Small Man in a Book (42 page)
Read Small Man in a Book Online
Authors: Rob Brydon
Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Personal Memoirs, #Entertainment & Performing Arts
There was a part in it for me – the part of Bryn West, Stacey’s uncle – and Ruth and James had sent me a couple of scripts. Although I liked them very much, I was unsure of accepting. The problem, as I saw it, was that Bryn was a little too close to Keith Barret – both big-hearted men, both rather naive and, more importantly, both Welsh. I was concerned at becoming pigeonholed as someone who only plays Welsh characters. It’s an odd fear; after all, no one says of Robert De Niro, ‘Oh, here he comes, playing yet another New Yorker.’
James was keen for me to take the role, and we talked around it for a while. He explained that Bryn’s love of technology came from the uncle of his then girlfriend, who had once sat him down and told him all about digital cameras, unaware that James was already in possession of his second. I liked the sound of this and began to improvise around this idea so that James could see if we were both thinking along the same lines.
I took the camera that James had brought with him to the beach that day, and began to invent stuff.
‘Now, this is a digital camera and that means there’s no film in there, none at all, so you never take a bad picture.’
I took a shot of my hand.
‘There we are, now no one wants that, why would they? Not a problem, just press this and it’s deleted, gone, you won’t see that again. And it’s full of features … not sure about this one … sepia, seepia? I’m not sure what it does but I think it’s faulty, it just makes the pictures brown.’
We had a laugh, messing around like this under the glorious Sydney sunshine, finished our remarkably tasty fish and chips and then, with full stomachs, went for a swim.
James later told me that, when he was back in his apartment, he got straight on the phone to Ruth and told her about my riffing around the camera and how they just had to persuade me to do the show.
I’m pleased to say they did.
Acknowledgements
For their help in remembering the things I thought I remembered already but didn’t … Mum and Dad, Pete, David Charles, James Lovell, Jacqueline Gilbrook, Rhys John, David Broughton-Davies, Dougray Scott, Alan Thompson, David Williams, Roger Burnell, James Corden, Steve Coogan, Julia Davis, and David Walliams. For his help in keeping me keeping on and offering invaluable advice along the way, my editor at Penguin, Daniel Bunyard and his team.
MICHAEL JOSEPH
Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London
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First published 2011
Copyright © Rob Brydon, 2011
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Welsh Landscape
and
For Instance
by R. S. Thomas © Phoenix, an imprint of The Orion Publishing Group. Extracts from
Marion and Geoff
and
Human Remains
scripts © BBC.
All images courtesy of the author except: Rob Brydon meeting Bruce Springsteen © Chris Lopez/Photoshoot; Rob Brydon with Tom Jones and Ruth Jones © Trevor Leighton; press cuttings of ‘Rob Lands a job with Sky’, ‘An Oscar for
Sweet Charity
?’ and ‘Join the Carousel’ ©
Glamorgan Gazette
.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. The publishers will be glad to rectify in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.
Photography by Colin Bell
All rights reserved
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book
ISBN: 978-0-14-197036-3
Table of Contents
PART ONE: ‘Born in the USA’ (The Uplands of Swansea, actually …)
PART TWO: ‘Working on a Dream’