Andrew Brooke interview
Andrew Brooke talks about playing top salesman and smoothie Ashley in PhoneShop...
Hi Andrew. Could you describe your character please?
Ashley is a super-confident, flashy, young(-ish) man who, along with his best mate Jerwayne, is one of the top salesmen at the Sutton branch of fictional high street mobile-phone retailer PhoneShop. He's an aspirational type of chap, who fancies himself as one of the Kings of the High Street; a bit of an expert at selling, an expert with women, and generally a high-status 'face' around High St Sutton, his personal fiefdom.
Unfortunately, he regularly finds himself frustrated by a world which often shows him that his aspirational idea of who he is, is at a remove from the reality. In a very very round-about way he's Captain Mainwaring with a lanyard, an attitude, and a range of payment plan options...
What characteristics, if any, do you share with your character?
I'd say none - Ashley's confidence tips into rudeness fairly regularly, and that's something I do my best to avoid... However, I'm told that I do look a lot like him, in the right light.
What can we look forward to from your character in the second series?
In some ways I think we've reflected a lot of what's going on in the country in real life within the series. People aren't doing so well economically in what Ashley refers to as 'Cameron's Britain'. Ashley, along with Jerwayne, is still trying to pursue his aspirational dreams and maintain his status in the High St, whilst becoming increasingly worried about his money, his love life and whether he's actually getting 'a bit old' for the lifestyle that he and Jerwayne have been conducting for years. That's a fairly general description of what he gets up to, but otherwise it's basically more of the same silly-smart tomfoolery in the vein of Series 1.
Have you had any unusual fan-mail/reactions from fans?
No-one's asked me to sign a body-part or anything like that... All my interaction with people who watch the show has been very pleasant - PhoneShop fans seem to be really well-mannered and nice folk! Actually, there do seem to be an oddly high number of fans amongst the TFL cycle-hire-scheme maintenance crews though; I use those bikes a fair bit, and on quite a few occasions now, when I've been docking a bike at a time when they happen to be replenishing the docking station, the guys doing the replenishing have made me aware they like the show. It's nice to know we've apparently got a strong presence in the TFL-cycle-hire-scheme-maintenance-crew demographic sector...!