Craig Charles Interview

Adam: How are you?
Craig: I'm fine. Who am I speaking to?
Adam: You're speaking to Adam Cuadra from Exepose magazine, the University of Exeter's campus newspaper.
Craig: Yep.
Adam: I'd like to thank you first of all for allowing me to hold this interview with you.
Craig: Oh that's fine. I'm thrilled. I don't usually do interviews though, as I'm sure you've gathered. (laugh)
Adam: I realise you must be quite busy at the moment seeing as you begin your tour tomorrow.
Craig: Yeah...but, you know, carry on.
Adam: OK, I'll fire away, has it been a long time since you've done any stand-up comedy?
Craig: Nah, I did a little tour earlier on in the year and finished up in the Duke of York in the West End for three nights and that's where we filmed the video live on air. So it's really only a couple of months since I've been out on the road. But before that, I hadn't done stand-up in England for about...eight years. I've been doing it in America and in Ireland, Dublin, but not in Engalnd.And especially not down South. I've done a few gigs up North, but not in the South.
Adam: I see that quite a few of the venues are in the South.
Craig: So it's quite good to be doing it again, you know. It makes you realise why you got into the business in the first place.
Adam: Do you think you're ready for the tour tomorrow?
Craig: Er, I'm never ready, but I'm sure it will be a good tour. (laugh)
Adam: Have the rehearsals gone well?
Craig: Yeah, it's sort of based on the video though. We've just finished the video really. So it's all pretty fresh. And there's a lot of new stuff that we're doing that's not on the video either.
Adam: That's interesting. I see you've got about 15 venues. You've chosen quite a hectic couple of weeks.
Craig: Yeah, the thing is I start filming again pretty soon so it was a case of trying to fit as much into a small a space as possible. I mean you want to see the daytime schedule, just the nightime's bad enough, you want to see the daytime schedule, with like TV, radio and all that kind of stuff. It's all a bit hectic. But it was just to fit as much in as possible in a short time simply as I have have to go to Dublin and start filming, "The Governor".
Adam: I see that you've chosen mostly university venues. Do you feel that your act is more suited to students?
Craig: Well the one we did before that, we played theatres, we played Worthing, end of the pier stuff and we played Variety Theatre in Leeds.
Adam: And that went down well?
Craig: Ah excellent. Sold out, brill. For this one it was just simpler for us to do universities simply because of the short space of time, and because I'm so busy. It meant that I didn't have to promote it myself, or get another promoter involved cos the universities are perfectly able to promote themselves. It just took an extra one of the headaches away really. Plus, you know, I started out, you know the first tours I ever did were universities and all that.
Adam: I believe you've been to the University of Exeter before, to the Lemongrove where you will be on Friday.
Craig: Have I?
Adam: Is this right?
Craig: I think I've done most universities in the country really.
Adam: Was that before "Red Dwarf" fame?
Craig: Well it was kind of during really, you know the first few years of "Red Dwarf" especially. But like television doesn't half suck you in, sucks you in, suck you in, you know. It's quite nice to have the time to do it really.
Adam: Have you always wanted to release a video, a one-man show?
Craig: Yeah well I did one in Edinburgh in '88 that was a real big hit, you know. And then because it was such a hit I got more and more television, I never got the chance to go out on the road again.
Adam: It sounds like you're enjoying it a lot.
Craig: Yeah, it's just starting where I finished really.
Adam: Have you had good response to the video so far?
Craig: Yeah it's selling very well and people generally...have you seen it?
Adam: I'm afraid I haven't, but I will be doing very soon.
Craig: Well actually you may as well not watch it now and wait until the gig.
Adam: I will be coming along to the show. I'm looking forward to it.
Craig: We'll be selling some after the gig.
Adam: Will they be reduced?
Craig: I'm not quite sure. I always find it's best to avoid the business aspects of everything.
Adam: Let other people handle that.
Craig: Yeah.
Adam: Could I just change the subject for a moment and talk about your writing?
Craig: Yeah.
Adam: Since the release of your "Almanac of Total Knowledge" I believe there were plans for a poetry book and an autobiography?
Craig: There is but as I say my schedule is such that we go on tour now, we finish the tour Shepherds Bush Empire. From there I go to Dublin and film through December, January, February, March, "The Governor". We've got April to go on tour again, to try and get the new video together. Then from May up until the end of August we're filming Red Dwarf. From the end of August we go to Greece to film the next video which is going to be, "Live at the Acropolis" and that is going to be up until Christmas where I just want to f***ing rest. So at the end of the day, you know we do want to do these things but there's a lot of...I've got a lot of fan mail asking me when am I going to do this, and people have been waiting for it for years, cos I've never brought a book out of poetry for a start, but they're just going to have to wait until I get the time. I'm not going to do it and rush it out and be unhappy with it. It deserves attention. I'll be able to do it, you know.
Adam: You mentioned your fans, how important do you consider your fans?
Craig: Oh, they're my lifeblood really, they're the people that erm, they're the people that got me through my recent troubles and everything you know. It was like the general public, it was their support.
Adam: Do you mind if I ask you a question on that at all?
Craig: Not at all. It was the general public that, kind of, erm, helped me through it really. Because, you know, it's very difficult to hoodwink the general public. You know, if they'd believed in my wrong doing it would have been impossible to get things up and running as quickly as I have. Cos at the moment I don't think anyone in showbusiness is working as hard as me.
Adam: You seem pretty busy at the moment. Could I ask you if you feel that these recent events in your life have changed either you or your career at all?
Craig: Well they've changed my career definately. They've changed me an awful lot too. I don't think it's hindered my career, I don't thnk it's helped it. I think it's just spun it round and sent it off on a different direction. There's a lot of emotional damage, there's a lot of scar tissue still on my soul, you know. It's evey person's worse nightmare and, er so it's bound to have effects on you isn't it, you know. I just don't trust anyone any more. I just don't believe that it should be allowed to happen. I don't believe that anyone could be taken from their home, you know, on zero evidence, simply on the allegation of a woman who's already got convictions for deception so basically she's already a convicted liar. And I'm taken from my home on the basis of this allegation and kept in jail for three and a half months until they get the forensics back and realise that it's a pack of lies. And then they start paying politics with my life simply because the loss of earnings and wrongful imprisonment alone, the bill was like over a million quid and yet the trial only cost half a million quid. So they take me to trial, offer zero evidence because there was none, and if this had happened there would have been multitudes of evidence. The trial costs £500000. They've saved themselves a million quid and they tell me the system's worked for me! You know, I just don't think that should be able to happen. I just think you're assumed guilty until you're proved innocent. I also believe that if I was a white star, like Philip Scofield or Chris Evans, I would have got given bail. I was held for three and a half months on no evidence. You know, I'll steal a line from the show, "I forgot I was black until I applied for bail". You know it's...it's not good. So I mean it's changed me, but I think it's changed me for the better. I'm more considered now, I consider every move I do now. I'm less trusting because I was too trusting and, erm , I'm more creative. I was coasting for a while and now it's just given me such a creative impetus again that...you know you've got to get the positive things out of this otherwise you turn into a bitter, old, twisted mess.
Adam: Quite. You seem to be coming through it.
Craig: Yeah, it's like therapy for me, you know. That's why I'm enjoying it so much.
Adam: Could I just change the subject again?
Craig: OK, go on. (laughs)
Adam: Thanks you for sharing those thought with me.
Craig: (laughs)
Adam: About the paperback book, "Last Human", just been released in the shops by Doug Naylor. Have you read that?
Craig: Yeah.
Adam: What do you think of that?
Craig: Erm, it's different that the other two novels. It's darker.
Adam: You recorded the audio version of the book. Have you done anything like that before.
Craig: No, I've done children's stories and all that, but never so dense a piece of work, cos it's a pretty big book you know.
Adam: It's something to which you're directly related as well.
Craig: Yeah, which is really wicked you know. I enjoyed doing it, it was very hard work you know, very hard work. And, Chris had done the last two. Chris is great at the accents but his narration, that's wrong you know? So I think they wanted someone who could, they wanted more...I don't know, more emotion in the narration of the piece.
Adam: Do you prefer the books to the scripts of the series?
Craig: Erm, they're two different things completely. I mean I know you get lots of the scripts in the books and things like that. But they are the way they were melded together. It's like two different universes. I just think they all add to it. They add to the series because the series came first, not the books, you know. They kind of add to the series.
Adam: I quite agree with that. You see another side to the characters.
Craig: Yeah, and I think this, "Last Human" is a much darker piece than perhaps the kind of childishness of the first ones.
Adam: Now that we're on the subject of Red Dwarf, I suppose we had to get there in the end, would you like a toasted tea-cake.
Craig: (extreme laughter) Good question. (more laughter) Give me a question that is not remotely bready and not even slightly curranty. (more laughs all round).
Adam: Well what about curries? Do you like curries, do you find you're quite like Dave Lister?
Craig: I kind of am really. I am a bit of a curry guy. A bit of a beer man. Yeah I mean the characters are all sort of characatures of us in a way, you know of the characters that play them. So, err, Chris is very Rimmer like in although ways, although he won't thank me for saying it. Danny is dead like the Cat. I don't know anyone who's got so many f***ing clothes! He was living with his mum, you know, and he bought this house, and we all thought, "Great Dan, when's the party?", he's never moved in there, the house is for his clothes! (laughs) You know, it's true. And Robert's very...Robert just walks round like a guilt-ridden middle class git basically, apologising for his existence. We're all pretty much the same really.
Adam: That's great. Is it right that a 7th and 8th series have been comissioned and a couple of Christmas specials?
Craig: Yeah, we start filming again in May. So as soon as I've filmed, "The Governor", I'll be going on tour in April and we start "Red Dwarf" in May.
Adam: Will we be seeing all the Boys from the Dwarf back?
Craig: Yeah, I should imagine so. And even some that haven't been around for a while. Like Norman's back as well.
Adam: That's great news. I think that'll be a welcomed returm.
Craig: Yeah I'm one of his biggest fans. He came to the...he was special guest for me at The Duke of York and in London, doing the stand-up show.
Adam: Does this mean we won't be seeing Hattie again?
Craig: No, you'll be seeing both.
Adam: Oh, that is a bonus. Is it right that Rob Grant won't be involved in the writing.
Craig: I don't think so, but I'm not the best person to ask. But I think he's out, yeah. Out for good, I'm not sure.
Adam: Has that upset you at all?
Craig: I don't know what went on. I don't know what went on. So I've really got no...and I haven't asked really, that's Doug and Rob's business basically. I think it would be presumptious of me to expect them to want to explain it to me.
Adam: And the new show. Is it not going to be done in front of a live audience like the last ones?
Craig: No I don't think so. I think we're going to do it single camera, and then play it to the audience on a big film screen, you know, and then get the audience to get the laughs out.
Adam: Is that also so it allows you edit it?
Craig: Well it allows us to perform better. Perfoming a sitcom in front of a live audience is a bit like doing an exams, you know you never quite get performance down, although the audience do lift you and all that. As I say, Red Dwarf's changing, evolved all the time, and it's just a case of that happening again.
Adam: After seeing the out-takes videos it appears you all enjoy making it. Would you say that's true then?
Craig: Oh, we do enjoy making it, yeah. I think we'll do it until we do stop enjoying it. We haven't really got to do any more, you know, if we didn't want to. There's no reason to do it other than that we have such a good time doing it. Cos the audience like it but you know we're all at positions in our career where we don't really need to go back and do any more if we didn't want to.
Adam: Rowan Atkinson once said about, "Blackadder" that as the audience enjoys the show more and more the cast tends to not enjoy it as much, so that's not the same with "Red Dwarf" then?
Craig: That's not the same with Red Dwarf. I think what Rowan was talking about was the fact that when he first started out he was a star, he was the only star of the piece and the only character that got discussed round the table and all that. But as it got more and more popular and it became more and more famous the other characters had more and more say and it wasn't a Rowan Atkinson show any more. Whereas this was always a group effort.
Adam: I think that's probably one of the great things about the show. The group that's there. The core characters. Do you have a most memorable moment in the filming that you could share with us?
Craig: Err, probably getting shagged by Robert Lwellyn, you know when he's trying to get my shorts off in Polymorph. It's simply because the audience were making so much noise that Robert was shouting his lines, he was right in front of my face, and I couldn't hear him. Becase the audience were making that much noise.
Adam: And then Rimmer interrupts.
Craig: Yeah, that was great. It was a great scene. I like a lot of the scenes I do with Robert and, erm, I think I do some great scenes with Robert. The 'banana' scene you know, teaching him to lie and that. Some of the favourite scenes from the fan club and all that seem to be Kryten and Lister scenes. I also like that scene about Wilma Flintstone, you know?
Adam: Oh yes, with the Cat.
Craig: Yes.
Adam: So if it wasn't for Red Dwarf, what do you think you'd be doing now?
Craig: I don't know. It's amazing the way these things come and change your life. When I did Red Dwarf, when I started doing Red Dwarf, I was one of the most sought after young people on television if you know what I mean. I'd just finished, "Saturday Night Live", and I was a rising sort of star kinf of thing, you know. So, erm, it was weird you know. I had all these options, all these choices, and I chose to do Red Dwarf, and it hasn't really gone away since so it's weird to think if I had have chosen something else.
Adam: Are you looking forward to the filming of, "The Governor"?
Craig: Yeah, it's a serious piece, you know. Which is good, you know. I'm happy about that.
Adam: Weren't you going to do another show, "Money for Nothing", has that gone for nothing?
Craig: Well it hasn't happened at the moment. Erm, it's all written up and that but no-one's commissioned it yet. But you know television's in such a state at the moment these things take time, you know.
Adam: So just in general, coming to the end now, are you happy about the direction of you career at the moment?
Craig: Oh yeah, yeah, I'm more than happy really. I'm ecstatic. I've got so many strings to my bow and it's good being me at the moment, it really is.
Adam: That's good to hear.
Craig: I deserve it to tell the truth, after what I've been through you know. I'm lookinjg forward to it.
Adam: I'm sure everyone's looking forward to seeing you back on the television again.
Craig: Alright geeza?
Adam: Thanks you for answering my questions. Could I ask you one final question which is completely unrelated to everything else?
Craig: Go on.
Adam: Seeing as you're from Liverpool and that, is it Liverpool or Everton?
Craig: It's Liverpool! I hate to tell you. My brother supports Everton, but he's really sad. (laughs). Alright then?
Adam: Thank you very much for answering my questions.
Craig: No problem.
Adam: That's great.
Craig: Cheers mate.
Adam: Goodbye.
Craig: Bye.