21st December, 2002

REG will be on UK television appearing on next Friday’s episode of Rich and Famous.

The TV ad showed REG briefly in his dressing room, then on stage wearing a badly fitting white long haired wig….!!!! There was also a clip of Morcambe and Wise on TV and Elton John will also appear on the show. Sounds intriguing?

The Daily Express Saturday Magazine – 21st December, 2002

If you’ve ever wondered how to waltz butter, relax an avocado, caution egg yolks, humiliate bread or embarrass some baby parsnips, then Posh Nosh, by Arabella Weir and Jon Canter, is the show for you, writes Jane Dudley.

Born out of a complete apathy to today’s cookery programmes, Posh Nosh takes a peek into the ives of the 21st century’s Fanny and Johnny Craddock, in the shape of Minty and Simon Marchmont. Arabella Weir plays the matron-like Minty and Richard E Grant plays her effeminate husband, Simon, who has a very special relationship with his [male] tennis coach. Each week, Minty and Simon prepare a mouth-watering recipe from their lovely country kitchen using their state-of-the-art Aga, while bickering and bitching along the way.

“All that the plethora of cookery shows really does is serve to make me feel insecure,” says Arabella, who knows what she’s talking about, having invented and played Insecure Woman (aka Does My Bum Look Big In This?) in The Fast Show (which recently toured the UK) since 1994.“They don’t make me think,‘Oh, what a great thing to do with scallops and chives,’ I just think, ‘Oh God! I’m just a fat oaf who lives in a horrible kitchen!’

“Mine and Jon Canter’s theory was that lifestyle shows in general – particularly the cookery ones – are only made by people who want you to envy them.They don’t actually want to teach you anything, they want you to think,‘Oh, look at that perfect life. I bet her and her husband never argue, I bet it’s just great at their house because she knows what to do with crème frâiche.’

“The other inspiration was in the back of the River Café book. There’s things like, ‘If you’re serious about making this you’ll get your chestnuts fresh from France,’ so now, I’m not serious because I’m trying to make a recipe with vacuum-packed chestnuts from Sainsbury’s. It’s like they’re saying, ‘Well, if you think that’s okay, then do it.’”

Minty Marchmont is desperate to be an upper-class society woman and is happy to be seen as little more than a nanny to husband Simon, not least of all because his mother was a titled woman. He continually corrects Minty’s kitchen faux pas, such as using the wrong colander, or pronouncing the wine incorrectly but, as long as they can share their love of “poncey” food, Minty can turn a blind eye to Simon’s little foibles – including his obvious homosexuality.

“The idea of Simon being gay further accentuates the fact that here’s a woman who’s desperately trying to pretend her life is perfect,” says Arabella. “She’s got an Aga and she’s married to a posh man, so let’s not worry about his sexuality! “Of course she realises it but she’s just completely blocking it, because to realise it means she’s got to confront it, like an addiction. Like anybody with low self esteem, she thinks he’s always right because she doesn’t have enough self worth,” says Arabella, whose first novel, Does My Bum Look Big In This?, was one of the best-selling chick-lit books of the Nineties.

“You’re supposed to feel sorry for Minty, but the way you mitigate that so that it’s not a show about a horrible monster and a downtrodden woman, is to remember that she’s a desperate snob who never stops dropping the fact that his mother’s a Lady, and that they’ve got a Bishop coming to supper.That’s her trade off – she’s married a posh bloke that she would never have ordinarily got hold of.

“The main thing is that they share a commitment to poncey food and a belief that that’s the only thing that’s important in life. There’s one line where Minty says, ‘We make our own stock, but do buy stock cubes if you have low self-esteem.’That’s what Simon and Minty share and he’s one of those characters of which I’ve seen plenty in real life. “You kind of think,‘What’s a gorgeous thing like you doing going around with that dumpy old cow?’ He’ll say, ‘I need a cook, I need someone to clean up and I might need someone to have children with.’

At one point, Simon introduces Minty to someone and says, ‘You remember Matron, don’t you?’ and that’s the sort of thing that poncey public schoolboys say!” Simon is the wine expert of the couple and, says Arabella, every wine description used in the series is actually real.“We made up the name of the wine but everything else is verbatim from the internet.You literally sit there howling with laughter – they say things like,‘It’s got notes of old egg, plastic and rope,’ and you think,‘Well why would anybody want to drink it?’

“The food stuff is just a basic food recipe that we’ve made a bit more bonkers! We just wanted it to be really surreal. My favourite introduction from Minty is,‘Welcome to Posh Nosh – extraordinary food for ordinary people!’ and that says it all really.”

Arabella, who first met co-star Richard E Grant 18 years ago, when they both appeared in the Les Blair film, Honest, Decent And True for the BBC, says she only ever had Richard in mind when she wrote the part of Simon: “Right from the beginning we wanted Richard because he is so completely Simon! At one point we thought he may not be able to do it as our recording dates clashed with a film he was making and we sat there thinking,‘What on earth are we going to do?’

“We were very clear that it couldn’t be an actor who was openly gay because the audience would know all along. With Richard, you just get an air of being gay. He’s just completely perfect for the part.”

Despite Posh Nosh being an obvious sendup of all the TV chefs, Arabella does have “enormous and genuine admiration for people who can cook” and says that she thinks Posh Nosh came out of envy. “I’d love to be able to go, ‘just throw the spaghetti in and some coriander and there you have it,’ but it’s just not me. One of my closest friends is Italian and says,‘Oh, I’ll just see what I’ve got in the fridge,’ and it’s always something you’d pay a fortune for in Soho! “All of the TV shows just make me feel insufficient so I don’t watch them. I don’t really like anybody who’s on TV saying, ‘Look at my great life and all the marvellous things I’m able to do that you can’t, but if you concentrate very hard on my shows, watch all my videos and buy all the books, then you might just be able to throw something together that resembles it.”

Denise sent me an article this week (or maybe it was last week?) from Britain’s TV Quick Magazine. The article is in reference to Richard’s appearance as Stapleton in “The Hound Of The Baskervilles”, which will be screening on Britain televisions everywhere next week (so keep your eye out for that!). Anyway, you can read the article here.

BigPicturesPhoto.com – 16th December, 2002

Pictures of REG doing his Christmas shopping on Sloane Street in London’s West End.

Pics courtesy of Grosvenor-Davis/BigPicturesPhoto.com

Women’s Own Magazine – 16th December 2002

By Shoba Vazirani.

I’m chatting to Richard E Grant on the Isle of Man-based set of BBC 1’s Christmas spectacular, The Hound of Baskervilles, and he’s under pressure. Always in huge demand, Richard is hours away from a flight to Cape Town, where he is starring in a movie about Napoleon, Monsieur N – yet he insists on honouring our scheduled interview, and is nothing less than polite and attentive.

“This is a fantastic job, even if you do finish at one or two in the morning sometimes,” he insists. “It’s not like going down the Siberian salt mines.”

“If people recognise me and bother to come over and chat, I’ll happily sign autographs. I reply to every fan letter personally and, while working, I’d never throw a tantrum or be difficult.”

Ever since he shot to fame as the demented, out-of-work actor in the cult movie Withnail and I in 1985, work has been pouring in for the 45-year-old star, who has had roles in more than 50 films.

“I love variety, and I try not to do the same thing twice,” he explains.

The Hound of the Baskervilles gives him a chance to add a compelling villain to his collection. Alongside Richard Roxburgh and Ian Hart – who star as Sherlock Holmes and Watson – Grant plays Stapleton, the illegitimate heir to the Baskerville estate. As the arch-villain his is arguably the most interesting character in the drama.

“Stapleton does everything in his power to get rid of the young Sir Henry Baskerville, who inherits the estate instead of him,” Richard explains.

He’s full of praise for his fellow actors, and stresses they’ve all had a good shoot. But he’s particularly happy with the fact that the Isle of Man is just a short flight from his London home.

His devotion to his wife, renowned voice coach Joan Washington, and their 13-year-old Olivia, is well known in showbiz circles, and Richard loathes being away from them.

Richard met Joan, eight years his senior, after moving to London from Cape Town, where he studied drama, in 1982.

He was instantly besotted, and their marriage is the envy of many in an industry where break ups and divorce are rife.

“My marriage and family life means more to me than anything, and fidelity is extremely important to both of us,” he states, completely serious for once. “And I love being a father.”

His firm views on the family are almost certainly influenced by his own childhood in Swaziland, where he was born. Richard was only 11 when his mother Leonie, left for another man. He and his younger brother, Stuart, were raised by their father, Hendrik, who was then the country’s minister of education.

The experience shattered both boys, Richard reveals he was teased mercilessly at boarding school and often cried himself to sleep. These days, he is estranged from Stuart, with whom he says he has “nothing in common”, and instead focuses all his attention on his wife and daughter.

“They come first for me, every time. I think if you’ve come from a background of divorce, you either repeat those patterns or do the complete opposite.”

As millions switch on their televisions to watch The Hound of The Baskervilles, Richard and his family are more likely to be playing silly games and wearing party hats.

Despite not being able to touch alcohol – he is allergic to it – Richard laughingly confesses he can be as “stupid and out of control” as the next man when it comes to the festive season.

“I’ve never been able to drink – my body doesn’t have the enzyme that breaks down alcohol,” he explains. “But it’s never stood on the way of my having a good time, especially at this time of year.”

“I just love Christmas, love everything about it. We have a huge party at home every year, one week before the big day, and invite all our friends and family. I put up the decorations on 1 December and leave them up for six weeks. Christmas Day itself is a traditional lunch for the family.”

“I’ve no cynicism about Christmas whatsoever, and I’ve never had a bad one, as far as I can remember. Everyone makes a huge effort to be nicer to each other, and I just love shopping for presents – and receiving them. I also love Christmas pudding. I have one every month, all year around. I stock up in the January sales and buy enough to last all the whole year.”

While he doesn’t believe in New Year resolutions, Richard does have a New Year tradition of taking the family to the Caribbean every January. After that, it’s back to business – and he has plenty of projects lined up.

Apart from his hilarious Argos adverts with Julia Sawalha, he’s involved in a series of shorts, called Posh Nosh, with Arabella Weir, in which he plays, ironically, a wine expert.

He has roles in two other movies, Stephen Fry’s Bright Young Things, based on the Evelyn Waugh novel Vile Bodies, and Making Waves, about the 1960s pirate radio station, Radio Caroline.

So has success surprised him?

“All of it has surprised me. God, yes. The odds against surviving in this profession are so high that I can’t think of any actor who could take it for granted – or assume that now they’ve arrived, that’s it.”

“This job has enabled me to meet some extraordinary people and go to places I’d never have imagined going, so it’s been a huge adventure. I know I’m very lucky.”

* The Hound Of The Baskervilles is scheduled to be shown on BBC1 at Christmas.

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