Comedian and actor Ben Miller made his West End debut in Graham Linehan’s ‘The Ladykillers’. Now he’s back as the star of new political farce ‘The Duck House’, in which he plays a shifty MP caught up in the 2009 scandal exemplified by MP Sir Peter Viggers’s attempt to claim a £1,600 ‘duck house’ on expenses.
Who is Robert Houston, your character in the ‘Duck House’?
‘He’s an absolutely shiftless, selfserving individual, a complete wrong ’un. He’s a Labour MP planning to jump ship to the Tories because he thinks Labour are going to lose the election, but then he’s horrified to discover that as the expenses scandal breaks, one of the Tory high-ups has come to vet him, to ensure that he’s cleaner than clean and sadly he is not…’
You did an extensive UK tour pre-West End – how were reactions?
‘We performed it in very Tory areas and very Labour areas – it’s interesting, what I’ve noticed is that the Tories laugh at the Tory jokes and the Labour lot laugh at the champagne socialist jokes – it’s a very British thing.’
How did you react to the scandal when it broke?
‘I was baffled and I think most people were, it showed a complete disconnect between public and parliament. But some of it was funny – particularly the duck house, but also Douglas Hogg, who claimed money to have his moat cleaned.’
Are you still angry?
‘It would be depressing if nothing changed, but of course a lot of MPs had to stand down and some went to prison. We remember Sir Peter Viggers claiming a duck house, but the claim wasn’t agreed. These silly claims – the massage chair, the flower baskets, the porn – were the tip of the iceberg. The really dodgy stuff was in property.’
What with Russell Brand telling us we shouldn’t vote and Robert Webb telling us we should, comedians have been talking a lot about politics of late – what’s your take?
‘I prefer to be a bit of a blank slate really – I enjoyed Russell’s bit of hanky panky as much as I enjoyed Robert’s righteous indignation and I found it very entertaining because they are very entertaining people and if that’s what gets people engaged that’s great, but I don’t really see it as my job to talk about politics.’
Your ‘Ladykillers’ co-star Peter Capaldi is the next Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’– how was working with him?
‘The thing about “Ladykillers” was that every single night he did it in a completely different way; it was the most extraordinary thing, I learned such a lot from him. He’ll be a splendid Doctor.’
