I'm sure others have read this interview before, but it's new to me, and reminded me of the clip where Steve goes "oh no, demon! cast out! release Reece!"
Steve on the origin of "Not now, Silent Singer":
So, that came together quite quickly, and with the case of Jeremy Good[e], who’s Reece [Shearsmith]’s character who works in the library, that had a very long, slow gestation period. Reece wanted to play a teacher character, or someone in authority who got undermined.
This would have been great in a drama, but it didn’t have any real comic spin on it, so coming up with something trivial like the missing library book. And going in a library you do get a sense that they are quite despotic, you know? [laughs] That you would be in trouble if something happens to a book. So, we took that to extremes. It’s a very mundane setting, this librarian who cannot rest until this book’s back on the shelf.
And he’s a real mix. As I started writing it, I thought why not throw in the Silent Singer, who’s this mythical creation we had between us for a few years. The Silent Singer came on when we were writing League Of Gentlemen, to alleviate the boredom. I’ve got photos of Reece looking absolutely identical. And the very lo-fi nature of the Silent Singer in the show, is due to the fact that we had a dressing-up box of stage props that we used on the Gentlemen shows, and that’s what we used.
It’s a very unnerving figure, and people won’t know where it’s come from. It came from our reality. Well, our reality. Not real reality!
That was going to be one of my questions. Just what the inspiration was for the Silent Singer? It’s both scary and hilarious at the same time.
Yeah, like I say, it was just what was in the dressing-up box.
When we were at college, if someone went to the bathroom, the other one would get a pair of shoes, kneel on them, put a red coat on, get a knife, like the character out of Don’t Look Now. We’ve always enjoyed scaring each other by dressing up as these characters, usually the Don’t Look Now dwarf.
We kept that idea going. Reese would be standing behind me for ages and I’d be thinking, “Where’s he gone?” And I’d turn around and the Silent Singer was just there, singing his heart out. And I’d just go, “Not now, Silent Singer.”
It’s just stuff we used to do to make each other laugh, and that’s the great thing about working with someone I’ve collaborated with and been friends with.
Source
