Nicky Campbell Show, BBC Radio 5, July 22, 1999.
Transcript: (courtesy of Aisha Bewley) Other (Quentin Cooper?): Nescafe. Gold Blend. Tony: Very good. Other: Yeah. Brand name on the BBC, but there you go. NC: Was Gold Blend Nescafe? I knew it was Gold Blend. Various: Yeah. NC: Have you decided the answer to the question then? Is there too much violence in films? Tony: Umm, I think gratuitous - the ick factor - is the one which really gets... It's strange that Buffy actually, although there's a bit of fisticuffs in it, has not been criticised by anybody for the violence. I used to draw the line at the - what's it - the Power Rangers. I'd never let my kids watch Power Rangers. I believe a great deal of it is in the parents' hands, and I believe strongly in ... NC (interrupting): But why do people - even adults - want to watch it on screen? Tony: But it's that weird - you know when the traffic slows down on the motorway and you think, you know, there must be some huge crash, and essentially they are just slowing down to watch someone who spun off the road. There is that rubber-neck factor that makes us all kind of drawn into ... whether it's, you know, "Thank God, that could have been us" or "Thank God, it's not us," I don't know. But I think it's the unreality of it and the thrill. You know, let's dip into something a bit icky. NC: Well, 56 prominent Americans, including two ex-Presidents have called on the film industry to curb screen violence... [Snippage: Discussion on films with Quentin Cooper, the film critic .... ] [caller mentions the violence at the beginning of Private Ryan) NC: Anthony Head, I suppose people would say, "That's all in context though, isn't it?" You can't have a film about the Second World War without... Tony: That first fifteen minutes was the most extraordinary jolting ride and it was extremely real, but I wouldn't say necessarily that you came out of thinking that one must go and shoot somebody. That's a very good example. [snippage. Discussion goes into Natural Born Killers] NC: Anthony, do you want to come in here before you sip your coffee? Tony laughs. Quentin: Not up to your usual standards then? (laughter continues) NC: Sorry about that. We had to pour it from next door. Tony: I'm getting some stick for this. NC. Hey, listen, we haven't started yet! Tony: Um, I did remember that before I came back this hiatus I was given a script for an Independent film that was being made over here which I found that it seemed to be searching for different grueling ways to kill people. I mean, I passed on it and said, "Actually I'm not interested in it and I don't.." But it was extraordinary. Each time somebody was hurt in some way, it was more extreme and more to make you go, "Oock," to curl your lips at it. [On to Kind Hearts and Coronents. Tony interjects, "And The Lady Killers and the Lavender Hill Mob] [The traffic is due to come up with Jo Sayle] NC to JS: Do you remember those lovely coffee commercials? {Tony protests in the background, "Give it a ...") JS: I certainly do. Tony: Give me a break! NC: No. You're going to have to suffer for this. I had to suffer for things I've done in the past and I'm going to make *you* suffer for this. I mean, you've gone on to greater things, but I mean it was very good to you, wasn't it? Tony: It was extremely good. It bought me a very nice house and it gave me the chance to actually do some seriously good theatre which I couldn't have done. I couldn't have afforded to some of the theatre that I did. NC: How did it go again? What was the first one? Did you knock on the door? Tony: No, she knocked my door and she came to borrow a jar of coffee for her dinner guests and I said, you know, "Are your guests sophisticated enough for my coffee?" and then she brought it back and I had a girlfriend there, and it was supposed to go on for six episodes and it actually ended up as twelve here and ... NC: We used to stay in for the next one, you know, when they said it was on that night. Tony: Yeah. I was talking to a journalist last night and he said that the tabloids would sort of give over whole pages to .. you know, "We've got a sneak preview of the commercial coming". That was extraordinary. NC: There was hype about it. It was like a soap opera, you know - the next edition coming up ... Tony: Huge hype. And then it went to America , which is - you know, I went out on the back of it to sort of get an agent and things... NC: Was the commercial shown out there? Tony: We made it . We did another 12 or 13. NC: With the same girl? Tony: With the same girl with me with an American accent. Scary. Jo Saille: Do you think it would have made a sit com? Would you have been interested in doing some of that? Tony: We talked about it at the time, but the bottom line was, we were already doing it. Why? ... we could do more of it. NS: Yeah. It's that little twinkle in your eye which we can't quite see on radio. It's there, I know. [Tony starts laughing hilariously] You've been giving a twinkle at me all morning. And his wife and child are outside... Tony: They're twinkling away too. NC: Yeah. So, Jo, ask him for some coffee and see if he turns you on. [J starts laughing] Ask him to borrow a jar of coffee. Go on. JS: Oh. Have you got a jar of coffee on you? T: No, I haven't. I've got some coffee in my hand and I'm going to have some of it now, so it you hear a slurp, you know what it is. JS: I wonder how many people turned from tea to coffee after you ads. Tony laughs. NS: Well, we shall never know. If you want to talk to Anthony about Buffy the Vampire Slayer ... Tony: and not about coffee ... NS: Or the Gold Blend slayer, you know the number. [Traffic finally] [Snippage] NC: Now this disquiet which some may describe as paranoia about film violence that is coming from America, you can understand why. You know, I've been reminded that the season finale, Anthony, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was temporarily pulled in America ... Tony: It certainly was. NC: ...because it resembled Columbine High School massacre too closely. Tony: Well, I don't know about a sixty foot snake ... NC: OR there was a scene in which students try to slay a teacher who's turned into a serpent. Tony: It's the Mayor ... NC: The sensitivity is wrong ... Tony: Basically there were two episodes that got pulled. One was an episode where Buffy hears the thoughts of somebody who says they're going to kill children and it turns out to be one of the school cooks. But there is a scene where one of the kids is seen on the roof with a gun and he's actually trying to turn it on himself. He's trying to commit suicide because nobody cares about him. They pulled that one and that was very close to the Colorado shootings, and I understood. The last episode, the final episode, the idea was that this mayor who spent most of the third season turning into some huge demon turns into a sixty foot snake and on Prize Day turns on the school. And his whole idea is that he's going to create bedlam and chaos, and the students, en masse, fight him and vampires. Now, where there is some similarity between that and Colorado, I don't know. Now, I understand the sensibilities in saying, "Okay, let's delay it," but I mean nobody could draw any kind of comparison. The thing is set in a school and so therefore there is a comparison. [... short discussion on whether it's gone too far the other way. More calls on violence] Caller (Andy): I've got a quick question for Mr. Coffee over there. Tony: Oh, hello. Laughter. QC: Coffee man... Caller: I actually work abroad and I used to watch all the adverts and they were great and everything was building up, and then I went away and I missed the last.... Universal laughter. NC: So what's your question? Caller: Do you actually get the girl in the end? Tony: No, I didn't! We ended up driving around around a square in the east end of ... in the City, talking about the fact that she'd left a two cups and a jar of the coffee for the guy that was buying her flat. At the time we finished it, but they weren't terribly keen on finishing it per se. We were supposed to drive off into the sunset, but never did. NC: What coffee drinker was always - we'll come back in a second - it was always late at night. You'd have a cup of coffee presumably late at night and you'd be up all night. What Andy wants to know is: what were you doing all night when you were up all night having drunk the coffee? Is that right, Andy. Tony is laughing. Andy: Yeah, and if so, did the Americans change the ending? NC: They shot each other. Tony: The Americans - we never finished the campaign in America, and it went completely different in America. I got introduced to her ex-husband and she had a son and ... NC: Oh my word! Tony [Doing an American accent]: There's another story completely. NC: She had a son? Tony: Oh yeah! NC: An ex-husband?! Tony: Oh yeah! QC: Natural Born Quaffers. [laughter] Andy: Can I just add one last thing? If Nicky gets on to you too much about this, I've just come back from Spain now, ask him how he enjoyed doing Independence Day, the audio book. [laughs] NC: That's something between me and the three people who heard it. Andy: (Laughing) It was atrocious. NC: Andy, thank you very much. Well, know you, I'm not an actor, am I? Not much of a broadcaster either, frankly. Thank you very much for that lovely call. [snippage for weather and news headlines and sports] NC: ... The very fine actor, Anthony Head, is with me and ... Tony (mocking tone): Extraordinarily fine. NC: Extraordinarily fine. Marvellous actor... Tony: Marvellous, marvellous chap. NC: He's done many things, but stage is your first love, though, isn't it?" Tony: Oh, anything actually, to be honest. NC: No, no, no, no, no. That's not the answer you were supposed to give. Tony (in a put-on pretentious voice): "The stage my first love." NC: The stage is your first love. I mean, go on. The next thing is: "It may not pay as much but it's the immediacy of it." Tony (still put-on voice): "It's the rapport." NC: The rapport with the audience. I mean, filming's all right. There's these huge cheques I get for coffee commercials, films, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but - Lear - that's what I love. Tony: I love to Lear. [Both laugh] NC: We've got another question. David, on the M 1, question for Anthony. David: Good morning, Nicky. Nice to speak to you. Hi, Anthony. Tony: Good morning. David: How ya doing? You all right? Tony: Yeah, I'm great actually. David: Great stuff. I'm on the M 25 now, so stuck in the traffic, so I thought I'd give you a quick call. I'm a fan of the TV series called Highlander: the Series which was screened in America three or four years ago and you played a part in that. Tony: I did. David: So any listeners who don't know what it is, it's a TV show where immortals live and they cut the heads off other human beings and ... Tony: Absolutely, and the thing that always amazed me what how they managed to make the story. It would always end up the same way - he would always chop someone's head off and it was like... David: Yeah, at the end of the show, the baddie would normally get it or that's the way it used to go which is something which is not palatable to the mainstream, but it certainly was a good TV show. How did you find working on that one? Tony: Umm, it was an odd one, because basically it was one of those episodes where they had low budget at the end of the series and they needed to do it all in one location. So the idea was that we were in a French chateau surrounded by fog and the element I found slightly strange was that I was shot at the end of it with a submachine gun and with three or four bullet holes across my chest and I lived. And I couldn't quite understand what message was being told to kids at that point. But, it's an interesting example of - there was a far amount of violence, although the sword fights were more about the expertise and the excitement of it. There wasn't that much blood and guts. QC: Anthony, are you trying to duck round and say, "It's a load of old nonsense", by any chance? Tony: Well, in what context? (laughing) QC: It just sounds like you're *hedging* a little bit here from saying, this is quite a lot of sort of pseudo scientific fiction sort of rubbishy sort of ... Tony: No, I found that Highlander ... As I said, I found it amazing that they could invent a story each week which would somehow always end up the same, and yet they would somehow find a different way of cutting someone's head off. And, I suppose, in that respect, Buffy is not the same in that it isn't always vampires that she's dealing with and there are various things. Buffy's actually more about the problems that we've all had at school and in growing up, but it's like an analogy, it's a metaphor. QC: Buffy's kind of Clueless with fangs, isn't it? I really enjoy Buffy. Tony: Yeah, and it is extraordinarily funny and, you know, thrilling at turns. Highlander I always felt took itself too seriously. NC: Which is never a good idea. [snippage for calls on something else] NC: Kerry in Luton. How old are you? K: Twelve. NC: And you've got a question for Anthony, haven't you? K: Yeah. Tony: Hi, Kerry. Kerry: Do you believe in vampires? Tony: Um, I kinda do actually. I know it's sad, but I've always, ever since I saw Bram Stoker's Dracula. In fact I read it early on .. I've always thought there must be ... It's more about tangible evil, if you know what I mean. It's about real evil and sort of the dark side ... NC: Dark forces. Tony: Dark forces, and so therefore I've always felt there is something out there of some sort in answer to your question. NC: Dark forces, like The Bill, for example. [Tony cracks up, followed by Nicky] NC: Kerry, you like that show, do you? Kerry: Yeah. NC: The vampire one, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. What's good about it? Kerry: I like Xander in it. Tony: Ah, he's funny, isn't he? He's very funny. It's back in September on BBC 2. Kerry: Yeah, thanks. Tony: Bye. [hilarious call about something else. Cricket scores] [Traffic and back to Jo Sayle] JS: The lady who plays Buffy, hasn't she been voted the most attractive woman in the world? Tony: The sexiest woman in the world. JS: The sexiest woman in the world. Tony: And I've been voted the third sexiest man in science fiction, I'll have you know. NC: Have you really? Tony: Yes, I have. NC: The third sexiest man in science fiction. Tony: Yes, I was beaten by David Boreanaz, who plays Angel in the show, and David Duchovny. NC: Who is sexier than you. Tony: Sexier than me. They're both sexier than me, so that's all right. NC: Right, and you're too sexy for your coffee cup. Tony: I'm too sexy for my trousers is all I can say. NC: Five Live Travel with Jo Sayle and the third sexiest - well, the sexiest man in this studio by ... [Tony is giggling]. Well, the second sexiest man ... [sport trailer. Review of Phantom Menace by Quentin Cooper]\ QC: Anthony, where was Patrick Stewart in the list of sci fi sex symbols then? Tony: He was about number 8. I have to say. That was one of the biggest encouragements. You know, the fact that .. NC: That you're sexier than Patrick Stewart Tony: I'm sexier than Pat. It's cool. NC: Nick in Leicester. Good morning, Nick. Nick: Morning. I just wondered if Nescafe missed their greatest advertising opportunity. Tony: What was that? Nick: Well, instead of shooting the last advertisement the way they did, surely the two of them sitting up in bed together drinking Bucks Fizz would have probably been more appropriate. Tony: Wouldn't have sold the coffee though, would it? NC: Exactly, they should have been in bed together drinking coffee. Nick, you don't get it, do you? Nick: Well, then the country would have known what they were doing. NC: Oh yes, but it's a coffee commercial. That's what they were doing. They were selling coffee. [unintelligible comment from QC ] Tony: I have to say, when we were going the American commercials, there was one conversation we had sometime later in the series where I had my feet up on the sofa and somebody came in and said, "No, he can't have his feet up on the sofa because that means that they've made it." NC: Sheila, do you remember these commercials. [Sheila is a listener in another studio who's reviewing the weekly film] Sheila: I do, yeah. I can remember the ones where he often used to come to the door. NC: He's in the studio with me. Sheila: Is he? NC: He's the second sexiest guy in science fiction, he's telling me. Tony: Third, third! NC: Sorry. Sheila: Oh, I think he's probably the first actually. Tony: Oh, thank you. NC: You reckon he's a bit of all right, do you? Sheila: I think he probably is, yeah. Tony: Oh, thank you NC: I think I'm going to be sick. [Laughter] QC: Shall I do this Star Trek competition while I've got a second? NC: Quentin .... (muttering) I'm not jealous, grrr! [competition elided] NC: Barbara in Oxford. Hello, Barbara. A quick point? B: Hello, I just wanted to ask Anthony what he felt - there's just been a twelve year old girl on the phone - how he felt about the way it's scheduled in this country, considering some of the story lines we've not yet seen on terrestial telly over here are quite dark in the next series. And I wondered how he felt that it's shown before 7.00. Well, it starts before 7.00 on the BBC. Tony: The early version that's shown here is edited. B: I know. Tony: Uh, um. (laughing) which is why a lot of adults have said, "Why is it edited? Why can't we see the full thing?" Who knows. Ultimately it's shown at 8.00 on American TV and I have to say that the darker elements of it are more about ...umm, it's less about sort of , as I said before, the splatter factor, and more about psyche and people's darkness... B: But it's creepier, really. NC: Do you enjoy it though, Barbara? Because we're running out of time. It's the psychological aspects about it which are very often the most interesting as Anthony says. Do you think he warrants the title, the third sexiest man in science fiction. Do you? [Laughter] B: I know a lot of people who do. NC: Do you? Tony: Oooh. B: Yeah. I think it's one of his co-stars that won the sexiest man, was it not? Tony: Yes, very much. It was David Boreanaz, and he is. NC: So he's very much your cup of tea, is he? Or your cup of coffee. I asked for it, yeah. All right. Barbara, thank you very much. Anthony, it's been great fun. Thanks for coming in. Tony: Thank you.
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Page created October 1999. Original material © Betsy Vera (bentley@umich.edu). This website is for information and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to infringe on copyrights held by others.
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