plus Harry complimenting Scott wearing very short shorts and saying “game recognises game 😌” 🤭 and also looking so pleased and happy when talking about his future life in the next 20-30 years 🥰
Reece Shearsmith interviewed by Claudia Winkleman on the Radio 2 Arts Show, 17 Jan 2014. No longer available via Listen Again. Audio rip and upload by SilentShearsmith on Soundcloud 🙏🏻 Transcript under the cut by me. They talk over each other a lot - I did my best 😅 The interview is to promote Reece's appearance in Cool Rider (the Grease 2 musical) and there's also a mention of his brand new, upcoming TV series Inside No 9...
CW: [...the head covered in his hands. Sly and the Family Stone, "If You Want Me To Stay."] On the rare occasions I think about Grease 2 I'd never thought, "Oh, it's so dark and twisted and sinister!" But I must have missed something because Reece Shearsmith - or Dark Lord of Funny as we - that's - we've created a chair for you.
RS: Right, thank you.
CW: And the crown.
RS: I can see it. I like all the black feathers.
CW: No. Yeah. No, no biggie. And the dead rabbits.
RS: Yup.
CW: Is about to star in the musical-
RS: Do I have to wear this cloak?
CW: If it's all right with you.
RS: OK
CW: You can take the teeth out.
RS: Right.
CW: Yeah. And put down the raven.
RS: They're my teeth, Claudia.
CW: Yeah. Oh, interesting! Who's about to star in the musical version Cool Rider. Tell me everything you know. Starting with- You haven't seen the film, have you?
RS: (laughs) Well-
CW: I know it off by heart. You can test me.
RS: Do you really?
CW: I'm obsessed by Michelle Pfeiffer. If she was here now, I'd cuddle her.
RS: Would it be the first thing you would talk about in her canon of work?
CW: Yeah, of course.
RS: Right.
CW: Point one. Michelle, have a seat.
RS: Right. I think I may have lied to you and said I haven't seen it, but I think I saw it a long time ago. I don't recall it very much. I'm not one of the uber fans of this musical. However: there are them. They exist. And the fact that we have put it... putting on this show and it sold out within, like, a minute.
CW: What are you talking-?
RS: It was like the Pythons. The first show - we're doing two of these events on the 27th of January. One at 7 o'clock and one at 11 o'clock. The first one sold out within, like, 45 seconds.
CW: Are you serious?
RS: Yeah.
CW: You and is it-
RS: Not in 45 seconds. But it was quick!
CW: No I like it! No I'm going with it!
RS: Really quick!
CW: There's still tickets. We're pleased you've come on. Because now you can buy tickets.
RS: But in that way, in that way where something-
CW: This is a joy. Continue.
RS: Yeah it is a joy-
CW: Are you in a tiny area when you're doing it? No, I'm kidding. You're in a massive thing. So, selling out. Go ahead.
RS: Yeah, yeah, it is!
CW: I'll stop speaking.
RS: "Tiny area!" No, it's at the Lyric Theatre, which is a big, big theatre.
CW: Huge.
RS: Proper. This is like one of those, you know, mad cult following things that people obsess about. And when you get people that love a world you can't get rid of them. And this show has got that. And so, you just have to put it on. It's never... it's very rarely put on. I don't think it's ever been - the songs in this show - put on live for people to see. So, it's a real event, I think, and if you love it I think it's a one-off.
CW: I think it's going to be extraordinary!
RS: I mean, it might go on and have a extra life, but yeah, I think it's going to be really something. If you're a fan of it, it's amazing.
CW: Even if you're not! If you're a fan of you...
RS: Well, I don't like to boast... But if anyone has any interest in seeing me... My kind of association with musicals is a weird one. I did The Producers for a year - nearly killed me - and then I did Betty Blue Eyes as well, which-
CW: I know that's the last time you came on!
RS: Based on the - Yes, that's right! - on the Alan Bennett thing. So, I've done two big musicals, and they were great. But it's... they're kind of not my forte, but I do love doing them. And both of the parts in those that I did are more like character pieces. So I felt I could get away with it because I'm "an actor singing," rather than "brilliant singer." This is going to have brilliant singers in it. I am not one of them, but I'm playing Mr. Stewart.
CW: You're the teacher.
RS: Yeah.
CW: Who's hilarious.
RS: Who's got a great song. I mean, one of the great songs in it, talking about reproduction in biology. And it's a lovely song which everyone can sing along to if you know it. I'm sure people do. So I'm very excited to be part of it.
CW: Also, I read - I've read every interview you've ever given, obviously,
RS: Yes!
CW: But people say "You're hilarious. You're a comedian." You always say, "No, no, no! I mean, I might be freakishly funny, but I'm an actor foremost."
RS: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Our interest in comedy kind of came from creating characters that you believed in. And then, kind of... it mattered what happened to them then. So, you start with an initial joke or situation, but then what we did - which was, I think, slightly different to kind of repetition comedy - is take them out of that initial joke and give them a life. And you start to care about them. So it was more than sketches. And that's because we were actors, really. Not... You know when Mark and Steve and myself from The League of Gentlemen did Art in the West End we got a lot of people saying "Oh yes, but can they act?"
CW: And you go "What are you-"
RS: What do think we've been doing?! It's not standup.
CW: Yeah.
RS: So it's really- It was... it's slightly irksome. But, yeah, I think people think I am an actor now.
CW: Of course!
RS: It's only me that doesn't.
CW: Oh you're adorable! So when they phoned you up and said, "Listen, we're doing Grease 2."
RS: Yeah.
CW: "We're doing it only for one night."
RS: Yeah.
CW: "One at 7pm, one at 11." Did you go, "I'm sorry. I think you've got the wrong number." Were you at all tempted to go, "I genuinely don't know what you're talking about." Or did you go "Tell me more?"
RS: I did say, "Tell me more," yeah. It was James who I worked with on Betty Blue Eyes. He is producing this. With his partner Christopher. Not sexual partner. I don't think.
CW: You never know!
RS: He's never told me about that. Never told me about that.
CW: It could be a wrap party-
RS: Yeah. That's a revelation for later on.
CW: -event.
RS: And I was intrigued and I said, "I'll look at the song." Because I didn't know it. I couldn't remember it. And he said, "Look at this." Gave me a link on YouTube. And he said, "This is the song we would ask you to do." He played Mr. Stewart, the principal of the high school in Grease. And I I looked at it and I instantly said, "Yes, it's great."
CW: Did you?
RS: Tad Hunter played him in the original. Yeah! I thought it was great and really funny.
CW: Because-
RS: I get to wear glasses and that's the main thing.
CW: Come on.
RS: This is how all characters are created.
CW: I know. But somebody once said to you, "How do you-?" Because you go from being somebody, you know, you really - you're immersed and you're playing so many different people and you went: "Begins with the costume."
RS: Yeah, I do often like to wear glasses. Steve says "You got glasses on?" when I'm doing anything else. Pemberton always ribs me that I can't really do anything without glasses.
CW: "Yeah, I've got them on!"
RS: Yeah, they're on.
CW: Because it's one night. Did you go "Should we just not rehearse? I mean, like, should we just do an afternoon and then I'm going to play with the kids?"
RS: Funny enough because most of the... Yes. Most of the people in this are in shows at the minute - people are in Wicked for example. It is going to be hard to rehearse because everyone's working. So this is going to be Sunday. We've got our first big rehearsal on Sunday to go through everything and put together. But it is a concert, so it will be doable.
CW: Yeah, of course.
RS: And they're all brilliant.
CW: Also, it will make it more fun, won't it?
RS: Yes.
CW: Where am I going? Who am I? Put your glasses on.
RS: Absolutely. Yeah, that's... Were you there?
CW: I sensed it.
RS: It sort of was.
CW: Should we break for some music?
RS: Yes.
CW: This is called 'New Song.' And I believe it is a new song. I hope Howard Jones.
RS: Ironical!
CW: Ha!
[music]
CW: Going to be completely be honest, that's not a new song.
RS: It's really old, isn't it?
CW: I think it's, like, 15 years old.
RS: It was ironical, in fact, 'cos it was 'Old Song,' but it's called 'New Song.'
CW: It's called 'New Song.' It's still a good song.
RS: So, that's clever.
CW: Let's rename it 'Good Song.'
RS: Yeah.
CW: 'Excellent Song.' Howard Jones, of course. Oh, let me just say, you're listening to the Radio 2 Arts Show. My very special guest, Reece Shearsmith.
RS: You're very kind, thank you.
CW: Can you just talk to me? We have been talking. We would go back to talking about the amazing night of Grease 2 on stage. Can we converse about your new series, which I had read about, which is in the can and it is about - thankfully - to come to our-?
RS: Finally!
CW: There's excitement about it.
RS: Well, I hope so. It's Steve and I - Pemberton and I - have written this new series called Inside No 9 which is a kind of anthology series. You don't really get them on television.
CW: No!
RS: I the 70s that's all you had! It was brilliant. You had Tales of Expected and Armchair Thriller and all these things that were one-off plays, basically. And we were really interested having done kind of a whole half hour set in a house in Psychoville - which was one take actually! We did it in one take.
CW: You didn't?!
RS: We did! It was two takes, but it was like Hitchcock's Rope-
CW: Live.
RS: Yeah. And it was we- Yeah. It was all in camera and it was filmed and Mark was in it as well. It was nice. It was like a little reunion. But doing that really excited us. So we thought, let's do six of the- Can we do-? Are we allowed to do six of these each week? A different story, a different cast. Steve and I are playing different characters each week.
CW: Different number nines.
RS: Different number nines! And you go to a dressing room, there's a mansion, there's a shop - a house above a shop. And so each week different story and you just kind of get a new... entirely different tone, even. So it was very exciting. I think it's really funny and dark and very different to what Steve and I do, but in... but very....
CW: But also -
RS: But also the same. If you like what we do.
CW: Then people will recognise it. But the fact is it's totally different. How did you whittle it down to six? Did you go, "Oh, number nine! It's a farm! It's in... I'm wearing a hat!"
RS: It's true. You're absolutely right with the fact that you need parameters and there aren't any on this, other than you... We decided they are quite claustrophobic and you don't leave once you're in. So, there's some of them- There's one of them called Sardines. It's entirely in a wardrobe.
CW: Stop it!
RS: It's a game of sardines. And over the half hour, 12 people get in the wardrobe. Me, Anna Chancellor, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Tim Key-
CW: You got brilliant-
RS: Timothy West.
CW: Oh you've got brilliant actors !
RS: Brilliant, brilliant cast. And Katherine Parkinson and it goes on and on. There's great people in it. And so that was really claustrophobic. And that's your constraint. Suddenly it's really hard to write a half hour where you don't leave. Because often in drama when you're writing - or comedy - you can leave, and when you come back things have changed and moved on and it some exposition is being-
CW: Yeah. Something's happened when people go out the - yeah.
RS: Yeah. And you don't have to do that bit of exposition when you're in it all the entire time, it's quite hard to kind of keep the writing going. So it was a challenge but that was what we embraced about this series.
CW: And also I read a lovely thing about when you were - I think you were talking about Psychoville when you said you're just trying to make each other laugh.
RS: Yeah.
CW: You're just in a room and all the aim... because I think somebody said "How do you even go about-?" and you said "I've just got to try and make him smile. "
RS: Yes. Yeah. I mean often it's always the way the little bank of moments when I make Steve laugh or vice versa. We think, "Well, that's all right. That's in." 'Cos that was what really made us laugh. It gets harder when you come down to the nitty-gritty, the nuts and bolts of the structure. That's the boring bit. But imperative to get - to try and hide. That's what you got to do. You got to try and hide the exposition. But these stories are great. You're in and out. Each week: beginning, middle, and end, done, next one. It's not a bad thing that each week it's a new thing. You know, sometimes in TV, they say, "Oh, there's no commitment to it. Why would I tune in?"
CW: It's not true. But-
RS: It's not true. If you like it-
CW: Also-!
RS: -And it's good, you will be forgiven for whatever it is, I think.
CW: I'm not saying this to be nice to you, but people trust you. They trust you!
RS: Yes.
CW: So, even if that you go one, you go, "Oh, that was a bit, huh...." you're definitely - you can't wait to see.
RS: Yeah. Yeah. Well, hopefully. Yeah. I think so. I think it's quality. It's not thrown together what Steve and I do. We care very much about it. We're like fans of our own work. So, we don't want to get it wrong or spoil it or tread water, you know. That's why we've always kept trying to move on. You can only shock once, really, when you first appear. When we did League of Gentleman, it was like, "What's this? It's horrible!"
CW: But do you love - I read somewhere that you said you love the fact that- 'cos League's got all very young new fans.
RS: Yeah. Inexplicably
CW: The world of the box set. People are like-
RS: Of course they are! People are like "Oh my god, Mycroft's dressed as a woman!" That's what we get now because of Mark's huge successes with his Sherlock. People are discovering it and going, "What was his back catalogue?"
CW: Yes.
RS: Finding that he did this silly sketch thing in his past and and they're re-finding it. Yeah. It's much more lauded now and and loved and cherished than it was in the day, I think.
CW: No, it's pure- It had-
RS: I mean, it was liked by some people.
CW: It was cult.
RS: Yeah. Cult As is Grease 2! Back to Grease 2! It's Exactly the same thing.
CW: Can I just tell you how much fun is it going to be doing Grease 2 at 11 o'clock at night?
RS: Yeah
CW: Friday night in the West End. I'm not saying if you've got tickets for 7 o'clock, you're going to have a nice time.
RS: Oh yeah, it's going to be great.
CW: It's not going to be terrible. It's not like a warm up, but the 11 o'clock. Boom!
RS: That will be when all the rest of the West End twirlies arrive and watch it and sing along.
CW: You see!
RS: Much better than me probably. Which is slightly annoying, but good because it will drown out me and it will sound great.
CW: You're going to have a fantastic time. Thank you so much for coming in.
RS: Not at all. Thank you for having me.
CW: Reece Shearsmith stars in Cool Rider which is on for one night only on the 27th of January.
RS: Be there.
CW: [Coming up Colin Firth talks about meeting the real life prisoner...]
