Martin Freeman may have spent a large portion of his career telling the remarkable stories of a string of very remarkable men, from Dr Watson to Richard III and Bilbo Baggins - but his role as the crestfallen Tim Canterbury in The Office will always remain at the heart of the public’s consciousness. His latest part is as the unpredictable DIY enthusiast in Paul Weller’s video for Pick It Up, finds Freeman returning to his roots: as an average bloke teetering on the fringes of fury. Freeman interprets the pedestrian frustrations of humdrum suburbia, as he quietly and pensively sits in his empty home, before destroying a shed and a sofa with a chainsaw.
On his slow and subtle soul funk single, Pick It Up, Weller explains: “I was trying to get a Meters vibe to it. Stan (producer Jan ‘Stan’ Kybert) had a drum loop and I put a funky guitar on it and that was all we had for a while. Eventually we pieced it all together. Whatever shatters pick it up: pretty straight-forward message.”
The track will be released on 18 December on Parlophone Records, but before then take a look at the video below.
