Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Writer, actor and comedian best known as co-creator of The Office.
On the island
Eight records
I loved the fact that it seemed to be a song about the idea of reaching for grander things, seeing the world, adventure, sucking it dry, living life.
Among the songs that was always a crowd-pleasing favourite was Raspberry Beret by Prince.
I remember going to see Oasis in Coventry Polytechnic and persuading some mates to come and see this band I'd read about in the NME and being blown away.
This one by Warren G always puts a smile on my face and I've played it in a shared flat at university and I've played it driving down Sunset Boulevard in LA.
Thunder RoadFavourite
I just became enamored of Bruce. And this song, Thunder Road, was that first track on that Born to Run album. And I just loved the romanticism of it.
It feels romantic, but it also feels sad. In a way, if I could trade it all, I would become a musician.
I wandered into this bar and this musician Kamasi Washington was playing. And I think if I'm on my desert island I want something that takes me back to it being in LA and being with Masa.
I think Nick Cave is someone who has written some of the best. And this is one of them.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:16What's the appeal of doing such a broad range of things?
I love this business that I'm lucky enough to be in. I just love every aspect of it. The creativity of it. I sometimes worry that I'm sort of jack of all trades, master of none. ... I think if I had to choose a lane ultimately, I think the writing would be the thing that I kind of find most satisfying. That's got the most nutrients.
Presenter asks
15:59You met Ricky Gervais in 1997. How did that happen?
Well, I was keen to get into radio, thinking that was an easy life and that would perhaps let me do stand-up in the evenings and write sketches and sitcoms and things. And I'd read about this new radio station in London, XFM, that I'd read about in the NME, and I sent him my CV. And Ricky was the person who read the CV. ... he called me up for an interview and he said, look, basically, I don't know what I'm doing. I've [sweet-talked] my way into this job. If you do the work for me, I'll make sure you have a fun life.
Presenter asks
20:33Did you feel like you were reinventing the sitcom, doing something that had never been done before?
Not really. It was one of those things that it's easy again to kind of look back and sort of retrospectively see that. But at the time there'd been This is Spinal Tap and there'd been other people who'd done fake documentaries, so it didn't seem to us like any great revolution. ... I remember going to a meeting with the BBC and we said, yeah, we're going to direct the show as well. ... There was an arrogance about us, you know, I don't know where it came from.
The keepsakes
The book
it's so juvenile, so adolescent... if I'm feeling particularly blue... I'd have a dip into that.
The luxury
a piano and a self-teaching book
I think if I had my time again, I perhaps would have gone into music... try and teach myself the piano.
Presenter asks
22:55What was that like, achieving the dream that you'd had at such a young age?
I was never complacent. I didn't take it for granted. I just think I thought I've wanted to do this for a long time, and everything I've done has been trying to move in this direction, and so here we are. ... It's again, it's only now that I look back and I think, well, how did that happen? ... We did the work and they've given us a BAFTA. Thanks very much.
Presenter asks
30:23How was it once you started working separately, working without [Ricky]?
There was no great decision to move apart from each other is, you know, it's not like we broke up the band. ... working with Ricky, I mean, you know, he is just brilliant. ... when you work without that, it's harder, right? ... There is the pleasure of, you know, well, I'll live and die by my own decisions.
Presenter asks
40:19What book would you like to take?
The book that I always think is just endlessly enjoyable to me because it's so juvenile, so adolescent. I remember when Viz comic first appeared when we were at school and it was like contraband. ... they publish them as Roget's Profanosaurus. It's just a delight and so I take that and if I'm feeling particularly blue because I realize I'm not I'm going to die alone on the island I'd have a dip into that.
“I do remember as I got a little older into my teens becoming aware that he didn't particularly enjoy that job. And that kind of was quite upsetting in a way and I think sort of motivated me to want to do something that I enjoy for a living.”
“I would tell teachers: you know, I'd love to go to the Cambridge Footlights, like John [Cleese], and get into comedy, and they would just, I don't think they were rude, I think they just thought, what are you talking about? ... I don't know why I thought I could do it. I have no idea where that came from.”
“I remember playing Smells Like Teen Spirit and it was kicking off and they went crazy and there was a scout trying to climb up one of these kind of posts that kept the tent up and I remember an [Archie] came up and she went, switch this off and I went it's rock and roll love. ... It was the closest I've ever got to feeling like a punk rock star.”
“we used to joke about how we would drain the colour out of it so it looked like it had been lying on a shelf at the BBC for years... There was an arrogance about us, you know, I don't know where it came from. For me, I think it was just I didn't know better. I had the arrogance of youth.”
“I put so much energy into this pursuit that I think I thought that, you know, you got to this thing that you wanted to do. You made this sitcom and that someone opened a door and went, Here's the rest of your life. You know, and actually, that's obviously not what happens.”
“they showed me this little camcorder footage of them in their room. Elaine, press play, press play. And they press play on the answer phone, and it's John Cleese's voice saying, hello there, Mr. and Mrs. Merchant. I'm sorry that you missed my talk, but I'll be more than happy to sign your book. I'm just wondering, is your Stephen Merchant, your son Stephen Merchant? Is that the same Stephen Merchant who collaborated with Ricky [Gervais] on the office? Because I'm an enormous fan. And please pass on my best regards.”