PLUME: Danger is quite a fun little series…
FROST: The thing about Danger is it’s not narrative and it’s just me presenting but there was kinda no script, so they let me improvise most of it, and, you know, I think everyone who worked on it and everyone who we kind of used felt they were doing something pretty nice and pretty cool, you know, and I think that comes out. I think there was a discussion before we started and the producer said, “Oh, it’ll be good, we go to America and they don’t understand us and we can kinda take the piss out of them a little bit,” and I was, from the get go, I was very anti-that and I was kinda much rather, “Well, what if we don’t do that? You know, what if we get them on-side and we go together and we can have a laugh together and, you know, I think that’s much cleverer,” d’you know what I mean?
PLUME: You’re just such a supreme diplomat…
FROST: Well, I’ve just… you know, I’ve never been one of those people who can take the piss out of people and not feel bad. I don’t see the point in it, really.
PLUME: Well, you move out to Hollywood, you’ll learn how to do that.
FROST: Yeah, exactly. There’s plenty of time.
PLUME: Just don’t give up on it too soon.
FROST: Don’t give up hope.
PLUME: Yeah, yeah, I mean there’s always a chance. Well, what’s the status of La Traviata?
FROST: Well, we – sorry, I’m just making dinner and just checking it. Well, Simon and I we wrote four or five episodes, I think. And then because of the new film, we had to put it on hold while they wrote the film. And so the film is being finished… they finished the first draft of Hot Fuzz and it appears that… I don’t think we’re going to go into production until sometime early next year. So we have time now to go back and finish La Traviata. I think we’re going to try and do it as a film, as a nice big Christmas feature, as a Christmas special.
PLUME: But still for TV.
FROST: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there’s a kinda quite a nice tradition on British television that, you know, stars… well, not stars… but people who work in comedy, they actually go and do a Christmas special which is not connected to anything at all, it’s just a one off – and, you know, Only Fools and Horses do it, you know, people just… you kind of open your Christmas edition of the Radio Times, which is a listings paper, and you think, “Yes! Brilliant! There’s an Only Fools and Horses Christmas special on!” And people really dig it, people really get into it.
PLUME: Yeah, you have such a wonderful history over there that we have none of.
FROST: Well…
PLUME: There’s a wonderful cultural history of…
FROST: Yeah, I mean it’s… that’s the thing about American television, it’s just so different, you know. It’s amazing, it’s just absolutely amazing. Up until two or three years ago, I think the majority of people in Britain only had four or five TV channels… that’s it.
PLUME: Which I can’t even comprehend.
FROST: I know, I know. And that was it. And even until… let me try and think… the mid- to late 80s, I mean, television in Britain didn’t start until half past ten in the morning. The BBC didn’t start until half past ten. So they would have like a test card, which is like, you know, bars and tones and stuff. And then you’d sit there and then at half past ten, telly would come on. And then, like, half-eleven or twelve at night, this voice would say, “And, uh, the BBC is now closing down for the evening. Good night.” And then they would play “God Save the Queen.”
PLUME: And you hear the lights being flicked off.
FROST: Yeah, “I’ll see you in the morning, Frank.”
PLUME: Kind of a sound of a brush in the back.
FROST: Yeah, a sound of an English breast heaving at the sound of the… you know, the Queen’s voice, “Good night.”
PLUME: Yes, yes, as she personally says good night every evening from a small little broadcast center in the palace.
FROST: In the base of Buckingham Palace.
PLUME: Yes, yes, where she would have to go. Or else they couldn’t sign off.
FROST: Yeah, exactly, she’d say, “Can I pre-record?”
PLUME: Yes, every once in a while, Charles would try and horn in and say, “When is my time going to come?”
FROST: “Never. You’ll never be king.”
PLUME: Well, I think they pretty much cemented that with the wedding.
FROST: Yeah. I think… you know, over here – I was listening to Radio Four when they announced they were going to get married. And they were, you know, they did Vox Pops with people on the street, saying, “So what do you think about Charles and Camilla getting married?” And a lot of kind of people were saying, “Oh, I think it’s disgusting.” And what are you talking about? I just… I couldn’t see what the problem was at all with it.
PLUME: The only problem was they played the Benny Hill theme underneath the Vox Pops.
FROST: (breaks into “Yakety Sax”) You know, he was married and the marriage didn’t go well and then sadly his wife died, and now it’s been – what? – eight years or six years or something, you think, “Well, why shouldn’t he get married again, for f***’s sake?” It’s absolutely ridiculous. I just kinda think, you know, if any of those people ever lost their wife or husband… wouldn’t you want to get married and be happy again?
PLUME: Oh yeah, I don’t fully understand the response…
FROST: “Oh, I think it’s disgusting.”
PLUME: Especially the vehemence against her as a person.
FROST: I know. I know.
PLUME: It’s like… there was this massive documentary on, I guess it aired on the BBC over there and we saw it on BBC America, that went into the history of the relationship and the PR attempts to try and rejuvenate their image over the past ten years. It’s like, okay, “The people started to love Camilla but then Diana died and it all had to be started over again.”
FROST: “And then they hated her.”
PLUME: Yes. “With a passion. In fact, I was chief among those who hated her.”
FROST: “I picked up the first stone.”
PLUME: Yes. “Here was the placard I made.” It’s a fascinating culture to look at from afar as I’m sure ours is to you.
FROST: Yes, yes, it is. But, you know, we’re not so different, Ken.
PLUME: I keep telling myself that.
FROST: Apart from your horns.
PLUME: Yes, well, we keep them concealed with makeup.
FROST: And long hair.
PLUME: And hats. We wear lots of hats. Why do you think we invented the baseball cap?
FROST: That’s true.
PLUME: That’s what the bill is for, so you don’t see the shadows either.
FROST: I see. You’re a clever bunch.
PLUME: Not really, but sure, we’ll go with that. So… when you talk about now… was the success of Shaun of the Dead a surprise to you or did you get a sense during the making of it that it was going to do something?
FROST: Um, well I mean, personally I think it was a surprise, you know? I mean, it was just a bunch of us making a film that Edgar and Simon had written, and Nyra, our producer, had produced. And, you know, we were just making a film. You always have that thing kinda in the back of your mind I think you dare to dream, “Maybe this is going to be pretty good” or “It feels pretty good”, you know. But… it’s been amazing. I think it sold a million DVDs in America. And kinda the same here as well.
PLUME: And it’s still going strong.
FROST: And it’s still going strong. I think my only… well, it’s not a criticism at all, I wish they’d opened it in more theatres across the country, you know? In America, anyway.
PLUME: There was no competition.
FROST: No, well, I mean I think we opened in six hundred theatres. Pardon me, we opened in four hundred and fifty or five hundred and then they upped it to six hundred. But I think, just every week looking at the film…what position we were in…. you think, “F***ing hell, we’re number four in the box office.” You know, it’s incredible.
PLUME: Beating out these massive Hollywood pictures, no less.
FROST: Yeah, I think we beat Wimbledon. And I think we beat the remake of Dawn of the Dead over here as well. Which was great.
PLUME: I think there’s something to be said for a well-crafted comedy.
FROST: Yeah, exactly. Well, and you know, we went to the BAFTAS. And I think we were… we kinda knew we wouldn’t win. But Edgar said to us, “Look, we’re a zombie film and we’re up for a BAFTA for Christ’s sake.” You know, that in itself is a bit special.
PLUME: See now, if only they had replaced you with Ricky Gervais…
FROST: Yeah…
PLUME: It would have gotten at least a Golden Globe…
FROST: It would have been BAFTA… multi-BAFTA-winning Shaun of the Dead.
PLUME: Yes, yes, and you would have had your cameo…”Look! I think Nick’s playing a zombie!”
FROST: “Hey, isn’t that Nick Frost? Didn’t he used to be a waiter?”
PLUME: “From Spaced! When is he doing another Sofa of Time?”
FROST: Yeah, exactly.
Continued below…
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