Diaries 1969-1979_ The Python Years - Michael Palin [285]
I asked him why comedy got such short shrift in TV columns – and why Alan Coren should be so dismissive of Ripping Yarns after raving about Tomkinson. James put it down to jealousy.’We all want to be doing your job,’ he says.’We can write and talk, but we’re frustrated because we can’t perform.’ Interesting.
I take the plunge and ask Stephen Frears if he would be at all interested in directing a comedy special for NBC with me. To my intense enjoyment he says yes … and I think the idea appeals to him.
Monday, May 22nd
With Spike’s card facing me at my writing desk, and Stephen Frears’ interest in the NBC special, I start this week with a stirring sense of optimism. So much could go wrong – the NBC special is still not a firm offer – but so much could, if it goes right, be some of the most exciting work I’ve done.
Today, after checking out my body – Alexander class at 8.50 – and my teeth at 11.30 – I drive over to the BBC to hear the verdict on our Yarn for July. Fairly predictably, ‘Roger of the Raj’ (as it’s now known) is the one they’re keen on. John Howard Davies, now Head of Comedy, doesn’t like the ‘child-molester’ references, I hear.
Talk over the script with Jim F and the various points of rewriting to be done. It’s a big cast, and I find myself stuck with Roger … another juve lead!
Wednesday, May 24th
In to the BBC at 2.30 to help Jim audition young lads for the part of Roger as a young boy. One had a black eye, the other a sore throat and a magnificently irretractable Cockney accent, and only one was any good at all … Then more casting chat with Jim, mainly involving desultory turning of Spotlight pages. I want to aim high and suggest we try for someone like Ralph Richardson for the father. BBC Artists’ Bookings are amazingly unimaginative as usual, and say Ralph Richardson will cost £1,000. The booker said, ‘You know, he’s almost ga-ga.’Anyone who can command £1,000 for a half-hour can’t be entirely ga-ga.
Sir Michael Redgrave, another possible, is £200 cheaper than Sir Ralph, but Peter Lovell, the PA, said that when Sir Michael was doing a one-liner on Morecambe and Wise, he took eight takes to get it right. And there’s a suggestion that he’s ‘not awfully well’. I stall Jim into letting me make my own enquiries. Refuse to be put off by BBC Artists’ Bookings.
Back home, ring Tom Stoppard to check out Sir Ralph. Tom doesn’t know him, but will ring Michael Codron, who put on Sir Ralph’s last play, and test the water for me. So hopes are still high.
Thursday, May 25th
John Howard D is persisting in his objections to the words ‘child molester’ in the ‘Roger of the Raj’ script. Jim says I’ll have to go and see him tomorrow. Also every avenue of exploration into the Sir Ralph situation seems fraught with money and Jim sounds as if he would rather drop the whole approach. Shall have to try and rally the troops tomorrow.
Friday, May 26th
Hot again. Into the sizzling silly season for the newspapers. The Mirror is pulling every stop out – even the weather – to try and boost Callaghan and the government before the election (not yet announced, but everyone thinks it’s October). Callaghan is personally very popular at the moment and Thatcher is not. I think anyone with any information of substance must realise that Jim’s good news basket is a very small one and all the signs are that the present drop in inflation (now down to 7.8%) and unemployment figures cannot be maintained.
Still, I’m better disposed to letting the present Labour government run my country for me than any other group – apart, perhaps, from Pan’s People – and I feel better