{"id":630346,"date":"2026-09-20T09:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T09:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630346\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T09:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T09:18:16","slug":"rob-brydon-i-was-up-on-stage-with-everyone-going-youre-fantastic-but-i-was-very-unhappy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630346\/","title":{"rendered":"Rob Brydon: \u2018I was up on stage, with everyone going, you\u2019re fantastic! But I was very unhappy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At the turn of the century, the trajectory of Rob Brydon<\/a>\u2019s life changed. After years of toiling away on Radio Wales and flogging lawnmowers on a TV shopping channel, he finally had the breakthrough in TV comedy that he\u2019d yearned for. Human Remains and Marion and Geoff, launched on the BBC in 2000, were both award-winning shows and remain cult favourites to this day. To any onlooker, he had made it. But at home, things were falling apart. \u201cI suddenly had the success that I\u2019d wanted for so long,\u201d he says. \u201cI was being interviewed in The Sunday Times and I won Best Newcomer at the Comedy Awards. But I was also in the process of separating from my wife and it was very upsetting, certainly in relation to the children. I learnt that professional success does not necessarily mean peace of mind and happiness. I was up on the stage, with everyone going, \u2018You\u2019re fantastic!\u2019, but I was very unhappy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is quite deep. Introspective Rob Brydon wasn\u2019t what I was expecting. He\u2019s a showman! Right? Brimming with gags and impressions! He tells me numerous times over our conversation that he just loves to entertain people, and with his array of accents and amusing bits he does feel like an old-fashioned entertainer. But his early years of rejection and that contrasting personal hardship and public success in 2000 also might be the key to the essence of so many of the characters Brydon plays: the kind that are hurting, but smiling through it all. <\/p>\n

That said, his career is hardly lacking for variety. He\u2019s done \u2013 deep breath \u2013 Bafta-winning TV series (Gavin & Stacey, Would I Lie to You?), Hollywood blockbusters (Barbie, Cinderella), game shows (Destination X, The Floor), adverts (P&O Cruises, Kellogg\u2019s, Toilet Duck), a podcast (Brydon &), numerous standup tours, music with an eight-piece band, an autobiography (Small Man in a Book), and now, to add to that never-ending roster, his first children\u2019s book: The Cat in the Cupboard. But as a father to five children who range from 15 to 31 years old \u2013 three with his first wife Martina Fitchie and two with his second, producer Clare Holland \u2013 he\u2019s never tried to break America. <\/p>\n

\u201cI like my family,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cAnd I like being at home.\u201d He leans forward and his mellifluous Welsh voice drops to a whisper. \u201cSome actors don\u2019t, and maybe they just want to get away, but I like it. So yes, I\u2019ve had a few opportunities I\u2019ve turned down \u2013 there was a Broadway thing recently and I said, \u2018I can\u2019t do that and be in bloody New York for however many months.\u2019 I don\u2019t know how you can be Dad if you\u2019re not there, but people manage it, you know, maybe it\u2019s just me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brydon is in full dad-mode when we meet at his publicist\u2019s office in west London. He\u2019s a problem solver: I mention it\u2019s chilly and several minutes are lost to him pressing 172 buttons in a valiant attempt to readjust the aircon. Numerous dad jokes are made throughout the conversation \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m 61. How long have I got left? Probably 50 years, tops?\u201d \u2013 and he emits an avuncular, kindly energy. He was one of my very first interviewees when I was a baby journalist 10 years ago, and he hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n

\"RuthRuth Jones and Rob Brydon, who\u2019d been friends at school, as co-stars in \u2018Gavin & Stacey\u2019 (BBC)<\/p>\n

But back to that essence he seems to emit on screen. In his and Julia Davis\u2019s terrific 2000 comedy Human Remains, one of the parts he played was posh Peter, a man existing at the beck and call of his cruel wife Flick. He adores her; she finds him repellent. \u201cIf a life of turmoil, anguish, sorrow, doubt, fear, regret and longing is a bad hand, then yes, I\u2019ve been dealt a bad hand,\u201d he smiles, squinting into the camera. \u201cBut is it?\u201d This encapsulates the sort of brow-beaten, warm-hearted naivety Brydon embodies in so many of his roles, from Marion and Geoff\u2019s desperate, divorced cabbie Keith to Gavin & Stacey\u2019s devoted, well-meaning family man Bryn \u2013 written for him by his school friend Ruth Jones \u2013 and in upcoming BBC sitcom Bill\u2019s Included as a man determined to put on a brave face after his wife leaves him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be in me,\u201d he says now. \u201cIt would be disingenuous of me to say otherwise. Most people who play a comic role, there\u2019s a lot of them in it.\u201d He seems to have a steady, almost pathological optimism even when the signs are bad. It came across in his shopping channel days: he\u2019s not just selling a pair of bistro garden chairs, he is performing. His sights were set higher. \u201cIn my autobiography, I wrote all about my early years and the struggles and everything,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I showed it to my dad, he said, \u2018I didn\u2019t realise how hard it had been.\u2019 And when I read it back, I remember thinking, \u2018Gosh, if I\u2019d known that guy, I might have said to him, I\u2019m not sure this is for you, this business. You don\u2019t seem to be getting very far.\u2019 But I didn\u2019t see that at the time. I was just plodding along.\u201d <\/p>\n

There are plenty of people out there campaigning \u2013 that is not me<\/p>\n

Brydon\u2019s boundless optimism is played up in The Trip, his travel sitcom with Steve Coogan<\/a>, which is coming back for a Northern Lights edition later this year. The pair play exaggerated versions of themselves \u2013 Coogan misanthropic and bitter, Brydon eager to please. The friction is palpable. When I bring up Coogan, Brydon doesn\u2019t miss a beat. \u201cOh my god. How lovely to see Steve is still alive! Thoughts with the family,\u201d he pouts. \u201cIt can\u2019t be easy for them.\u201d He says the pair\u2019s relationship has \u201cgot softer, warmer\u201d over the years, and he puts this down to ageing. \u201cWe know we\u2019re going to die,\u201d he laughs. \u201cWhen I was your age, I didn\u2019t think it\u2019d happen, for whatever reason. Once you get to 50, you start to get an inkling.\u201d So they\u2019re less spiky with each other now? \u201cWell, we\u2019re never as spiky as we are on screen. If we were, we wouldn\u2019t work with each other.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"BrydonBrydon and Coogan sparring in \u2018The Trip to Spain\u2019 (Sky)<\/p>\n

He admits he has to be more careful with his banter on the show than Coogan. \u201cI do, more than him, because I have a career as me, right? He\u2019s always hiding behind a character and is famously combative with his political campaigning, whereas I\u2019m hosting family shows for the BBC. You can\u2019t have your cake and eat it, and there are guidelines within the BBC \u2013 you have the whole Gary Lineker situation.\u201d (Lineker\u2019s 26-year BBC career was dogged in its latter stages by a number of controversies about his political statements.)<\/p>\n

Brydon shrugs. \u201cI don\u2019t have that appetite anyway for controversy. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever ranted about anything in my life, it\u2019s just not me. But equally, I am just an entertainer. I\u2019m just here to make people laugh, smile. That\u2019s all. And in these times now, of unrest, I take a quiet satisfaction and pride that I try to put things in the world that entertain people. My contribution is to try and make people forget about all that. There are plenty of people out there campaigning, that is not me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when I ask about his thoughts on the funding crisis at the BBC, where he\u2019s had all his biggest hits, he is tight-lipped. \u201cI\u2019m a huge supporter and fan of the BBC,\u201d he says. \u201cIt seems to be something that Britain does very well. But I never really get into politics.\u201d His longest-running show, Would I Lie to You?, is on the BBC. He\u2019s been hosting it for 17 years. \u201cLike Gavin & Stacey, the response to it is so heartfelt and warm, because it\u2019s a happy show,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you watch it, you could think the world is a friendly place. And I know a lot of people watch it before they go to bed. It puts them in a good frame of mind to go to sleep.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\u2018Would\u2018Would I Lie to You\u2019 stars Brydon and Lee Mack (BBC)<\/p>\n

He is not worried about it getting the chop in BBC cuts. \u201cNo show is here forever, so it\u2019ll finish at some point. I just turn up and do it.\u201d Of Live at the Apollo, on which he has starred and which is ending after 22 years, he says: \u201cMaybe it had run its course. Twenty-two years, that\u2019s a very successful show. Nothing lasts forever.\u201d A lot of his own projects have had fairly short runs in comparison, leaving people wanting more. But an attempt to make another series of Human Remains didn\u2019t get off the ground. \u201cWe nearly did an update on them, and we did write more stuff, but we couldn\u2019t get the deal right and it never happened. It\u2019s a shame really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since turning 60 last year, Brydon has entered a new era of his career. He has been saying yes to things he had historically shied away from, including writing his first children\u2019s book, a rhyming story called The Cat in the Cupboard, about his family pet Crumble. \u201cI used to think it was a bit of a cliche for someone in my position to bring out a children\u2019s book, and that it might look a little opportunistic, so I\u2019d always said no.\u201d But then an idea popped into his head \u2013 his cat hangs out in a cupboard in his kitchen, and one day he realised those words \u201chad a very pleasing sound\u201d. He started coming up with rhymes in a sing-song voice to amuse himself, and the story evolved from there.<\/p>\n

He is also becoming a little less enamoured with acting. \u201cOne of the things that becomes less appealing as you get older, for me, is out-and-out traditional acting, because the reality of that job is super long days, and for much of that day, you\u2019re not doing the thing, you are sitting around, waiting, and eating rubbish. And I just started to feel that I wanted to do other things. So for example, I said yes to Destination X, after I\u2019d been offered game shows before and said no to them. I said yes to The Floor. I said yes to a country music documentary. I\u2019m just doing things that are a bit different, and there\u2019s something far more immediate about jobs like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrydonBrydon and Julia Davis as posh couple Peter and Flick in \u2018Human Remains\u2019 (BBC)<\/p>\n

Reality TV is rare territory into which he has not ventured. His Gavin & Stacey co-star Melanie Walters is one of the more recognisable names on this year\u2019s Strictly lineup \u2013 has he ever been asked to go on? \u201cOh yeah, everybody gets asked to do that show,\u201d he says, adding that he\u2019d never go on it. \u201cFor so many reasons: number one, I\u2019m not a very good dancer. I find it quite hard. Number two is my knees are basically deteriorating by the minute. And it just doesn\u2019t appeal to me, you know? It\u2019s one of those shows I love to watch, but I wouldn\u2019t want to be in it. I would hate to stand there while people are judging me.\u201d <\/p>\n

He has no interest in The Celebrity Traitors either. \u201cTo what end?\u201d he says. The only competition he\u2019s tempted by is Last One Laughing, the Prime hit where comedians are stuck in a room where they\u2019re not allowed to crack up. \u201cI might do that one because I think I\u2019d be quite good at not laughing,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not a big corpser. I like to get it done. I\u2019ve worked on things with quite a few actors who just burst out laughing in the middle of a take, and it can be a bit irksome because you think, \u2018That was a good take, you know, come on, let\u2019s get this.\u2019 I\u2019ve got quite an old-fashioned view of show business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brydon flashes that dimpled showman\u2019s smile and holds out his hands. \u201cI just have that feeling of wanting to go, \u2018ba dummmmm!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The Cat in the Cupboard\u2019, published by Puffin Books, is out now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-630346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}