Tony Jordan interview
Tony Jordan is a TV genius. Previously a series consultant on EastEnders, he has gone on to create a number of hit shows, including Holby Blue, Life On Mars, Hustle and, of course, Moving Wallpaper. Below he talks about the second series of Moving Wallpaper and how he created the show...
The idea behind the new series of Moving Wallpaper was to give Jonathan Pope (Ben Miller) a new challenge. After the demise of Echo Beach it was pretty clear that Jonathan's position would be under threat. The idea was for him to try and pull the rabbit out of the bag by coming up with something extraordinary, which turns out to be Renaissance.
We wanted to subvert what we thought Jonathan would do. I kind of guessed what he would actually do, what kind of show he would probably make and I felt knowing Jonathan he would probably do an ITV version of Doctor Who or something that had been a success before that which he could steal. The idea was to take it out of his hands, so in the first episode of series two he ends up being forced into the position where he signs himself into a show without fully knowing what it is... and it turns out to be about zombies. In typical Jonathan fashion he pretends it was his idea all along and then he runs with it.
We came up with Renaissance which was the most ground breaking, startling, concept for a new show: zombies on ITV1. We thought it was really clever and really great and then some six months later I saw Charlie Brooker's E4 show Dead Set come out... and I was gutted because I thought we had something unique. I think it still is unique, but obviously Dead Set put a slight spanner in the works!
I think it would have been cool to have zombies running around Echo Beach! Probably even more likely if we had seen Dead Set first. I think Jonathan's big idea would be to set Renaissance in Coronation Street with flesh eating zombies treading the cobbles eating Emily and Rita! - It's probably just as well that we didn't know about Dead Set before we started.
I am disappointed Echo Beach didn't work. I think it is part of the culture we know that things aren't always given the time to just to find their feet. It was a bit of a shame. I always envisaged that Jonathan would move on and make other television shows, but the demise of Echo Beach hastened that really.
It was an absolute joy working with the cast again. I think the second series is much more self-assured than the first. The thing about the first series is that I was writing blind. I had a blank sheet of paper and all these people in my head. When it is cast and you actually hand those characters over to the actors and watch what they have done with them and how they've developed them it just makes writing the second series so much easier. You have Ben Miller in your head and Dave Lamb and they just add a whole new dimension to the characters.
Jonathan Pope is an amalgamation of different characters that you have come across in your career but strangely enough nobody ever sees themselves in Jonathan Pope. Everybody sees somebody else. Everywhere I go, including awards ceremonies, people sidle up and say, "I know who Jonathan Pope is". So far I have had 312 suggestions. I had one person who is probably the main part of Jonathan Pope coming up and asking me who it was based on. There was no way I could tell him obviously. It is top secret. I have worked for a Jonathan Pope and I think everyone who has worked in television has worked with a Jonathan Pope. He is a heightened reality. Jonathan Pope lives, exists and is thriving in the British television community.
I was tempted to do a cameo as a zombie; in fact we were all going to do it. Myself, Jane Featherstone, Alison Jackson the executive producers, were all going to dress up as zombies and be in one of the scenes. We just couldn't get our diaries to fit so it never happened. We were going to do the Thriller dance if we agreed to do something - maybe next series!
I think my favourite scene is when Nancy is sacking Jonathan in the first episode. He assumes there is a hidden agenda. In Jonathan's world he can't believe he has been sacked through incompetence or anything else, because that doesn't fit in with his self image. He assumes there is a hidden agenda and the truth behind it is sexual harassment and that Nancy wants to sleep with him. He drops his trousers and says, "Kneel before the Pope" at which point she beats the sh*t out of him. That is my favourite moment. Jonathan can't believe he isn't universally loved and adored and that he is ever wrong.
In this series Nancy changes quite a lot. She becomes quite a sex kitten. She is specifically based on a particular producer that I have worked with - naming no names. When I created Nancy I saw her as the sexy vamp she became, and that is something that Raquel Cassidy brought to the role. We all loved it so much we used it a little bit more in series 2 - Nancy gets quite a lot of action actually.
We set the bar quite high with Echo Beach by managing to get Jason Donovan, Martine McCutcheon and Hugo Speer. That was quite a cool thing. It was a fantastic cast. The characters I created for Renaissance were a young single Lara Croft character and a middle aged guy with kids - Kelly Brook and Alan Dale were dream casting really, and the fact we managed to get them was great.
If we did get re-commissioned for a third series I would absolutely love Jonathan Pope to make a musical. I think if he created a television musical it would be fantastic. I think would be hilarious and that's what we'd do for the next series. The cast of Moving Wallpaper don't need to sing really. Like I said, we have set the bar quite high with our casting so maybe we will find out if Tom Cruise and Kate Winslet are free! We'll try and get them anyway. I saw Tom Cruise being interviewed by Jonathan Ross and I'm sure he said he wanted to be in a musical. What with Meryl Streep and Piers Brosnan stepping up to the mark in Mamma Mia, I think Jonathan will see it as an opportunity because that is what he does. He preys on other people's ideas. He will see how successful Mamma Mia was and will decide that that is the future of British television. The weirdest thing of all when writing the second series was trying to separate my mind from Jonathan Pope's!