From: flostran@fraser.sfu.ca (Andrew Flostrand)
Subject: The Craig Charles Interview
Keywords: Lister, Charles, Interview
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 22:45:14 GMT

This article is being reprinted without permission from the Red Dwarf
Smegazine, issue 5.


Red Dwarf Magazine: How did you first get into acting?

Craig Charles: I started off doing some stand-up poetry and 
comedy, first on 'Saturday Night Live'. Then Paul Jackson, who was 
producing the first series of that, left and took me with him to 
'Red Dwarf' .

RDM: Were you a bit nervous about approaching character acting?

CC: Not really. It was just a case of they'd seen all the 
established actors, and they just hadn't grasped Lister, I 
suppose. I just came in and did it on the first read-through. They 
kind of thought that I had the !right attitude to take on the 
character

RDM: You've been doing it for five series now. Are you bored with 
Lister yet?

CC: No, but I always fight my corner for him now; it's always nice 
to get him to develop a bit more, and get him to become a whole 
person rather than a two-dimensional character.

RDM: How much influence do you
have in that respect?

CC: Well, I suppose the guys write Lister from personal character 
traits of my own. They watch the way we all individually react to 
certain things and kind of take them on board in our characters, 
so our characters are very close - we feel like we actually are 
them really.

RDM: Is there much similarity between yourself and Lister, then?

CC: Well, I've just been reading this thing in 'Vox', which is an 
interview with all of us - it's one of the only ones I've done - 
and the guys are having a go at me here. It says and this is true, 
although I don't remember it: (quoting Rob Grant from the magazine 
interview) ''Once, we were having breakfast, and Craig came down 
and said he was worried about people thinking he was Lister. While 
he was talking, he took a sausage off Danny's plate, poured some 
tomato juice on the table, dipped the sausage into the juice and 
ate it. He didn't realise what he was doing." So I mean, that 
obviously happens - I'm not very conscious of the things I do, but 
that obviously happens. So I suppose I am a bit like Lister, yes - 
in the nicest possible way, of course. I suppose I'm a bit scally, 
a bit
unkempt. I don't always shave and wash (laughs).

RDM: Over the last few years, there have been quite a lot of 
strong stories about the character of Rimmer. Would you like to 
see more Lister based episodes?

CC: Well, Lister's the kind of anchor role in the show. It's all 
about his view of life - even if it's a Rimmer story, it's seen 
through Lister's eyes, and it's all about Lister's reactions and 
his moral codes. I think, in the fifth series, there was more of a 
mixture - there were some posse shows, there were some that were 
peculiarly Lister's, and some that were peculiarly Rimmer's. But 
there's a sixth series planned as well, and I'm sure Lister's 
going to develop quite strongly in it.

RDM: When the show first began, did you ever anticipate the huge 
sort of cult reaction it has now started to get?

CC: I think it took longer than we all expected it to take, 
actually. I mean, we were full of that naive enthusiasm that we 
were just starting something. And we were a lot younger than we 
are now, with a lot less experience of the business, and we all 
thought it was going to take off.

RDM: A lot of people seemed to miss it the first time round 
because they didnt realise what it was!

CC: And the first series has never been repeated or anything like 
that. I think some of the guys are ashamed of it, but I quite like 
it myself warts and all.

RDM: The programme has changed quite a bit since those days, 
hasn't it?

CC: Well we kind of grew up, and decided that walking around in 
cotton slacks was no good anymore. We decided to get a bit of 
leather on us and go for a more real sort of look. And we kind of 
switched mediums I suppose - there are so many different SF media 
that you can go into - and we went for a more realistic sort of 
grown-up, macho type of programme.

RDM: Did that mean many changes to the way you actually worked 
together on the programme?

CC: Well, no. Only Robert Llewellyn's been brought in as an extra 
character, and if you've noticed, the part of Holly has really 
decreased a lot. Robert's taken all the exposition which was once 
Holly's - it seems like Kryten's got quite a big part, but if you 
look at what he actually says, he's mainly there just to let the 
audience know what peculiar scientific angle we're taking now. We 
can all then react to him in our own peculiar ways.

RDM: How do you find the fan reaction? Do you get recognised as 
Lister now. rather than as Craig Charles?

CC: A lot of people call me 'Smeg Head' - but I still get 
recognised as Craig Charles, because I do a lot of different 
things.

RDM: Do you still do the poems?

CC: I still do the poems and things and I still do the stand-up 
comedy. And a lot of other, different things on radio and TV. I've 
always wanted never to be pinned down into one thing. So people 
see me for what I am. I think I'm more famous for being Craig 
Charles than for being in 'Red Dwarf'.

RDM: It's certainly true that you've appeared as yourself in quite 
a few programmes recently...

CC: I did them earlier in the year, when work was kind of slow.

RDM:  You did the series 'Them and Us' of course, in which you 
looked at various injustices around the country, and talked to 
people about them. Is that something that you're likely to do 
again?

CC: I don't think so -- though I think it was well received as it 
were, through the media and all that. It got an awful lot of 
attention, which I was surprised at, and didn't quite like but 
when you start dealing with a BBC1 programme at peak-time, 7.30, 
you've got to expect it. I mean. although viewing figures weren't 
very high because it was opposite 'Coronation Street', it got a 
lot of media attention because, in the time-slot, that was the 
only thing they could write about. There's only so much you can 
write about 'Coronation Street'. I don't think I'll do another 
though I don't think it's me, really.   

RDM: Did you have much input into which issues were covered in the 
programme, or did you find that you were expressing other people's 
views?

CC: They were mainly my opinions - I had an awful lot of input on 
that score I was the one who made us go to Peebles, do the 
golliwogs, and things like that - so yes. But I really don't want 
to be a presenter, you know, it's not what I want to be - I just 
do it sometimes! As I said, I like to do lots of different kinds 
of things, and I work in a business which, if you're good at it, 
allows you to do that. It's kind of enjoyable, so I thought I'd 
give it a shot - but really it's not where I see my career going. 
I see my career as a far more performance-based thing than as a 
television presenter.

RDM: You finished filming 'Red Dwarf V' a few months ago. We 
understand you've been pretty busy since then?

CC: I've been doing a programme for Yorkshire Television, just a 
simple thing called 'Talkback'. It's kind of a school thing I 
wanted to do. I wrote the script for it - not the idea, just the 
comedy bits in it. It's about teaching school leavers how to use 
language and how to cope with various situations. I kind of like 
doing stuff for kids sometimes, but it wasn't really much.

RDM: Is that a full series, or just a one-off?

CC: It's six episodes.

RDM: And after that, you went over to America?

CC: Yeah, and I'm going over again on Thursday. I'm going to go 
and live there for a while, and do some stand-up there. It's kind 
of happening in America, so I want to see if I can pursue that 
angle for a bit give the Americans a real black man!

RDM: Have you found any work over there yet?

CC: I've just got a lot of meetings: a lot of auditions and 
interviews and things like that set up - so we'll see how it goes. 
I've got to go and meet NBC, which is interesting, because they 
were the guys who made the American 'Red Dwarf' pilot, and it's 
kind of weird that they want me to go over and meet them, having 
decided I shouldn't be in 'Red Dwarf'. They seem to like me over 
there, but I really don't know, you never know with the Americans, 
do you?

RDM: Anything else in the pipeline?

CC: Well it looks like I'm probably going to be doing 'Cyberzone' 
now.

RDM: What's that?

CC: It's partly a game show, but it's also like a Virtual Reality 
television show. I like the idea and the hi-tech of it all, but I 
didn't really want to do a game show - but they convinced me that 
it won't be like that and it won't be perceived as that and all 
that kind of stuff, so I'll probably do it.

RDM: Who's doing that?

CC: It's being done by Broadsword, Anglia Television. I'll 
probably be  
doing that in September. And I'm directing my first ever pop 
video...

RDM: Who's that for?

CC: For my girlfriend, Suzanne Rhatigan. She was in one of the 
episodes of ' Red Dwarf ', if you remember; she played my Dream 
Machine in 'Camille' - Lister's Camille. She's just finished 
recording her first album in America, and she's about to go on a 
tour of America, so I've written the video and we'll shoot it over 
there next week. So I'm trying to keep more varied, you know.

RDM: Yes, it seems you're doing a bit of everything at the moment, 
aren't you?

CC: Yeah - that's why I've not been around to talk to the press. 
I'm kind of disappointed really, because it's a great opportunity 
for me to get a lot of publicity, but I haven't done any. But the 
lads have been holding their own, you know. And the series looks 
good, doesn't it? What did you think of last week's? (The 
Inquisitor)

RDM: We thought it was brilliant! It was very much a Lister story 
as well, wasn't it?

CC: Yes - I really think they should have led with that one. Great 
story. I'm looking forward to 'Terrorform', as well. It's another 
sort of Rimmer story, but I'm looking forward to seeing it. 'Back 
to Reality' is a good one, too - that would have been a good one 
to head off with, but I can see why they wanted to do it last, 
with it being the 'end of Red Dwarf' sort of thing.

RDM: How would you like to see your career go? Would you like to 
do more stand-up, or would you prefer to go for perhaps other 
character parts, like Lister?

CC: I wouldn't mind another sitcom - the main reason for me going 
to America is to try to get a part in a comedy over there - but I 
like doing stand-up as well. Whenever I see my future, I think 
it'll probably be in comedy, but in what capacity in comedy, I 
don't know.

RDM: And how long do you think you'll carry on playing Lister? For 
as long as they want you to? Or do you think that, sometime in the 
future, you'll decide that enough is enough, and maybe it's time 
to move on?

CC: I'll carry on doing it for as long as I enjoy it. For as long 
as the writing guys are writing good scripts, and as long as I'm 
happy with what they do with my character. We have fights about 
that!

RDM: You're not a frustrated footballer or anything?

CC: I am, yes. I've played for Tranmere Rovers - I've played for 
Liverpool Youth Team as well - but I was 'prematurely retired'! So 
I am a frustrated footballer, yes.

RDM: Which football team do you support? We can narrow it down to 
about two...

CC: I'm a Liverpool supporter. If we win the UEFA, then we'll have 
a big talk about it - but at the moment, Liverpool are playing 
like Red Dwarfs, you know what I mean? They're not really Red 
Giants! They've got problems, the Liverpool team. I'm kind of a 
wizard little footballer. I haven't played for ages, but I'm 
actually going to play on Saturday in New York. There's a charity 
game and I'm playing in that - teaching the Americans something 
about soccer! But if I could do anything, I'd like to be a 
footballer. Wouldn't you?