Rob Brydon is getting ready to take a big risk. ‘I will be nervous on the first night,’ says the comedian and actor as he prepares to change style and go out on the road as a singer like his hero Sammy Davis Jr, performing straight songs alongside jokes with a highly accomplished eight-piece band. ‘I will probably be more nervous about that than I have been for anything for a long time.’
Rob Brydon is getting ready to take a big risk. As he prepares for his Songs And Stories live tour, the comedian and actor explains why he is getting out of his comfort zone
The Songs And Stories tour is something completely new for the Welsh star, best known for playing eccentric Uncle Bryn in the comedy Gavin & Stacey and appearing alongside Steve Coogan in The Trip, as well as hosting the popular panel show Would I Lie To You? So why, at the age of 54, is he stepping so far out of his comfort zone?
The answer is fascinating and will unfold while we talk, revealing a lot about his very close relationships with three other comics – Coogan, James Corden and David Walliams, one of whom has dared him to take more risks. But the truth is also that Brydon is at a crossroads, with his two biggest successes, Gavin & Stacey and The Trip, apparently coming to an end. ‘The new series of The Trip will bring things to a close,’ reveals Brydon. ‘We’ve said this is the last one. It feels like an end.’
Brydon and Coogan have been through the Lake District, Italy and Spain eating in fine restaurants, having squabbles and trying to outdo each other with jokes and impressions in a show that appears to be a travel documentary but is actually a very clever and often touchingly bittersweet drama, partly scripted and partly improvised by the two stars as they go. Next they’re on a journey through Greece in the footsteps of the mythical hero Odysseus, taking in gorgeous islands such as Lesbos and Ithaca. No spoilers, but the six episodes end with Coogan having to go home to England to face a family tragedy, while Brydon remains in the sun with his wife, or at least the actress in the role.
They play exaggerated versions of themselves – Brydon the devoted family man pining for home, Coogan the vain Hollywood star forever fretting about his career – but some viewers have been fooled into thinking it’s for real, including one very close to home. Talking about the time in the second series when his character had a surprising one-night-stand in Italy, Brydon says: ‘A teacher at my sons’ school put a hand on my wife Clare’s arm the day after it went out and said, “This must be a very difficult time for you.’’ ’
That must have been awkward. ‘I don’t think Clare had even watched it. We don’t hang on my work at home.’
Brydon is a quietly spoken, well-mannered man, looking dapper in a shirt and jacket. He married Martina Fitchie before he became a star and they have three grown-up children, but the couple divorced and he wed television producer Clare Holland in 2006. They live near Richmond, south-west London, with their boys George and Tom, eight and 11. None of them is in The Trip, as everything about his family life on screen is made up.
‘It’s bonkers. There wouldn’t be cameras in the bedroom if it was a reality show,’ he says. ‘Do people really think it’s a documentary?’
Apparently so, although for most of us the fun comes in trying to work out what’s real and what’s not. ‘There’s a lot in The Trip that I would never do in a million years in real life, like needling Steve about his jobs,’ says Brydon, who upsets Coogan in the new series by saying his movie Stan & Ollie was just an exercise in character impressions. ‘The director Michael Winterbottom always wants us to be prickly with each other. He’ll say, “Go after him about the Baftas!”’
Does the jousting ever go too far?
‘Sometimes you do go, “Ouch! That’s too much.” I can remember saying something in a restaurant and Steve went, “No!’’ He mimes him throwing down a napkin and getting up to walk out. ‘I had touched a nerve.’
Do they ever properly fall out? ‘Oh, we’ll get annoyed a little bit. But we’ve got a lot better at just saying when we’re upset and saying sorry.’
The pair have been making The Trip together for ten years. ‘We actually get on better than we did at the beginning, because we’re older. We’re more mellow. We are just happy to be alive. But when we start making The Trip again, we both feel, “Oh, God, do we have to start picking on each other now?”’
They get to dine in a variety of fine restaurants while filming The Trip, because the plot is that they’re writing reviews for a magazine. There are three camera takes for every course, which means new improvisations and a fresh dish every time. ‘In the first series I ate a lot and put on nine pounds.’
And after doing that all day, do they still go out for dinner together in the evening?
‘Yes, Steve and I still hang out. We don’t see much of each other when we are not working together but on The Trip we get a year’s worth of interactivity for men of our age.’
Brydon can’t resist floating the idea that they may yet return one day for a fifth series. ‘It’s a very appealing idea that in ten years we may do another one. Or, God willing, 20 years. We don’t go far. The Trip to the garden centre.’
For now, though, The Trip is over. What about his other big hit, Gavin & Stacey, which returned in glorious style with a Christmas special, picking up an audience of more than 18 million? Will there be any more? ‘No, not that I know of,’ says Brydon. ‘Let me clear something up, though. There were headlines saying Brydon Quashes Hopes Of New Series. It’s not like that. You do interviews and they say, “Oh, you must be so excited and desperate to do more Gavin & Stacey.” I just gave an honest answer. Is it something I am desperate to do? No. I have the comedian’s instinct for going out on a laugh. Leave them wanting more.’
‘I will be nervous on the first night,’ says Brydon, of his live tour. ‘I will probably be more nervous about that than I have been for anything for a long time’
He clearly does have doubts. ‘My worry about another series would be: would it be as good?’ Having said that, he felt the same way before they made the Christmas episode. Viewers were left hanging by the final scene in which Nessa, played by Ruth Jones, proposed to her unlikely beau – and the father of her child – Smiffy (Corden). ‘I was proven wrong with this special because it was fantastic and of course if James and Ruth decided to do more, I would be there. If we do get the chance to do it again, I’m not going to be the one to put the kibosh on it.’
He met Corden in 2002 when they worked together on BBC comedy Cruise Of The Gods, which incidentally also starred Coogan and David Walliams. Gavin & Stacey became a massive hit five years later and Corden has admitted that the sudden rush of fame went to his head. Brydon, who is 13 years older, felt he had to intervene. ‘He was having a rough time. He was burning the candle at both ends. Have a look at a lot of the old Gavin & Staceys and he’s got tiny little eyes because he hasn’t slept. It’s all on public record. He had a relationship that was eventful.’
The fact is that Corden was broken-hearted after splitting up with actress Sheridan Smith and has admitted he became a party animal, saying: ‘I started to behave like a brat that I just don’t think I am.’
Corden says it was Brydon who got through to him, so how did that come about? ‘I saw this bloke I liked very much who was hugely talented and people would say things to me about what he was really like. I thought, That’s a shame. So we went out for lunch and at the end I plucked up the courage to say something. He took it in the spirit in which it was intended.’
Rob Brydon as Uncle Bryn with Ruth Jones as Nessa in Gavin & Stacey. Will there be any more? ‘No, not that I know of,’ says Brydon
Corden started seeing a therapist as a result. ‘We’ve had a lovely relationship since. He’s been very sweet to me. We are very fond of each other.’
While Corden went off to Hollywood, Brydon chose to stay living in Richmond. And, although Brydon has visited Corden in California with his family, he doesn’t regret not following his friend to Los Angeles. ‘There are billboards for a million shows you’ve never heard of and you are just aware of the dog-eat-dog nature of it all. I thought, thank God I am not out here competing in this marketplace.’
There’s another reason why Brydon is taking chances with his new tour, and it has to do with another heart-to-heart, this time with Walliams. They also met on Cruise Of The Gods, but it was a conversation in the sun more recently that pricked Brydon into action. ‘We were sitting together on holiday, talking about what advice we would give each other about our careers. His advice to me was, “Take more risks.” I thought, that’s a fair point.’
Walliams is well-known for taking holidays with famous friends but Brydon is so private he won’t even say where they were. ‘David is a proper friend. We see a fair bit of each other. I do prioritise holidays. We like to take a month off in the summer as a family if we can and we take all the half-terms.’
Family comes first, that’s clear, but Brydon is so busy there must be something else driving him, deep down. The big clue lies in his past, when he was working for BBC Radio Wales in the Nineties and they let him go. ‘I think that stayed with me, so that I have a lot of eggs in different baskets now. I am a provider for a lot of people, that’s fine, but I once found myself in a position where I could not provide for myself. We had to get some money, so we sold some things. We built up a massive overdraft. I think I defaulted on the mortgage one month too.’
The memory of those hard times lingers, which explains the cheesy but lucrative commercials he does for the likes of P&O Cruises. ‘I grew up watching my favourite comedians do adverts. Rowan Atkinson, Leonard Rossiter, Frankie Howerd all did ads. So I thought, Well, if it’s good enough for them, I don’t see a problem.’
Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan dining out in an episode of The Trip. While Corden went off to Hollywood, Brydon chose to stay living in Richmond
Still, when Walliams challenged him, Brydon realised he had indeed been making safe choices. He decided to stretch himself. Brydon had a No 1 hit for Comic Relief with Ruth Jones, singing Islands In The Stream as Bryn And Nessa, but what he’s attempting now with his tour is on another level. ‘I’ve always loved singing. I wanted to do a musical but I can’t commit to the West End, eight shows a week, because the younger kids are 11 and eight. You have no life, you never see them, and you have to protect your voice so you can’t shout at them.’
He’s joking, of course.
‘You have to sleep a lot to save your voice and it’s very hard to get sleep with the school runs, which you want to be a part of.’
So he started meeting with a musical director. ‘He did amazing work on my voice, extending my upper range with exercises. We did six nights at Crazy Coqs in Piccadilly, with an eight-piece band. I’ve got one shot at my first tour with a band and I want the musicianship to be brilliant.’
Having inspired all this, Walliams was there to help develop it. ‘David came and loved it but said afterwards, “You could have done more with the audience, you could do more funny. People aren’t coming to see Michael Ball.”
‘You’ve got to give them what they want, so there’s gonna be plenty of laughs. I’ll be doing a bit of Uncle Bryn singing James Blunt. I’ll be talking to the audience, improvising a song about the people there. Some of the songs are straight, some are comic. A bit of both.’
Work hard, make the people happy. That’s what Rob Brydon does. There’s nothing restless about him like his famous friends. He doesn’t burn for affirmation like Coogan, Walliams or Corden seem to. ‘I love where I am,’ he says. ‘I don’t want to slide down the ladder. I don’t really have to go any higher up the ladder, just stay where I am. Lovely.’
‘The Trip To Greece’ will be shown on Sky One and NOW TV on March 3 at 10pm. ‘Rob Brydon – Songs & Stories’ tours the UK until April 30, robbrydon.live