R.I.P. II
And now Ken Campbell, aged 66. Hard to put a label on him, really. I knew him mainly as an amazing performer. And I was lucky enough to meet him - coincidentally when Simon Day and I were developing Grass for Geoffrey Perkins. We were called upon to do a full cast read-through of our pilot script, in order to make the case for it being commissioned, for various controllers and high-ups. This was a new experience for me, and I couldn't work out whether it was a good sign or a bad sign that the BBC weren't prepared to commission off the back of what we'd written.Anyway, a cast is assembled for these things that may bear no relation to the cast of the programme itself, should it be made. You're ahead of me here . . .
Ken Campbell was cast as Derek the hitchhiker (I don't know how many of you know Grass - I'll assume a bit of knowledge). He was, of course, outrageously funny in the part. On the day, having done a "table read" the day before, the actors turn up and read the episode from scripts, as if performing a radio play, except it's in a conference room at TV Centre with bigwigs making up the audience. It must be a tough gig. If anything, Ken was too outrageous for the part, which was minor. He muffed his lines and over-acted and hammed it up and, who knows, might have subconsciously helped get it commissioned. It was certainly a memorable occasion, enjoyed by all. A video exists of this read-through, I must dig it out.
Very few of the actors used that day (including the great Frank Harper as Harry Taylor and Edna Dore as Billy's Mum) were cast in the series. Leila Hoffman, who played Derek's rambling wife Margaret, was, if I remember correctly, in the read-through and the series, but Ken was replaced onscreen by - embarrassment of riches alert! - Roger Sloman. I imagine Ken was considered too much of a handful, although I wasn't involved in the casting sessions.
I'm so pleased to have been in the presence of greatness, that once.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 11:22 AM
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I remember first seeing him as the bald guy with the comb-over in the episode of Fawlty Towers where it's Cybil's birthday.
For any men going thin on top, this is something to study closely because he looks twenty years younger twenty years later when he has the shaved head. Great versatile actor with that distinctive voice.
Incidentally, I love Grass. It was such a strange hybrid that worked so well and Simon Day was as always so likeable. I don't know what he's like in real life, but from his on-screen persona, I always just want to hang out with him.
"Cyb-ill - d'you get it?"
Simon Day is nice in good company in real life, especially if you want long conversations about The Wire. Sold?
Look out for Simon in this week's Geoffrey Perkins-produced Harry & Paul. He's third fiddle.
Simon is the 'Omar' of British comedy - but in a good way.
Please feel free to start calling him that from now on Andrew? I'm sure it won't annoy him in the least.
RIP Ken, I saw him live several times, the first time he wandered onto the stage with his shopping trolley and I was thinking 'what the hell have i come to see here...' - 10 seconds later I was laughing my head off and that continued until he left the stage.
Such a shame he was totally underused on tv, although that may of course have been his decision- his one-man shows were seemingly free of any outside interference which helped make them so brilliant, I'm sure.
As someone who spent an awful lot of his youth watching a taped-off-Channel4 VHS copy of The Secret Policeman's Ball, he will always be known to me as 'the sensation seekers' man.
And he was responsible, at the same event, for one of my favourite lines ever: "Ladies and gentleman, Mr David Rappaport - not the smallest man in the world, but fucking close."
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