Post by Annie V on Dec 20, 2014 19:13:56 GMT
Spirited peep inside the kitchen
BRITISH actor Matt King is waiting to shoot a scene for series two of Spirited in Sydney's Stamford Hotel, which sits eerily preserved awaiting demolition. Bizarrely, given King plays the ghost of a dead rock star, we're sitting in the room next to the one in which Michael Hutchence died - the only room in the hotel that remains locked.
King shakes his head at the strangeness of it all but he must be used to his life taking curious turns. After all, he became a chef to get Australian residency but ended up becoming a stand-up comedian after a chance meeting with Irish comedian Jimeoin at a Melbourne urinal.
''We became mates and I ended up living with him,'' King says. ''I hated my job as a chef and he kept on saying, 'You're reasonably funny, why don't you have a go?' And he got me a gig and it went really well.''
King spent 15 years living in Melbourne before returning to Britain, where another fortuitous meeting led to his big break, the role of crack-addicted rock star Super Hans in the cult comedy Peep Show.
Physically, at least, there's an obvious connection between Super Hans and Spirited's charmingly dissolute Henry Mallet. So it's a surprise to discover Spirited co-creator Claudia Karvan knew nothing of the character when, two years ago, she sent an email to King's Australian wife, an old friend, asking whether King could act. She remembered him from his stand-up days in Australia and thought he might work as Henry. She was right.
In King's hands, a potentially cartoonish and unlikeable character becomes multilayered and sympathetic.
But we're not here to talk about Spirited. King is also a writer, responsible for the six-part British series Whites, which begins next week on ABC1. The gentle, character-driven comedy, based on King's experience in a professional kitchen, stars Alan Davies as Roland White, a dispirited chef treading water at an exclusive country restaurant.
''Whites is totally based on Hanbury Manor, where I worked,'' King says. ''It's a facsimile. Roland is a composite of several chefs I know who can't be bothered any more. They've kind of missed the boat, missed out on Michelin stars and cruise along.''
King says he and co-writer Oliver Lansley conceived Roland as a ''a complete buffoon, a kind of Alan Partridge in the kitchen''. But once Davies was on board the character evolved. ''Alan brought this subtlety to it that we had never seen; he became more of a surly, quiet arse,'' King says. ''Initially it was like, 'What's he doing?' but we grew to love it really quickly and adapted the scripts to suit that. He's kind of pathetic but he's not unlikeable, despite how low he can stoop some times.''
King came up with the idea for Whites about seven years ago, picturing it as ''The Office in the kitchen''. By the time he got to make it, however, The Office had had its day. ''There were lots of imitations so we moved away from that,'' he says. ''In the end it became almost a comedy drama. We avoided writing jokes; we wanted the humour to come out of the characters - the quirks of these people. There's not loads of big gags in it.''
Two days before our interview, King discovered the BBC would not make a second series of Whites and was still digesting the news.
Ultimately, the decision came down to money.
''It had nothing to do with quality and audience response,'' King says. The first series cost £3 million ($4.8 million) to make and with the BBC facing massive budget cuts, it was always going to be hard to compete with cheaper shows.
''They tried to get the money but it just didn't happen,'' King says. His main disappointment is that he is unable to capitalise on the groundwork of series one.
''In our minds it was a getting-to-know-our-characters series. It's not a lot of time to explore seven characters. It was always, 'We've set up this world, with series two everyone knows the characters and we'll explore it from there'.''
For King, the blow has been softened by his busy schedule. ''I've got another series that I've written going into production the moment I get back to the UK. It's a big series - six one-hour episodes for Sky1. Squeezing another series of Whites in was going to be difficult so I've mixed feelings about it.''
And, of course, there's Spirited, which he says continues to be his dream gig. ''I lived here for a long time and I'd seen a lot of cop shows and a lot of hospital shows but I'd never seen an Australian show that pushed the boat out in that way - that was just kind of barmy. I was kind of surprised someone in Australia was doing it.''
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BRITISH actor Matt King is waiting to shoot a scene for series two of Spirited in Sydney's Stamford Hotel, which sits eerily preserved awaiting demolition. Bizarrely, given King plays the ghost of a dead rock star, we're sitting in the room next to the one in which Michael Hutchence died - the only room in the hotel that remains locked.
King shakes his head at the strangeness of it all but he must be used to his life taking curious turns. After all, he became a chef to get Australian residency but ended up becoming a stand-up comedian after a chance meeting with Irish comedian Jimeoin at a Melbourne urinal.
''We became mates and I ended up living with him,'' King says. ''I hated my job as a chef and he kept on saying, 'You're reasonably funny, why don't you have a go?' And he got me a gig and it went really well.''
King spent 15 years living in Melbourne before returning to Britain, where another fortuitous meeting led to his big break, the role of crack-addicted rock star Super Hans in the cult comedy Peep Show.
Physically, at least, there's an obvious connection between Super Hans and Spirited's charmingly dissolute Henry Mallet. So it's a surprise to discover Spirited co-creator Claudia Karvan knew nothing of the character when, two years ago, she sent an email to King's Australian wife, an old friend, asking whether King could act. She remembered him from his stand-up days in Australia and thought he might work as Henry. She was right.
In King's hands, a potentially cartoonish and unlikeable character becomes multilayered and sympathetic.
But we're not here to talk about Spirited. King is also a writer, responsible for the six-part British series Whites, which begins next week on ABC1. The gentle, character-driven comedy, based on King's experience in a professional kitchen, stars Alan Davies as Roland White, a dispirited chef treading water at an exclusive country restaurant.
''Whites is totally based on Hanbury Manor, where I worked,'' King says. ''It's a facsimile. Roland is a composite of several chefs I know who can't be bothered any more. They've kind of missed the boat, missed out on Michelin stars and cruise along.''
King says he and co-writer Oliver Lansley conceived Roland as a ''a complete buffoon, a kind of Alan Partridge in the kitchen''. But once Davies was on board the character evolved. ''Alan brought this subtlety to it that we had never seen; he became more of a surly, quiet arse,'' King says. ''Initially it was like, 'What's he doing?' but we grew to love it really quickly and adapted the scripts to suit that. He's kind of pathetic but he's not unlikeable, despite how low he can stoop some times.''
King came up with the idea for Whites about seven years ago, picturing it as ''The Office in the kitchen''. By the time he got to make it, however, The Office had had its day. ''There were lots of imitations so we moved away from that,'' he says. ''In the end it became almost a comedy drama. We avoided writing jokes; we wanted the humour to come out of the characters - the quirks of these people. There's not loads of big gags in it.''
Two days before our interview, King discovered the BBC would not make a second series of Whites and was still digesting the news.
Ultimately, the decision came down to money.
''It had nothing to do with quality and audience response,'' King says. The first series cost £3 million ($4.8 million) to make and with the BBC facing massive budget cuts, it was always going to be hard to compete with cheaper shows.
''They tried to get the money but it just didn't happen,'' King says. His main disappointment is that he is unable to capitalise on the groundwork of series one.
''In our minds it was a getting-to-know-our-characters series. It's not a lot of time to explore seven characters. It was always, 'We've set up this world, with series two everyone knows the characters and we'll explore it from there'.''
For King, the blow has been softened by his busy schedule. ''I've got another series that I've written going into production the moment I get back to the UK. It's a big series - six one-hour episodes for Sky1. Squeezing another series of Whites in was going to be difficult so I've mixed feelings about it.''
And, of course, there's Spirited, which he says continues to be his dream gig. ''I lived here for a long time and I'd seen a lot of cop shows and a lot of hospital shows but I'd never seen an Australian show that pushed the boat out in that way - that was just kind of barmy. I was kind of surprised someone in Australia was doing it.''
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