Some Interviews

iViewMe YouTube Interview

Mon, 6 Sep 2010 20:22:07 +0100

An interview by Sam Seal on his YouTube Channel.
An intriguing new series, where guests write their own questions.
Watch it here

Red Dwarf Website

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:36:22 +0100

Rob Grant Stands Up
Red Dwarf's co-creator takes to the stage.
Well, this is an unexpected turn of events. Writer Rob Grant - whose novels Fat and Incompetence give my bookshelf the appearance that I'm essentially only able to read things that are about me - has apparently grown weary of putting words in other people's mouths and is now putting them in his own.
The move into stand-up is both surprising - aside from reverse-smoking in an episode of Red Dwarf he's mostly been a behind-the-camera guy - and appropriate, given the man's comedy CV. Rob let us know how the move into stand up came about:
“It's weird: people have been asking me for years if I ever do stand up, and now I'm doing it, people are asking me why the hell I'm doing stand up. It sort of started when I was doing book signing tours. I'd often have to do a kind of 'Evening with...' event, after a bout of radio interviews, and it was a case of cobbling an act together or suffering humiliating silences and embarrassing mumblings.”
“By the end of a tour, I'd have a pretty polished routine going, and it struck me it was fairly close to stand-up. I missed the instant feedback I used to get from live radio and TV audiences; it's what I live for, really. So I thought I'd give it a whirl. It was a real blast. Terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.”
And it will come as little surprise that there are a few familiar topics among the repertoire. “Well, that's the glorious thing about stand up: you can talk about pretty much anything. I mostly do observational stuff. I don't talk about Red Dwarf per se, but I do a bit about SF conventions, and another bit about fantasy novels, that kind of thing. It depends on the audience - it's weird how an audience has a kind of gestalt identity. Sometimes, the SF and the technology stuff leaves them completely cold, and you sense you're more likely to succeed talking about fun-sized chocolate bars. I'm not interested in being just another stand up: I want to engage people's minds and make them think about stuff in a different way. Of course, first and foremost, I want to make them laugh.”
If this is the first you're hearing about Rob's new direction, you're probably not alone. And it seems that partly comes from a deliberate intention to start out 'under the radar':
“I only started doing it this year, and I wanted to make my mistakes in a fairly low-key way. I'm not exactly a comedy novice, but I'm not so arrogant I think I can stand on a stage and be a flawless performer from the get-go. I'm confident enough in the material I generate, but, obviously, I need to hone my presentation techniques. Every show, I learn something new, and get just a little bit better. Fairly soon, I'm sure I'll be able to walk on stage without actually fainting.”
So - the future?
“I'm doing odd gigs up and down the country right now, in preparation for a very mini-tour of a one-man show later in the year. If that goes well, I'll do a slightly grander tour next year. Tour details [are] on my website.” So visit (Here) to find out more - dates right now include September 26th (Grantham), October 9th (Hereford) and 23rd (Runcorn), November 14th (Basingstoke) and December 11th (Norwich).
Anything else? “Another book, of course. Various other projects in development hell. I'll let you know if any of them escape...”

An e-interview with M2 magazine for the New Zealand release of Fat.

Tue, 13 May 2008 20:15:54 +0100

How do you feel your writing has developed since Red Dwarf days?
Well, obviously, I think it's better. If you don't think you're getting better, you should probably be thinking about a new line of work.
I laughed more during Fat than I did during Incompetence; do you feel that you are more at home with the subject matter, making it easy to inject humour into?
Maybe, or maybe I just got better (see above). I think FAT has a broader emotional range than INCOMPETENCE, which is mostly a rage against frustration, which probably makes the funny bits seems funnier.
Speaking of humour, is it a conscious effort to inject humour, do you agonise over it, or does it just emerge naturally through your writing?
It comes naturally, more or less. It's my style. It's the way I see the world. Frankly, I doubt I could write a non-comedy novel if I tried. That's not to say I find it impossible to write about serious subjects, or make serious points about important subjects. Though it may be impossible to be taken seriously.
You have mentioned in other interviews that your 12-year-old daughter and her friends made you more aware of the proliferation of eating disorders. What research did you do in order to correctly capture the voice of Hayleigh?
Actually, I identify with Hayleigh quite strongly. I remember going through that age, and feeling isolated and underestimated. It's a horrible age. Schooldays are the best days of your life? I think not, girlfriend. I did chat quite a lot with my daughter, Lily, to get a handle on the argot and some of the details, such as the pecking order of boy posters on the wall, which I found quite alarming.
The subject matter of Fat is controversial, was there a particular incident in your life that spawned the book?
An NHS Hospital over here announced they were going to start refusing treatment to obese people. You might say that got me a little fired up. Cheeky bastards.
Which character do you most identify with, and why?
Actually, I identify with all three of the lead characters. They're sort of all aspects of me at various times in my life. I've already talked about Hayleigh. I was a bit of a philanderer like Jeremy. And I am now overweight and angry, like Gren. Speaking of which …
Do you like to write about things that make you angry?
Yes, because, unfortunately, it's a very large brief. Stupidity, thoughtlessness and incompetence make me angry. Lorries on motorways that take up the middle lane for twenty minutes to overtake another lorry which is travelling at almost exactly the same speed make me angry. People who are famous and yet have no discernible skill or talent make me angry. If I wrote about things that didn't make me angry, my ideas pool would be dry in minutes.
Did the character of Jemma offer you a chance to vent your own feelings on various matters? Was it cathartic?
Yes, and yes. I did a ton of research for the book, and the more I did, the more I realised almost everything I thought I knew about the relationship between diet and health was utterly wrong, and I needed a character who could express that without being a world class bore. Jemma was meant to do just that, but she took on a life of her own. I never have any luck controlling the women in my life, even the ones I invent.
Has the information you uncovered during your research for Fat changed your lifestyle or outlook on weight loss and the weight loss industry?
Absolutely. The bottom line is: diets don't work. Worse, they're actually dangerous. Seriously. 91% of successful diets, where the subject actually achieves their desired weight, fail within a year, leaving the subject back at their original, pre-diet weight, or worse. Over five years, the figure goes up to 96%. Now, if doctors recommended a course of treatment that had a 91% failure rate, and tended to leave the patient worse off at the end of it, they'd be struck off the medical register. Yet they're happy to prescribe diets to patients they consider overweight. Quite aggressively. It's insane. And you'd better not be standing between me and the TV screen when there's an advert on for some overpriced yogurt drink or margarine that claims it's clinically proven to reduce cholesterol. Unless you're wearing a Kevlar vest. If you're worried about your weight, exercise more. Even if you don't lose a whole lot of body mass, you'll get fitter and enjoy life more. That's where I'm at with it now.
How long did it take you to research Grenville's How to Boil an Egg chapter?
Ha! A while, actually. About a decade ago, I took a year out to study cookery, which I'd developed a passion for. I went to residential courses all over the place, attended lectures by famous chefs, and practised at home, in a serious, experimental way. A lot of trial and error went into discovering the perfect method for boiling an egg, and I wanted to share it with the world.
Why did you choose to write Fat about the present when your other novels are set in the future, and was this easier or harder?
I never actually say FAT is set in the present day, but I'm not saying it isn't, either. It's a swings and roundabouts thing: when you're writing in an imaginary future, you get to make the rules, which is fun, but it's quite burdensome having to create an entire universe every time you write a novel. I had a lot of fun with contemporary references in FAT, largely because I've never had that resource before in my career.
Was it difficult to keep abreast of the differing narrative styles in Fat?
No. It was fun. I enjoyed the variety, and getting into different heads every day.
Which authors do you like to read?
Blimey. I read just about everything. I'm about to start working my way through Evelyn Waugh. My favourite book is I, Claudius, by Robert Graves. Favourite SF authors: Larry Niven, Harry Harrison, Arthur C. Clarke.
What is next, and will there be a Colony 2?
Well, I've written Incompetence and Fat: my wife says to make it the perfect trilogy for me, I should write Drunk. I'm seriously considering it. I'd love to write a Colony sequel – there's a lot of life in those characters. I have a couple of TV projects which might come off in the very near future.
And questions M2 asks everyone it interviews:
What was the worst piece of advice you have ever been given?
When I was starting out in writing, a friend of a friend kindly organised an introduction to a working script writer they knew, and I wrote asking for whatever advice he could offer to a beginner. He wrote back advising me to give it up and work in less 'shit-strewn' pastures. It was depressing and demoralising. And wrong.
And the best?
Never give anyone else your cheque book and a pen,
What has life taught you about women?
Actually, I'll quote from Jeremy in the book on this one: the Boyfriend Mention. You're getting along with a girl, and you feel there's a bit of a spark between you, when she suddenly mentions her boyfriend. Don't be put off: this is her trying to remind herself that she shouldn't be feeling this way. Victory is almost yours.

Updated version of an interview for Orion Books website

Sat, 12 May 2007 21:16:31 +0100

Where do you live? And why?
London. Because it’s impossible to live anywhere else. A few years ago, I moved down to Dorset, because I fancied a spot of country living: I could afford a huge country pile, and the kids would have a better quality of life, and we’d grow our own vegetables and watch deer frolic on the lawn and all that stuff, because I’m a writer, and I could write from anywhere, right? But I think you’re either a city person or a country person, and I missed London very badly. We moved back after a couple of years, and I have no plans to leave again.

Where do you write?
I have an office at home. I tried renting an office, just to get out and about every day, but I decided a staircase was more than enough commuting for me, thank you. Why waste an hour or more travelling to and from work when you don’t have to?

Did you enjoy school? What is your most vivid memory of your school years?
At the time, I pretty much loathed school. When adults used to tell me they were the happiest days of my life, I didn’t know whether to strangle them or hang myself. I think that erroneous adult belief stems from the misconception that problems children have are as nothing compared to the real world stress inflicted on adults. That’s wrong. Children’s problems are every bit as distressing. Adults rarely have to fret about physical bullying, for instance. Or genuinely worry if there’ll ever be a day when they get to have sex with another human. And cruel, petty-minded teachers have much more power over you than, say, cruel bosses in the workplace – you can always walk out and get another job, which isn’t an option at school. That’s not to say it was a thoroughly hideous experience, just that the lows were very low indeed. And, to this day, I have recurring nightmares about school. The most prevalent is I’m about to sit my French A level, and I know precisely what I know today about French, which is how to order an orange juice badly. I studied French for ten years, and I did get my A level, just about, but I can’t string together a simple sentence in the language without a French person replying in distressingly perfect English. Merdre.

What educational qualifications do you have? Have you had any formal tuition in creative writing? If so, where and what? Did you find it useful?
I got O and A levels, but got kicked out of University at the end of my second year, even though I was on a BA course. I’m very sceptical of formal writing courses. In the early days, Doug sent off for a postal writing school course, but we just threw it in the bin, frankly. The nearest thing to formal training I’ve had was a two day comedy writing course taught by Danny Simon (Neil Simon’s brother). That was superb. Mostly, I learned about comedy writing from reading what little I could find from good comedy writers. Americans tend to talk about it as a craft much more than English writers. While Doug and I were starting out at the BBC in Manchester, a producer friend of ours made a radio series called ‘The American Way Of Laughs’, and he managed to interview just about every living American comic. He let us listen to the unedited tapes, and that was unbelievably helpful.

Did you always want to be an author? If not, what did you originally want to be and when and why did you change your mind?
Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be a writer. There was a short period when I wanted to be a scientist, just so I’d get to wear the white lab coat and invent things, and, naturally, I wanted to be Spider-Man. In fact, at the time, I thought I could probably handle both those careers simultaneously. Apart from that: a writer, always. I can remember, though, one road to Damascus moment: I was going to the cinema, and, in those days, they often had a double bill. I was walking down the aisle looking at the B movie on the screen, which had already started. It was Woody Allen’s ‘Play It Again, Sam’. I started laughing before I got to my seat, and I pretty much didn’t stop till the end of the movie. I have no idea what the main film was, but that was the night I decided I wanted to make people laugh. One day, hopefully, I will.

What were the first pieces of writing that you produced? e.g. short stories, school magazine etc.
I’ve always written. As a kid, I used to write for fun. I used to make superhero comics with my brother. I used to make up serials to tell him every night, when we were in our beds, and I’d stop when I got myself in a big plot hole. He’d beg me to carry on, but, of course, I’d have no idea what was going to happen next, and I’d spend a chunk of the next day fretting about it. I first got published in the school magazine when I was nine or ten. It was a homework essay called ‘The Old Dark House’ and I’d had no idea it had even been submitted, so I was pretty damned pleased with myself. As I recall, the plot was subsequently ripped off in every single episode of Scooby Doo. I eventually became editor of the School Magazine (The Gryphon’) of which there was one issue per year.

If your house was burning down what would you save?
Nothing. I assume you’re talking about stuff, not people. That’s not to say I don’t love stuff. I’m a very big stuff lover. I love my computers and my gizmos – my Smartphone, my iPod and so on – but I’m not a collector, or anything like that anymore. I used to collect things, and hoard them: books, videos, laser discs, comics; but I like to think I’ve grown out of that now. It suddenly occurred to me that I’d been carting books around from house to house all my life, and I only ever re-read maybe two of them. And I had a massive video collection, but there was never anything I wanted to watch, and I was basically accumulating clutter I never used, and taking up acres of space for no good reason. So I got rid of them all, my entire video collection, including absolutely every episode of ‘Star Trek – The Next Generation’, and all of my books, except for a few vital reference books, mostly to charity shops. It was a great feeling: very liberating. I still buy books, but I pass them on when I’ve read them. And if I haven’t read them within a year of purchase, I get rid of them. I buy DVDs, but mostly collected TV shows, like ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and ‘The West Wing’, and the odd classic movie: basically, stuff I can’t rent. Music CDs go straight onto the computer and then the iPod, then I put them away in a drawer and never get them out again. There’s things I’d miss if the house burned down, but nothing worth running through burning rafters to rescue.

What is a typical writing day?
I get up really early and start writing immediately, before I’m even awake. That way, my critical faculties are still slumbering and the little voice in my head that says what I’m writing is crap hasn’t had chance to brush its teeth. The hardest part of writing, for me, is getting started, and this is the best way I’ve found of avoiding that pitfall. By the time everybody else is up in the house, I’ve usually got going, and, if I’m lucky, something reasonably good will have come out. Then I feel like I’ve stolen a march on the day, and I can keep going. I set myself minimum limits, in terms of daily word counts, when I’m writing a novel. It’s not an issue when I’m writing a script: a novel is about 100,000 words, and a long half hour script is maybe 4,000. As the novel deadline approaches, though, the minimum word count goes out the window, and I just keep on writing till my fingers are numb.

Interview for fan website run by Johathan Capps

Sat, 12 May 2007 20:49:29 +0100

When was the first time you met Doug Naylor?
We met at School, at the age of 9.

How did you both decide you wanted to be comedy writers and what was your first writing job?
Doug read an article in a newspaper about a guy who'd submitted a script to ITV and got a series commissioned of the back of it. (The series, incidentally, was 'Paradise Island' starring William Franklin, and was crap, but that wasn't the point). We thought that sounded like a good way of making some money, so we stopped even trying to pretend to do our University course work and started writing a script. We honestly expected a limousine to arrive at our door with a bottle of champagne, a large cheque, and possibly the odd golden bikinied game show hostess or two in it, to whisk us off to London. The script was called 'The Big Time' and it was about two incompetent private detectives. When the script was rejected we were, quite frankly, heartbroken. Then we got thrown out of University. We decided that our only route to fame and fortune was to take the writing thing seriously, and we set about doing what we could to learn the craft. The first writing work we ever got paid for was a sketch on a radio show for new writers. The sketch was called 'The Big Melt' – it was a Chandler parody set in a waxwork museum – and the cheque was for £49, which was, of course, split between us. That was our total earnings in our first year as professional writers.

What were your main inspirations for Dave Hollins, and then later, Red Dwarf?
Science fiction was starting to take off at the Cinema, and we very much liked Alien and Dark Star, because they were space stories with some working class people in them. We thought it was about time the working class had a shot at space.

Writing the pilot, how did you set about converting Dave Hollins to Red Dwarf?
It was quite a logical process, in retrospect. We wanted a show about the last human being alive in the Universe, and, as a perverse twist, we decided not to have any aliens in it. From that position, we were compelled to create characters around the central figure who were not living human or aliens, hence: a dead man, a cat, a computer, and, eventually, a mechanoid.

How did you feel when Red Dwarf was finally commissioned and filming began?
It was like our wildest dream come true. It had taken so long from writing the pilot to having the show commissioned, and then having the disappointment of going through the rehearsals while an electricians' strike at the Beeb prevented us from recording any of it, we'd begun to believe it might never happen. I remember getting in the lift at the BBC building in Manchester, and some extras got in, in Red Dwarf crew uniforms, which, amazingly, we hadn't seen up until that point, and I felt I was in fairyland. I remember thinking as the lift went up: 'I invented you'. Even though the original sets were, frankly, drab, it was still a powerful feeling to walk into the studio, and see them all laid out: like having your own space ship to play with. We'd already seen the model as it was being filmed, but this was a whole different experience.

How does being a writer compare to Producing and Directing your show?
Traditionally, no one listens to the writer, at least in British Television, so we had to become Producers just to get listened to. Just sending in a script and watching it get buggered up by someone else is a depressing process. Producing, and particularly directing, is a lot more work, but a lot more rewarding: what goes on the screen is a lot closer to what you actually want to go on the screen.

Out of the six series you co-wrote, which is your favourite series and why?
Frankly, that's like asking which is your favourite child. I like them all, for different reasons. I particularly like 5 and 6, if you're putting a gun to my head.

What is your opinion on how the US Pilot shows turned out?
I thought it was pretty darned good. On the night, when we recorded it, the show was a sensational smash, and everyone was convinced a series would follow. But the edit, which Doug and I were not around for, sucked, and lost a lot of the impact. Still, it was a good, funny show, and deserved a series. I know some of the Brit cast hate the thing, but that may possibly have something to do with the fact they weren't in it. The American cast was a fine ensemble. People go on about Craig Bierko, who played Lister, being a handsome space hero-type, but then, Craig Charles doesn't exactly look like a bag of spanners. And Jane Leeves, who played Holly, went on to play Daphne in Frasier, and she's a very funny lady. It wouldn't have been the same show, but, then, what would have been the point of making the same show all over again? It was Red Dwarf, Jim, but not as we know it.

Would you ever go back to Red Dwarf as the subject for a novel?
It's a possibility, down the line.

Your creative split with Doug Naylor has been much speculated about by fans. What were your reasons for leaving the partnership?
It became impossible for us to work together. Just one of those things. Musical differences.

How did the release of Series VII and VIII feel to you?
Like watching a video tape of your ex-wife's next honeymoon.

A few months ago there was talk on an animated series called Cruel Aliens, written by you. Is there any more news on the development of this?
Yes, it appears to be happening. It's taken a while to set it up, but animators are animating as I write. It's very exciting.

Where did you get the inspiration for the odd situations in books such as 'Incompetence' and 'Fat'?
I know it sounds coy, but inspiration rarely has anything to do with it. It's usually a logical process that results when you develop a premise. Of course, there are times when a great idea just seems to pop into your head, but you never really know where it comes from. I wish I did.

A few months ago Amazon.co.uk listed a book called 'Colony II', written by you. This has now been removed but are you still considering or working on the sequel?
Yes, it gave me a bit of a shock when I saw that on Amazon. It came from my publishers, Gollancz, after we'd signed a two book deal. The second book was unspecified, but, to fill in the blanks on the contract, someone had put Colony II, and that somehow found its way into the system. I certainly intend to write another Colony book at some point: I love the characters, and they certainly were developed to endure, and I know there are people at Gollancz who'd like to see another one. I just felt I wanted to write some more Earth bound stuff for a while.

Can you tell us about any other future non-Dwarf books you plan to write?
I really can't think beyond 'Fat' at the moment.

Would you say you prefer solo writing for TV series, such as The Strangerers and Dark Ages; or did you prefer writing novels such as Colony, Incompetence and Fat?
Again, that's an impossible choice. I love writing novels, or, rather, I love having written novels. It's a no-compromise medium: nobody gets in the way of your vision, and you don't have to worry about budgets, sets and casting and so on. Plus, there's very little in life that's a bigger bang than seeing your name on the spine of a novel. On the other hand, sitting in a room on your own all day, you run the risk of losing your mind. It's great to get out and see a project grow from script to screen, and to meet other people who are all trying to get the same end result. But, then, you have to worry about budgets, sets and casting and actors and special effects and contracts and broadcasters … so it's nice to get back to novel writing.

Will it ever be a possibility to see you at a future Dimension Jump, Fan Club convention - we're a nice bunch of people and don't even heckle (much)!
I don't think I've been invited for many a year. I know you're a nice bunch of people: after all, we all like the same kind of stuff, don't we?

**********************

And finally, I'm currently researching a new section for my site which will be on one of your earliest pieces of work, Wrinkles. Here I have 4 extra questions regarding the show that I hope to cover in my eventual piece.

What was the inspiration for the show?
Our friend and mentor, a North Country radio producer called Mike Craig had done a few shows with a wonderful old comedian, Tom Mennard. Tom was our kind of comic, in that he didn't tell jokes as such, but had these fabulous, surreal little stories he used to spin, which had the oddest characters in them, and were very funny indeed. Mike asked us to write a pilot for him, and we thought we could do something that wouldn't be traditional, middle of the road radio fodder: something a bit different. We came up with the idea of making Tom the caretaker of an Old People's Home, which was populated by, well, loonies. The voices of authority figures were played by musical instruments. I have no idea how it got a commission.

Could you summarise the main characters (and, if possible the voice actors who played them) from the show?
David Ross played 'Mr. P', who was an annoyingly enthusiastic septuagenarian. David is a very funny comedy actor (He played the original Kryten), Gordon Salkilld (?) played 'Arnold', a pessimistic depressive. Gordon was a deadpan actor, much in the Norman Lovett mould (He played Holly's chess-playing computer buddy in Red Dwarf). Mike cast Ballard Barclay in the series, and we couldn't think of anything to do with him other than make him a military type (He'd played the Major in Fawlty Towers). Anthea Askey played the housekeeper.

In hindsight, were any of the characters pre-cursers to later Red Dwarf characters?
If there's a connection, I never spotted it.

Can you recall how the show was critically received - is there anywhere I can get hold of reviews of the show?
I'll recall to my dying day how the show was critically received. It was not received well. It got the lowest audience evaluation score in the history of radio, except for a Radio One quiz show that had the wrong answers to the questions. It got a fairy decent review from Gillian Reynolds in the Telegraph, and it was one of the shows reviewed on Critic's Forum on Radio Three, where it didn't actually get minced. Astonishingly, the show was recommissioned for a second series. We had tremendous fun working on it, and it got a terrific response from the audiences on the night. Plus, it was an invaluable experience working with Tom Mennard, who was just as funny off stage as on. You never knew where you were with him. One minute, you'd be walking along a corridor with him, talking about the script, then you'd turn round and he'd be talking to the floor of the lift, saying 'Well how the bloody hell did you get down there?' as a crowd gathered around him.