Matt And David's Blog
Hello rat fans.
Well we have been busy writing some Rock Profile sketches for you funny or die visitors. We’ll probably make 12 sketches in all, with each set of characters appearing twice. At the moment they are all new, but I’m not going to say who we’re going to do – that would spoil the surprise.
On Friday on BBC1 you can see two sketches that we did for Comic Relief – a Mom and Ellie-Grace one with Robbie Williams and a Computer Says No one with Catherine Tate. It was really nice to hook up with Rob again and also exciting to work with Catherine – I played her husband in a never-broadcast R2 show called ‘Hey Hey We’re The Monks’ about ten years ago and remember thinking she was immensely talented and destined for great things*. It was nice to see pics in the papers today. Once again we have coerced Robbie into drag.
Otherwise we paid a brief trip to New York last week to have some meetings about our HBO show. We had the evenings free and one night David and I went to see Will Ferrell in his brilliant show about George Bush and the next night we saw ‘God of Carnage’ by Yazmin Reza. The cast included Jeff Daniels and James Gandolfini. We met Gandolfini for a couple of minutes after the show and I was very excited indeed, as I am a Sopranos fanatic, though I think I just about managed to hide it and appear cool. I think. Mind you I remember meeting Sol Campbell in a lift once and acting all cool and then when he left the other person I was with told me he had never seen me so flustered and giddy in all my life. He then proceeded to impersonate me being all flustered and giddy at any opportunity.
On Saturday my mum took me to see Entertaining Mr Sloane as a birthday treat (and she bought me a vanilla ice cream at the interval too). It was brilliantly performed, with Imelda Staunton in particular showing once again why she is one of this country’s most acclaimed actresses**.
On Sunday I went to see the Arsenal and wouldn’t you know, they actually scored some goals. I think that might have been the most remarkable event of the week, actually.
*Also in that radio show was Bill Bailey, the great actor Graham Crowden, the woman in Citizen Smith who was later in EastEnders I think, who used to say ‘Oh Wolfie’, Avon himself – Paul Darrow, and also Howard Lew Lewis – Elmo of ‘Brush Strokes’ fame. Not bad, eh? I could get a few quid at a fan convention for their autographs.
** It’s because she’s good.
I've been under the weather with tonsillitis. However, I've been well looked after at home, caught up on episodes of 'My Super Sweet 16' and it's given me a chance to spend time with my dog Milo, who grows more affectionate by the day. From my sickbed I coughed loudly and violently through Atonement. I also watched Revolutionary Road (a BAFTA screener DVD, not a dodgy pirate, thank you), which has an incredible performance by an actor I hadn't been familiar with before, Michael Shannon. And then at the weekend I watched a film I'd been meaning to see for ages – Before The Devil Knows You're Dead – which was rollicking good fun, and there again was Michael Shannon. He's brilliant. He's my new favourite actor. And it's got Albert Finney in it, who is looking more and more like William Shatner by the day.
Arsenal have been a bit dreary of late. In fact I think they've only scored one goal in their last four matches (all of which have been draws, if I remember rightly). I don't complain too much because they've been pretty damn fantastic over the past few years. I've got plenty of friends who support teams which haven't won so much as a chicken nugget.
Well, this week David and I began writing season 2 of Little Britain USA. We've done some Lou&Andy sketches, and a couple of Ellie-Grace&Mom sketches (with a different spin) and today we tried writing some new characters. It's very early days, though. Typically we write for five or six months – breaking every six weeks or so to look at what we have, read the sketches out, discuss what is making us laugh, what needs rewrites and what is going to bite the dust. It's a fun process but it's also ultimately about grafting – starting at ten, five days a week and generating as much as we can.
We've also been brainstorming some Rock Profile ideas for this very website. We'll probably revisit a couple of characters but mainly do new ones. It's been more than ten years since we started doing Rock Profile and the pop world has definitely changed. It feels more transient than ever, in terms of fleeting fame and of course there is no more Top Of The Pops. On the flipside, we now have the internet as a writing tool, so we can reference info about Kerry Katona's chauffeur-cum-hubby quicker than you can say 'drug dealer'.
Right I'm off for a shit.
David here!
I'm pleased to announce a winner to the caption competition for my
signed painting.
Congratulations to the user palaman who made me laugh the most with
the caption: 'Hey guys..throw us some bog roll up!'
Well done to everyone else who entered. Let me assure you it was a
tough decision!
The caption contest has now returned to its regular daily slot, so please continue captioning!
Hello there and happy new year, if that helps at all.
I’ve been relaxing over Christmas, catching up with friends and family, spending time with my lovely dog Milo, watching disappointing football and also some great films. I particularly enjoyed ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, ‘The Reader’ and ‘Man On Wire’. I won’t say anything more about them – not because I don’t want to spoil them for you, but because I cannot be arsed. Truly. I mean, how many people even read this blog? Three? Four? And that includes my mum.
Anyway, I’m off to watch some Celeb Big Brother. Laters, as young people said circa 1994.
Well, I have wrapped on the ‘Alice In Wonderland’ movie and I’m coming home.
I have to pinch myself to think that I’ve just done a bit in a Hollywood film. And for the first time, I have to agree with those who say acting looks like fun, not work. Maybe it was the fact that, unlike Little Britain, I only had to concentrate on performing, or maybe it was because Tim Burton is so easy and considerate to work for, and full of encouragement and warmth and laughter, but it felt like a well-paid holiday!
One of the nice things about doing the movie was also that we had weekends off. For me, this often meant a flight to somewhere else, to catch up with friends, in Vegas, San Francisco, New York and, last weekend, Seattle.
Seattle – from what little I saw of it, as I was there less than 24 hours – is quite intriguing and I’d like to go back and explore it some more.
I went there to see Robin Williams live on stage and I can report back that he was nothing short of phenomenal. I felt like I’d seen Ali box or Pele score. An hour and forty five minutes of pure gold, a stunning performance, genius material complimented by bouts of staggering spontaneity.
I had the same experience once before, funnily enough with Robin’s contemporary Billy Crystal, when I saw his ‘700 Sundays’ show on Broadway. I laughed and cried in equal measure. The show went beyond funny. It made me cry. It was beautiful, honest and intimate, a celebratory, sometimes heartbreaking account of his youth and his all-too-short relationship with his father. I felt one with Billy Crystal that night, partly because I too was a Jewish comedian who had lost his father too young, and sometimes considered that that might have been the reason I had felt such a connection with the show, but David Walliams saw it in Sydney, when we were on tour at the same time and reported back that it was magical.
If I sound like a critic it’s because I certainly didn’t feel like a comic. The best acts make me forget what I am because they go so much further than I could ever dream. I love it when that happens. I am first and foremost a fan of comedy.
When I was a nipper my father sat me down in front of Laurel and Hardy and Harold Lloyd. My mum introduced me to Norman Wisdom, who I adored. I watched the Carry On’s, Fawlty Towers and The Young Ones. I spent my time in the school playground listening to tapes I had crudely assembled, recorder held up in front of the television, of routines from the Jasper Carrott show, from Saturday Live, of Stavros and Loadsamoney, Punt and Dennis, Fry and Laurie, Nick Revell, Charles Fleischer, Phil Cornwell and co, on my cheap, shitty headphones, with one ear broken. I would watch videos of Dame Edna, Python, French and Saunders, Rowan Atkinson and, obsessively, Charlie Chaplin.
Later on I would lie awake in the dark at midnight on a Friday night/Saturday morning listening to Radio One, savouring The Mary Whitehouse Experience or my favourite, Victor Lewis-Smith. At college it was Vic and Bob and Frankie Howerd, at university it was Chris Morris and Gerard Hoffnung. In my early twenties I discovered Andy Kaufman.
In recent years I have been like everyone else, devouring the work of Caroline Aherne, The League of Gentlemen, Steve Coogan, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, Peter Kaye, Johnny Vegas, Frank Skinner, Harry Hill, Jimmy Carr, Will Ferrell, Jim Carrey, Judd Apatow and the great Sacha Baron-Cohen. I adored Superbad. Summer Heights High blew me away. I scan the internet for Zach Galifianakis, Dmitri Martin, Lano and Woodley, Tim and Eric, Shaun Micallef and the inspired phonecalls of Robin Cooper.
In fact, there’s too much great stuff to watch, too much to listen to. I haven’t got time. I think I’d better give up the day job.
Hello friend
Sorry for the delay in blogging. I have been zooming around all over the place, but I am back in LA now and able to write.
I’m still working on the ‘Alice In Wonderland’ feature and it’s been a lot of fun. I love the fact that it’s at the forefront of new technology (a 3D movie combining motion capture, CGI and live action) and it’s been a thrill to watch all these clever people at work.
I nipped back to London the other day (glam, ain’t I?) ostensibly to film a Shooting Stars Xmas Special, but also to promote our Little Britain USA DVD, which was released this week in the UK.
We also heard last week that the show has been picked up by HBO, so we are delighted. It garnered positive press in the US – despite what you may have read – and audiences grew week by week, so we are thrilled to have the chance to build on that.
I got back on Wednesday evening and then was up early on Thursday to appear with David on GMTV. We hadn’t seen each other for a couple of months (though we speak regularly, of course) so it was nice to catch up. We were interviewed by Andrew Castle and Kate Garraway. Halfway through the interview I opted for a banana from the fruit bowl on the coffee table but was warned off by Castle. ‘They’ve been there since the days of David Frost’ he said. Either he’s a kind man with my best interests at heart or he wanted it for himself. Tennis players like bananas. I remember Michael Chang scoffing two once in a break at Wimbledon.
On Friday it was off to face Chris Moyles on Radio One. During the interview he threw me a bit by plonking a copy of The Sun down in front of me, which had the apposite headline ‘The Lonely Gay In The Village’ above a picture of me in LA, snapped a few days before, at a restaurant, noodles hanging from my mouth. It says I was eating spaghetti, though actually it was chicken noodle soup. I may sue.
Then it was on to the BBC, to record a Shooting Stars Christmas Special – the first Shooting Stars episode in over six years. I will never tire of working with Vic and Bob – if you can call it work. Actually it’s more like me just having the best seat in the house. Ulrika captained her team, as ever, and opposite her was Jack Dee, fitting in perfectly. The guests were Dizzee Rascal, Kate Garroway, Peter Jones and Christine Walkden - the gardener from The One Show. As usual I sang a silly little song I’d written and we all agreed it was like we’d never been away. I also filmed a short interview for a documentary about the show – it’s fifteen years since Vic and Bob first pilot’ed it – and the two programmes will appear together on BBC2 sometime over Christmas.
On Saturday I relaxed, saw friends and spent time with my dog. It was the best day of all.
So long, fare thee well, pip pip, cheerio, I’ll be back soon!
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