As long as you’ve hit the save key on your Apple Mac you’ll never lose anything. Yeah, right. That’s not what happened here. In late 2013 I interviewed the hardest working man in showbiz Michael Smiley. I’d been a fan ever since he played raving courier Tyres in Spaced. He had also revealed an intriguing, different side to his acting chops in his more recent work with Ben Wheatley in brutal films such as Kill List, Down Terrace and A Field In England.
He was not promoting anything in particular at the time I met him near his home in Brixton, but he was so prolific I thought I’d better catch up with him before he burnt himself out. He was a really lovely chap and rather than refer me to publicists and agents when I messaged him on Twitter he arranged to meet me in a cafe, where we chatted about everything from his recent work and personal life to his early days as a stand-up. He came second to Dylan Moran in So You Think You're Funny in Edinburgh in 1993. "Split decision," says Smiley.
At the time of the interview I’d recently seen Smiley in – deep breath – Dr Who, Edge of Heaven, The Life of Rock with Brian Pern, Ambassador, Utopia, Luther and Father Figure and he had just finished filming the movie Black Sea with Jude Law. Take a look at his CV here and you’ll see he has notched up another dozen gigs or so in the two years since then. Everything from BBC Comedy Feed Fishbowl to movie hit The Lobster.
When Black Sea came out last year I decided to write up the piece. It was a long interview and, of course, I hit save regularly like a good boy. The next day I went back to finish it off and it was gone. Disappeared. Zilch. No amount of disc-cleaning, searching, omni-sweeping, trawling could find it. This hadn’t happened to me before. I think it has something to do with the big chunk of yellow data that has been eating up my memory space, but hey, that’s my problem.
And now the happy bit. A few weeks ago I clicked on some word count software I rarely use and, hey presto, a decent chunk of the interview was sitting there politely minding its own business since the last time I’d used the file. Maybe one day I’ll find the rest…
And so here it is. The last remains of my interview with the wonderful, versatile, very funny and fascinating Michael Smiley. And of course it’s still as relevant as ever as Smiley is still as busy as ever. Last night he kindly sent me an email listing what he is up to at the moment. Take another deep breath...
1. The new Luther special this Xmas.
2. Murder, a new series for BBC.
3. Boxing film, written by and starring Johnny Harris, with Ray Winstone. Original score by Paul Weller.
4. New series for E4 called Aliens starring Michael Socha from This Is England and Michaela Coel from Chewing Gum.
5. Ben Wheatley's new film Free Fire, which should be out next year.
6. A feature film called My Name Is Emily. With Evanna Lynch from Harry Potter.
7. Orthodox, a feature film with Stephen Graham.
I should clear up one thing first. Smiley's surname was so right for him when he first broke through as an acid house era stand-up I thought maybe he had chosen it. Johnny Rotten worked perfectly for punk, Smiley seemed to be the perfect name for a rave culture comedian. And the funny thing is that when I met him he was sitting quietly in a Brixton cafe reading a paper, glasses and hat on, collar up, as if he was an MI5 agent making a secret drop. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," I said. "George Smiley" he chuckled.
BTJ: Are you the hardest working man in showbiz?
MS: It certainly feels like it. I just went from one job to another over the last two years. People ask when did it happen. I guess when Kill List started seeping into consciousness and I won a BIFA Award , but it takes time for all these things to permeate. Off the back of that there was A Field in England and that was the kicker.
BTJ: So how did you hook up with director Ben Wheatley?
MS: I first worked with Ben on a BBC sketch show with Brian Blessed call The Train Pirates and he approached me with the script of Down Terrace which was shot in 8 days. Maybe Ben knew me from Spaced. I did my part for him in one day, it was a revelation that you can work that fast and be allowed to improvise. That stopped a lot of fear about acting, worrying about the script. Coming from stand-up I was more used to riffing on a headline until something comes. I struggled with the mechanics of line-learning.
BTJ: Did you ever train as an actor?
MS: I’ve never had any formal training in anything! I think hindsight is all 20:20. I think working with directors who came to me rather than my agent sent me to them you are not trying to second guess what they want. I don’t mind auditions now but I used to hate them. I had to realise that you need to sit down and relax and enjoy them.
BTJ: I first saw you onstage in a play you wrote, The Parting Glass.
MS: I did that in 2001 at the Red Lion in a double bill with Boothby Graffoe. It was part of an Edinburgh trilogy. From that I started to get acting work. Shortly after that I did a cop drama Murder Prevention. I was playing a lot of drug dealers. Like a lot of things in life you don’t really realise what is going on, things just happen. Murder Prevention was a case in point. I’d had three disastrous auditions in a row and they said just relax and I got the job. I went from that to Bleak House.
BTJ: You were pretty committed to acting?
MS: I was trying to establish myself as an actor. Just go to work, get your head down and your arse up.
BTJ: Did you actively opt for serious roles after Spaced?
MS: I really enjoyed the fact that I was a stand-up comedian onstage and onscreen I was a serious actor. I was more fascinated by the drama whereas with comedy there’s a pattern already out there that you’ve got to fit into it whereas with drama there are parts for you. Somebody said the difference between stand-up and acting is like the difference between snowboarding and skiing. As I’m getting older stand-up sits less comfortably with me.
I don’t get offered really really interesting comedy parts but I do get offered really really interesting drama parts. I’ve just done Edge of Heaven, high camp stuff about a family running a B&B in Margate. I’m the feckless father. I’ll do comedy, but my heart is in drama if I’m being honest.
BTJ: You are genuinely into cycling aren’t you? You were a courier and more recently did a BBC series Something To Write Home About, cycling around Northern Ireland. How do you find cycling in London?
MS: When the drawing board meets the road, that’s where people are dying. You can’t just draw a blue line on the road for bikes. Boris Johnson this Mayor of Toontown drives me mental! We want politicians to be the voice of the people not the voice of the banks. I love discovering things around the back streets like Vauxhall City Farm, which is on Tyre Street as it happens.
BTJ: How many bikes do you have?
Only six bikes. Three here and three in France. I’ve still got my old courier bike, it was stolen four times but I got it back. I saw a wee lad cycling on it and I coaxed him off it. Another time I was doing stand-up for Dodgy in Brixton and it was stolen – a year and a half later going through Camden and I saw the bike. The money I got from Murder Prevention I got it rebuilt.
Interview continues here.
