British Comedy Guide
Gangsta Granny. Granny (Julia McKenzie)
Gangsta Granny

Gangsta Granny

  • TV comedy drama
  • BBC One
  • 2013
  • 1 episode

Adaptation of David Walliams's children's book about a schoolboy who doesn't realise his grandma was once an international jewel thief. Stars Julia McKenzie, Reece Buttery, Miranda Hart, David Walliams, Rob Brydon and more.

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Julia McKenzie interview

Gangsta Granny. Image shows from L to R: Mike (David Walliams), Linda (Miranda Hart), Granny (Julia McKenzie), Ben (Reece Buttery), Flavio (Robbie Williams), Mr Parker (Rob Brydon), The Queen (Joanna Lumley)

Miss Marple star Julia McKenzie talks about taking the lead role in Gangsta Granny. You can watch the video, or read some of the interview in written format:

On her character, Gangsta Granny, and her relationship with other characters...

I think it's a very clever script. Gangsta Granny is really in the boy's [Ben's] head, it's in his imagination. She fires his imagination, but he wants an interesting granny, and grannies don't always show their hands. There are hidden depths. I've always wished I had hidden depths - I've been looking for them for years!

It's a charming, rather whimsical story. I know that's not what they call up-to-date, being whimsical, but I think it's a marvellous quality to have in something modern.

Gangsta Granny. Granny (Julia McKenzie). Copyright: BBC / King Bert Productions

On the story, and how it progresses...

I don't want to give too much of the story away, but it is the progressive relationship of the grandma and the little boy, who is forced to stay with her every Friday and finds it desperately boring. She decides to not be desperately boring, and tells him stories about her past, and she suddenly becomes quite a glamorous figure in his eyes. It's their connection together.

There are other people in it of course, people like Miranda Hart and David Walliams - but we're not so interested in those, we're interested in the main characters! I have to say the little boy, Reece Buttery, is the most splendid young actor I have ever worked with. He's just terrific. Gang-loads of energy - it's hard to keep him quiet really! But he's just excellent, a real pleasure to work with... and I have to say [whispers] most children are not a pleasure to work with!

On filming highlights...

We did film in the Tower of London, which was really exciting. To be there at night filming just before they did the key ceremony, it was very exciting! I'm not too old that I don't get excited about these things.

On what the audience will take away from Gangsta Granny...

I think the public will receive it as a family thing. It is prime time, but obviously I think a child would take something from it, and an adult would take something. There's an awful lot about respect for older people, but it's not hammered home. There are a couple of little messages in there but you would probably have to look hard to spot them, they've written a very, very good script. I was attracted to it immediately. It's a lovely part.

On her Gangsta Granny experience, and working with the cast...

The only person in the company that I've worked with before is the lovely Joanna Lumley, who really is a bit of a national treasure, on and off screen - a very nice woman. We met before on an episode of Marple, which was a treat. Then to meet David and Miranda was just fantastic.

It has been a treat for me to do something very different from Marple, because people tend to see you in one light, and I've been doing Marple for five years now. So really it's lovely that somebody has seen something else in me and offered me this. I'm very grateful.

Published: Monday 23rd December 2013

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