Morven Christie - A is for Awesome

If you’d asked me just seven years ago what I thought of Morven Christie my response would have been something along the lines of: “Unusual name. Who is he?” Since then, she has so rapidly ascended the ladder of TV stardom that the actor from Helensburgh has earned the right to round off my list of Treasures. At 39 she is probably the most junior of the hundred, young enough to be Brian Blessed’s grand-daughter, yet has few peers on the box in the 2020s. 

That original anonymity could have various explanations. She doesn’t look like an archetypal leading lady, doesn’t crave celebrity status and hasn’t even done Game of Thrones. Is it down to her Scottish origins? Did she simply appear in stuff I never watched? Well, maybe it’s a hodgepodge of the above. A glance at her IMDB profiles proves I did see her in various programmes prior to 2016 and yet somehow neither her face nor name leapt out at me. She had a small role in the comedy Twenty Twelve and the same year was in the cast of Hunted, a cliché-ridden thriller featuring kickass heroine Melissa George. Two years later she featured in a Silent Witness two-parter as a generic ponytailed Detective Sergeant whose case requires our crime-busting pathologists. No, me neither. Same story with her role as Philip Glenister’s daughter in Mancunian drama From There to Here. She even did some running around in cap and ponytail in a few Doctor Who instalments. 

However, it was a chance viewing of another BBC crime story, in BBC2’s Murder anthology, that alerted me to Morven Christie as someone to remember. OK, she was another DS – a rank which seems to follow her to the present day – but there was no ignoring her, thanks to the bold format of having the lead character addressing the viewer directly to convey her feelings about the case and her own life. The series title was pretty ordinary but I thought the format was brilliantly original and Christie a memorable lead. 

She may not be top of the police food chain but her niche has nonetheless elevated her to the star of ITV’s The Bay. The first series was essentially Broadchurch relocated north to Morecambe but with the neat initial twist of Morvern’s character Lisa Armstrong having alcohol-fuelled alleyway sex with someone who turns out to be a leading suspect in a missing children case she’s investigating. Does she come clean regarding her indiscretions and provide Jonas Armstrong with an alibi or does she prevaricate and make matters worse? Naturally, to make the plot more interesting it’s the latter, and it all made for a gripping watch. 

Of course, this being primetime drama, she solves the case but, by breaking the law she is temporarily busted to DC for the recent sequel. The strength of the character and Morven’s portrayal lies not in any frantic car chases or blinding flashes of super-sleuth inspiration but instead a sense of empathy with victims and emotional scenes with her teenage children and ex, into which she draws us in to her mental tug-of-wars.

It hasn’t all been a litany of cops and killers. While I haven’t watched any episodes of Grantchester, Angie and I were in the living room audience for The Replacement. The opening episodes grabbed you by the throat, as maternity leave cover Vicky McClure progressively took over the clients, trust and career of her helpless predecessor played by Christie. It all came to an implausible ending but it was unsettlingly nerve-tingling stuff. 

Considerably less frothy is The A Word. As someone with a perhaps unhealthy preference for crime mysteries, a drama about the impact on a family of Joe, a boy with autism, would not ordinarily be a major draw. However, we gave it a go, and the three series have developed into ‘must-sees’. As I’ve mentioned before, notably in connection with another ‘Treasure’, Christopher Eccleston, The A Word has deftly avoided being a worthy box-ticking exercise, injecting humour as well as showing young people with disabilities as human beings with independent minds. Besides the writing, this owes a great deal to the leads Morven Christie and Lee Ingleby. They bring warmth and realism to the parents whose relationship becomes brittle under the strain. The latest series showcased both actors’ excellence and, in particular, Morven’s. We all desperately want happiness for her character Alison, while understanding that family bonds will ultimately trump everything.  

It’s reassuring to find a female actor so adept at reaching beyond the outdated sex object and, like Nicola Walker to name but one, creating strong female roles at the heart of small screen drama. The days of the man as the automatic lead above the title, as it were, are thankfully long gone, and long may the like of Morven Christie lead the new wave.

Brian Blessed - The Bearded Foghorn!

I’ve never actually been in the presence of Brian Blessed. I write that with a high degree of certainty because I imagine that, like a gathering thunderstorm or an approaching steam locomotive at full speed, I’d hear him long before he hove into view. Surely I’m not alone in automatically associating the actor not with a specific role but his extraordinary booming baritone.

And his beard runs the voice a close second. That forest of facial fur has been part of his persona since the days when I thought beards were the sole preserve of pirates and possibly seventeenth-century French swordsmen. I’m too young to have witnessed Blessed’s big break in Z Cars back in 1962 but am pretty sure my six year-old self re-enacted with sticks or knitting needles scenes from the BBC’s adaptation of The Three Musketeers. I’m not convinced however, that Porthos’ neatly sculpted goatee was natural. 

By the late Sixties, Mum and Dad were in the habit of watching The Avengers and on a Saturday evening (I think) I was sometimes allowed to join them. I don’t suppose I could follow the plots; not sure anybody could, but for me it was all about dapper Steed’s lethal furled umbrella. I may have seen the episode in 1969 featuring a pencil-moustachioed army sergeant who loved to shout. Yes, Brian Blessed was perfectly cast! 

I can’t recall whether or not he was shaven for appearances in gentle Welsh medical soap Owen MD but, in accordance with Imperial Rome’s disdain for facial hair, his generous jawline was clean for one of his most celebrated dramatic parts as the Emperor Augustus in I Claudius. This was more Dad’s cup of tea than mine but, as a teenager with some interest in history, I did my best to follow the rather heavy, studio-bound action.  The series also introduced me to young actors of the calibre of John Hurt and Derek Jacobi but I do recall Blessed dominating the stage in several episodes, either raging or, in an extraordinary death scene, being completely silent for several minutes, acting only with fading eyes. 

By the mid-Seventies, Augustus apart, the dye was cast with our Brian portraying all manner of bearded baddies. In The Sweeney he came to a sticky end while in the gripping BBC series Survivors he was a brutal bully who runs his post-apocalyptic community his way or no way. In Blake’s 7, his megalomania extended to designs on the entire galaxy then in the convoluted Cyprus thriller The Aphrodite Inheritance he made an excellent armed brigand.  

Blessed’s physical qualities also makes for an imposing king in the traditional style. For example, he was a romping Richard IV in the original Black Adder series and the fearsome warlord Yrcanos in a 1986 Doctor Who serial, not to mention assorted Barons, Squires and Shakespearean dukes but even when he appears as himself he’s always formidable and a tad unpredictable. With an infamous potty mouth the bleeping machine and editors have doubtless worked overtime after recordings of Room 101, A Question of Sport and his ‘Gotcha!’ sequence whilst being ‘pranked’ on Noel’s House Party. He certainly made an idiosyncratic presenter of Have I Got News For You?! 

Brian is also famed as a real-life adventurer. Who else would climb some of the world’s highest peaks, undergo full astronaut training in Russia and become the oldest man ever to reach the North Pole on foot. His expeditions have provided fertile ground for anecdotes on programmes including QI and The Kumars. Legend has it he even punched a polar bear on the nose. From anyone else you’d write it off as fanciful fiction but with Mr B, anything is possible.

Yet the actor can be a sensitive soul. I loved his journey back in time to discover the highs and lows experienced by his bookbinder ancestor on Who Do You Think You Are, revealing both his bombastic Yorkshire bluster and a more reflective side. Nevertheless it’s that deafening delivery which is Brian Blessed’s USP. It continues to bolster his bank balance through numerous, audioplays, computer game voicing. His Grampy Rabbit on Peppa Pig episodes is always a delight (wasted on young children!) but it’s his TV ads which always stand out. Only a few minutes ago he was urging me to buy Terry’s Chocolate Orange and his larger-than-life persona was exploited in a recent Ladbroke’s campaign. Ah, Brian Blessed: never knowingly under-voiced!

Matt Lucas - The Face of Countless Characters

Sketch, or ‘broken’ comedy generally takes one of two forms: the Mainstream (mostly funny, often associated with one or two well-known names, broadcast on BBC1, ITV, Sky One) and the Alternative (hit and miss, often bizarre, featuring an ensemble cast, broadcast on BBC2 or Channel 4). In the former camp you might find Catherine Tate, Lenny Henry or Harry Enfield while the latter would be populated by the likes of Monty Python, Big Train or The Fast Show. Little Britain and Come Fly With Me would be uneasy bedfellows, which demonstrates the versatility of Matt Lucas. 

I know both shows are essentially two-handers, performing and writing duties shared with David Walliams, but for me it’s all about Lucas. David is the more outrageous but most of his characters are basically the same - grotesque women – while Matt is the superior, more subtle actor.

Then there’s his unique appearance. I suspect losing his hair to alopecia at the age of six must have been unimaginably traumatic but for an adult comedian the resulting baldness must be a boon. Like those games we had as children, where you had an outline head on which to design hair and beards with magnet and iron filings, Matt’s bonce is a brilliant blank canvas on which to create superb comedy characters, albeit with the contents of make-up boxes and costume wardrobes. 

Having said that, the first time I ever saw him was almost certainly in BBC2’s Shooting Stars, with no wig at all. Back in the Nineties, much of Matt Lucas’ TV work was surreal art-house stuff, from Blur and Fat Les videos and cameos with Reeves and Mortimer. I’ve written before that I always found Vic and Bob’s comedy too oddball for my taste and Shooting Stars, though resembling a panel game show, totally defied categorisation. It was basically another vehicle for the duo’s somewhat eccentric humour, into which Matt’s George Dawes, adorned inexplicably in a pink romper suit, fitted like a baby’s mitten. When the show was revived in 2009, he was a household name and could indulge in seemingly improvised wacky chat with celebrity guests like Dizzee Rascal as capably as the main stars. 

The Reeves and Mortimer connection continued in 2001 with a role as a mischievous ghost in Reeves and Hopkirk (Deceased) but there were also parts in sketch series Punt & Dennis and French & Saunders, which I also enjoyed watching. Around the turn of the millennium, Lucas turned up again with a new comedy partner called David Walliams in tow. I’m pretty sure I never watched it on UK Play but I did sneak a peek at Rock Profile when screened on BBC2. It was very akin to Reeves and Mortimer: the two stars appearing as disturbingly dark versions of musicians being interviewed by Jamie Theakston. Matt could portray anyone from Prince and Boy George to George Michael and Shirley Bassey! Too weird for me to watch every week but it could be very funny. 

The same applied in 2003 when Little Britain first broke out from Radio 4 to BBC3, and I was compelled by peer pressure to give it a try. The Tom Baker narration treats it as a documentary about typical British people but of course most of the Lucas/Walliams characters are either freaky, creepy or downright deeply unpleasant, the sort you’d move house to avoid. For example, I had a particular aversion to the slack-jawed wheelchair-user Andy who, unbeknown to his long-suffering carer Lou, was only pretending to be disabled. How could he be so cruel and selfish? And yet, thanks partly to Matt’s acting, I eventually cast aside such antipathy to enjoy the pair’s sketches. They were like mini-pantomimes; you wanted to shut “Behind you!” at poor Lou for as soon as his back was turned, his charge would leave his seat and ride a horse dive into a swimming pool or beat up a gang of bullies. Then there were his catchphrases, “Yeah I know…” and “Want that one…” I still use to this day. 

The outrageously camp Dafydd, determinedly “The Only Gay in the Village” even when faced with clear evidence to the contrary, was another Lucas triumph. The local landlady was played by Ruth Jones, at that time unfamiliar to me. By 2009, Dafydd managed to leave his Welsh village to interview a certain Elton John on Comic Relief. It still worked as the basic joke was that we all knew that Dafydd wasn’t the only gay in the palace… 

Other characters included the racist Marjorie Dawes who runs a slimming club while constantly mocking fat people and the flamboyantly obese Bubbles de Vere but my all-time favourite has to be West Country teenage ‘chav’ Vicky Pollard. How Matt Lucas managed to reel off her rapid-fire unintelligible explanations amazes me. The accent and attitude seemed cartoonish – until I found myself in Barnstaple for  work one afternoon in 2005. Walking towards the town centre I passed a gaggle of girls sitting on a wall, and the voices were pure Vicky. All that was missing was someone blurting, “Yeah but no but yeah but no but…..”! 

Little Britain ran for three domestic series, plus a USA follow-up and various one-offs or Comic Relief specials then, instead of churning out the old characters Lucas and Walliams returned in Christmas 2010 with a new venture Come Fly With Me. It was essentially Little Britain but in mockumentary format, set entirely in an airport populated by all-new characters. Personally I thought it much funnier than its celebrated predecessor. From the lazy West Indian coffee stall manager Precious (“Praise the lorrdd!”) and ground crew Taaj (“Innit”) to shady paparazzi, bitchy check-in girls and Japanese girls stalking Martin Clunes, there was so much to enjoy. As so often, it was the Matt Lucas characters who were more memorable. While Walliams would parade in wild lipstick or fake tan, Matt was the chameleon, equally credible as the daftly deluded Scottish boy Tommy and the middle-aged hen-pecked husband Peter, forever experiencing what his serial complainer wife called their “holiday from hell”. They were my faves. Such a shame only six episodes were made. 

More recently both series have attracted criticism for supposedly racist and sexist stereotyping. Now, I’ve never been comfortable with ‘blacking up’ but neither do I find cross-dressing for comedic effect remotely amusing, and where would British comedy be without that?!. However, the whole point of LB and CFWM was that we can laugh at ourselves the blatant caricatures and their instant catchphrases, almost all of which were uttered by Matt Lucas. 

In the past decade or so, he has become a hugely versatile and influential writer, performer and LGBT+ campaigner. He has reciprocated roles in friends’ own series, such as Gavin and Stacey and another Ruth Jones comedy Stella and also appeared in Russell T Davies’ Casanova and Doctor Who, playing the comical alien, duffle coat-wearing Nardole in several adventures. 

I also saw him on screen as a splendidly energetic Thenardier belting out ‘Master of the House’ in the 25^th anniversary concert production of Les Miserables. He’s not the best singer in the world but comic timing and a cheeky face can get you far! Only last year he found a new audience on Channel 4’s Great British Bake Off. Obviously I would never dream of wasting my time watching a cookery programme but Matt’s introductory Boris Johnson Covid briefing spoof deserved wider exposure on YouTube and Facebook. 

OK, so I can’t rave about everything he’s done, but Matt Lucas is a modern master of character sketch comedy with the potential to do a whole load more in the future.