Interview with Jason Watkins (Malcolm)

Who is Malcolm Tanner?
Malcom Tanner is a fictional writer who lives a couple of doors down from the main household. He’s fairly successful for that period, he’s had a few plays, some poetry and a couple of novels and he is starting to become famous. He leads a relatively solitary life as a writer, but has a vicarious paternal role in George’s and the kids’ lives and of course Nina’s. His function in a way is to be a surrogate father, rather exotic, strange and witty. I think he enjoys going over to the house and loves the crack of an audience due to his solitary life as a writer; he is testing out his wit whilst nurturing young minds and enjoying the company.

Tell us how it is to work with Nick Hornby’s writing?
Nick’s writing is just so rich and funny but also so delicate, dry and clear. There is never any wasted dialogue and it’s a joy to get your lips round. He has a real gift for intricacy, which comes a lot from his novels, but also there’s a great openness about his writing as well and people identify very clearly with it. Nick has an easy intelligence about his work, which is why it’s so popular and that comes out in this project too, so it’s a real joy to be part of. You can tell from the dialogue that we are all enjoying the wit of it.

I’d read the book on holiday, my wife read it first; it’s a great read and I live in North London, not far from the area. When I was Nina’s age I was at drama school and used to go to Camden where it was set, so it was a strange experience reading the book. There is a connection between the period in which it was set, but also contemporary life.

How do you find working with SJ?
Television is in an interesting place at the moment, the digital format has started to power up and technology has moved on a lot. Television has got bigger and allowed cinematography to be a better on the smaller screen, using ‘cinema-type’ skills. When the shots and scenes have been done well, that becomes interesting. Television is attracting a lot of good filmmakers. SJ Clarkson has done a lot of work in the States and is extremely ambitious, both with her shots and Nick Hornby’s scripts, and it’s a great concoction.

There are five episodes, so despite its episodic nature and the fact it's actually quite a short series, you will see characters expand over what will be two and a half hours, whether you 'box-set' watch it or not - it’s very interesting.

What is Helena like to work with?
I knew that the casting process was going on and that Helena would be the first on the list. She has worked so much on camera and has so much experience that she has a great technique on camera. Its’ good to have someone with easy command of the process on set and she is so much fun. I think people think she is stereotypically less approachable than she actually is, probably because of the parts she has played, but she’s good fun.