‘We were in LA, which is a very glamorous place, and I was staying at
one hotel and Steve was staying at the Chateau Marmont,’ Brydon
recalls. ‘And I phoned him one Saturday night and I said, “What are you
doing?” And he said, “I’m coming by in an open-top Thunderbird, let’s
go back to my hotel.” Fantastic, this is going to be great! So I wait
outside my hotel on Sunset Boulevard and this grey car comes along and
he’s waving his arms out the top and I jumped in the back like the Dukes of Hazzard. There were some other
people there – they were people of both sexes, you know, I thought,
“Well, who knows what’s going to happen?” We go back to the hotel where
John Belushi was found dead – this is going to be a great night, I’m
going to remember this forever, I’m going to tell people about this.
And we get back, we go to his room, we’re in one of the little cottages
in the grounds of the Marmont. Fantastic, what’s Steve going to pull
out of the hat here? What are we going to do?’
He pauses, then breaks into the spot-on Coogan impression showcased in
‘Cock and Bull’: ‘“Errr, sssorry, I’ve actually got the pilot of my new
show.” And we sat there and watched the pilot of his new show while he
stood over us monitoring our laughs. And that was my wild night at the
Chateau Marmont. And then it finished and we said: “Very good, yeah” –
and, jokes aside, it was very good indeed – and then it was like,
“Right, well, er… Better make a move…”’
It’s typical of their affectionate banter that Brydon should end an
anecdote targeting Coogan’s neuroses with an assurance of his talent –
not, perhaps, a tack his ‘Cock and Bull…’ incarnation would have
followed. But that doesn’t mean any quarter will be given. I ask Coogan
about the style of the series:
SC It’s shot on location, single camera. No audience.
RB Oh, I don’t think it’s as bad as all that…
SC [Laughing] Oh, I knew that! As soon as I said that I thought, ‘Oh no! Argh!’
RB Let’s not judge it before it goes out. Let’s not jump the
gun. Do you know, I think you’re probably right, but let’s give it a
fighting chance…
A clean entry, a delighted wince, a last twist of the knife and both are satisfied. Here’s to the happy couple.
