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The what of Bergerac? Ask Will Smith
What made you come up with such a strange idea for a radio series?
I did these pieces for "The Last Word" on More4 which was supposed to be explaining politics to "da kidz" so I'd try and explain the G8 through members of "The Fellowship Of The Ring", or the nuclear powers through the incarnations of Doctor Who, and as well as being funny, we found they could actually work. So we though we'd try and do a series where I use Bergerac to explain everything. And again, you can divide his girlfriends into the fours seasons of woman, and then show how they represent the seasonal shifts of the eighties as a decade.
How close to reality is the Will smith in the series..?
Let's just say it's a heightened version of a part of me.
You've created this back-story of will's life for the series. Are these things that actually happened to you?
I did pluralise discus to disci at the end of a games lesson, but that was only because I knew it was a ridiculous thing to do and it would make Roger (my writing partner) laugh. That said, I did win rosettes at the Jersey Cat Club, and that wasn't to make anyone laugh at the time. I really don't know why I did it. Maybe as a subconscious investment in my comic future. We created the back-story because we wanted a different texture in the series, rather than just me on stage talking. it was lots of fun recording those on location and we got to work with all these fantastic actors including Matt Holness from Garh Marenghi and Simon Greenall from Alan Partridge , Olivia Poulet from The Thick of It and Karl Johnson from Hot Fuzz , but more importantly, Bergerac, season 7 episode 4, The Other Woman.
Are you genuinely a huge fan of Bergerac and how did you persuade John Nettles to get involved?
Rog and I love watching Bergerac. Since we grew up on Jersey it makes us feel very nostalgic. And also, particularly as the series went on, the plots get more and more ludicrous. John Nettles is both a fantastic comic actor, and also a lovely man. He'd heard about my 6 Degrees trick, and so filmed a video appeal as part of my live show "10 Arguments I Should Have Won" for the final argument "The BBC should release Bergerac on dvd", which they now have, thanks entirely to me. He loved doing it so we just asked him to do the radio show and he said yes straight away. So he came in and read out bits of The Tao and pretended it was an audio book for the purposes of our series. when also did some really funny extras which will go on the CD when Worldwide release the series.
You play a game with the audience at the end called Six Degrees of Bergerac, how did you develop this magnificent skill?
That was from watching loads of episodes with Rog and realising how many great actors guested on it - Michael Gambon, Richard Griffiths, Bill Nighy, Prunella Scales, Art Malik, as well as loads of wonderful character actors who have done loads of films. People you'd recognise but might not know the name, like Ian McNeice and Alec McCowen. I made an offhand remark about being able to link any film to Bergerac in six degrees, and it went from there. I made a list of all the episodes and guests, learnt it and started challenging strangers from the stage. Just what my parents hoped I'd do with my education. It took a while to learn the cast lists for all the episodes. Looking back, there are better things I could have done on holiday with my girlfriend, in Italy. Ex-girlfriend now.
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