Here to be a 'benign nuisance'

Actor Bill Nighy speaks up for Africa at the G8 summit - and responds to those 'Dr Who' rumours.

Bill Nighy

ANDREW MARR: Well just before we came on air I spoke to Bill Nighy at the G8 Summit in Hokkaido which he's attending on behalf of Oxfam.

He's actually outside the main buildings and I began by asking him what does the lobbying actually involve.

Does he get to speak to the people who really matter or is it a case of watching them glide past him in their tinted window limousines.

BILL NIGHY: I don't have any serious plans to personally lobby anyone. I don't think I'll be allowed that close. But we are quite pleased with ourselves because we've managed to get past the two kilometre mark and through three road blocks to get to this field I'm standing in.

We were fortunate enough two days ago to be at a White Ribbon Alliance gathering in Tokyo where I did get to speak with Madam Fukuda and Sarah Brown about the urgent situation concerning maternal health which the Japanese are very strident about. And the Prime Minister today in an open letter in the Japanese Times has recommitted to address that problem.

They've had great success here in Japan. Five hundred thousand women die every year unnecessarily simply because they're unattended and don't have the things that we take for granted which creates one million orphans every twelve months which is obviously a scandalous situation and, and which has not improved to any degree in the last twenty years. And we will loiter here and attempt to be a kind of benign nuisance. That's the plan.

ANDREW MARR: You were obviously part of the extraordinary razzmatazz around the Gleneagles Summit when very, very clear big promises were made to double aid to Africa. Now at this Summit which kicks off tomorrow discussing Africa I gather, there are some countries around the table who don't want to recommit to those promises because of what's happened to the world economy.

BILL NIGHY: There are also strong rumours that certain countries as you say have plans to fail even further and to put it even lower down the agenda which is extraordinary and deeply distressing. There are positive signs which is as I say that the Japanese Prime Minister is very keen to put Africa at the top of the agenda.

And if people are concerned about the general state of the world and the financial situation and rising food prices and of course climate change, what we at Oxfam are urging the leaders to do is to make poverty central to all of those discussions because it is, it informs everything and the poor are the first people - guess what - to suffer from climate change and the effects of it and indeed from, obviously from rising food prices. So the, any kind of possible recession is best viewed through a global perspective and including the poor of the world. Because that is part of the solution.

ANDREW MARR: A lot of people again will say well you know given what's happening in Africa, Zimbabwe and all of that, this money is inevitably going to be wasted. It can't make a big difference. Now you went to Tanzania. And just before you answer the question we're going to see a little clip of the film that was made when you were there.

(VT of Bill Nighy in Tanzania played in here)

ANDREW MARR: Bill Nighy, as someone who's been out to see some of the effect of aid money, in that case in Tanzania, what would you say to those people who say well in the end, to be honest with you, Africa, there's so much corruption, there's so much bad governance, it's not really worth worrying about?

BILL NIGHY: I'm always slightly made uneasy by the fact that people's first response to all these issues or the central issue of the fact that half the world has not enough and the other half as too much, is to reach way down the agenda for things like "Oh there's a lot of corruption out there".

Africa is not one country. It's a collection of many countries. Obviously we won't be giving Robert Mugabe any money and no one suggests that we should. In corrupt countries we would, we would strive to deliver the money directly to civil society organisations or directly to schools and clinics.

It's a bit like saying we're not going to give Belgium any money because Holland's such a mess. And indeed obviously if it were about Holland we wouldn't be having this conversation. The planes would already be in the air.

ANDREW MARR: Before Gleneagles you famously made the Richard Curtis film Girl In The Caf� where you play a Treasury official as I recall who has a sort of moment of blinding revelation.

And in a sense it's a sort of, it's a higher fairy story I suppose. Is it the case do you think that behind you in the summit it is the individual conscience and will of officials and of individual politicians which will make the difference tomorrow around that table?

BILL NIGHY: I used to think like everyone else that it was probably something I didn't understand, that there was probably something about this particular problem that was beyond my ken. In the short time that I've been involved in these matters I've discovered that that's not the case. Individuals can make phone calls, make differences.

The leaders here today, this could be the most successful G8 summit in the history of the summits. It's entirely possible for the men up here to make all of this go away. Obviously we're not talking about just throwing money at a problem. It's long term budget support. It's sophisticated systems to help Africa help itself.

None of this is out of our range. We can put a man on the moon. We can invade countries. It's a tenth of the money that was required to invade Iraq for instance. It's a fraction.

ANDREW MARR: Just before we finish Bill last question about you. What are you up to next? Is there another Curtis film on the way? There's even rumours in London at the moment that you might be the next Doctor Who.

BILL NIGHY: I'm smiling because I have often been linked with the great Doctor. There are no plans as far as I know for me to be the next Doctor Who. I have recently flown here from Los Angeles and it's a relief to be in a decent lounge suit because I've been mostly operating in Nazi uniform for the last few weeks. And in jack boots - most uncomfortable - with Tom Cruise making a film about the Claus von Stauffenburg plot to kill Hitler.

And yes just prior to that I came from England where I was filming with the great Richard Curtis on another Richard Curtis film which is called The Boat That Rocked. And it's set in nineteen sixty seven on a pirate rock and roll radio station and we had a lot of fun. And there are great comic assassins in it, the like of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rhys Ifans and many other very clever young men. And it's a shameless attempt to amuse you and a, and a great excuse to play all of those great hits from what I think is one of Richard's favourite years, him being an encyclopaedia of pop, which is nineteen sixty seven.

And it was a pretty good year. So I've been doing that kind of stuff. And it's, it's always - the last time I was in Japan I'd come straight from promoting what I like to call the squid in Pirates of the Caribbean Three and I then went directly to Tanzania. So in, in terms of culture shock I don't think you can do much better than that.

ANDREW MARR: Bill Nighy from Hokkaido in Japan good luck and thank you very much indeed for joining us this morning.

BILL NIGHY: Thank you very much. Good to see you.

INTERVIEW ENDS

Please note "The Andrew Marr Show" must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

NB: This transcript was typed from a recording and not copied from an original script.

Because of the possibility of mis-hearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, the BBC cannot vouch for its accuracy

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