ROBERT, DID YOU HAVE ANY INDICATION ANYTHING WAS WRONG BEFORE YOU WERE TOLD YOU NEEDED HEART SURGERY WHEN FILMING THE SERIES IN 2019?
Robert: I knew something was up, definitely. But I just thought that’s what it feels like to be 47. And I was still drinking quite a lot and I was quite a heavy smoker and I just thought, ‘Well this is this is what you get if you’re into your middle age and you’re treating your body badly – what do I expect?’
I didn’t know there was something very seriously wrong with my heart until the GP put his stethoscope there and pulled a face. And then I had various other tests and it turned out my mitral valve had completely prolapsed which isn’t a lifestyle thing, it’s a birth defect, but at some point, it went ‘twang’.
WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT STEPHEN AND ANDREW IN THIS NEW SERIES OF BACK?
Robert: The dynamic between them is largely the same really. The good thing about sitcoms, if you do them right – and [Back and Peep Show writer Simon Blackwell] generally does – is that once you’ve got characters that work, you don’t muck about with them.
But the situation has changed in that Andrew is now in charge of the John Barleycorn [the pub which is the family business]. He’s got what he wanted, he’s basically pushed Stephen all the way out – and now he’s bored and looking around for someone else to pick on.
David: The key to a good sitcom is that the people are stuck together, in some way – but that way is not harmonious.
Essentially, Andrew is rooted in Stephen’s world – a world he [Stephen] wasn’t aware he drew any self-esteem from at all. But he notices it now that it’s gone. And he’s trying to reinsert himself and find some sort of sense of worth.
IT MUST BE FUN DOING THE SCENES WHERE YOUR CHARACTERS ARE OUT AND OUT VITROLIC TO EACH OTHER…
David: Oh yeah, playing a scene of loathing, that’s great fun. It so seldom happens in real life, certainly in my life; I just relentlessly say what people want to hear. So, getting to have scenes of straightforward animosity, goodness knows that’s probably doing me all sorts of good. It should be on the NHS.
AND HOW ABOUT ANDREW – HOW DO YOU FIND PLAYING SOMEONE LIKE HIM?
Robert: I think it’s important that I didn’t decide whether Andrew really is motivated by malice or just this very needy guy who had a challenging childhood, and whose need for attention comes out in various harmful ways. It’s a question of me finding a way through that – hopefully the funniest way.
BACK EXPLORES THE IMPACT OF OUR CHILDHOODS. CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT YOU’D BE DOING NOW IF YOU’D STAYED WHERE YOU GREW UP?
David: Well, I grew up in Oxford, and my brother lives a two-minute walk from my parents. That works quite well, they get a lot of free babysitting – well, they did pre lockdown. So, I actually could totally imagine living there. I could literally live there because it’s quite close to London.
Robert: I’m from a couple of little villages in Lincolnshire where I’m not sure that I could have stayed and been a comedy actor and writer because it is a bit out of the way. It’s swings and roundabouts because I would have got to hang around with my family, which would have been great. As I get older, I feel that loss actually. And that’s partly what Back is about.
:: Back returns to Channel 4 on Thursday January 21.
