Unmissable show?
There’s this show called Primal Grill on the Food Network, starring someone called Steven Raichlen. He’s not a very good host but that’s sort of its charm. He has to do lots of stuff on a barbecue in this game reserve. In the first series he would panic when he had to look at the camera and talk. Or he’d panic when he had to chop food. Then in the second series, it’s really slick. But then right at the end they show all the bloopers over the credits and they completely undermine all of his progress. I love that.
Earliest TV memory?
Vivian getting his head cut off in The Young Ones, when he stuck it out of a train. That scarred me for life. I still find it quite traumatic. The same with the end of [each series of] Blackadder, when Blackadder would get killed. It was just too sad for me. I just couldn’t deal with it. Maybe it was watching comedy characters die. And now I’ve made a career of dying on stage!
Bottom of the DVR?
Twin Peaks. I know that it’s a classic, but there’s just something about it. I will watch anything ahead of that. I’ll watch Primal Grill before I’ll watch Twin Peaks. I just think that it feels like it’s going to be a bit like homework.
Mastermind specialist subject?
The year a film was made but one year out. It’s uncanny. Someone will say the name of a film but I’ll normally get it one year out. I’m actually really good at getting the right year for lots of films as well, though. So with Jaws, I’ll have to lie and say 1976, but I know it’s 1975. I’d get the answer right in my head but then I’d have to get it wrong out loud. It would be a logistical nightmare.
Pitch as a TV show…
Bruce Campbell walking around the Brecon Beacons with a chainsaw entertaining ladies, with no money and no shelter and no food. He’s got to survive on his natural charm. He’d be a millionaire by the end of the first episode.
Uncle airs on Tuesday, 10pm, BBC3
