Geoffrey Palmer has a long and distinguished acting career, appearing in a multitude of
British comedies and dramas. He has also had roles in such notable films as A Fish Called
Wanda, Mrs. Brown, with Judi Dench and the indie-cult film A Zed and Two Noughts.
Borders.com's Video Editor had the distinct honor to speak with him about the wonderful
series As Time Goes By, in which he, again, stars opposite Judi Dench. Find out what he has
to say about his co-star, his past military experience and how he feels about fly-fishing.Who or what inspired you to become an actor?
Geoffrey Palmer: Oh, there's a first error! I wouldn't say that anything really inspired me. I was born in London and my mother was a keen theater girl, my father wasn't particularly, but I used to go to the theater [while I was] in my teens, but I never thought I'd be an actor. And, I think, I really became an actor by default. I went into the services just after the [Second World] War ended, and I grew up during the war, so I never really thought of a career. I was 12 on September 1939 when it all happened, so really between then and the age of 18 all I was thinking about was "it's my turn next to be grown up and get into uniform," and "oh hell I don't want to do that." Or, "Wouldn't it be exciting." And I never thought of anything. And then I got a government grant to do a business training course; I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to do because the thought of jobs really… And I went into the world of commerce for about a year, and I suddenly thought, "I really can't do this anymore." At the age of 21, sitting in a huge office with 40 people and 100 telephones or whatever it was.
I understand that!
GP: But I just walked out one Friday afternoon, and then I drifted around a bit and I had a great friend I had been at school with who lived near me, I used to see a lot of him, and he had a cousin of his staying with him, who was an actor. Sadly this particular actor died about ten years ago. I felt this fellow was a lot of fun and seemed to get more laughs than I did. I realize now that was because of his personality and he was a happier fellow, less lugubrious than me. But anyway, I talked to him, and at that stage my current girlfriend had got me to do a couple of things with the local amateur theater group, and I had only said yes to be with her. But the combination of those things [created an opportunity], I suppose -- I got a bit of a kick out of being an amateur, and this guy seemed to have more fun than I did. So, he told me various people to write to, and nobody would give me a job, and ultimately I wrote other people and said, "Can I work for nothing?" And that's how I started. That's a long sentence isn't it!
And most people will let you work for nothing![Laughing]
GP: That's right! They still do increasingly![Laughing]
How much do you think that your past military experience in the Royal Marines has brought to the characters you've played?
GP: I think it may have helped in some things. Did you have The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin? It went to some places in the States. That's about, oh, 20 years ago now.
No, I didn't see it, but I read a bit about it.
GP: I played a sort of really thick, stupid sort of Army officer who had got very far and made a nonsense of everything. And so I based him on service people that I totally despise, you know?
Right, you've said that you played officers as idiots.
GP: Yes. Well it's more fun. I was a corporal; so it's more fun for me to play corporals and such. And a lot of officers are idiots, so that's how I play them really. Not all of them, but some of them. I played him like that, then there was a spin-off of that called Fairly Secret Army, which was a bloke who was very right-wing and, you know, founded an army to... get rid of anybody who didn't believe in what he believed in. So, I've played quite a few military people.
And how did you get drafted into a Fawlty Towers episode from playing military characters?
GP: I haven't just played military characters, but I think John Cleese was part of the company who actually did Fairly Secret Army, but he was a fan of the writer of that and Reginald Perrin and of [creator] David Nobbs and he'd seen episodes that I'd done, [so] I think it was probably his suggestion.
That's wonderful. I just watched all of the Fawlty Towers episodes again, because I interviewed Prunella Scales and Andrew Sachs.
GP: Oh right!
And so they're very fresh in my memory. I think it's amazing how Fawlty Towers has remained such a popular series, 25 years later.
GP: It was a wonderful series to work on. [John Cleese] was a very leading figure, but his extraordinary generosity, [which] you don't necessarily meet in the star of [every] show. I mean Pru Scales, of course, is well-known, but Andrew Sachs would never have been allowed to be as wonderful a character by a lot of other leading men, but Cleese is absolutely wonderful! He wants everyone to be at their best and that character to be as fully realized as possible. Which you can see in the show, actually.
And Andrew Sachs is about the sweetest man I've ever spoken to.
GP: Lovely man! Lovely, lovely man!
So, let's talk a bit about As Time Goes By. Originally, I didn't know anything about this show, but I got sent some tapes to view and I have not been able to stop talking about it since. I'm so thrilled that I'm speaking with you. I really couldn't be more happy, and so now you've gained a new fan!
GP: Lovely!
I didn't realize that it was both a radio show and a television show. Do you have a preference of doing one over the other?
GP: We've just done [the radio shows] really very much based on some of the television scripts, at a later date after we'd been up and running for a long while on television. It's easier. You don't have to learn it, you can stand and read it, and basically you've done the scripts before. But the actual getting it right the first time is what the television is about and trying to find out where the laughs are buried and not getting them wrong, that's what television's about really.
I was wondering if one acted as a rehearsal for the other.
GP: No, not really. Most of the radios we've done maybe two or three years after we did the televisions.
The writing by Bob Larbey is just incredible, I really love it. But there's a lot of context within the series that doesn't have any words written into the script. Do you improvise or is that done during the read-through? Do you work it through with Judi Dench?
GP: No, we don't improvise at all. There's a couple of times she threw something at me at the end of an episode or something, you know, but that would be the only thing (I think she threw a carrot at me or something). But, I wouldn't say anything is improvised. We rehearse fairly assiduously, really. Bob Larbey comes to the first day when we read it and roughly plot it, move it, you know, and he's there to answer questions, and we can say, "Why do I say this? I don't like it." And he'll say, "I'll tell you why you say it..." And he explains it and it makes sense, and he's a very, very clever writer because if you read the script you think, "Nothing happens again in this episode!" [Laughing] But when you do it, something does happen, I think [that] to write something that is that thin, gossamer, is immensely clever.
Like Chekov?
GP: Well, yes, I mean maybe more happens in Chekov, maybe it doesn't, I don't know. But I have tremendous respect for Bob, I hope he now has respect for us, he sometimes doesn't even come to the taping, he just comes to the read-through, and never comes again, you know. I admire him enormously, he wasn't the original writer we had.
Oh really? And how did that happen?
GP: Well, it happened through the Theater of Comedy... there's an artistic director there who had come across the script and sent it to me and said, "What do you think of it and would you like to do it?" And I then said, "Yeah," I thought it wasn't bad and I suggested Sydney Lotterby, our distinguished director, who's done half the things you've got there, probably. I mean he started Porridge, Yes, Minister, The Last of the Summer Wine. But Sid produced all those. And he came onboard and then we had various meetings and then it didn't seem to be going in the right direction and someone suggested that Bob Larbey might take up the idea, which I found extraordinary, because Bob was a very successful writer, that he would pick up someone's else's idea. He just took the germ and went from there. And that's ten years ago.
You and Judi Dench are both members of the Theater of Comedy, is that where you met?
GP: Yes. Well I'd met her a couple of times before, but I'd never worked with her until this.
Well, you have fantastic chemistry. It's just right there and you see it and it's awesome, so I totally applaud this show. Like I said, I'm really excited about it. Have you started shooting the eighth season yet?
GP: No, we're going to start in January. I mean Judi was so busy last winter so we didn't do one, and then she was doing a couple of films and then she was on Broadway. So we start immediately after Christmas.
Well, I'm so happy that it's continuing, and I know that your fans are. I don't know if you ever go onto Web sites and look around; there a lot of people that really, really like this show.
GP: Well, it just seems to have happened in the last year or two. I mean it had been filtering toward PBS stations, I think, in the States for a few years, but I was just over in America and quite a few people in all sorts of strange places said, "Hey! Aren't you in As Time Goes By!" It was extraordinary.
I think it's great. My favorite part of your character is, just that there's just the reality of aging and the reluctance to change, but you do change, as the series progresses. Is there something about Lionel that you really connect with?
GP: Well, yeah, I suppose there are various things. I think one of them is they're the same age, and I don't like aging but I'm conservative with a small "c," I suppose. I have one wife and one son and one daughter, but if I were in a house surrounded by women, as Lionel is, I think I would be ill at ease. Although, he's probably quite good at the occasional flirtation or in the earlier days the art of seduction, he's like a lot of men and probably me, far more at ease with men, really. Although, it's kind of nice to be surrounded by girls, it's not his natural habitat -- you know what I mean?
Oh yes, definitely. I think that it's pretty clear that he is trying to ease into trying to feel comfortable in the situation.
GP: That's right. And he's a bit of a bigot, which I probably am too. But I'm not as bad as he looks and sounds -- I hope![Laughing]
Well, something that really connected with me is that there's a realness to these characters and it's gentle without being too nice. And there's some scenes that just really made me laugh out loud. There's the one scene in the first season where you and Judi Dench are going through the thistles (the big field of thistles) and I was just laughing! And you stepped in the water and I just thought, "That's hysterical!" Do you have a favorite episode?
GP: I don't know that I do honestly. I remember that [episode], it's the same one where we ended up in the hotel where we first made love. Is that the same one?
Right, yes, that's the one.
GP: Well, I mean that was pretty lovely, I thought. What you said about it is exactly what I personally would want from a program. To me, if it isn't real, I don't want to do it. If the characters can't genuinely be identified with as real human beings, I don't want to do it. And I hate the things that have to get a laugh every minute. If it doesn't get a laugh, forget it, as long as it's real. It was actually down to my chum, Sid Lotterby, the producer/director, who at a very early stage, I think, he said to Bob Larbey, "Look, this guy is just a sort of late middle-aged man. Let's make him a bit crotchety, a bit bad-tempered, or a bit inclined to snap or something, to give him balls, as we say." I think Bob's kept it there and hopefully I present it. So, he isn't too bland?
No, not at all. In fact, I have a feeling that I'm going to end up at some point in my life being very much like a combination of your character and Judi Dench's character.
GP: Oh well! Very few have got Judi's character, that will be wonderful! You sound great from here anyway.
How long would you like this series to continue?
GP: Well, we were happy to do one, and in our little chats Judi and I thought it might run to three, well now it's done eight. I don't know. I can't think that we would want to do... if we said ten, that's probably fantasizing, I don't know. But if Bob thought he could write it, I think Judi and I and the rest of the gang would be happy to do it. We all get on very well and we love doing it. We have a lot of fun and we like each other and everything, so, it's the kind of working high point of the year, to me, to do it.
Oh how nice! That's nice to hear because you don't often hear that!
GP: I mean Judi Dench is kind of new to America since Tonys and Oscars and things, but she's extraordinarily distinguished in this country and has been for years and years and years, and it's everybody's dream to work with her because she is a fantastic actress. And she doesn't know about competition or being a star. I mean she's totally un-competitive. And she's heaven on earth to work with. And the extraordinary thing about her, although she is a wonderful actress, only once in the filming of the first series was I awed, intimidated by her talent. I mean she can turn on a cent, she can turn from one emotion to another. But she's such an extraordinary person that you're not intimidated by that, in some ways she drags you along with her, up to her level.
I understand exactly what you mean, there are a lot of Americans that say, "Who?" which is sad, really sad.
GP: Well, it's understandable, because her return to Broadway this year was the first return in 40 years, and she hasn't done a lot of movies. She's essentially a theater actress. She's never out of the theater, really.
Well, you've done some movies as well. You've worked with Peter Greenaway, and I love the film A Zed and Two Noughts. So, is there a director that you'd like to work with in the future? Someone you dream of working with?
GP: Well, I'll tell you one. I did Mrs. Brown with Judi Dench. Did you see that?
Yes I did.
GP: And John Madden, who directed that, who then went on to do Shakespeare in Love... is just a terrific director. I'd love to work with [him] in the theater or on film.
So, tell me, what are you working on? What is your next project?
GP: I'm not doing much, I'm fishing most of the time really. [Laughing]
What kind of fishing do you do?
GP: Well, I was in Montana three weeks ago fishing for trout and I'll be in Scotland in a couple week's time fishing for salmon, fly-fishing of one sort or another.
Oh, how nice!
GP: It's a new passion and I just love it.
I hear that it's quite an art, fly-fishing.
GP: Oh absolutely! Forget about catching a fish, it's the ability to cast properly. That's all I want to do. You get so much pleasure out of that when it works. I don't do it very well, I left it too late in life, but it's job, absolutely job. You must try it.
I'm actually more of a gardener.
GP: I used to do that until I found fishing.
Have you seen the film A River Runs Through It?
GP: Yes, I have.
I'm thinking of you standing in a river with waders on and…
GP: That's right.
How fun, it sounds very interesting.
GP: The book is better actually, but it always is better than the film, I mean.
In most cases. Thank you so much for your time today.