To Lovejoy's partners, Eric and Tinker,
newly returned from a sojourn in Spain,
Lovejoy rescues his team from their unusual employment.
(Dogs barking)
(Growling and snarling)
- There he is, look. - Psst!
Psst!
Tinker!
Ah, they're back in business. Please welcome Eric and Tinker - Chris Jury and Dudley Sutton.
(Cheering and applause)
Welcome. Welcome, welcome. Chris, hi.
Do you know, I think that was one of the nicest opening scenes to a new series I've ever seen.
Both me wife and meself got out of the chair. It was beautifully put together.
Oh, it's a gift for an actor, entrances like that.
What... This is the third series, and it really suddenly at the start of this one, took off.
We knew we'd liked it before and we wanted it back, what's the success?
I think that we... after the first two, then you become more confident.
We do, and the writers do, and you know the format of the show,
and so you take those... those leaps, like the beginning of that series.
I also think that the fact that we had a gap of, what? Four years, was it?
- Hm. - About four years. We had a four-year gap.
It kind of built up the excitement, and the excitement in us, as well.
So when we came back to it we were just raring to go.
Towards the end of the last series there was less of you two and Lady Jane
and I felt that it wasn't playing to its strengths
because it is so strong when he's with the people he interreacts with -
Tinker and Eric and Lady Jane.
And this series I thought, oh, they must have realized this.
This is where the laughs lie, and you were very happy to be back, presumably?
- Absolutely. - Absolutely. Couldn't agree more.
Yes, please remember that... Which camera are we on?
Chris, what were you doing before?
Oh, I've... I was working, earning a living as an actor, generally,
doing bits and bobs, and I'd done Grange Hill...
er, many years ago, and then '85 we did the first series
and then I went back absolutely to doing that. Nothing had changed.
- You've got your own production company. - Yes, I started that two or three years ago.
Developing comedy drama for television, which I love doing immensely.
People see one person in one part and then they think he goes and sits by the telephone.
Yeah, well, I do now but I'm ringing the people up now.
- (Alan laughs) - Trying to get it going.
Dudley, you're one of what you might call a vintage brood. You're...
- (Laughter) - Yes. Some say that.
Well, you're from the O'Toole, Harris, Burton sort of stable.
- That's right. - You were once described as
- having the face of a debauched cherub. - That was a complimentary one.
I was also described as having a face like a squashed car seat.
(Laughter)
Which I thought was quite nice... Depends who's driving, of course.
Has it ensured you of a certain kind of role throughout your dramatic career?
Well, I've gone from debauched cherub to loveable rogue.
Once you get to loveable rogue you're over the hill.
It's a short while to the deaf aid and the white stick and...
off to that glorious home in... in the hills.
- Are you Irish? There's this Irish connection... - I'm not.
- You knew Brendan Behan very well. - Well, I mean...
- I had a very dissolute youth. And, er... - (Chris) How long?
And you can't, you know, you can't, er, have a dissolute youth
without being Irish in London.
I learnt this lesson very early on.
I waited outside a pub with a terrible hangover waiting for the doors to open.
And I noticed that the Irish drinkers would stand right outside the door
and the English drinkers were down the bottom looking in at the window of a tobacconist
pretending they weren't doing it.
So I thought, I need to be with these people, they know what...
So I became an amateur Irishman for years.
And I finished up playing Irishmen in the West End, so it paid off.
- (Laughter) - How long did your debauched youth last?
- Till about 12 years ago. - (Alan) A long youth.
- Well, it was. It was good fun. - We've got Sam Wanamaker on later.
You acted with Sam way back.
I love Sam. I've known Sam most of my professional life.
I worked... He directed a play that I was in in 1958
er, called One More River.
There was a bloke with a couple of lines called Michael Caine
and nobody ever heard of him again. Cos I really liked him.
(Alan) That's acting - some of them make it, some don't.
Exactly.
I would guess, Chris, that because it's fun to watch you have a lot of fun making it.
- Yeah. - Is that the case? Do you all get on?
Yeah, we do. I mean, it is such fun, we never stop laughing.
I mean, you're aching. And that is part of the five-year gap in-between, as well,
that we'd remained friends and saw each other socially
so when we came back we're working with old friends.
- (Dudley) Yeah. - And that, I think,
does contribute to the show.
Please welcome lan McShane and Gwen Humble.
(Applause)
- Oh, the garlic, I'm sorry. - That's OK!
I do apologize for the garlic.
- It was something I picked up in the kitchen. - Ken, was it?
- Ooh! Really, really stro... - Hello.
- (Audience) Hello. - (Mimics) "Hello." That was nice.
- You like that? - Yes.
- Gwen doesn't. - I don't like it at all.
Don't tell me that's a five o'clock shadow.
- You're not that macho. - I was gonna say, I haven't shaved for a day,
but no, it's a week. It just makes a change not to have to shave for a while,
cos we're going on holiday to Los Angeles next week,
so let it grow, and then come back, and we start the show again.
- So it's a little break. - It's got a bit of a tickle there.
- (Gwen) Mm. - What's it like doing a romantic scene?
You didn't there particularly, but what's it like doing romantic scenes
when you're husband and wife? Is it actually a bit of a giggle?
Well, I fell in love with him doing one. (Laughs) Um...
We met on the Queen Mary in 1979,
doing a film called Cheaper To Keep Her...
- (lan) And it has been. ...and... I guess he thought it was. (Laughs)
But, um... I met him and...
he was very late to the set.
(Laughs) And I thought, "Who is this man keeping me waiting?"
- And we got married a year later. - (Judi) She never told you this.
Are you a romantic soul? I know you're a bit of a cook,
but will you be dishing up little sort of romantic canapés like this
at Chri..."Christmas", I was gonna say.
- On Valentines day? - (lan) They look nice.
No, I don't think so. We'll probably go out for a nice dinner.
I used to cook a lot, and I've been so busy with the show now, I think...
- I've forgotten how to do anything. - No, he is a really good cook.
When he puts his mind to it, he can go in and cook up anything.
- I'm hopeless... - Actually... Excuse me Gwen,
That was the only time. We worked together about, what, four times?
We did an American movie called Braker, in which I shot her.
- (Gwen tuts) - No, and we did a play at Watford
called The Big Knife, the American play. We played a couple who didn't like each other.
And then, in Lovejoy, you just saw there, we didn't...
- I was nasty. - She played evil twins.
...and were nasty. So that was the only time, when we first met, that we ever did anything,
and she played my illicit girlfriend. I played Dr. Feelgood as I remember.
- No, Sunshine. (Laughs) - Dr. Sunshine.
Do you like working together, or is it important to maintain your own independence?
- I've enjoyed it. I've had a good time. - Yeah.
I think I enjoyed it the most when we did the play.
Um... That was the nicest, we shared a dressing room together
and it was... it was nice, it was a nice feeling.
- We had a good time. - I've just had a...
I've just come back from Barcelona. Gwen was doing an American TV movie there.
It was nice to visit her on her location,
- spend her per diems. She took me to lunch. - Took my per diem.
- It was really nice. - Is it difficult to watch each other
doing romantic scenes with other people? Is it something you'd rather not see?
- It doesn't bother me. - Only if I can choose his leading ladies.
What a wonderful wife you are, because that's what you did
- with Joanna Lumley, isn't it? - I did. Well, I love Linda Gray, she's terrific.
- And Phyllis, gorgeous Phyllis. - And Phyllis Logan, she's a wonderful actress.
And Joanna Lumley, who I have done a play with, Vanilla, in the West End.
And when they were looking for a Lovejoy interest,
there was nobody else that could fit the bill. I mean she was it.
That is so generous. Can you imagine him recommending Tom Cruise for you,
- or something? - (Laughs)
(Judi) Would you like to... (lan) I beg you pardon? Tom?
- (Laughs) I know what you mean. ...recommending a love interest for your wife?
- Who would you choose? - Who would I choose?
- Be honest. - Uh... Who would I choose? I...
- What's that old fella from, um... - (Laughs)
- Actually, Omar. Lan gave me a wonderful... - Oh, Omar, yeah.
Omar was just a fantasy come true, I...
- I had a terrific dance... in a disco. - I did a film two years ago with Omar Sharif.
And Omar was very charming, he said, "May I dance with Gwendolyn?"
And I said, "Certainly, Fred," cos that's his name, Cairo Fred,
- (Judi snorts) "Cairo Fred". - Nobody calls him Omar. It's true.
He said, "My name's Omar Sharif", and Peter O'Toole said,
"That's the most ridiculous name I've ever heard. I'll shall you Fred, Cairo Fred."
- But he's a lovely man. - You'd be quite safe...
- She's loved him ever since Funny Girl. - Do you play Bridge?
- No. - Cos he spends his time playing Bridge.
- But I'd watch him. - He's got very good taste in wine and food.
- (lan) Ooh. - So, the last time you were here
you said that you'd be very happy to be remembered for Lovejoy,
Um, what... do you see happening to him now?
What happens to old antique dealers? Do they just go on till their luster fades?
Or they... lose their Chippendales...
I could say something like that.
I don't know. I mean, we've agreed to do another two years.
Everybody's happy, we're all coming back, Phyllis, Dudley and Chris,
who were here, had a wonderful time two weeks ago on the show.
We're all coming back for another season next year, and we've another after that,
- so we'll run until 1994... - (Judi) Mm.
Then we'll get together and see if the scripts are still good
and if people still want to watch us and if none of us are tired of each other, and...
we'll see then. But it's nice to know what we're doing for the next two years,
so we'll just try to keep up the standard of the show, and...
Do people think you're a bit of a doctor now and come up to you at parties and go,
- "Can you have a look at this, tell me..." - Well sometimes.
I can't go near an antique shop cos they see you coming,
I send Gwen in. Cos we collect... not that kind of antiques,
but more like Lalique glass and stuff like that.
- I love Royal Doultons... - And Royal Doulton,
so I have to send somebody to do that, cos they see me coming.
It's either "You know about this, don't you?", or they're gonna take you for something.
- So I let them get on with it. - Well, I knew that hallmark last night...
- You did? ...had been put in. Oh, yes. You can see it!
I could spot that a mile off. It's been a great pleasure to have you here.
(lan) It's nice seeing you. (Gwen) Thank you.
I'll look forward to a heart from you next year.
- Absolutely. And everybody buy their hearts... - Yeah, wear your heart on your sleeve
- on Valentines day. - February the 14th is Friday, so...
- It's for the kids. ...God bless, and... buy them, please.
Gwen Humble and lan McShane. Thank you.
- Thank you. Thank you, Judi. - Thank you, lan.
(Applause)