TV series that is theirs is a rare opportunity, one they would obviously prefer not to see slip through their fingers. ‘I feel aware that the clock is ticking on our 15 minutes and we have to do some good stuff now,’ says Webb. ‘It’s not going to be forever. It’s a case of, if you’re very lucky, you get to extend the period over which you’re good. When we stop being good, rightly, people will get bored of us and we’ll fuck off.’
Mitchell isn’t so sure. ‘I don’t know, we might carry on and cash in. When you’ve lost it, that’s when they pay you the big bucks.’
That Mitchell and Webb Look starts on BBC2 on 14 September at 9.30pm
… and I need to find some more photographs for this blog.
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