Sir Ian McKellen interview
Sir Ian McKellen plays Freddie in Vicious. Here he talks about the second series...
Was it a very easy decision for you to come back for a second series?
Yes, although I can't remember how it happened, really! There was talk about it and you wonder, 'Oh, do I want to get on with something else?', but then the moment arrives and it was so obvious that we had to do it. No question. If there was a third series, I expect we'd be ready to say 'yes' again. It's a very fun show to do.
What difference does it make to film in front of a live studio audience?
With the live audience, and all the actors acting out to the audience a little bit, there's something rather theatrical about it.
How would you describe the tone of Vicious?
It's deliberately old fashioned as part of the joke. It reminds you very much of sitcoms like I Love Lucy. Our writer Gary Janetti knows the tradition of sitcoms very well. He has been involved in Will & Grace, which is one of the later versions of that. So yes, it's old fashioned and it's meant to be.
It's about some old people for a start, so isn't that rather suitable? But on the other hand, the fun of it is that the characters you've got in this are not characters you normally see in a standard sitcom.
Two of them are gay, there is a woman whose juices are still flowing, and a young man who loves hanging around with gay men, although he's straight himself. These are original ideas, so in that sense it's actually not old fashioned at all.
What reaction did you have from the first series?
Very good and in my experience, I think the audience is quite young, but also middle aged and older people - gay and straight people too. I think it's quite wide ranging and it's a family show. There are people who absolutely adore it with a passion.
Do you think Vicious can change homophonic stereotypes?
For Freddie and Stuart to say, 'I love you' to each other, which they do quite seriously, is a complete breakthrough. But I don't think you know at the time if something's really breaking through. It's only years later and you look back and say 'That broke though the walls'.
It's not the prime function of Vicious to change the world. Our first duty is to make people chuckle, giggle and laugh out loud. And tune in because they've enjoyed it and want more next week.
But there are those of us to whom it's important that we know there's something a bit subversive going on that is perhaps changing people's attitudes a little bit. Or at least recognising that attitudes are changing around the world.