So can you give us a synopsis?

Oh, yeah.

And I'm looking for investors.

So what I'm interested in this time, that was about grief and kindness, how they correlate.

I'm interested in positional thinking and the trouble it's getting us all in.

So everyone's got their list of adjectives.

I'm a this, this, this, and I do this, this, this.

Okay.

But what gave you the idea to write this?

Well, as many people found silver linings in lockdown, I had blagged a bit of writing before lockdown.

I'd written one film, and I'd started my memoir, but I thought, "Oh, I'll try and make use of this time." So I did an online master's degree in screenwriting just so that I could learn a bit about it.

And one of the first things we had to do was do a short film, and they're very quick.

Falmouth University is wonderful, and the prompts were quick.

You only had a week.

You couldn't overthink it, just do it.

Oh, wow.

So how important is that setting with its kind of intriguing mix of hyperinflation and cabaret nightclubs?

Well, the setting, I suppose, is everything in a way, isn't it? Now, this is another sideways nepotism.

I have, my partner is is a semi-regular member of this cast now she's german i don't speak she speaks amazing english for a long time she's so humble like she didn't even crack on she was an actress for a while when we got together because she thought i might be put off and then i find out oh she's an actress oh god bless you you know she was doing a bit then it turns out i'm in berlin and people stop her on the street and i'm like what's going on here there it's it's like the breaking bad german it's that good and I watched it, I'm trying to learn German, I watched it with subtitles and just I thought I'll watch something my partner's in and then It is genuinely in my top five TV shows I've ever watched in my life.

Everything about it.

And the setting, yes, like you say, it starts roughly 1930-ish.

And they're just about to release the final season.

And it ends when Hitler gets into power.

So how was that process?

yeah i totally agree last last year i remember coming up to stratford to see the foresight saga which was um you know it was one of the most acclaimed pieces of theater of the year it was absolutely incredible um what what was it like you know taking it from the park up to the swan theater

It was really interesting.

So, yeah, the Foresight Saga was this surprise hit, a very brave bit of theatre by Troop Productions at the Tiny Park Theatre, 200 seats in Finsbury Park in London.

And we I think what's lovely about that is we had no it was so hard to rehearse two full length plays in five weeks.

you know, with amazing Josh Roche directing and a great company that we had no concept of whether it was good or bad.

We were just literally, can we do this? So then when it opened and got, I mean, I've been doing this a long time.

I don't think I've been anything as well reviewed, you know, something like 14 five star reviews, you know, ridiculous.

What would you say changed between the first 10 years and the second 10 years?

what was the inspiration for this project

okay um look i have always written and what's funny is the memoir i wrote a few years ago called work and other four-letter words about my first 10 tricky awful funny hilarious years in the business um when i wrote that and it was you know it came out i said to my my mum i was like i've written a bloody book can you believe i i didn't finish school i was expelled at 15 you know i've read her book she said well of course i said what do you mean of course she said you were always writing i said was i my mum said she of course she keeps stuff she's like there's a poem you had published there's a short story as a teenager and you were the kid who when they sent you home at 12 years old with a summer holiday write a report on the book you read thing here the book i read in the summer She said, you wrote a f***ing sequel.

You wrote a 16-chapter sequel to the book you read.

Anyway, I forgot all that.

But Miller Rose Roberts was a combination of things, just quickly.

So I used to live in Leighton Buzzard, like a lot of commuting people do.

Yeah, a lot of theatrical.

These

When you started, what did you want to be? Did you want to be an actor, a singer, a writer?

What did you want to be? Well, when I was young, you mean, back in those days, I was not a stage struck child.

I didn't know there was such a job as an actor till I was about 18, 17, 18.

You know, I had no idea it was a thing you could do.

And before then, I was definitely going to be a footballer.

And then all I wanted to be was a skateboarder and a surfer.

and I did a lot of that and then I fell into acting really and did end up going to a drama school but in a very odd way it's a long story I was sort of didn't really finish school school so I was heading for good graft manual labour jobs that my dad and his friends could set up and then somehow this weird thing happened and I've always approached it with a very labour orientated mindset now the writing thing Here's the funny thing.

right

Mm.

So that's an interesting energy.

And then in our tiny crew, you've got Matthew and me, I suppose, and then a really young DOP.

Yes, he's made four or five features as a DOP now, but he's really young, and he's just exploding.

And things like our composer, you know, who was a mate of Elliot's.

I don't know what is in the water in Dorset, but our composer, um, Ryan, uh, i- is, uh, he's about the same age as Elliot, and-

Yes

... and one f- before that he'd done one feature with me.