Tamsin Greig

Tamsin Greig interview

The actor on finding her funny bone, the homing instinct of Archers' fans, and why she'll never swap London for LA.

Episodes shouldn't, perhaps, work. The tale of a husband-wife writing team (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig) who are persuaded, with a refreshing lack of reluctance, to sell out and take their fictionally Bafta-winning (and very British) comedy to Hollywood, thence to have it "made over" with gleeful disregard for such restrictive critical concerns as, for instance, taste - is surely too close to the experiences of many homegrown authors and film-makers for the memories to be anything other than vile at best. The Greig/Mangan original comedy, for instance, fictionally starred Richard Griffiths as a tweedy teacher in his twilight: transposed, the writers are both starstruck and horrified to find the grinsome Matt LeBlanc, Joey from Friends, in his place.

But it does work - and how. Partly through the subtlety of the writing, by Jeffrey Klarik and his partner David Crane, also of Friends fame: Friends, of course, wasn't written with British audiences in mind, but might as well have been, and its appreciation of "our" sense of humour (and our preconceptions about how the Americans could never quite "do" it) meant it became a crossover dream. As Episodes is now proving: it's been garnering much critical praise over there. Partly, too, thanks to the chemistry between Greig, Mangan and Matt LeBlanc, who's playing a lightly fictionalised version of "Matt LeBlanc" - kindly, vainglorious, deeply shallow to the extent that he has drunkenly invited his crazed stalker into his bed.

And one of the simple delights lies in seeing how far Tamsin Greig has come, from stoic work as Debbie Aldridge in The Archers, to a revelatory gift for comedy as Fran in the sublime Black Books, to - ta-dah! - sunny La-La-Land: Toto, we're not in Ambridge any more. This is just telly that makes you smile. Incidentally, one of the gags involves Matt, arrested on a borderline DUI charge, to be met with a beaming desk-sergeant who proudly boasts that his sister was nurse No 4 or something in one Friends episode. Matt does his winning best to pretend to remember her. (He's still booked.) On Good Morning Britain the other day, Matt popped up, only to have Ben Shephard remind him that he, Ben, had once "played" an interviewer in one Friends episode. Matt did his winning best to pretend to remember him. A trouper.

Radio Times review

The dramedy about how the sanity of two sensible Brits wilts in the Hollywood sun returns for a third series. Episodes' performances - including Matt LeBlanc playing himself as a monstrous man-child - are always a joy, even if the writing sometimes feels as if it relies too much on them, and not enough on actual, er, funny lines.

In this series opener, Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig work wonders with scenes that might have looked a bit thin on paper. Their characters Sean and Beverly are back together (after the bed-hopping LeBlanc ruined things for a while) and back in love.

Meanwhile, fired network boss Merc is yelling at Matt through his bedroom window, hoping to reclaim his wife from Matt's clutches - too late. But the episode mainly centres on Carol, who has been promised Merc's job. Can she keep that a secret?

Interview: Matt LeBlanc's porn prank on Tamsin Greig

We found that out during a recent press Q&A with Matt and his Episodes co-stars Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan - who play the roles of writers and married couple Beverly and Sean Lincoln - when Matt was asked if he'd played any pranks on them.

Matt LeBlanc, Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan interview

"A fair bit of it is exaggerated so that we can all still go and get a job afterwards," says Matt LeBlanc.

LeBlanc, Greig & Mangan on giggling during Episodes

Keeping a straight face appears to be the biggest challenge facing Matt LeBlanc, Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan as they shoot their hit TV comedy Episodes.

Mathew Horne, Tamsin Greig & Andrew Sachs in new film

A film starring Frasier's Kelsey Grammer and Gavin and Stacey actor Mathew Horne is shooting in Croydon today. Horne, who played Gavin in the BBC Three sitcom, tweeted Croydon dubstep pioneer Skream to tell him he was filming Breaking the Bank in the town.

Radio Times review

Having set an unreachable standard in the previous two episodes, Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton ease off a bit here, delivering a tale that's as brilliantly acted and constructed as you'd expect, with several sublime moments - but no knockout blow.

Tamsin Greig plays a friendly but efficient representative of a charity that makes wishes come true for terminally ill children. She brings an Enrique Iglesias-ish pop star to a suburban house. When the visit goes wrong, she and the dying girl's parents (Pemberton and Sophie Thompson) are tempted to take advantage. It's a slight, silly story that can't go anywhere and doesn't. Flawless execution rescues it.

The grotesque and toe-curling is usually just below the surface where Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are concerned. In The League of Gentlemen, the fictional town of Royston Vasey - slogan "You'll never leave!" - was sinister in every way, but in this series of one-off tales about houses numbered nine, the cast, characters and setting change from week to week, which allows Pemberton and Shearsmith to demonstrate their formidable talents as writers and actors, and keep their audiences guessing.

Now both in their mid-40s, they 
are at the top of their game. While some of the stories properly give you the creeps, others are just black comedy, 
but there is always a twist. When 
they hit the bullseye, as in the second episode - a silent comedy in which the duo played two hapless thieves tiptoeing around a house occupied by a wealthy 
art collector - they achieve something close to comedy genius.

So what are we in for this week? We meet Tamsin, a little girl who is very unwell. She lives with her parents Jan and Graham in an ordinary 1960s semi and when her birthday comes around, mum and dad want to do something to give her a boost. So they contact a charity called WishmakerUK to arrange a special guest to attend Tamsin's party: Jan's hero, the singer Frankie J Parsons.

The occasion brilliantly captures the sheer unctuousness of fandom. There's Jan in her beige slacks and prim 
lilac jersey, going all giggly and 
high-pitched in the presence of a Beverley Hills tan and a set of highly polished American teeth. Frankie has brought with him an unsmiling flunky with a bluetooth ear piece and is 
escorted by Sally (Tamsin Greig), the groomed PR officer from the charity. It's smiles all round.

But then things take an unexpected turn, in a way that exposes the venality and base instincts lurking behind 
all those fake grins. At the centre of it all, looking worldly and disappointed with the human race, is nine-year-old Tamsin.

Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith focus their demonic gaze on celebrity worship and human greed. Tamsin Greig runs an outfit that makes dreams come true for sick children. If a little boy with cerebral palsy wants to play chees with Noel Edmonds, she will organise it. Here she arranges for the pop star Frankie J Parsons to come to the birthday party of a terminally ill little girl. After blowing up a balloon, he keels over - and the balloon filled with his dying breath is worth far more than the kidney stone sold by William Shatner for $25,000. "That's sick!" explains the appalled mother (Sophie Thompson). "The world is sick" replies her husband (Pemberton).