Simon Day and Rhys Thomas interview
Brian Pern is back. The rock star spoof is the creation of star Simon Day and producer/director Rhys Thomas. BCG called up the duo to find out more about the three new episodes...
Hi guys. Series 2 is titled 'Brian Pern: A Life In Rock'. It focuses more on the characters, rather than the rock genre generally?
Rhys: Yes, it's a slightly different format now. We could have done more episodes like Series 1, but when we were coming up with ideas for the new series we realised we couldn't do another like the first, because it'd run out of steam. Once you've done those clips you can't keep covering them.
Simon: Also, I think BBC Two wanted a slightly different 'identity'... that is one of the words people in TV use a lot! We always wanted to do that eventually, as you get more mileage out of it. Brian has got to have a real life - he's got a son, which we haven't really seen yet... he's also maybe got a brother who's not the full picnic basket, that's something we're discussing...
So there's potential for more episodes after these?
Rhys: Yeah, we hope so. There's a lot more to be had with the relationships, not just Brian at home, but with the band. Now Thotch are interacting together again, we wonder, maybe they could re-form and do a tour?
In this day and age all the bands are re-forming and going on tour. They're all in their 60s and it's quite funny... there's a line in the series where Michael Kitchen's character says "they need a tour ambulance, not a tour bus".
I saw Queen last year, what was amazing is they're all still running around. Brian May has had a knee replaced, but he's still running around; and Roger Taylor still plays the drums like he used to. In close up they do look older, but from a distance - and that's how everyone sees them on stage - they still sound good and look great. So it'd be quite interesting to see Thotch together again...
But Thotch hate each other? They'd never get back on stage?
Simon: There'd be money involved!
Rhys: Normally what happens is one of them hasn't got the money any more. That's why I think Queen reformed? Normally one of them will go 'look, I really need some help here, do you mind reforming?' and they feel guilty and do it... so that might happen to one of Thotch.
Are the characters based on real life people?
Simon: Some are, some aren't. Kathy Burke for example it was just great to get her in, thinking it'd be funny to have a working class theatre director...
Rhys: She is playing a version of herself, the band though are sort of based on an amalgamation of people.
Brian Pern is a combination of Peter Gabriel, a bit of Sting there, a bit of Dave Gilmour. The relationship between Thotch is basically Pink Floyd's relationship.
Tony Pebblé is basically Tony Banks from Genesis. Originally I wanted him to be a really boring keyboard player with no personality, but then Simon had the idea of him having lots of women, so that character came basically from there.
Pat Quid is just one of those posh guitarists who is very softly spoken; ultra intelligent, with a really weird hobby. The idea came about because Phil Collins collects train sets, Brian May collects stereoscopic photography... they've all got weird hobbies.
A lot of those rock stars, who are very intelligent, wealthy, have still got their brains and can play proper music are more interesting than the one note Spinal Tap thing. That's been done so well we've avoided anything Spinal Tap really, because it's not really in the same world.
Your show doesn't have a big budget, but it comes across big on TV. How have you managed to bring it to screen?
Simon: Yeah, I think we didn't go over-budget much, we made the money stretch. Rhys worked very hard in the edit, and a lot of the people involved did it for basic fee...
Rhys: Some of them got a lot less than they normally get paid!
We called in lots of favours and blagged some stuff. So, for example, we thought 'it'd be good if Brian does a live show', so I rang around. I rang the Albert Hall and said, 'look we're trying to do this thing with Brian, have you seen Brian Pern? In this programme he's a rockstar and the idea is he's doing a big show...'. It was basically a 'No'. Then I tried the O2 Arena... 'Yes, but it's going to cost you £50,000 just to build a stage'...
Then I rang up Wembley Arena and I got through to a person there - I was actually cold calling people by the way - 'So we're doing this thing called Brian Pern...', 'Oh, I like that!', so he let us have it for a fraction of the price. Luckily another show was going in and so we borrowed some of their equipment, and then we faked the show by using footage from somewhere else for the crowd to make it look like there was a whole audience there.
It's a cheap programme in a sense, because it's in a recording studio or talking heads, so that keeps the costs down... but then you prioritise the bits you want to spend your money on. For example, we got a boat...
Simon: Where did you get that boat?
Rhys: Michael Kitchen knew someone. The idea was that his character, John Farrow, is quite wealthy. He's sort of based loosely on Queen's manager who lives in Switzerland and is a multi-millionaire. We needed a way to show his wealth. In Episode 3 Brian basically loses all his money in a tax scheme, and it's quite nice to see Brian losing everything and then his manager in a Sunseeker. He just knew someone at a boat yard and a woman there said 'oh, yeah, use one of our boats...'!
You've also managed to get some great guest stars involved. Martin Freeman...
Simon: Luckily, he was in London doing a play. He's a big music fan and had seen the first series so he just said he'd like to do it. He's in a position where he can pick and choose stuff. Rhys knows him...
Rhys: I'd met him on The Office. I used to go out with the make-up designer on The Office and so I went to see them recording it. I knew Mackenzie Crook and Ricky Gervais, as I did The 11 O'Clock Show which they were all working on, so I've known Martin for about 12 years. We did a pilot together, and we did a thing called Does Doug Know? [a 2002 panel show] so I think that helps, that he knows someone.
From Series 1, Simon knows Jools Holland, I know Roger Taylor... so we basically called in a few favours the first time around. The second time around that snowballs, because if that person does it, then that one will do it...
Sir Tim Rice is great as a talking head in this new series...
Simon: We were just talking about how we didn't have much time to do a lot of takes before moving on to the next thing, and I would sometimes think 'mmm'. With Tim Rice, I was talking to Paul Whitehouse about how I wanted it a bit more conversational [but ran out of time to try filming that]. But we've now had two different people saying Tim Rice was brilliant, so it shows how much I know!
Charlie Higson has recently talked about wanting to establish a troupe of British comics to make films regularly. Would you be up for that?
Simon: Rhys and I did actually write a film, but it didn't take off. We'd like to do one, but everyone is always very busy doing different things. I think Charlie said he wished he had done a Fast Show movie, it's everyone's dream...
Rhys: You say that, but then you look at the Keith Lemon thing. That's a very popular character... I don't know how well the film did, but he's a very big risk. Certain things work well on film and certain things wouldn't. The 3 million people who watched The Inbetweeners all went to see it in the cinema, and more, but not everything...
I think what's so good about The Fast Show - having come in to it as a runner - is you had such a very well put together team of people. All had different skills and strengths, and together that's why it was such a good comedy group; because everyone was very different.
So probably no Fast Show movie then, but do you have any immediate plans to work together again? More of Radio 4's Down The Line perhaps?
Simon: We'd like to do one, but Felix [Dexter] has passed away, so it would be very weird doing it without him. Charlie and Paul are both busy too. Charlie is working on a huge thing for ITV - Jekyll & Hyde; and Paul is doing his new series, Nurse. But Paul has always said to me [talking about Down The Line], 'that's the best thing I've ever done'.
'Brian Pern: A Life In Rock' is on BBC Two on Tuesdays at 10pm.