Ellis can boast of a varied acting CV. He has performed in other TV comedies – on The Catherine Tate Show, he twice played Detective Sergeant Sam Speed in a Life on Mars parody, as well as portraying Sam in Pulling and taking the lead male role in ITV’s Monday Monday, in which Miranda had a regular supporting part. At the other end of the spectrum, he has featured in hard-hitting dramas such as Accused, created and co-written by Jimmy McGovern. Ellis has described Accused as ‘very hard to watch. One of those dramas that doesn’t come along very often; doesn’t patronise the audience.’ He added, ‘It was probably my proudest moment actually, being in that.’ As Neil, he played opposite Andy Serkis in the Accused episode ‘Liam’s Story’, and told interviewer Lorraine Kelly, ‘It was a privilege to work opposite him and observe someone working like that.’
This sort of challenging piece is the polar opposite to Miranda, but Ellis thrives on variety in his work, and is grateful for the chances he’s been given: ‘I’m lucky that I’ve been able to do that, have that kind of range going on. It’s why I got into acting in the first place. I like varied parts, being given the opportunity to do different things. You know, I enjoy doing comedy, but I also enjoy doing straight acting and heavy, intense drama as well, if it comes along.’
Tom Ellis has taken part in some of Britain’s most iconic programmes. In 29 episodes of EastEnders, he played the dishy Dr Oliver Cousins, who succeeded Drs Legg, Samuels, Singh, Fonseca, Trueman and Leroy as Walford’s resident GP. He made his first appearance in January 2006 when Dot knocked him over and he got locked out of his house, while naked. Sounds more like something that would happen to Miranda. Despite this rather farcical introduction to Albert Square, Dr Cousins played an important role in some major, serious storylines. He advised Honey about her unborn child, and found Ben Mitchell when he had run away. He also helped Little Mo with Freddie. He took pity on Mo and began to develop romantic feelings for her, taking her on a date. Eventually, he proposed and the two of them prepared to go to Leeds, but, when Stacey told her that she had seen Dawn kissing him, Mo pushed him to the ground. Shocked by her response, as it had only been a friendly kiss, Oliver ended their relationship. But, when Mo was about to leave the Square, the doctor had a change of heart and told her that he still loved her, asking her to change her mind and go with him to Leeds. She decided not to go, though, and left Walford with Freddie, leaving Oliver to go north alone.
You may also recognise Tom Ellis from another timeless TV favourite, Doctor Who. He is proud to say, ‘I’ve ticked that box.’ In a 2007 story, ‘Last of the Time Lords’, he played Thomas Milligan, a former NHS doctor who becomes a fugitive when the Master brings the Toclafane to Earth. ‘I had a storyline with Martha. It was at the end of the third series when David Tennant was the Doctor. And, yeah, I helped Martha save the world – before I got killed by a sonic screwdriver! It happens.’
For an actor, a Doctor Who death is almost an honour, and, when the Master (played by John Simm) discovers them, he uses his laser screwdriver (superior to the Doctor’s sonic one!) to kill Thomas. But when time was reversed so it never happened, he survived and later got engaged to Martha. It was later revealed in David Tennant’s last episode, ‘The End of Time’, that Martha had instead married Rose’s old boyfriend Mickey Smith.
More recently, Ellis has travelled back in telly time by guesting in Merlin as King Cenred, a moody baddy with long dark hair. Ellis loved playing the part: ‘It was great and I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to play baddies. It is a bit of an acting cliché that actors love to play baddies, but I understand why now, because you just get to exorcise all the things you don’t in real life.’
Being in Merlin was a lot of fun for Ellis, as not only did he get to play the bad guy like a cross between a pantomime baddie and a villain straight out of James Bond, but he also had a fantastic outfit. When What’s On TV magazine asked him if he liked the costume, he exclaimed, ‘I loved it! It was the best costume I’ve ever worn for anything! It was tailor-made for me, the most ridiculous leather suit which I could barely move in and an OTT wig. I looked a bit like Russell Brand really, so I’ve been told. An evil Russell Brand… I got to do everything I ever wanted to do when you’re a kid.’
When he’s not working, Ellis enjoys golf: ‘It’s my yoga, really. Time away just to think about nothing else.’ He also likes to spend time with his two children – his toddler Florence, whom he had with Tamzin Outhwaite, and Nora, who is two years older and from a previous relationship. He likes to watch television with Florence, especially Miranda. ‘I was in the scene and, when I left the scene on the telly, she went, “Uh! Where’s Daddy?” and I went, “I’m sat right next to you,” and she said, “Nooo! Daddy on the telly Daddy!”’
Fans of Miranda can’t wait to see Miranda and Gary get together. In sitcom’s history of ‘will they, won’t they?’ they’re fast becoming successors to Ross and Rachel from Friends. The website tvtropes.org, which calls itself ‘a catalogue of the tricks of the trade for writing fiction’ describes the ‘Will They or Won’t They’ trope like this: ‘Two characters, often combative but with obvious Unresolved Sexual Tension (or UST), resist going into a full blown relationship for a rather long time. Usually the two characters will be presented so that “they will” is the conclusion to root for; only rarely is the question of whether the writer think they should in any real doubt.’
It is true that Miranda and Gary are portrayed as such a good match that most fans are rooting for them to hook up with each other. But some can see that the comedy lies in their failure. Razzberry, a user of the forum on thestudentroom.co.uk, commented, ‘I just prefer her as a single independent lady with an attempt to get guys, but failing! It was hilarious last week in the parachute place where she said she hadn’t slept with a guy for 3 years! I do think Gary is awesome though, not going to lie. I think I just prefer Miranda and Gary as friends though.’
This stylistic device has been used throughout sitcom history, back to Rigsby and Miss Jones (Rising Damp) and Arkwright and Nurse Gladys Emmanuel (Open All Hours) right through to Carrie and Mr Big (Sex and the City) and Tim and Dawn (The Office).
After the first series had finished, news and gossip website Digital Spy asked Tom Ellis if his character could ever end up romantically involved with Miranda, and he replied, ‘I don’t know because, if they do, that will be the show over in many ways. They’ll tease it out for a bit – it’s the new Ross and Rachel, apparently!’
In a statement to the press, meanwhile, Miranda teased, ‘There might be a little bit of a dalliance, yes. Whether it’s with Gary or not, I can’t possibly divulge.’
Series one of Miranda had ended on what Miranda describes as ‘our attempt at a Crossroads-type cliffhanger’, with Gary leaving for Hong Kong and Miranda having blown every chance to change his mind by telling him how she feels. Hart and Ellis both used social-networking sites to build the suspense and keep fans guessing. In September 2010, Tom (@tomellis17 on Twitter) wrote: ‘Gary is in hong kong [sic] doing a new job so will not be around for series 2…’, then followed up with: ‘Or will he be back? …hmm’.
In the weeks leading up to series two’s premiere in November 2010, Ellis responded to fans’ tweets with the following: ‘For all who have seen the trailer and asked if I’m not coming back… I told you. Gary left! Still watch though coz Miranda is brilliant! Txx.’ When the first episode of the second series had finished, revealing that Gary has returned, he admitted his prank. ‘Well… didn’t want to spoil the surprise!!! Thankyou [sic] tweeps for all your lovely messages… hope you enjoy the new series, havin [sic] fun filming!’
Now Gary was back in Miranda’s world, hopes were high for the pair to get together. So much of the writing points to their being made for one another. In series one episode four, before Miranda goes on holiday to her hotel around the corner, a customer called Amanda sees them playing together with children’s toys and assumes they are a couple with children. When Gary says to Miranda, ‘
Hello? Caterpillar duck race!’ it demonstrates he has the same childlike love for life as Miranda. They are also assumed to be a couple when Chris and Alison (Gary’s annoying kissy friends) ask them to be godparents to their unborn child. Until, that is, Miranda ruins her chances by punching a vicar in the face.
Because Miranda speaks directly to the audience in her monologues, she makes it clear that she has feelings for Gary. She is usually very honest and reveals even the most embarrassing of truths, but she occasionally lies for comic effect.
Gary can be incredibly, heroically loyal towards Miranda. He spares her blushes in the park by covering up her semi-nudity when Tilly and Fanny walk past. He is willing to make a fool of himself in order to stop her from doing so. In series two episode four, when the bistro’s new waitress Tamara (Stacy Liu) invites them to an art class, Stevie tries to embarrass Miranda by accusing her of not knowing who Botticelli is. Miranda flounders, but Gary comes to her rescue and mouths the answers behind their backs.
One of the key things that show Miranda and Gary would make a good couple is – like the character of Mr Darcy in Bridget Jones’s Diary – he likes her just the way she is. In ‘The New Me’, series two’s opening episode, in which Miranda is desperately trying to improve herself, Gary muses, ‘I think I preferred the old Miranda anyway.’ Which is just as well. Things were just starting to go well for her while he was in Hong Kong, and she had been developing a sense of composure. Yet, the moment Gary returns, she’s back to her old self – falling off her stool and getting covered in cake.
It is so obvious to their friends that they have feelings for each other and would make a good couple that, in the third episode of series two (‘Let’s Do It’), Stevie and Clive force them to go on a date.
They are reluctant at first, insisting that they are just friends, but Gary is keener once he discovers the vouchers are for Wilson’s (a restaurant whose food he is eager to sample) and talks Miranda into going. At Wilson’s, they are out of their comfort zone and both extremely nervous. Gary suggests that the only solution is to sleep together.
Miranda says she thinks it is an excellent theory, but then confides to camera, ‘He could have given me any theory to be honest!’
Back at Miranda’s flat, they do their best to create a romantic atmosphere. She puts some music on, but the shuffle facility on her music player is a little too random – ‘My Humps’ by The Black Eyed Peas is hardly appropriate. She attempts low lighting, but ends up dimming the lights so low that Gary is sat in the dark. Eventually, they are about to kiss, their faces leaning towards one another, but, just as their lips After giving him some Gaviscon to relieve him, he is worried about his ‘aniseedy breath’, a claim Miranda dismisses. But, as they’re about to kiss once more, Miranda panics and pulls away. They both agree that it has become awkward and over-planned so they agree to try again the next day when they are more relaxed.
When Gary shows up the next day, Miranda is too het up, and says to him that things aren’t working out and that the pressure on them is too great.
Gary apologises but makes a surprise visit later that evening, wearing only his dressing gown. Just about to kiss – again! – they are interrupted, this time by Penny, Tilly and Stevie, returning to the flat with pizza.
Things go better for them as a couple once they decide to remove the pressure of having sex. Gary specially arranges a romantic trip to a spa hotel. Miranda feels an overwhelming sense of relief, but, just as they’re about to leave for their mini break, Clive gets annoyed with Tamara for gossiping and fires her, letting slip that he’d only given Tamara the job in the first place beacuse the were married.
Miranda is appalled and angry by this, while Gary tries to explain that it is only a technicality – that he did it as a favour to Tamara, so that she could get a visa to study in the UK. He is not doing well in seeking forgiveness and only makes it worse when he accidentally says, ‘Come on, it’s not like I’m still sleeping with her.’
A furious Miranda berates him for keeping such an enormous secret from her when they had been planning a romantic getaway together.
The next morning, Miranda goes to see Gary once more. When he asks if she thinks they can move on from this awkward situation, Miranda feels they can. Relieved, Gary starts telling her how Tamara has gone to give them space but she stops him and explains that she wants to move on in a different way; she wants to break up with him.
Even though it was Miranda who decided to break it off, it is clear she still loves him. In a subsequent episode (‘Just Act Normal’), when Miranda is sitting in the psychiatrist’s office, Gary can’t help but burst in and announce to her that he is in love with her. When he gets down on one knee, the audience screams with excitement! But it’s all a dream – Miranda imagined it. Gary never came in and she sits back down, telling the psychiatrist, ‘Don’t think about him. Don’t miss him.’ But, for the sitcom to continue, Miranda and Gary must repair their relationship to some extent. They decide to do this letting Miranda enact a small revenge on him. When he brings them a meal and asks if everything is OK, she says, ‘Yes, fine. Yes,’ and then she shouts, ‘Apart from the fact you married somebody for a green card so have potato for hair!’, before smearing mash into his hair. Nevertheless, ending the series with the pair spending Christmas together as friends again cements their status as a ‘will they, won’t they’ couple. Sharing a bed, they are so relaxed with one another, yet an underlying awkwardness and nervousness suggests an abundance of unresolved sexual tension that could keep the suspense going ad infinitum.
Some journalists have suggested that Gary’s character is perhaps not as profoundly drawn as it might be. ‘If there is a subversive element,’ wrote Dominic Maxwell in The Times, ‘it’s in the way she’s written in a would-be boyfriend character (Tom Ellis) who is just there as eye-candy for Hart to humiliate herself in front of.’
Another journalist, meanwhile, remarked that Gary, ‘in an interesting reversal of traditional sitcom gender objectifying, is underwritten to the point of non-existence’.
In The Times interview with Dominic Maxwell, Miranda reassured him that Gary’s character does develop throughout the series but did confess, ‘As I wrote it, I did think that this was quite satisfying, that I’ve done to a man what men have done to women for 40 years of sitcom!’
Tom Ellis didn’t feel embarrassed about having to play this role though. ‘It’s just one of those things. I’d just approach it like any other part. I like to think that one of the things people like about Gary is that he’s not too aware of it.’ Ellis told Digital Spy that he had become good friends with Hart during the run of the first series, and certainly viewers could see their fantastic rapport for themselves when she interviewed him as a red-button extra. Ellis also admitted to having done 30 press-ups backstage before appearing in front of the cameras in just his boxer shorts, leading Hart to ask him what it was like to play her love interest. When she said to him, ‘The romance is fun to play, but it’s not always fun in real life, is it?’ he laughed and, by way of teasing her, replied, ‘Well… depends if your co-star has got horrendous trapped wind or not!’
Well then. There’s the off-screen chemistry theory ruined.
15
YOU HAVE BEEN WATCHING
‘I knew, before the first series went out, that the phrase “old-fashioned” would be levelled at me. But I regard that as a positive rather than a negative.’
– Miranda
‘Comedy is the new rock’n’roll,’ Janet Street-Porter proclaimed some 20 years ago. The idea of the touring comedian taking groupies back to the hotel was a myth that was soon exposed as nonsense (with a few rare exceptions). What remains, though, is the idea that, like music, it’s cool to like some comedy, while other things are at best considered guilty pleasures. When it comes to television shows, this comedy ‘cred’ is usually inverse to ratings. Take Last of the Summer Wine, for example. The world’s longest-running sitcom had consistently high ratings – peaki
ng with 18.8 million viewers in 1985 – but many viewers and critics branded it ‘boring, outdated, slow and unfunny’. In the last decade, the traditional sitcom has been deemed distinctly unfashionable, with comedy aficionados and judging panels favouring the awkward realism of The Thick of It and The Office. The word ‘mainstream’ has become something of an insult in comedy circles.
The British comedy-watching nation is now in need of a change, a move away from single-camera mockumentaries and dark humour. In stand-up comedy, this has come in the floppy-haired form of Michael McIntyre. Again, despite success on the comedy circuit and moving his way up to arenas via television, people complain that he’s mainstream. Such an attitude makes Miranda angry: ‘What’s the argument? I’m often termed mainstream and it does feel like a derogatory term, but, without the mainstream, you can’t have the other so why would you complain about it? Why would you look down on all of those people who bought his DVD and say, “You’re a bit thick”? I get very cross.’
But it seems to be what the nation wants. There is the argument that, when Britain is going through tough times (cough, economic crisis, cough), then the public want to escape with silliness and laughs. It’s what has happened throughout history – from the King’s jester to satire on 10 O’Clock Live – and it’s what comedians are there for.
As well as mainstream, Miranda has been labelled old-fashioned, both by supporters and detractors. But what is meant by old-fashioned? Let’s take a little journey through the history of the British sitcom.
During the 1960s and 1970s, some of the most popular British sitcoms were Dad’s Army, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum and Are You Being Served?, all studio audience series, and all produced and co-written by the venerable David Croft. Then, in 2004, the BBC conducted a poll to discover what was considered to be Britain’s Best Sitcom. Only Fools and Horses, which was shot in front of a studio audience, took top spot, and you had to scroll right down to number 19 to find The Royle Family, the first mention of a show without a studio audience.
Miranda Hart Page 15