D: Our first guest caught the public eye as the neighbour in the long-running Gold Blend coffee commercials. He later found international stardom playing the role of Rupert Giles in the hugely successful "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". He’s currently appearing on stage at the Savoy Theatre in not one but two productions: Peter Pan and the Pirates of Penzance. Please welcome Anthony Head…
D: How you doing Anthony? Good to see you mate.
M: Nice to meet you.
ASH: Congratulations
M Thank you … thank you very much.
D: You see they’re all aware…are you okay …I don’t want to trap you in there?
M: No, I’m okay …don’t worry about me.
D: Now your career has certainly been on the up since those commercials, I know it’s a long way back.
ASH: It’s been alright…very very good
D: It caught the nations imagination: will they, won’t they? When you’re always knocking on the door. Then it went onto American TV and it was extended wasn’t it?
ASH: Yeah, well in America we did the first six with the same storyline and then they went off to their own storyline which involved her son, her ex-husband and all sorts of things and it got very complicated.
D: Did they never ever get together…become an item?
ASH: No. The nearest we did in England when we sort of finished it, we drove around a square in East London for about three hours. That was about the nearest we ever got to doing something.
D: Nothing romantic then…just a cup of coffee and a bit of sugar?
ASH: Cup of coffee …and I think we had a kiss somewhere down the line but that was it.
M: It was very popular in America wasn’t it?
ASH: Yeah, it was astonishing both sides of the Atlantic. No one quite knew it was going to be like that.
M: Do you think that’s one of the reasons you got offered Giles the librarian in Buffy?
ASH: It was one of the reasons that I went to America. Basically it had the effect here of sort of it opened a lot of doors in theatre but tended to sort of close doors a little bit in terms of TV and film and opened doors over there so that’s why I went over there, got an agent and then I got another gig called VR5 before that, before Buffy and then Buffy just came along. Then after I got the gig they sort of said, "oh … you’re the coffee guy!" So it wasn’t really the reason why I got the gig.
M: So is it true you receive hundreds of letters from librarians?
D: You were uplifting their image.
ASH: I am on librarians fanbases, it’s true…but it’s not down to me it’s down to Joss Whedon who created the series. He kind of made this librarian cool and it’s actually means that kids have tended to sort of go to the library …whether they think they’re going to find somebody with a stake at the back of the shelves I don’t know, but it’s done wonders for librarians world-wide
M: And just been fantastic for your career but you’ve had to live out there did you take your family and everything over to America?
ASH: Well basically every holiday revolved around LA, the kids one year said "can we go somewhere else" but it was like "no we’re going to go to Disneyland AGAIN" but it was I mean basically every time I got six days free I’d travel back here, the family very much wanted…
D: Why? How many did you do in a year then?
ASH: We did 22 episodes a year so that was eight and a half months
D: A lot of flying.
M: Wow
ASH: A lot of flying. I mean people are surprised I’m now commuting from the West End to Bath, cos we live out in Bath.
M: But it’s lovely for you.
ASH: But compared to the commute from LA it’s a dream.
D: Now you’re back here, you’re at the Savoy in two productions, bit like repertory isn’t it that?
ASH: It is. It’s a very interesting, I mean it’s a great idea and when I was asked if I wanted to do it it was like "well that’s a challenge if ever I’ve heard one". We actually had six weeks including the tech week to get both shows on so it was a bit of race towards the end but I mean amazingly both productions are, I mean they are absolutely beautiful and stunning and they’re running very well. We did Peter Pan for three weeks just after Christmas and now we’ve got Pirates on.
D: So you’re not going like Tuesday, Wednesday one show and Thursday, Friday…
ASH: What we HAVE been doing Peter Pan was like a block and then we got Pirates up. At the moment we’re doing Pirates midweek, Tuesday through Thursday and then weekends Peter Pan.
D: Confusing. Do you ever grab the wrong costume?
ASH: Yeah! Well I did nearly go on without my hook the other day…but …um…now from Feb 1st we’re actually going to start doing all evening performances as Pirates and all matinees as Peter Pan and I think we’ll be the only theatre in London that’s actually doing two shows back to back…I mean I don’t think there’s …I mean somebody correct me but I don’t think there’s another theatre that actually has two. You can go and see Peter Pan in the afternoon and then see Pirates in the evening and I’m sure they’ll do some sort of like special offer ticket…
D: Two for one sort of thing (bang in the audience).
ASH: Someone’s leg’s just fallen off…maybe it was their hook.
D: One of the most famous families in the country came to see the show the other night…Peter Pan.
ASH: I believe so…yes.
D: The Beckhams …or some of them
ASH: Apparently Brooklyn was transfixed and I think in the fights he got very excited and apparently was jumping up and down. Whether he was rooting for Hook or for Pan I’m not sure but they are both beautiful shows and I mean they’re so completely different, I mean Pan is like this really magical, very, very strange play that J M Barrie wrote and Pirates is like a West End musical. Dawn Buckland’s done the choreography, Steven Dexter’s done the …the setting is brilliant. We’ve got this really young energetic cast and it’s just like fantastic stuff.
M: And you get to sing in the show and I know that you’re something of a singer anyway…
D: Something? He’s sang in musicals, haven’t you? And he had his own band.
ASH: I have. Well I’m singing in Pirates of Penzance and it’s a musical. Well my first gig was Godspell straight out of drama school and I’ve done Chess and I’ve done Frank-N-Furter in Rocky Horror but yeah I love singing. Love singing.
D: Weren’t you in a group for a while? And you’ve had an album of your own didn’t you?
ASH: I released an album in the states, it was very sort of small, low-level thing that went right under the radar. I didn’t want … I didn’t want to be like one of those you know "tv star does album" so it’s sort of it is actually available in record stores in America but it’s not available…and you can get it over the internet here.
D: Bit tongue in cheek - the title gives that away!
ASH: Yeah, Music for Elevators…
D: Music for Elevators
ASH: but somebody approached me and said did I want to do an electronic album so I thought well I haven’t so yeah let’s do it so I’m very proud of it … it’s very cool.
M: You’ve done a lot of TV over here: Manchild, Spooks, Silent Witness and you’re currently playing the Prime Minister in Little Britain.
D: Actually you remind me a bit of him…there’s a bit of the Tony Blairs about you.
ASH: I haven’t got the ears.
M: Is it a fun show…it looks like a great show.
ASH: Oh they are so sweet, they’re such lovely guys. I mean I’m very fortunate I get to work with some really really nice people. I mean people ask me what was it like working for seven years on Buffy and it was just a dream, I mean it was lovely, lovely people and the kids in Pirates and Peter Pan are so lovely and so … I don’t know…so vibrant and it’s really exciting to be you know doing what I’m doing.
D: Let’s have a clip from the current programme, Little Britain … is it Little Britain or Little England?
ASH: Little Britain.
(Clip of Sebastian, PM and Italian translators - you know the one!)
M: How did you keep your face straight when you were filming?
ASH: It is hard I must admit I mean they are SO funny…they are so funny.
D: And you’re stuck in the middle…you got to keep the dignity.
ASH: Oh yeah I’m the straight guy.
D: Let’s talk about Manchild. You were in that and you played James didn’t you? You never were into leather trousers were you and medallion man?
ASH: I did actually bring my leather trousers home with me…
D: Hang on a minute….
M: Did you get attached to them, darling?
ASH: No I just said, "oh I’ll have those". No actually I did bring a pair of leather trousers back from Buffy and Sarah, my partner, said, "you’re not wearing those …ever."
D: Thanks for coming to talk to us and you’ll be on stage again later today….
M Good luck with BOTH the plays.
D: Yeah good luck with them …Anthony Head, ladies and gentleman
Tony did stay on a bit to "spin the wheel" in the very odd competition they have!