Interview: Mark Heap
Tell us about your character, William?
He's a loner. He's someone who is quite happy in his own company, as am I. There's a good line where Debbie says “no one would notice you're dead anyway, because you don't go out, you just sit around upstairs”. So there's a bit of that going on, I think.
What is Debbie and William’s relationship like?
Debbie and William's relationship is one of a comfortable old sock that you put on or a jumper. They've been together for a long time. There's a little bit sometimes zoning in and out of each other's thoughts or words. She's quite bossy, Debbie, but I don't mind being bossed around. We're still very much in love, I think, in our own peculiar way, as is with a lot of couples who've been together for a long time. But we still, as it says in one of the episodes, like to engage in mutual pleasuring, much to the chagrin of our son. No, but it's very easy company, as are my feelings towards Dawn French. She's very easy company.
What has been your favourite moment to film?
Watching my fellow actor Mandip struggling to watch me vomiting. Watching her retching, genuinely. So that was quite good. I don't mean to be cruel, it's quite funny.
What would you do if you were in William’s situation?
If I was in William's situation, I wouldn't have any trouble at all hiding away for months and months. I've got my inner voices to hear, and I've got thoughts to think, and sights to see, and sounds to hear. I think that's all the senses. Feelings to feel, there's another one.
Who is the best bluffer in the cast?
The best bluffer in the cast, I think, would weirdly be the writer, Simon Mayhew-Archer. He pulled a trick on me. I like to know my lines well in advance, and he approached me with a new scene to be done the following day, which involved a long speech and Welsh and all kinds of things. He played it really well, and my reaction was exactly as expected, like, “I'm not doing that”, and all that. And they went, “oh, no, we're only joking”. So, yeah, he was very good.
Interview/pictures supplied by publicists
