Steve Oram interview
You may recognise Steve Oram from the hit film Sightseers. He now appears in his first major sitcom role...
Hi Steve. Who is Daniel?
Daniel is Sara's assistant, who is an unreconstructed man. We have a brother-sister sparring relationship where we insult each a lot. Daniel has a good heart, but he is slightly misguided and psychopathic.
He has no empathy whatsoever. 'Does everyone hate me?' He doesn't care. He has no people skills. He deals with clients in a nonchalant way; he'll tell them their dog is dead in a truly unprofessional manner, he doesn't soft soak it, he often wrongly prescribes. He's mainly interested in video games, battle re-enactments and hardcore sex pursuits in his customised dungeon that he rigs up when his mum goes away! He's parochial and exploratory all in the same breath. There's one scene where he's trying to rob an animal shelter charity box while eating dog biscuits.
You deliver some hilariously cutting lines. Were any of those improvised?
Sue Perkins wrote an amazing script which is full of jokes. We stayed very true to that, but added a few extra lines here and there just in an attempt to naturalise it a little. It was very free and easy, and Sue was very open to having fun.
Did you ever find yourself cracking up on set with the rest of the cast?
We laughed so much on set - it was such great fun. You find yourself doing stupid things like pretending to shove a syringe into Sue's bum or playing around with a stuffed animal in-between takes.
What made you want to get involved in the project?
I loved the script and Daniel is right up my street. From the first moment I first read the script, I thought there were so many jokes and the characters were all so well-defined and funny.
Have you worked with any of the other cast from Heading Out?
I actually did my first ever professional acting job with Nicola Walker in People Like Us, about 10 years ago! She was playing a journalist, and I was playing an idiotic policeman. It was really great to hook up with her again. And of course, Dominic Coleman is an old friend of mine. We've done bits and bobs together like Comedy Lab.
What have you got coming up?
I'm doing a small part in Life's Too Short and I'm in a BBC drama set during the First World War, where I play a sergeant. The big thing for me right now is to write and get another film made, possibly a dark comedy film. That's my big focus.