Little Britain stuff

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Crude' Little Britain is slammed by US critics
By Daily Mail Reporter
26th September 2008

It seems that Matt Lucas and David Walliams aren’t exactly winning over the Americans. The US version of Little Britain was mauled by critics who described it as ‘mostly just crude.’ Reviewer Brian Lowry was particularly unimpressed by the duo's offerings. ‘Little Britain USA is mostly just crude, revelling in mock condescension towards American stereotypes,’ he said.

The comedy duo's six-part series sees the return of some of familiar faces, including Vicky Pollard, as well as fresh creations. Actress Rosie O'Donnell makes an appearance as a Fat Fighters spokeswoman who has a heated bust-up with Marjorie Dawes. ‘Were you a lesbian before you were fat or did you become one when you were fat because no men wanted you?’ she asks. Friends star David Schwimmer has directed some of the episodes.

Walliams and Lucas have said that they took America's approach to comedy into account, but the pair were unsure their distinct brand of humour will translate Stateside. Lucas said : 'We talked about American comedy being a little cooler and Britain being a bit sadder. I think we make ourselves look maybe stupid in Britain a little bit more than being cool,' added Walliams. 'But also we're not afraid to dress as women which is a little bit rarer in American comedy.'

It appears that it may take the pair a while to convince the Americans that this is a good thing. ‘The wit level of these over-the-top interludes seldom rises above what's scrawled on a middle-school bathroom wall,' added Lowry. 'Walliams and Lucas certainly owe a debt to Benny Hill and Monty Python, but their impulses invariably drift below the (freely exposed) belt, going for the easiest possible gag. ‘So there are plenty of drag bits, fat suits and gay jokes, such as Walliams' fey British prime minister acting like he has a positively giddy crush on the US president (Harry Lennix). The series is augmented by the strains of canned laughter that come across as forced each time one of the location bits falls flat.’

Little Britain USA premieres on US screens on September 28.

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If it's offended this critic as being crude, then I'm fairly sure it will have a good chance of achieving cult status there too. He sounds like someone you'd have to explain a 'knock knock' joke to - comparing them to Benny Hill ffs? If anything some of the sketches are more Dick Emery inspired, but a 30 year old reference is pointless anyway.

(Little Britain are on tonight's Jonathan Ross show)

[pirtybirdy]

Are all the reviewers bald geriatric geezers with no personality? Like Larry King? How they couldn't find Little Britain genuinely funny and original is beyond me. They make it sound like they are copying Benny Hill and Monty Python. It takes away from their efforts and original creativity. Sometimes critics are useless. Put it on HBO or pay cable just to make sure there are no "beeps" so they are free to curse or do anything that wouldn't be allowed on network tv. I think it will go over well with Americans.

[maycm]

I found it rather disappointing actually, but I'd like to hear the opinion of some 'real' Americans. I can see why they called it crude - lacked some of the subtlety of the UK version and taken to something of an extreme.

I hope it improves as the season goes on.

[faceless]

I just watched it and thought it was pretty good - no really outstanding new ideas, but funny all the same.

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He wears it well
'Seventy per cent straight' David Walliams talks intimacy, cross-dressing and children's books with Rachel Cooke
Rachel Cooke
The Observer,
Sunday October 5 2008

Afterwards, I think: well, if you go to Bond Street with David Walliams dressed in a frock, what on earth do you expect? But at the time, I am fascinated and amazed by what happens. First, the paparazzi chase - only one guy, I admit, but, boy, does he put his foot on the accelerator. Then the crowds of shoppers, so uninhibited about using their mobile-phone cameras. I half wonder if they realise that Walliams is, like, a real person. Then, mere seconds later, the arrival of more paps, as if they have second sight, and a machine that enables them to materialise out of nowhere, like characters in Dr Who or Rentaghost. Finally, when I am back at my desk an hour or so later, the whole episode is reprised on the website of a tabloid newspaper, complete with a wholly erroneous (ie, made-up) story. I am agog at the speed of it all, and the tenacity, and I say as much to Walliams. 'Hmm, it is a bit shocking, isn't it?' he says, mildly. 'You do feel a bit... assaulted. I mean, what if someone got run over? Is it worth it? You can have your licence taken away for going through a red light - and he did that, even though, by then, he had already got the picture.'

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. David Walliams has written a children's book called The Boy in the Dress. When I first heard about this, I thought: oh no, another celebrity has a go at writing a children's book, wrongly assuming (pace Fergie and Madonna) it would be rubbish. In fact, it's good: well-written, funny, touching. It more than deserves the illustrations by Quentin Blake. (He asked to read it before agreeing to illustrate it, so he must think it's good, too.)

It's about a boy, Dennis, who is 12, and not terribly happy, because his mum has left home and his dad, a lorry driver, is now fat and miserable. As Dennis knows from watching Trisha, his father is comfort eating to 'fill the emptiness inside'. Dennis has a best friend, Darvesh, who is Sikh, and another friend, Lisa, who happens to be the coolest and most beautiful girl in the school. One day, Lisa, who is into fashion, persuades Dennis to try on a dress she has made, and to their surprise, he looks fabulous. They decide to see if Dennis can get away with going to school dressed as a girl, masquerading for the day as Lisa's French penfriend. The Boy in the Dress is the story of what happens on the fateful morning they enact this plan, and the effect that the result has on Dennis's relationship with his dad.

Perhaps it sounds a bit PC, put like this. If so, I've misled you. The book isn't aimed at misunderstood young cross-dressers; Dennis isn't remotely confused about his sexuality - he's totally straight. Nor does he want to wear a dress all the time. But we'll come back to all that. Today, to publicise the book, Walliams has agreed to do a photoshoot wearing girls' clothes. He has demanded serious labels - Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney - not horrible tranny-wear and, having done several pictures indoors, we're now going to Bond Street, the better to show off his high-end accessories. 'There's a photographer outside,' he says, as we leave. 'He's been here all afternoon.' Sure enough, opposite is a podgy, whey-faced man who follows us all the way there, the bumper of his car practically touching our own, and, well, you know the rest...

By teatime, the photographs are everywhere, captioned along these lines: 'Little Britain star David Walliams tries out a new character for the show.' The whole experience is more disorientating than you might think. I can see how some celebrities come to feel that they only exist when their lives are reflected back at them from the pages of a newspaper. But it has the opposite effect on me. I start to wonder if I was actually there at all.

Walliams has had an amazingly productive year, as people often do when they are grieving (his father died from cancer at the end of 2007). He began by playing Frankie Howerd, mostly to good reviews, in a film for BBC4, and then went off to the United States to make the American version of Little Britain for HBO (as I write, it is about to be screened). The publication of The Boy in the Dress this month will be swiftly followed by his appearance in the West End in Harold Pinter's No Man's Land. So far as Little Britain USA goes, he is circumspect: 'We've made what we think is a good show, and hopefully it will find an audience of comedy fans, but I think that it's unlikely it will ever find a mass audience.' But get him on Pinter, and he sounds quite animated (a weird thing about Walliams, whom I have interviewed once before, is that his everyday voice is amazingly, supernaturally flat, as if he were carefully saving up all expression for performance). 'We went round to Harold Pinter's house, and sat in his study, and read the play to him!' he says. And was Pinter grumpy? He often is. 'No, but he chooses his words carefully, so you know you're in the presence of greatness. He'd no idea who I was. But then, he didn't know who the Spice Girls were when he met Geri Halliwell.' Eh? 'Oh, she went to the first night of The Dumb Waiter, and got her picture taken with him. Before she went, she said to me: "What did Harold Pinter write? What's your favourite?" [Halliwell is one of seemingly dozens of women who has been linked with Walliams in the past.] I said: "Betrayal. It's brilliant. It's about an affair." So, that night, she was asked [by the press] which her favourite Pinter was. Guess what she said? Betrayal. Quite an interesting one to pick, wasn't it?' Walliams gives me a moment to snigger, and then he says: 'I've always wanted to do Pinter. I love Harold Pinter. But I wouldn't want to meet him unless I had a reason to meet him. If he was here now... aaarrrggghh!'

So, about this book... 'Yes, I hope it isn't seen... you know, it's not like I'm Katie Price [aka Jordan, another celebrity 'novelist']. I am a writer already. I had the idea: what would happen if a boy went to school dressed as a girl? It's a story about adult hypocrisy, and the injustice of being a child. In a small way, it's about sexual awakening. Dennis has got a crush on Lisa. But it's not a transvestite book. I don't want labels on it.' But perhaps little tranny boys will nevertheless read it, and think: at last, someone understands me! 'Well, I don't mind that. I got fan mail once from a little boy of about 12. He sent me a picture of himself dressed as Emily Howard [a Little Britain character played by a dragged-up Walliams]. He'd gone to school like that for mufti day. I kept it. I thought: that's something, things have changed.'

David Walliams David Walliams wears dress, Vivienne Westwood, hairpiece, Stephen Jones and bag, Chanel in Bond Street, London.

Walliams grew up in Reigate, Surrey. His father was a transport engineer, and his mother a teacher. He met Matt Lucas, his Little Britain co-star, at the National Youth Theatre, and then again at a comedy club in Bristol, where Walliams was doing his drama degree. He once told me that his older sister used to put him in frocks when he was very small, as if he were a doll, and when he was a little older, he used to float around the house in a silk dressing gown his uncle had bought for him in Japan - his dad used to call him Davinia whenever he wore it. 'Yes. I was talking to Tom Ford [the designer] about this, and he said he used to dress up as a girl. On the first day of school, he dressed as a girl, and his mum got a phone call: "Can you come and collect your son? All the other boys are jealous."' A pause. 'I'm not sure I believe that story, but the point is, when you're that age, you don't have to conform. You don't know what boys are supposed to do, or girls.' The thing about adulthood, we both agree, is that you don't get to play any more. That just disappears, and it's sad. It's also something that Little Britain, with its repetitions, catchphrases and costumes, taps into. Does he have any frocks at home? 'No. But I probably would if I was in the middle of filming Little Britain.' He loves clothes - he is always getting slagged off in the newspapers for having the temerity to own not one, but two, dinner jackets - and is friends with several designers, and the model Erin O'Connor, who takes him to fashion shows. 'I once turned on the Christmas lights in Stella McCartney's shop: it was me and Matt dressed as Lou and Andy [from Little Britain], and Madonna.' He gives me a look. 'Yes, I know. It was quite strange.'

We talk about the photographers a bit. The other night he had dinner at Nobu with his friend, the environmentalist David de Rothschild (they met at a party - Walliams was trying to talk to Helena Christensen, but de Rothschild, who was apparently desperate to meet Walliams, would interrupt). 'Outside, there were 30 photographers. It's insane. I thought: where is this picture going? London Lite?' Of course, the truth is that if he were happily married, they would probably give up. It's his endlessly single lifestyle, and a certain air of ambiguity that hangs over him - he once described himself as '70 per cent straight' - that keeps them in pursuit. 'Yes, I suppose.'

David Walliams wears skirt and crinoline, both Vivienne Westwood vintage from Rellik, corset, Angels fancy dress.

When we met a year ago, he told me that he had just met a woman, an actor so suitable and desirable that Matt Lucas had told him he must do 'everything in his power' to marry her. So how's that going? 'Nothing happened. We went on a couple of dates. She just didn't really like me very much.' Why not? 'There's a myriad of reasons. I can't go through them!' Anyone else on the horizon? 'We-ell...' He laughs. 'After these pictures, I'm going to be a spinster forever. What I'm relying on is that women my own age [he is 37] might soon feel a certain amount of desperation if they're still single.' But that's the great and horribly unfair (so far as women are concerned) thing about being male. A man doesn't have to date women his own age; the pool of women just gets bigger and bigger, the older he gets.

'Yes, but I don't want to end up like Peter Stringfellow. Secretly, I must not like the idea of settling down, otherwise it would happen. I'm just making excuses.' Some men, I say - I do like to play the pop psychologist whenever I possibly can - don't like to go to bed alone, but they also hate waking up with someone else. It's an intimacy thing. 'When I meet up with Russell Brand, we have these chats about relationships, and misery. I think of him as a more extreme case than me, but he always says [he does an impression of Brand, which might as well be an impression of Kenneth Williams]: "Ooh, don't make me get into that bed on my own! You're not going to make me get into that bed on my own, are you?" There are lots of issues around sex that are not really about sex, they're about loneliness. They're about being sad and lost and those kind of things. But he's a got a nice girlfriend now, so perhaps there's hope for all of us.'

Walliams has been low in the past - just as he and Lucas were finally becoming famous, after years of wondering whether they would even land a comedy pilot on Radio 4, he suffered quite a severe depressive episode, for which he eventually sought treatment - but surely he isn't sad and lonely now? 'We-ll...' Silence. Is it, perhaps, that fame, though a golden gateway to gorgeous girls everywhere, is also a barrier to intimacy? That sincerity suddenly exits your life? 'No, it's nothing to do with that. Anyone can feel lonely, can't they? My mum's on her own, now, and that's not her choice, and she doesn't like it at all. Whereas in my situation, it's different - it's more chosen. It's a weird one, expectations of happiness. How happy are you expecting to be? And when? All the time? It's like Larkin said: it's easier to imagine [happiness] than to experience it. You have moments of happiness - just walking on a beautiful day - or it's retrospective. Really, we should be happy, of course; we don't know how lucky we are. But there's nothing worse than famous people moaning, so I'm not going to.'

When we last met, he told me that he thought Sienna Miller was the most beautiful girl in the world (she was then dating his friend, Rhys Ifans). Why doesn't he go after her? He laughs. 'I think that would be an unwise move. Actually, my latest addiction is the Daily Mail website. It's a way of reading what they're up to without having to hand over money for it. The comments! The judgment on that woman! They're the same about Matt and his separation [Lucas is legally separating from his partner, Kevin McGee, less than two years after their civil-partnership ceremony]. One person wrote: 'How long will this farce continue?' I presume he meant the farce of civil partnerships. They can make anything sound shameful. It's always women being mean to women. It's rarely a man writing: "Oh, look how fat Simon Cowell is."' It amazes him that so many women are so alert to the way that both they and other women look, when most men care a good deal less about things like dress size than we imagine. 'A girl I knew said she'd put on weight, and I just thought: more of your flesh - lovely.' And how is Lucas? Walliams used to sound so admiring, not to say envious, that his friend had settled down. 'It's very sad. It's a tough time. Hopefully, he's over the worst of it.'

I think Walliams quite often gets an unfair press. He is hard to read, and he is unusual (OK, I might mean weird, here) - though I'm almost certain he wouldn't deny this himself, and it goes without saying that it is also this quality that makes him such a successful comedian. But he also radiates a kindness and a thoughtfulness that you don't often find in his world, which is why The Boy in the Dress will be a hit even among children whose parents wouldn't let them watch Little Britain even if it were suddenly to become part of the National Curriculum. The book is dedicated to his small nephew, Eddie, and it has an old-fashioned, spiky morality that those of us who grew up on Roald Dahl know and love. He means it, in other words - even if his advance was a bit bigger than most of those dished out to first-time children's authors. So don't be surprised to find his big form folded into a tiny chair at a reading at a library near you, soon. Meanwhile, at the café table where we are talking, I am eating my second scone. He, embarrassingly, stopped at one. 'I love scones,' I say. 'Well, I love them, too,' he says. 'But one's enough for me.' A tiny pause. 'I know when to stop, Rachel.' He looks on indulgently, while I titter into my jam and cream.

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Little Britain's David Walliams talks The Boy in the Dress
19th November 2008
Kerry Ann Eustice

Could there be a more fitting title for Little Britain co-creator and comedy star David Walliams’ first children’s book, The Boy in the Dress? With subtle echoes of David’s infamous character Emily ‘I’m a lady’ Howard, The Boy in the Dress tells the story of Dennis, a football-mad young boy who, as the title suggests, is a little different. As well as exploring issues about acceptance and childhood, Walliams’ debut also includes his trademark wit, pared-down flurries of his risque humour and zany characters along with iconic illustrations from Roald Dahl collaborator Quentin Blake.

Ahead of his book signings in Shopperland, Kerry Ann Eustice spoke to the comic to find out how his sister dressing him up as a child inspired the story, the possibility of the story being made into a TV drama and why adults love The Boy in the Dress too.

Where did the idea for The Boy in the Dress come from, David? Was it autobiographical at all?
Erm. Well the idea, like most ideas, just comes out of your head. So it’s quite hard it say where it came from as in ‘it was under a bin’. You imagine them. But yeah, it’s true that when I was little, about three, my sister used to dress me up, she was two years older than me.

As I did to my little brother.
I think it’s quite a common thing, isn’t it. She probably would have preferred a little sister, so just dressed me up as on anyway. There’s actually a picture of me and my sister in the back cover dressed up, which is quite sweet.

Why have you written a children’s book? Is it a long-standing ambition or something which just cropped up?
I actually just had the idea for the story and thought ‘it’s a story about a boy’ so it made sense to me the story maybe should be aimed at children. And also, even though Little Britain’s humour is quite risqué, I know when we did the live shows and book signings and things, loads of kids would come and I thought it would be great to do something especially to them, something where they wouldn’t be sent to bed half way through the show before it gets too rude. It’s nice to follow that relationship, I think.

Did you have to do any research before getting started with the writing?
I re-read a lot of children’s books I loved as a kid before I wrote it. Roald Dahl books, Peter Pan, things like that just to try and get a sense of the complexity you can go into with children’s books. But I didn’t find any of the books that I’d re-read, Stig of the Dump, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, talked down to me in any way. I didn’t feel reading it excluded me as an adult and I thought that was worth remembering. The worst thing is for a child is to be reading a book and feel patronised.

Children now, a lot of children now, must be incredibly sophisticated readers, reading things such as Harry Potter books which are 500 pages long. When I was a kid, I can’t think of any book of that complexity which kids would read. So I was just aware of trying to get the tone and the balance right.

Also I was keen to bring in a lot of adult themes but do it in a sensitive way. This is a book about a boy who goes to school dressed as a girl but I don’t, for example, use the word transvestite. Because you don’t really need to, this is a book about one boy and something he wants to do for fun, I don’t want to define it in adult terms.

Was there a message you were trying to get across of explore with the story?
Yeah, I wanted to say ‘celebrate difference’. Quentin Blake, who illustrated the book, said he saw the dressing up as a metaphor for being artistic. Certainly, that’s different. And Dennis, who’s the hero of the book, has a friend that’s called Darvesh who’s Sikh and wears a cap on his head and he’s different too and they discuss that. I just thought it’s about being different.

I do think when you go to school, when you’re a child among children, there is a pressure to conform and anyone different, ginger hair, fat or whatever, is often made to feel a bit of an outsider because of it and I think it’s a real shame.

Children are quite conservative actually. I wanted to celebrate difference and say it’s ok to be different. He dresses up and it actually fixes a lot of bad things in his life.

How have children being responding to the book?
I’ve had some really nice letters. I gave a lot to friends’ kids and had really nice comments there, so I’m really pleased. And, fingers crossed, I’ve had really nice reviews as well, so I’m chuffed. Because when it was announced I was writing a book, I got a sense of ‘I was writing a book, like Jordan’. Well, it’s a bit different. I mean, I’m not a glamour model - I was writing already. But I’m really chuffed.

As soon as I started writing and got into it I really felt like it was a real opportunity to do something special. I really worked and worked and worked on it to make it as good as I possibly could.

How about adult readers? It seems to have a lot of crossover potential too.
A lot of my friends have read it and were very complimentary. I tried to retain the sense of humour and edge that Little Britain comedy has. I also tried to be truthful to what it is to be a kid. I think as an adult but I was trying to think back to my childhood. ‘What was it like being 12?’ When you’re 12 adults have a lot of say over your life and you can feel quite trapped and helpless sometimes and I wanted to be truthful to that period.

A lot of children’s books they empower the kids really early on. Obviously kids love that and it’s brilliant but I wanted to be truthful about the experience. I think that’s why it relates to adults more ‘Oh yeah, that’s what it was like being a kid’.

What was the writing process like for you? You’re used to comedy and radio but what about a book of this sort?
I just wrote it over quite a long period because we were doing other things at the time, we were going back and forth to America making our series [Little Britain USA] and I’d write and have a thinking period. I wrote it over about six months. I did a lot of rewriting as well, about 10 drafts at it. It’s really hard when you’re writing two-minute sketches and you go and try and write a book.

It’s quite hard because with the book, you change something on page 120 and that affects something on page 17 that you haven’t figured, so it’s very hard to keep the whole thing in your mind at one point.

Sometimes you’re just sitting there alone in your room, not doing anything, but you’re thinking. You can be there thinking for hours. I do things for myself where I say ‘right, you can have a biscuit if you finish this chapter’.

I hear The Boy in the Dress may be made into a TV drama. Is this any closer to being realised?
I’ve just been having some meetings with the BBC about it and so it’s very early days but there certainly is a lot of interest and I think there are some really good parts. It is funny. And also there’s a lot of dialogue in the book, which fills quite a lot of scenes. The book was created of scenes and dialogue which could work dramatically too on the screen. So yeah, that would be fantastic. But it’s a long way off. It would be great if it happened. I’d be really, really proud if it got made into a TV programme. I think that would be the right place for it, TV.

Would you act in it too?
I don’t know if there’s really a part for me in it, so it might be more interesting for me to sit back and write it. So no, I don’t think I would.

You have a two book deal with the publisher HarperCollins, have you started on or have an idea for the next book yet?
Yeah. But I want to keep it secret for the moment because I might change what I do. You know what it’s like with the internet, you say anything and it just sort of flies and people in Thailand are talking about it. It is very early days on the other idea and I want to make it work but I just don’t want to be discussing it. I’m not ready.

Is writing books and stories something you would like to continue doing?
Yeah. I really enjoyed it. It’s just juggling it with everything else. It was a solitary experience but enjoyable.

Would you consider writing for adults?
It’s very likely but then it’s got to be longer. I would like to. But I think the idea has got to come first. I wouldn’t think ‘I want to write a book for adults’ Maybe if I wake up one day and I have an idea and really want to communicate that I can do it. Like I didn’t think ‘I want to write a children’s book’ I just had this idea and thought ‘oh ok, maybe I should go for it.’ I just thought it’s an opportunity to do something special.

Ah, that’s my door bell. It’s the postman; he’s very nice and wears shorts all year round. He’s a very friendly postman.

Are you and Matt Lucas working on anything new?
I’m doing a play at the moment and Matt is doing a film in America with Tim Burton and is back in a bit to do Shooting Stars so at the moment we’re working apart but we’ll be back together in the New Year.

[faceless]

There's to be a second series of Little Britain USA. How that came about is a mystery to me. The producers must be thinking that if they push it hard that it will become popular, but I can't see that happening to be honest.

[faceless]

Doctor David Walliams?
David Walliams is the new favourite to take the title role in 'Doctor Who'.
18 December 2008
stv.tv

David Walliams is the new favourite to take the title role in 'Doctor Who'. Bookmakers have slashed the odds on the 'Little Britain' star taking over the role from David Tennant following a string of bets, with some betting shops refusing to take any more bets.

A spokesperson for bookmakers William Hill - who have cut the odds on the 37-year-old star from 33-1 to 8-1 - said: "We had a bit of money suddenly put on David Walliams 15 days ago and then we had a flood of bets. "His name has come out of the blue but these are quite significant moves in the market."

However, BBC chiefs are remaining tight-lipped on whether he is to be the 11th Timelord. An insider said: "David would be a brilliant Doctor but even if he is the new man he will not be able to confirm it until the show's producers are ready."

Show bosses insist they are considering a wide range of stars for the iconic role - and may even introduce a female or black Doctor. A source said: "The BBC really wants to shake things up. There is no reason storyline-wise why the Doctor cannot be a woman and from any ethnic background. The Doctor has morphed before and will do so again. To keep the edge they need to change and update the show otherwise there is a danger it will look tired."

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I can't see it for a minute...

(note the picture was added in 2011, after Walliams had appeared as a character in the show...)

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Libel victory for Little Britain
Paper apologies for 'false allegations'

David Walliams and Matt Lucas have won a libel battle over claims that Little Britain USA had angered gay Americans. They received a public apology and undisclosed libel damages at London's High Court from the Daily Star Sunday over an article headed: Little Britain USA Exposed: Gay fatty jokes put Yanks on the warpath

Two gay protest groups were mentioned in the article – the West Hollywood Gay and Lesbian Alliance and New York Gay Pride – describing the programme as ‘grossly insulting’ and calling for US broadcaster HBO to cancel the series. At the time of the claims in September, there were question marks over the existence of the groups, as there seemed to be no record of them. The supposed spokesman from the California group, Irwin Blair, was quoted as saying: ‘This is the most politically incorrect, offensive and obnoxious material ever seen in this country.’

In court, Rod Christie-Miller, solicitor for Walliams and Lucas, said that the allegations had caused ‘considerable distress’ to them both and caused significant damage to their reputations, especially given that they had a large gay fan base. Daily Star Sunday, which is published by Express Newspapers, will now pay damages and costs, and publish an apology. The newspaper’s lawyer Ian Helme offered ‘sincere apologies for the publication of these false allegations’.

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ha!

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Walliams speaks of depression battle
David Walliams, the comedian, actor and writer, has spoken of his ongoing battle against depression and his "pathological fear" of being on his own.
Chris Hastings
22 Feb 2009
telegraph.co.uk

David Walliams has spoken of his depression in a candid interview on BBC Radio. He disclosed that he is racked by self loathing and despair and must constantly fight against "dark thoughts" that have plagued him since childhood.

In a candid interview for Desert Island Discs on Radio 4, the 37-year-old star of Little Britain said his heavy workload and party lifestyle was a way of coping with moments of melancholy. He also said he would take a gun as his luxury item on the fantasy desert island, so he could shoot himself if he got too lonely.

"I can't stand being on my own," he said. "I hate it. I have a pathological fear of being on my own. When I am with my own thoughts I start to unravel myself and I start to think really dark thoughts, self-destructive thoughts." He added: "I am trying to deal with it. I have learnt I have to make plans. I have to see people and do things because I don't want to get myself in that state and I can keep it at bay by being creative."

He said his English Channel swim in 2006, which raised £1.97million for the Sport Relief charity, was an act of "redemption". "I was definitely looking for some sort of redemption," he said. "I had got to think of myself that I wasn't a good person. I don't know why I have that but I struggle with that. I think I also have a lot of self loathing and this was something that I could be proud about."

Last year, Walliams portrayed Frankie Howerd, the late comedian, who also suffered from depression, as part of BBC4's Curse of Comedy series. As well as Little Britain, which he created with Matt Lucas, Walliams has also appeared in television dramas including Stephen Poliakoff's Capturing Mary and films including The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. He has recently finished a West End run of Harold Pinter's No-man's-land, in which he starred alongside Sir Michael Gambon.

In the interview, Walliams described his childhood as normal but said he was frequently depressed. "I don't think I was diagnosed or anything I was just unhappy a lot of the time. I found it hard to kind of make friends with people and form relationships." He said he found an escape by locking himself in the bathroom listening to Rowan Atkinson albums and practising comedy routines.

Walliams also talked revealingly about his first serious relationship, with the actress Katy Carmichael, who he met when they were at Bristol University in the early-1990s, and how this "saved" him. "We were in love for about four years. That really brought me out of myself. I had never gone out all night, I had never stayed up until dawn. She brought all of that out of me. That was a great time and that really, I think, gave me confidence. She is still a very special person in my life but things change don't they? She saved me from misery, she breathed life into me. I would feel very lucky that I went out with her. She was the first woman that I slept with as well. It was a really, really magical time."

He said he had not had such a special relationship for some time. "I haven't been in love – not a love that was requited – for seven years. I got very close to someone and I got very hurt and I just never really felt that I wanted to be that intimate with anyone again."

In the interview, Walliams also refuted the suggestion that his effeminate manner means he is homosexual. He said: "I think about it because I am effeminate. Am I gay? Then I so love being with women and I so love women's bodies and all that and I think 'Well no I can't be'. Sometimes I think it would be simpler if I was [gay] because everyone thinks I am. If I was gay I would just get on with it. I love women. I love being around women I find them incredible, intoxicating. I have never had that feeling for a man." But asked if he could ever have a relationship with a man, he said: "If I fell in love with a man, then yes."

His Desert Island selections include Nick Cave's Into My Arms and Bob Dylan's You're A Big Girl Now. However, he refused to take a copy of the Bible as he said he did not like it.

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I'll try to post this tomorrow when it's broadcast.

[faceless]

Mental hospital let stalker 'wed' David Walliams
By ANTHONY FRANCE
Crime Reporter
thesun.co.uk

A STALKER who threatened to kill Little Britain’s David Walliams was allowed to “marry” the star in a mock ceremony on her mental ward. Sarah Bartholomew, 29, has now changed her name by deed poll to Sarah Walliams — with the blessing of staff at the hospital where she is sectioned indefinitely. The ex-veterinary nurse marked the event with a “reception” in her room and she now introduces herself to everyone as 37-year-old Walliams’ wife.

Nurses at Kneesworth House Hospital, near Royston, Herts, helped her fill out the deed poll papers and post off a £33 fee. They are said to have feared legal action if they refused.

One astonished cop said: “Bartholomew really believes she’s married to David. Everyone is told to call her Mrs Walliams. She held a ceremony on her ward at which she was both vicar and bride. And she toasted the ‘union’ with a soft drink. The staff are terrified of saying no to her as they could be breaching her rights. It’s madness, she’s clearly still obsessed.”

A court heard last year how Bartholomew sent Walliams gifts and sexually-charged letters during four years of harassment. She turned up at his London home and spent thousands travelling to his touring show with co-star Matt Lucas. When Walliams’ solicitor asked her to stop, she said in a letter: “I have to have you at any cost. I’ll kill or abduct you to stop you seeing anyone else.” She added in a poem: “I’d rip off your pants in a sexual frenzy, you can have me how you want, I’m ever so bendy.”

Bartholomew, of Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, was sectioned by JPs last July after admitting harassment. She will stay in hospital until doctors rule she poses no threat. Her obsession began after she met Walliams at a 2004 event. The BBC banned her from its studios after she tried to break into his dressing room.

Last night Scotland Yard said: “We can confirm a woman detained under the Mental Health Act has changed her name by deed poll, but we are currently not re-opening the investigation.” A Department of Health spokesman said: “We would expect clinicians to discuss with patients if it is necessary to change their name. They may decide that if the patient’s wish to do so is caused by their disorder, it would be appropriate to discourage it.”

According to the UK Deed Poll Service, name changes can be blocked if considered vulgar, offensive or unsuitable. The Ministry of Justice said staff would NOT have faced legal action under the Human Rights Act had they refused. A spokesman said: “There’s no legal restriction on a person changing their name based on mental capacity.”

David Walliams was unavailable for comment last night.

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Bloody hell, what's the point of her being in a hospital if they are helping to fuel her fantasy? It does sound like she's going to be there a while all the same...

[faceless]

Showstopper!, Leicester Square Theatre, London
Little Briton with a large talent
Julian Hall
5 May 2009
independent.co.uk

Matt Lucas is partly responsible for some of the most visceral and grotesque humour in British comedy. So it was both intriguing and refreshing to see him in an altogether more ponderous, and sometimes bashful mood, for his guest role in this improvised musical.

Sporting a dark velveteen suit with what looked like a 1960s-style red Arsenal shirt underneath, Lucas (a known Gunners fan) was vaguely in line with the black and red costumes of the cast. Though he was all dressed up and ready for action, the Little Britain star was principally employed as sidekick to writer/director Dylan Emery, whose charisma and passing resemblance to Rowan Atkinson are both noteworthy.

The show's scenario is that Emery has just one night to create a new musical. What follows vacillates between the ensemble doing his and Lucas's bidding as they up the improv ante. Suggestions from the audience are also used to create the musical "From Dust 'til Dawn", a tale of love, celibacy and betrayal through the eyes of the employees of a Mexican oyster bar, which journeys through a range of musical stylings, from Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Disney composer Alan Menken, to Sesame Street.

When the cast settle on the dust theme of the musical as relating to cocaine smuggling, Emery asks the characters to think of five euphemisms for the drug. "Venezuelan Tate & Lyle" one of them comes back. Meanwhile, wearing an impish smile, Lucas names two characters Hannah and Steve but dryly requests that the former be a man and the latter a woman, adding supportively: "it's just like Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly."

Lucas's suggestion morphs into a so-so number about the differences between being a boy and a girl. It's a tune that would not look that out of place in Avenue Q and, while there are better songs, for example a Disney-style duet called "Two Birds", Showstopper! does approach a product that, as co-creator Adam Meggido (playing the hero Pedro tonight) has said, "could sit alongside anything in the West End." Fortunately for the cast, this achievement says more about their talents than it does about the formulaic and trite musicals going on around them.

Meanwhile, just as it was starting to look like Lucas would never be able to demonstrate his own performance dexterity, Emery casts him as Pedro's Yorkshireman brother, thus providing a late twist in the tale. Visibly reluctant, Lucas assumes his role as Balthazar Jones, here to inform Pedro that his real name is Barry and that he should come back home to his mum.

Lucas is asked to sing for his supper too, but it's a short refrain. Nonetheless, his presence during this enjoyable romp has provided both entertainment and a unique snapshot of the depth and duality of his comic persona.

Until 30th of July ( www.showstopperthemusical.com )

[pirtybirdy]

Just read the mental hospital article just now. I don't know how I missed that one. One would hope today's mental hospitals would be all about helping someone get better so they can join society somewhat mentally healthy. I hope the woman isn't just there morphing like they did in the old days where people were sort of prisoners and getting no help at all. That sounds whacked that they'd let her do that.

[faceless]

Lucas and Walliams revive Rock Profiles

Matt Lucas and David Walliams have recorded six new Rock Profiles sketches, nine years after the TV series ended. In the new scenes – made specially for the internet – the pair dress up as Jordan and Peter Andre; Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty; Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow; Kerry Katona and Mark Croft; Ronnie Wood and Ekaterina Ivanova; and Cheryl Cole and Nicola Roberts.

The new material will go out on the Funny Or Die website, in which the pair have a stake, from Monday.

The original Rock Profiles series went out on now defunct digital channel UK Play in 1999 and 2000, before the duo found fame with Little Britain, and featured Jamie Theakston questioning the pair as they impersonated – badly – their targets.

This time around, the show will be hosted by Dermot O’Leary and Miquita Oliver.

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Sounds good - Rock Profiles was brilliant at points.

[eirebadboy]

Great news, Rock Profiles was great.